The PS2 instalment for Sony’s Wipeout series of futuristic racers, which gave us the first 60fps Wipeout experience. It was released late for a first party PS2 title, coming out in 2002. It is set in the year 2160 during the F9000 Anti-Gravity Racing League and sees the return of ship pilots that can be selected by the player.
Wipeout Fusion builds on the series’ evolving combat system, which started simple in the original game and grew more complex. The F9000 league’s focus on aggression leads to more weapons (26 vs. 10-15 in priors), greater emphasis on elimination, and modifications like backward-firing options. Your ship has limited energy that can be depleted, which must be replenished by passing through a energy recharge station located adjacent to the finish line. Because of how vicious the enemy players can be, you will often find yourself having to pass through this to keep your ship in the game.
Track design is a bit of a mixed bag, here you are treated to much more detailed environments with a lot more elements on the track. But this can be very distracting and often confusion, occasionally I have took a wrong turn or have even got lost as there are twits and turns and pathways that appear to be deadened. It does not help the the frame rate tends to tank when there are a lot of ships onscreen, in addition to the article effects when you are either in a sandy or snowy area. Some of the tracks are quite visually busy it can very distracting to play. Some of the track sections are just too dark, like when you enter a tunnel. With the tracks themselves, Wipeout Fusion took the approach of reusing the design over different tracks, kind of like the Ridge Racer games where certain tracks are variations of others. Temtesh bay is a rocky desert mining region set in Australia and features sections that are quite open. Alca Venus as a rainforest feel to it with dense vegetation temples and waterfalls. Cubiss Flat is set in the Alpine glaciers and features snowy mountains and blizzards.
The music’s amazing as to be expected for a Wipeout game, you have a mix of electro, trance and drum & bass that was popular from the era with some standout artists like Utah Saints and Future Sound Of London. Music appears to play sequently, or you can switch it to random play.
Already we have more opponents on the race than was possible on the PS1 versions, with 16 opponents.
What’s disappointing is for a first party exclusive game, Wipeout Fusion does not take much advantage of the PS2 functionality like the i.Link port. The PS1 Wipeout games often made use of the link cable to allow two player gameplay with two consoles which was a nice feature as it allowed for two players to play without having to use split screen. The Namco NeGcon controller is still supported for analogue control, but is redundant since the PS2 comes with the DualShock as standard.
The game’s loading times are also pretty terrible, expect to wait upto one minute for a typical race to load.
Wipeout Fusion faced completion from other futuristic racing games of the era, Quantum Redshift which was exclusive to the original Xbox was released in the same year and features ships racing on planetary tracks, with character-driven pilots (similar to F-Zero) who have rivalries and unique abilities, contrasting Fusion’s pilot team-based approach. Both games share core mechanics like weapon pickups, upgrades, and high-speed chaos but Quantium Redshift has more refined combat system with the concept of homing weapons, non-homing weapons and a deployable shield. They types of weapons are dictated by the ship you choose, while Wipeout Fusion is based on what has randomly been selected when you fly over a weapon pad.
Still, Wipeout Fusion was considered a weak entry in the series, and it wasn’t until 2005 with the release of Wipeout Pure which saw a reboot of the series mechanics.
Entering a dark, futuristic world where televised sports are wildly popular and even more wildly violent. And the most popular and violent sport of them all is… ultimate Frisbee, known as Deathrow.
The sport you’re playing in the game is not called Deathrow, it’s called Blitz. Deathrow is just the name of one of the fancy moves you can pull off in the game. Gameplay is fast and furious right from the start, and the controls are a breeze to pick up. When you are in possession of the disk, A passes, B shoots, and Y jumps. To block an attack or roll out of its way, you press X. If you want to taunt another player by calling him naughty names you press the white button. Trust us, you’ll be pressing it a lot. When you don’t have the disk, the X, Y and white button do the same things, but A and B punch and kick, respectively. You’ll be pressing those a lot, too. More complicated maneuvers involve pressing buttons in sequence.
Your passing game is made simple thanks to the passing line and shooting line. A green line connects you to the nearest teammate, while a blue line shows you when you have a shot on goal. Control shifts automatically from the passer to the receiver. None of this is a guarantee of success, though. Interceptions are incredibly common. At times, this makes the automatic control shift a problem. The shift happens when the disk is thrown rather than caught, so you are often left in poor defensive position when your passes are intercepted. You can manually change players, but you don’t always get the player you want on the first (or second) try.
But it’s not all just throwing around the disk. Deathrow more than holds its own for pure fighting enjoyment. Each of the 18 teams has its own signature moves, with hundreds of separate fighting animations available. It’s even possible to win matches without scoring a single point, if you knock out all your opponents. The game shines in the AI department. Each team has its own set of behaviors. Some of the teams, like the Seacats, favor teamwork and precise passing and shooting skills. Others, like the Convicts, are more interested in inflicting as much damage as possible. This way, each new opponent requires that you adopt new tactics to defeat it. For instance, when playing against an overly aggressive team like the Demons, you can often trick their goalie into leaving the goal unguarded by drawing him away with taunts.
Your teammates display a surprising level of autonomy. Certainly, you’re not going to win any matches by letting them do all the work, but if you want to take a short break to inflict some damage on an opponent, they are perfectly capable of picking up the slack and scoring all on their own.
