CreatureX

Some people on the IGN boards have already received the October issue of EGM. Cover story is PS2 online. These are the EGM review scores and comments they posted:

GBA
*Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (9.5, 9.5, 10) GotM

PS2
*Twisted Metal Black Online (8.5, 7.5, 7.0)
Best: 8 player matches rule!
Worst: Occasional latency issues

*Tekken 4 (7.0, 6.5, 7.5)
Best: Sharp clean graphics
Worst: Lackluster extras and practice mode
Che: Tekken 4 plays it safe by sticking to its gameplay roots.
Milkman: The problem here is that, at the most basic level, T4's gameplay is simply broken.
Shane: Tekken 4 is still a good game, but it doesn't to much to evolve this stagnant series.

*Onimusha 2: (9.0, 7.0, 7.5)
Best: More action, more characters
Worst: Maddening camera angles

*SOCOM: (9.5, 9.5, 9.0)
Best: Intense multiplayer online game
Worst: Sometimes screwy A.I.
Mark: The realistic weapons and possibility of one shot deaths give it a visceral excitement.
Crispin: Creeping through bushes and covering buddies' backs (only team players survive) will pump your pulse to turbo speed.
Che: one of the best tactical shooters I've ever played.

*NFL2k3 (9.0, 9.5, 8.5)
Best: Online Play
Worst: awkward radial play calling menus

*Kingdom Hearts: (8.5, 8.5, 8.5)
Best: Hollywood quality production values
Worst: Confusing frustrating camera

*Gungrave: (8.0, 6.5, 6.0)
Best: Relentless teeth gritting action
Worst: Camera rides the short bus

*Armored Core 3: (7.5)
*Dual Hearts: (7.5)
*Dino Stalker: (5.5)
*Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer: (6.5)
*NCAA Football 2k3: (6.0, 6.5, 7.0)
*NCAA Gamebreaker 2003: (3.0)

*NFL Gameday 2003: (3.5)
EGM: If anybody even entertains the thought of purchasing this over Madden or 2k3, then the terrorists have already won

Pac-Man Fever: (3.0)


Gamecube
*Mario: (9.5, 9.5, 9.5)
Best: Gameplay variety and control
Worst: Lazy, awkward camera
Mark: sheer variety of gameplay
John R.: 100 percent pure, unadulterated fun.
Greg: Yes, the camera is still a little screwy (a throwback to the N64 game), but not to a point that SMS is unplayable.

*SMB2: (7.5, 8.5, 9.0)
Best: Lots o' minigames
Worst: No free-look camera
Jonathan: every stage has some sort of gimmick.
Greg: the best multiplayer fun I've had since Super Smash Brothers Melee
Chris: what really launches Super Monkey Ball into the stratosphere is the multiplayer.

*Beach Spikers: 8.0

*Animal Crossing: (9.0, 9.0, 9.5)
Best: Huge amount of things to do
Worst: Clunky interface
Chris: it sounds super lame, but trust me- it's a blast.
Jeanne: novel Hello Kitty-meets-The Sims concept.
Greg: once you start playing, you won't be able to stop.

Xbox
*Sega GT2002: (8.5, 8.5, 8.0)
*Bruce Lee: (2.0)
*NFL Fever 2003: (5.5, 7.5, 5.5)

ten41

Thanks.

Mattalos

Kingdom Hearts fo life.

Mike_AA

Glad to see they liked Mario. I can get over the camera.

IIG

Okay, so if Dean said that NFL 2K3 is better than Madden, I will trust that. When it comes to sports, I really believe he knows what he's talking about. Of course there is no way of knowing who said what yet...

Kellehair

I don't see why it's a problem if the camera in Mario Sunshine is like Mario 64. I love the "100 percent pure, unadulterated fun" quote. That's the way I feel about Mario. I'm glad they gave Beach Spikers a good score. I was starting to worry this game wasn't that great. I'm also glad to hear that the multiplayer in SMB2 is great. I really liked the multiplayer in the last game but there just wasn't enough of it. And what's all this about Animal Crossing? The game sounds fantastic. It's a good time to own a Gamecube. Sounds like a pretty good time to take your PS2 online too. I don't think that's something I'll be doing though but still, SOCOM sounds pretty good.

YujiNaka

Man, EGM not biased against XBOX?

"Lets get 3 games to review, make one of them Bruce Lee so we can trash at least one of the 3..."

