Summer 2003 and the internet is awash with rumours of a PS2 game that is supposedly Sony's answer to Halo. By mid-July, a , while Sony and developers Guerrilla remain resolutely schtum. Come the end of that month, the of the title is finally made and we learn that the near-future FPS will be squad-based (although players only control one character at a time), that the game will be structured around a number of set pieces and that the title takes major twentieth century theatres of war as its
You just can't please some people. First, new-school fighting fans complained that SNK's King of Fighters series was stuck forever in 2D. Then when King of Fighters: Maximum Impact took the series into the third dimension at last, they didn't like that either. Hopefully, everybody will be happy with King of Fighters 2006, due out this summer.
Granted, we barely know enough to tell whether or not the second foray into 3D will please anyone at all. In Japan, KOF2006 is merely known as Maximum
Sooner or later, all things come to an end. Empires fall, cities crumble and the series that was stubbornly synonymous with 2D fighting must finally move into the third dimension. But don't get angry just yet; King of Fighters 2006 might look different, but from what we've played so far, the action's just as good as ever.
Granted, KOF 2006 (released as King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 in Japan) makes a few trade-offs. The roster had to be trimmed down to 25 fighters - still impressive for a
To say the first Kingdom Hearts was unique is an understatement. It wasn't just a success: it was a mega-smashing, world-eater of a success. It wasn't just unusual: it was a sounds-unholy-but-works-perfectly mating of Disney's characters and worlds with role-playing style and flair from Final Fantasy developers Square Enix. It was an Action RPG that atomized the mode - seriously: Goofy is a knight and Donald Duck a wizard? Your spaceship is made of gummi bricks? - and left fans squalling for