The 32 arenas are varied and often gorgeous. Sure, there are plenty of the traditional dingy metallic sports arenas, but other locales include the Convicts’ prison and the tranquil Japanese dojo of the Black Dragons. One small issue with the level design, though. Most arenas are simple one-floor spaces, and the arenas that do include ledges and other interesting design elements don’t make great use of them. If the disk lands on a ledge, there often isn’t enough time to get to it before it automatically respawns. The character models are smooth and detailed, with upwards of seven thousand polygons and 55 bones each. Character animation during play is very fluid. Attack combos flow from one to another seamlessly.
The one area that fails to get the adrenaline pumping is the game’s soundtrack. Instead of a crunchy metal soundtrack or something similarly dark and pounding, Deathrow sticks to the same uninspiring techno that plays under everything from racing games to space shoot ’em ups. But hey, it’s an Xbox game, so who really cares what the included music sounds like. Rip an old “Ministry” CD onto the hard drive, and you’re good to go.
Another caveat id Deathrow is not a game for the young audiance. The game’s mature rating is richly deserved. The rampant violence is non-stop and leaves nifty little puddles of blood all over the arena. As if that wasn’t enough, some teams seem unable to complete a sentence without at least a few four-letter words. Still, there’s something about a game that has a button devoted just to swearing that makes it incredibly appealing.
What would a violent sports title be without a good multiplayer mode? Deathrow is not slated for the Xbox Live launch, but that doesn’t hold it back much. Up to four players can play splitscreen, and you can network together up to eight consoles. Just go and round up 32 of your closest friends, and you’ve got a massively violent multiplayer.
The first true next generation Tekken game, being released on the then-new PS2 hardware.
Fighting games have never been known for well-thought-out, let alone believable, story lines. Tekken 4 is no exception. Every fighter has their motivations, but the game really centers on the absurd relationship between Kazuya and Heihachi. At the heart of the story is the long-standing feud between Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya Mishima, alongside the emergence of Jin Kazama and Jun, who is still missing as of the games release. A key element introduced more prominently in this game is the “Devil Gene,” a supernatural trait passed down through the Mishima bloodline, granting its bearers demonic powers. Kazuya and Jin both grapple with this curse, which plays a significant role in their motivations and the overall narrative.
Like previous games, the story is set around the King of Iron Fist Tournament, which Heihachi uses as a means to lure Kazuya out and to test Jin’s abilities. However, this time, the tournament has more personal stakes for the characters involved, especially with Heihachi’s plan to create the ultimate life form through the Devil Gene. Each character, especially Jin and Kazuya, has their own arc dealing with redemption or revenge. Jin, in particular, is driven by a desire to avenge his mother’s death and to confront his own heritage, while Kazuya seeks to overthrow Heihachi and reclaim his birthright.
The game has 19 characters and a selection of modes. As with any fighting game sequel, a few new characters are mixed in with the core group seen in the previous installments. The new fighters are Craig, Steve, and Christie. Christie isn’t really a new character, being just a female equivalent of Eddy, the Capoeria specialist who is omitted from Tekken 4. Steve Fox, A British boxer with a mysterious past, later revealed to have a biological connection to one of the existing characters. Combot is meant to be a training robot, serving as a replacement for Mokujin. Despite the large character roster, half the characters still need to be unlocked by beating arcade/story mode.
The game’s modes make up the typical fighting-game shopping list. These include practice, time-trial, and survival, as well as the expected arcade and story modes. Story mode is simply an arcade mode with still illustrations and FMV cut scenes that go into the chosen character’s plot, but lacks pre-match cutscenes that Dead or Alive 2 featured. A new feature in the series is the ability to save fight replays to the memory card, which will allow you to play them back at a later date. Some changes have been made since Tekken Tag Tournament, No more do the levels reach out endlessly on either side, Now you must consider obstacles such as staircases, walls, and breakable statues. This opens up a new element to the game as you now run the risk of getting cornered. You cannot break into different parts of the stage like Dead Or Alive 2, But the new mechanics with the arenas, where you can knock people into walls or off ledges? That’s cool and innovative.
The two new modes are Training and Tekken Force. Training doesn’t so much train you as require you to pull off a menu of moves. Tekken Force is a beat-‘em-up, You take a fighter of your choice through a gauntlet of baddies. Naturally you’re able to use the available moves of your character. Tekken Force also makes for a good diversion, especially for those who like the beat-em-up genre.
For Tekken veterans, the gameplay will feel very familiar. Two buttons control the fist attacks while the other two handle the legs. Side-to-side movement has significantly improved in Tekken 4, allowing for more movement. This helps add depth to a franchise that’s in trouble of getting stale. You can also assign combo commands to each of the L1 or R1 buttons.
Tekken 4 has graphically improved over Tekken Tag Tournament. That’s not to say the visuals are perfect — far from it. While the anti-aliasing is noticeably smoother since Tekken Tag Tournament, the Tekken character models look inconsistent. Sure, they might be detailed, but the actual character animations are very choppy. This is especially clear in Christie’s jerky Capoeira animation.
Tekken 4 is like that middle child in the family – not the favorite, but not the worst either. If you’re a die-hard fan of the series, you’ll enjoy the new mechanics and characters, but if you’re looking for the quintessential Tekken experience, you might find yourself missing what came before or waiting for what’s next. It delivers more of the same with slight tweaks in the character roster.