PS2 had what, 8-10 games reviewed and the cover story? Xbox had 3 games, when I am pretty positive that there were more games than that for them to review.

Maybe not full blown owned by Sony, but definately biased towards PS2.

Kellehair, ScandalUMD told me he thought the "100 percent pure, unadultered fun" quote was *FASCINATING*.

-Jim

Aghama

Kellehair: I was under the impression that the game controls the camera less than in Mario 64, and a lot of people have been bitching about it.

YujiNaka: If you're pretty positive, then name the games they should have reviewed.

I have a feeling that Jonathan sucks at SMB2. It's good to hear that the multiplayer is more interesting than in the original, but it's all about the 1P for me.

Josh H

EGM is the least biased game Magazine out there. If they had more X-box games to review, they would have reviewed them.

Last months they only reviewed 2 or 3 Gamecube games, and gave Eternal Darkness a pretty low score compared to the online reviews. You didn't here me crying that they were biased. It was simply there opinion on ED and they reviewed all the games they got there hands on in time to review.

They only review final American copies of games. No betas, or builds, and no import version. And being a Magazine, there deadline is a good month before the issue hits stands, if not longer. So that's why they don't always review games the month they come out. I mean the ED review was over a month after the games release as Nintendo didn't give them a copy to review in time for there June issue. That's just the way real, independent magazines work.

Kellehair

That won't bother me one bit. I'm a camera control freak.

Gromit

Late last year, when the Xbox and GameCube came out, EGM recommended the Xbox as their 'if you can only have one' pick. I just don't see the bias. Reviews are personal opinions. I read about all these great Xbox games that are available and other than Halo, I just don't see it. It's just an opinion.

darkside

What other Xbox games are worth reviewing? Its a PS2 dominated market so thats the system that will get the main focus. EGM is very fair with their reviews and they are by far the most unbiased. They gave Castlevania game of the month instead of Mario and that says a lot to how unbiased they are.

I've got no problem with any of the reviews above. With all the great games coming for the PS2 and Gamecube for the rest of the year expect the Xbox to have very little focus from EGM. Panzer Dragoon Orta is about the only major exclusive the Xbox has coming and I guess they couldn't get it to EGM in time for this issue.

William Wallace

Please.... what 3 X-Box games did they not review?

As for being biased towards PS2, wth? The only game they gave really good scores to this month is SOCOM, not even a really hyped up game. They gave Tekken 4 is LOWEST SCORES YET. They also gave Kingdom Hearts lower scores than most people were expecting.

ten41

They picked X-box as the console to buy last christmas season.

DVDHO

EGM is the best mag out there period,been getting it now for 11 years and have never had a problem with any of there reviews(except Zone of the Enders),its THERE opinion,if you want great reviews of games that are not complete yet and great ratings for every game get Gamepro or a Biased Xbox Mag,dont hate EGM for the lack of games on the Xbox its not there fault its M$ fault.

RJainMJ

Nice to see high scores for Kingdom Hearts. Definitely have to buy that one. I've been an EGM subscriber for years and always have found it fair to all consoles.

kar10

EGM is biased!

They seem to prefer PS2!

I mean come on they have time to review 15 games and they only get to review only 3 Xbox games.

What happen to:

Dead to rights
Turok
Soccer slam
nfl 2k3
nfl blitz 2003

Why are they reviewing "Bruce Lee" that's old news. I know that game sucks!! Everybody knows that..

ten41

They reviewed dead to rights last month.

Aghama

And the rest aren't even exclusives. Give it up.

zig

They only reviewed 4 gamecube games but you don't see me complaining. It's not like they intentionally didn't review more xbox games.

darkside

They reviewed Bruce Lee this month because they finally got it to review. Like with bad movies like Pluto Nash it seems publishers who know their games are total crap do not give them to the magazines early to review. They don't want people finding out early that the game is garbage. They want them to find out after they bought it.

ten41

Wasn't Halo EGM's game of the year? When did this bias against the x-box develop?

WhiteRob

Wow... those are some disappointing scores for Tekken 4. I was hoping that EGM would sneak in a review for The Thing this month, but alas, it did not come.

jiggyblau

Looks promising for Sega GT 2002. Can't wait for that one.

ScandalUMD

Gave me a reason to scratch Tekken off my list. I'm really psyched for Socom now.

I'm not getting Kingdom Hearts. I don't see much reason to get a game about Disney characters, with all the other great stuff coming out, even if Square made it. I wish they'd given us Chrono 3 instead.