Knockout Kings 2003 is another instalment in EA Sports boxing series exclusively for GameCube, and is an improved version of Knockout Kings 2002 released for the PS2 and Xbox.
Knockout Kings 2003 features an all-star lineup of 45 professional boxers, past and present, with which to bring the hurt. Spanning three weight classes, the roster includes many of the sport’s all-time legends, such as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Evander Holyfield, to name just a few. The game also lets you create boxers of your own in a similar fashion to the WWF/WWE games of the time.
The realism of the characters’ faces, bodies, and physical movements is good for a sixth generation console game, due largely to improved motion capture technology. The realism even extends to the cuts, bruises, and facial swelling that fighters take over the course a match, making the fights more true-to-life than ever before. But, the crowds? they’re about as lively as a cardboard cutout at a funeral, you can tell a lot of focus was done for the fighters rather than the crowd. Only downside to the graphics being it runts in interlaced mode instead of offering a progressive mode, which would have been ideal for a past faction game like this. There is a fair bit of interlacing as a result.
For one or two players looking to jump right into the action, Exhibition mode is the quickest way to get going. Just choose your boxers, pick from one of ten possible arenas, and you’re ready to fight. For a slightly bigger game, try Tournament mode, featuring four or eight boxers fighting for the title in single-elimination matches — though only the first two controllers are supported. And for a single player, there’s Career mode, in which you’ll take a boxer from total obscurity to the rank of heavyweight champion, fighting every boxer in the game along the way. You can create your own boxer from scratch, is where Knockout Kings 2003 tries to keep you coming back for more. It’s cool at first, customizing your dude and climbing the ranks, but after a while, it feels like you’re just fighting the same guys with different names.
New are the Slugfest and Slugfest Battle modes, improved versions of the no-holds barred Slugfests that appeared in earlier editions of the game. In the two virtually identical modes, there are no rounds, no bells, and no rules to interfere with the action. Instead, knockouts, knockdowns, or throw-for-throw points determine winners. You’ll also find yourself able to pull special moves, respond to audience call-outs, and use the new Pain-O-Meter to ensure maximum injury to your opponent. All those options make Slugfest a welcome addition to the game.
There’s a good technical game to be had here, and given some time you’ll discover its subtleties. There’s still no guarantee that your game will be entirely tactical, but Knockout Kings 2003 comes as close to a real boxing sim as anything else out there. Only so much depth can be found in any game based mainly on jabs, hooks, and uppercuts, and calling a game the best boxing title on the market doesn’t guarantee that it’s enjoyable. Fortunately, there’s just as much fun to be had from raw button-mashing as there is from playing with skill, although the fun will probably be shorter lived.
But the game offers little else in the way of improvements over last year’s version. The menus have been redesigned, as has the career ladder. The roster has been updated, and there are a few new arenas to choose from. There is also a new long-term health feature in Career mode, designed to add realism to your boxer’s career. But as this turns out to be little more than mandatory recovery time between fights, it doesn’t add much to the game.
For a game based on two players making repeated contact with each other, you’d think that creating realistic surface collisions would have been a priority for the developers. But you don’t need to look too closely to see that successful punches don’t always hit the other boxer. At the moment of contact, fist and face can be as much as half a foot apart. This becomes all the more obvious during the slow-motion replays that occur with each knockdown, where certain camera angles reveal an agonizing lack of true contact between the two fighters’ bodies.
Another irritating feature is the ten-count that occurs once a fighter is down. Unlike replays, these can’t be skipped. Like it or not, you’re left waiting for the action to resume every time someone hits the floor. Add to this the questionable background warp that indicates the wooziness of your fallen fighter, and you really will want to get up and start punching someone. But these are minor downsides to a game that is otherwise strong overall. The boxers are faithfully designed and accurate to their real life counterparts. The in-game commentary is also notably well done, adding tremendous realism to the game by reacting to your moves. The controls are tight and easy to use, resulting in a game that mimics the psychology of real boxing.
For GameCube owners, this was the only boxing game for a while, so you were limited with choice, in spite of its problems this remains a decent boxing game. It’s good for some competitive fun even if you’re not particularly into the sport. The differences between it and its predecessor are minor, and for someone familiar with previous games in the series, that might come as a letdown. But if you think of this game strictly as an attempt to bring world-class boxing to the GameCube, then Knockout Kings 2003 undeniably does its job.
The Getaway is a third-person action-adventure game that was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2002. The game takes place in a fictionalized version of London, and follows the story of former criminal Mark Hammond as he attempts to rescue his kidnapped son and clear his name. The game is an open world GTA style game set on the cold streets of London, and is fairly accurate for the time, taking into account the game engine limitations.
One of the most notable aspects of The Getaway is its focus on realism and authenticity. The game’s version of London is recreated in painstaking detail, with recognizable landmarks, accurate street layouts, and realistic traffic patterns. The game also features a cast of British actors, who deliver their lines in authentic accents and help to bring the game’s world to life. The game has a story mode which puts you in control of Mark Hammond, a cockney gangster who was recently out of prison and is looking to start a new life until his kid get kidnapped and his missus is shot. With his kid being abducted, mark is sent upon various missions against former rival gangs in the interest of staring a gang war on the streets of London. There is also a second half of the story, being set from the perspective of a police detective, Frank Carter.
Playable characters
Mark Hammond: Mark Hammond is the main protagonist of The Getaway. He is a former member of a London gang called the Collins Crew, who retired from a life of crime after serving time in prison. Mark is portrayed as a tough and determined, with a willingness to use violence when necessary to achieve his goals. He is also shown to have a softer side, particularly when it comes to his son, and is motivated by a desire to protect and care for him.
Frank Carter: He is a police officer who becomes involved in the game’s central conflict, which revolves around the kidnapping of Mark Hammond’s son. Frank is initially assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow officer, but soon becomes embroiled in the larger conspiracy surrounding the kidnapping. He is shown to be a skilled detective and a dedicated police officer, but also has a somewhat rebellious streak that puts him at odds with his superiors. Throughout the game, Frank works with Mark Hammond to uncover the truth behind the kidnapping and clear Mark’s name. He is a key ally to Mark, providing him with information, backup, and assistance when needed. However, Frank is also grappling with his own personal demons, including a troubled marriage and a secret drug addiction.
But whilst the story is intense and gripping, the gameplay has some serious downfalls:
Main complaint the lack of a HUD (heads up display). There is no ammo indication. No mini map, no health meter, nothing. Now I get why this seemed attractive in theory since its gives the game a cinematic feel to it, but it makes the game a whole chore to play.
The lack of a mini-map is a serious ballache, driving around the streets of London, I had no clue where anything was. The only hint is the vehicle indicator that flashes whilst you are driving around, it flashes either left or right which shows the direction you need to take to reach the objective. Except it does not always appear, and sometimes it would send me down one-way streets most of the time. Mini maps are a common utility with these sorts of games, Grand Theft Auto had one, Driver had one and that was on the PS1. Missing this feature was a horrible decision, at least give the player the option to display the mini-map . I mean this sort of shit would make sense on the Dreamcast with its VMU display but not on the PS2.
Also there is too much fucking traffic, its like living in India rather than London considering how overpopulated the city must be. You are constantly crashing into and having to avoid other cars.
Also the player controls are an issue, with Mark randomly spinning around when your trying to move in the specified direction. I tried this with several controls just to see if this was an issue with a specific controller, but it seems to occur. The problem is this game make use of the analogue face buttons, where the pressure applied makes use of how your character reacts, the sad news is 20 years old dualshock controllers have quite a bit of wear and tear and the buttons themselves are a bit mushy after years of use, making button commands unpredictable. This is worse in the mission where you have to move carefully to avoid setting off the laser beams.
Mission checkpoints are poorly implemented, in some most cases if you die, which is very easy to do in the game, its back to the mission start you go. Only after a cut scene does the game save a checkpoint.
Some missions are timed, which makes sense and have been a staple of these types of games, expect The Getaway neglects to inform you the mission is timed, or what the status of the timer is. The only indicator is a music ques that sound when you have 10 seconds left. How hard is it to include a two digit indicator on the screen, seriously, this cinematic experience can suck it.
Outside of the story missions there is not really much to do. You have a free roam move where you just drive around an overcast London, no side missions to build up the character development or to improve your stats. At least with the GTA games you could complete the ambulance missions to help increase your health.
There’s also no control of the camera at all, that right analogue stick is pretty useless except for accelerating whist drive your vehicle.
Some of the missions are incredibly hard, which is increased when you take into account the issues mentioned above. Partially with Mission 12 which had both the gangs and the police trying to ram into you.
Lastly, I don’t know if this was me being a dumb fuck but when you boot up the game, an animation sequence plays after the company logo’s. At first I assumed this was some sort of loading screen but it turns out it’s the equivalent of the press Start screen, except the game does not tell you to press start.
The fifth expansion pack to be released, Unleashed brings a significant change to The Sims, with the addition of pets, larger neighborhoods that can hold more sims and new game elements such as farming and commercial lots.
Whilst Unleashed brought new improvements, it noticeable made the game more unstable and brought some frustrating changes to the gameplay. One noticeable change is sims have issues moving and turning and will sometimes rotate multiple times when interacting with an object.
Some pets will occasionally come onto your lot and piss everywhere, leaving a bunch of puddles randomly outside your sims house, and will trash the outdoor room motive when your sim goes out for work. Also, any malicious animal that spawns will sound the burglar sound, which can startle or surprise some players, but given how frequently these will spawn the effect will eventually wear off and will become more annoying to the player as they play the game.
Neighborhood
One of the first noticeable changes is the neighborhood screen which sees an increase of playable lots from 10 to around 48. With it is a new lot zone type, commercial. The main difference is a commercial lot is intended to be visited by multiple sims where they can shop or explore. Commercial lots cannot be visited directly from the neighborhood screen, but they can be edited which gives access to buy and build mode. To access a commercial lot, your sim will need to phone up for the Old Town bus which will arrive, and all sims on the lot will be transported to the commercial lot that you choose. These lots cannot be edited whilst sims are visiting, the Build and Buy modes are disabled.
Typically commercial lots will consist of shops, such as a pet store where pets can be adopted, along with any pet accessories. Traditional lots are renamed as residential lots and is where sims reside as they did in the previous expansion packs. Additional neighborhoods still exist as they did in previous expansion packs.
Pets
Two types of pets are featured in the game, mainly cats or dogs which can be adopted by sims themselves. Other pets exist such as budgies which are treated by the game engine as objects, similar to the fish tank that was included in the base game where sims have to feed them every so often.
Skills can be taught to your pets to make them more obedient, this is harder than expected since pets will most of the time go off and do their own thing. The best thing to do is to use the Sit n’ stay command to build the obedience skill, which will make the other skills easier to build up. This interaction only works when your sim is near your pet.
Objects
The Aviary – A bird cage to keep birds that have been purchased at the petstore, You need to frequently feed the bird in a similar manor to the fish tank to keep the pet alive.
Sims can play with their pet birds which boosts their fun and social. Two types of birds can be stored here, Love Birds and Budgies. Cats will also try to play with the cage.
Speaky Scarlet – A pet parrot that can be purchased from buy mode. Sims can talk to it to boost their charisma skill
Ceti the Happy Whale – A playground item that child sims can play on, boosts fun and can be played in groups
Squeak-EE-Clean Pet Tub – Used to wash your pets, can be used with both dogs and cats, requires regular feeding
Forgotten Jungle Terrarium – Used to house a pet iguana
Other expansion packs featured pet objects like the gerbil featured in Livin It Up (Livin Large), or the fish tank from the base game. These remain unchanged although pets may interact with them.
Commercial Lots Only
SpueakNip Pet Toys
Only for commercial lots, sims can purchase toys for their pets. Requires a nearby cash register
Notable NPCs
Giuseppi Renni and Mr McCutch
A musical duo that appears on Old Town lots and will entertain your sims, can be tipped 5 Simoleans
Gardener Bob
Appears on Old Town lots that sell seeds and vegetables, sims can buy plant tonic for their crops and get advice on how to grow their own crops
Pet Judge
Appears on lots that have pet judging podiums, he can tell you further details on pet judging.
Pet Trainer
This sim will appear on the pet store or anywhere you can adopt a pet. Can be used to train your pet for an increasing fee, dependent on your pets skill level.
W.C. Friendly
A jazz player that appears on cafe lots (any lot that has a barista/coffee or pastry stand)
Farming
Sims can grow crops by purchasing seeds from an Old Town merchant and planting them, which can be used for food, or produce can be sold in Old Town for money. Growing crops requires a certain amount of effort as sims will need to water, weed and protect the farm from animals or gophers. A buyable scarecrow or a pet cat can help with this, depending on the hunting skill of the pet. Once the crops have been harvested, they can be stored in a pantry or sold at the farmers market.
Garden plots can be found in the gardening section of build mode.
Sims can also purchase produce on certain Old Town shopping lots, if the sim has no room to farm. To store crops for cooking, you will need to purchase a pantry to store the produce in.
Residents
Unleashed also introduces a few new pre-made families to play.
Burb: Brad and his wife Tiffany, with their son Johnny and their dog, Tucker. This family would later appear in The Sims 2.
Charming: Consists of Claire Charming, with her pet dog Luna
Hick: Mama Hick and her son Elden live in what appears to be a trailer, with their three dogs.
Goth Sr: Parents of Mortimer Goth.
Kat: A single female with four cats, Yup a spinster.
Other Additions
The phonebook has been expanded to a dialog box now appears when calling neighbors. Previously sims were called from the pie menu which would also include any known townies or vacation sims if those expansion packs were installed. Services remain the same as their own section in the pie menu.
Five new careers are included – Fashion, Education, Animal care, Culinary and Circus.
MacOS Version
The game was also ported to the MacOS platform, and makes full use of the Carbon library which gives it OS X and OS 9 compatibility. As this was released in the PowerPC era, you cannot play it on modern OS X versions (10.7 Lion upwards, as these versions of OS X lack PowerPC support) On modern Mac’s it’s easier to use Boot Camp and use the Windows version of the game, but for M1 Macs you may prefer to use an emulator like QEMU or Sheepsaver to emulate an OS 9 PowerPC environment, which the game will run.
Conclusion
Unleashed was a dramatic upgrade to the sims engine, adding new specific to the game, expanding the neighborhood and the type of lots that can be used. I would say this was one of the more important expansions of The Sims as whilst previous expansions added features to the existing game, and expansions like Hot Date added their own expanded areas (Downtown), Unleashed dramatically replaced many game mechanics and in some ways feels like a sequel rather than an expansion. This was also one of the first expansions to ship on two CD’s, highlighting the amount of changes and value being added to the game.
Tragically this expansion never made it to the console versions, which deviated int heir own direction with the release of The Sims Bustin Out and URBZ Sims in the City.
A remake/port of Unreal Tournament 2003 for the original Xbox, and one of the first games to use Xbox Live.
A remake of Unreal Tournament 2003 for the original Xbox, and one of the first games to use Xbox Live. It can be considered a console adaption of Unreal Tournament, which it shares a lot of maps with.
Sadly this is one of the games that is trapped on the original Xbox, it was not made backward compatible with the Xbox 360 or the Xbox One, despite its sequel being supported. Perhaps this is deliberate since Unreal Tournament 2003 isn’t available on Steam, but the original and 2004 are, are Epic ashamed of these games?
Game Modes
Deathmatch: Standard deathwatch action, either team-based gameplay (two teams fighting each other, Red Vs Blue) or a free for all Capture the Flag: Very similar to the PC original, you have to capture the opposing team’s flag three times (more or less, depending on the game settings) and return it back to base. If both teams have the opposing team’s flag, then no teams can score until the opposing team’s flag has been returned, which can be done by killing the flag carrier and picking up the flag. Double Domination: Similar to capturing the flag, here you and your team have to capture two points for 10 seconds in order to score a point for your team. Kind of like a king-of-the-hill mode. Once either team reaches a predetermined score, the game is over. This is one of the games does that is better played online rather than offline since the bots suck at defending the captured base. Bombing Run: Basically a reverse capture the flag, but kind of like football. Here you have to take control of the ball (Spawns in the middle of the map) and then fire it into the opponent’s goal. When you take control of the ball, expect to be target #1 by the opponent team. A nice side effect is the ball will replenish your health, slowly. Survival: 1 vs 1, whoever gets the most kills wins, really deathmatch but with only two players.
Characters
There is a distinct story between the different characters, but this is only referenced in the characters biography’s, there is very few cut scenes in the game involving characters, aside from the opening with Brock and Lauren. Characters here have their own statistics, although many share the same voice lines, i.e human males use the same voice as each other, but the Aliens have their own, each with male/female versions. It’s not like fighting games like Tekken where each character has their own fighting style, more so they have unique statistics for their team.
Gen Mo’Kai: Alien looking species who take part in the tournaments, seem to be very agile but have weak strength
Automatons: A bunch of robots built by the Liandri corporation
Mercenaries: Regular humans, fairly typical stats for each character, ideal for newcomers to the game
Juggernauts: Big muvvafuckers, the strongest race that can take the most damage but are slow and the least agile characters in the game
Anubans: Look like humans but dress like they’re from Egypt, bit more agile than humans but are very high jumpers and acquire adrenaline more quickly
Nightmare: A bunch of weird and scary looking but have generally good stats. Supposedly their appearance is a result of the different experiments that have been done to them
Many characters would appear in Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004.
Multiplayer – Online Play
As one of the first Xbox Live titles, Unreal Championship was a popular title that was played online and the game made full use of the Xbox Live features. Until Microsoft shut down the original Xbox Live in mid 2010. On the flip side you can sill play the game online using the system link features, which was Microsoft terms for LAN play where multiple Xbox’s are connected to the same network. This can be done either by connecting a crossover ethernet cable from one Xbox to another or by connecting both Xbox’s to a router using a standard ethernet cable xLink Kai can be used to play online by using the system link features to play games over the internet, this requires the xbox to be connected to a PC which will emulate an Xbox LAN network
Left: Score display screen, Right: Hidden third person view, avaliable by using a custom save file
DLC
Additional maps were released on Xbox Live that could be purchased and downloaded from around May 2003. These maps could then be played online or in instant action mode. These maps include:
AquaMortis: This area features a open ocean area that contains a shark, who will kill once a player falls in
Inferno: Hell themed map
Leviathan B: SciFi arena themed map
Otaros Run: Capture the Flag map, A large-ish map set in the forest, similar to Tokara forest in UT2003
Installed DLC, which uses a different format
These maps are installed in the TDATA directory and can be used for all profiles on the Xbox. I’m not sure if custom maps can be installed and played this way since they are in a different format, would be good if custom maps could be played like the PC version. As far as I know, you cannot use UT2003 maps on Unreal Championship.
Left: View from the translocator camera, and your typical Xbox Live Gamertag, Right: The lightning gun
Shield Gun: The weapon you will only use when you are out of ammo and have no pickups in sight, alt-fire fires a shield that can protect you from limited damage but can only take so much damage.
Assault Rifle: One of the weapons you start with, does basic damage and is really the gun you only use until you can pick up another. Alt-fire shoots out a grenade that explodes shortly after being shit.
Mini-gun: A chain gun or sorts, ideal for spraying bullets at multiple enemies. Has a slight charge time of around a second.
Flak Cannon: The GOAT, fires a bunch of small projectiles which disperse quickly. Best used in close combat as it almost functions as a shotgun
Lighting Gun: A sniper rifle of sorts, shoots out a lightning bolt. Alt fire can be used to zoom into an opponent.
Rocket Launcher: Fires a rocket, alt-fire will lock onto a target
Translocator: Not really a weapon but more of a utility, allows you to fire a beacon which you can use to teleport to where the beacon had landed, useful for teleporting to hard to reach areas but you cannot translocate when carrying a flog. Attempting to do so will cause the flag to be dropped, but it can still be picked up by a teammate or returned back to base.
Adrenaline
Throughout playing the game and killing opponents or by picking up adrenaline pills, you will acquire adrenaline which can be used to apply power ups by quickly entering a button combination whilst playing:
Regeneration – Press down four times quickly – Regenerates health to twice the staring health, and gives up to 150 shield points Berserk: Press up three times quickly – Increases damage inflicted to opponents, and reduced the damage taken by the player Invisibility: Press Right twice, then Left twice – Makes your character invisible to other players, not much use on instant action / campaign as bots have been reported to still attack the player Agility: Press Down twice, then Up – Increases your characters running and jumping ability
Early Alpha
A build of Unreal Championship was leaked in 2011 which was an early alpha version but was compiled and running on PC (Windows). There are quite a few changes compared to the actual release, with many maps being completely different.
The menu interface is different, with it using a planet-like interface for the character selection screen, here you can see the actual3D models, complete with animations compared to the 2D portraits in the final release.
Poor Scarab
Some geometry errors when playing on more modern systems, this game would have been developed and tested on DirectX 8 compatible hardware, and would have used Nvidia based hardware like the original Xbox used.
In the menu, Up/Down is used to select the map, whilst left/right is used to select the game mode.
There is no settings section to customize the game, but the ini file can be edited to change the game rules, such as the amount of kills needed to win (1000 by default)
Some sound effects come from the original Unreal Tournament, notably the respawn sound.
To exit the game, bring up the console by pressing tab and then type ‘exit’ There is no pause menu, but pressing F1 will bring up the score/players.
The game can be played using a keyboard, but the controls are centered around a console control. Weapons can be selected using the number keys (1-9), the mouse wheel can’t be used to select a weapon F9 – Take a bitmap screenshot F10 – Adjust Gamma F11 – Adjust Brightness F12 – Adjust Contrast The Numpad number keys will spawn a weapon, and the regular number keys can be used to directly select a weapon.
A vehicle can be spawned by pressing H, which can be used to travel through the map quickly, very similar to the hoverboard in Unreal Tournament 3.
A third-person view mode can be activated by pressing F4, however it’s very buggy, and the weapon aiming is buggy.
A look at Sky’s interactive services offered in 2002, back when interactive TV was a thing
Also can’t mention Sky interactive without the Red button dude, who’s sole purpose was to promote Sky interactive services by pressing your red button, even though that only worked on a Sky channel.
Interactive Menu
Sky Gamestar
Sky’s interactive game service
Sky Gamestar – Cartoon Network
A dedicated section of gamestar with games based on Cartoon Network shows
Domino’s Pizza
At one time you could order Pizza through your Sky Digibox
Sky Active
Sky Active
The Classifieds and info section, for local jobs and marketplace
Cinema Listings
View and book local listings, this only worked with Odeon cinemas, which was useless because there were no Odeon cinemas in my area.
Adverts
Sky used to advertise their services and competitions whilst interactive screens were loading
Lovetomeet
A dating service that relied on the internal modem
HSBC
Before internet banking there was Interactive TV banking, again I only saw HSBC and LLoyds TSB being supported, other banks were not on the service
Sky Movies
Exclusive to the Sky Movie channels, shows local cinema listings and to purchase DVD’s, a nice feature of this service was you could see behind the scenes clips from moves.
Your Mobile
Download ringtones, logos and custom voicemail, back when ringtones were polyphonic (think Nokia 3210, Ericsson T28s)
Sky Active: Shopping
Home shopping was considered to be a main feature of interactive TV, since customers could see the items themselves. Sky allowed a range of retailers to have presence on interactive, and even had their own storefront, SkyBuy
Marketplace
Some sort of eBay/Gumtree service, customers could buy and sell locally
Sky News Active
Activated by the red button, a very useful service where you can browse news headlines, view ‘Active Channels’ which were small channels dedicated to certain subjects or headline coverage. These could also be tuned in using the Other Channels feature, bypassing the service
Sky Movies Active
This is where you could see the behind the scenes stuff from movies, similar to bonus scenes on DVD’s
Sky Winzone
Sky Active
Another view of the main Sky Active home screen
Interactive today
Sadly Sky axed most of their interactive services, so here is the interactive menu that you are left with
Does it work? Well…
It seems the only OpenTV interactive TV services available is BBC Red Button and the S4C language changer, none of which use the modem/return path. I’m not sure if the services offered on Sky Q are the same, I believe it’s mostly Netflix/Prime type of applications that are video on demand services.
Last month I looked at the console release of The Sims in depth, mainly studying the game files and the format they are saved in.
One type of file that took my interest was the ngh files, specifically the story, chall and default.ngh files. I know these had some bearing on how the game stored the default neighbourhoods.
The level 3 houseParty Girls household in the level 5 house
The story and chall/challenge files were essentially customized neighbourhood’s, even to an extent we were able to extract and load them on a standard PC copy of the game, albeit with some workarounds but the lots and to some extent, sims were mostly playable, minus some missing objects that were exclusive to the console version.
I wonder what would happen if we swapped these files around, like if we tricked the game into loading the story neighbourhood in play the sims mode, in theory it should allow us to play the story mode sims and their respective lots in a sandbox style mode, along with full customization. What happened if we added the challenge/multiplayer lots into the mix?
The Roomies
To do this we need access to a modified console, since we will be modifying the games data files, and its easier if the game is stored on the Xbox hard drive rather than having to compile / burn a disc image.
File List
Story.ngh
Default files for ‘Get a Life’ mode
Chall.ngh
Default files for the Bonus multiplayer modes
Default.ngh
Default neighborhood for the ‘Play the Sims’ mode
Getting Started
For this I used the Xbox version of the game, purely due to the fact it is running a soft modded dashboard with FTP access, which makes it easier to manipulate the files without having to rebuild iso images. Before we start. Ensure you have backed up your games files, specifically the ngh files that we will be swapping around.
To to this we simply rename the ngh files to the one we want to trick the game to load, so to create a sandbox neighborhood with story lots and sims we simply rename story.ngh to default.ngh. We might have to change the original default.ngh to default2.ngh to prevent file conflicts.
Loading Story lots in Play the Sims mode
Possible – Works well and all story mode sims appear without any issues. The level 4 house does exist and appears in the map screen but cannot be selected since this lot is not accessible directly from the game – the lot appears on 4 Sim Avenue which was disabled by the game quite late in development, I’m not sure if they’re is a way to access the lot with cheats or debug actions. It does appear for a short second before moving away to the next lot.
Unoccupied families, some debug sims appear here
Some sims are duplicated (Dudley/Mimi Langrabb) and some test sims exist such as Jane House. In the xbox version there is a sim called DJ Tooter who never appears in the actual game, and seems to be slightly corrupted as is thumbnail uses an image from the Pc version.
This surprised me, the games CAS is normally limited to 4 sims per family, but here we have up to 8 sims without any issuesEditing pre-made sims causes them to lose their custom thumbnails
All of the above sims and lots can be moved in and played without any restrictions. No issues with saving or loading lots.
Loading Story lots in Challenge mode
Varies a lot, some lots work but you cannot complete any objectives. Some lots don’t load correctly
Loading Challenge lots in Play the sims mode
Possible – outcome is the same as when we imported the files into the PC version, only this time we have access to all objects and sims looks the way they are intended instead of the default face/skins. Interesting is some families have more than 4 sims, in fact one family has 8 sims, yet the game runs fine although switching between them is far from ideal since you have to spawn the button multiple times to cycle though the sims. Normally the game limit’s you to a max of 4 controllable sims per lot. Some sims here are copies of the story mode sims, with some differences with the personality points. There are a lot of unoccupied sims, which serve as the NPC’s for these mode’s.
You can see the a house on 4 Sim Avenue, which is not normally accessible from the game
Not all lots are playable, one lot appears (The Frat House) in the neighbourhood view but we cannot access it despite there being a family that is occupied in the lot. They don’t have a telephone so you are unable to call or invite them round but they do attend party’s and will walk by the lot occasionally. Other lots don’t appear on the screen, because there are only space for 6 lots and this mode has 8. We are missing one of the Handyman/maid lots which exists in the game but we cannot make it appear since they are mapped to houses 08 and 09 which do not show up in game, the console neighbourhood only holds up to 6 lots.
Loading Challenge lots in Get A Life mode
This one works somewhat, the game tried to load the Dream House at the start of the game, but loads the Maid’s house instead, and we are unable to complete any of the objectives needed to progress through the level the game also ends after a minute and quits back to the main menu screen.
On the Gamecube version though the dolphin emulator, if we use the level skip debug command, we can load the first level, however sadly we hit another road block where we get endless dialogue boxes from MOM. The script gets stuck in an endless loop since the sim in question does not spawn on the lot. Unfortunately we are unable to continue past this point, even with the debug commands.
Loading Sandbox/Play the Sims lots in Challenge mode
Only some lots load, many load a blank lot with no sims. Sadly we are not able to complete any of the challenge mode, and some lots load to a blank lot with the game stuck at 3x Speed, since there are no sims on that lot and the build and buy modes are disabled in this mode.
Loading Sandbox Play the Sims lots in Get A Life mode
Not much luck with this one, game crashes when trying to load the dream mansion lot. Possibly because this hood does not have enough sims to populate, or the lot does not exist.
Downloads
Xbox Premade Save Files
Works best on a modded xbox with an FTP supported dashboard,
There are two files, one for the Story mode sims and the other for the Challenge mode sims. Both neighborhoods have all playable families and lots with a couple being inaccessible due to limitations with the ‘Play the Sims’ mode of the game
If your Xbox is not modified you need to use software that can write to FATX volumes, along with a supported USB drive and a XBOX to USB cable or Action Replay. You will then need to use the Xbox dashboard to transfer from the memory unit back onto the hard drive.
The NGH files look to be embedded into one of the many arc files, which is a customized format used by the game. We can extract the game files using the same QuickBMS script, however I have yet to come across a NGH file. It’s possible Bustin Out uses its own structure that makes it incompatible with the format that the PC and console versions use.
If you look at the Bustin Out lots, they seem to look similar to the first console release in terms of build mode tools, but some lots have custom backdrops, like Tinsel Bluffs having a city/mountain backdrop and Casa Calente having a seaside backdrop. The original console version however had a standard stone wall surrounded by green grass, in style with the neighborhood theme.
The sims themselves however may be compatible, they both have the same personality system, and the create a sim items are mostly the same in terms of customization.
To be frank with the Sims Bustin out, as much as I liked the game, the free-play mode was disappointing compared to the previous since console installment. With only 3 Freeplay lots there isn’t much room for a proper sandbox style game which limits what you can do. Also EA had designed 5 careers that were exclusive to Free Play mode
I can’t understand why the other Bustin out premade sims were not fully playable, whilst you could control them you they were unable to progress through their careers, or where you able to marry or move them out or switch them to a different career. I understand that those sims are tied to some goals but surly if you have completed all goals you should be able to unlock the ability for proper control of these sims, since they are no longer needed to fulfil your sims goals. Some sims were not controllable at all (Dudley/Mimi Landgrabb, Bella and Charity if your sim was a male) It seems like EA wanted to focus on the story mode of the game rather than the sandbox as to not distract from the PC version of the game, which had it’s seventh expansion pack around the time of Bustin Out’s release, as-well as the upcoming Sims 2.
Drew1440: Blog 