THE LATEST NEWS FROM JUNE 2003
You can’t accuse the Wachowskis of lacking ambition, as they clearly had big designs on making The Matrix the pop culture phenomenon of 2003. The divisive sequel to the 1999 sci-fi classic had already hit cinemas, the third movie was due for release later in the year, and sandwiched between them was the big-budget multiformat videogame Enter The Matrix. Rather than giving players control of Neo during the events of the films, the game allowed you to choose between Ghost and Niobe to experience a plot that runs parallel to The Matrix Reloaded. This was described as “one of the redeeming features” of the game by games™, which laid into the tie-in in a 4/10 review. The “repetitive action sections” failed to impress, with bullet time moves lacking “the impact they might have had” due to the likes of Max Payne, while the driving sections were “totally devoid of fun or excitement”. The shooting sections were considered even worse, consisting of “endless messy grey tunnels” and “practically nonexistent” gameplay.
Namco’s Soulcalibur II brought the scrapping action, both on-screen and off as each of the three console versions featured an exclusive fighter.
Thankfully, this game did live up to the hype it had generated, scoring 9/10 from Edge and 8/10 in games™, with the former describing it as “a relatively conservative sequel” that was still “superior to its predecessor in almost every way”. Both magazines agreed that the Playstation 2 version had the weakest exclusive character in Tekken’s Heihachi, but couldn’t agree on the best – Edge plumping for comic book import Spawn and games™ choosing Zelda’s Link. Both also agreed that the PS2 had the least impressive visual presentation. However, games™ noted that “all three versions do their systems proud” and that the “visuals don’t utterly shame its Dreamcast predecessor”.
Of course, as one hype cycle ends, another continues to roll, and PC gamers were treated to a major preview ahead of the launch of Half-life 2 on 30 September 2003. “Edge is used to its cover games’ release dates shifting like mirages,” the magazine noted, “but [Gabe] Newell is set on this.” Perhaps more prophetic was the idea that, “Half-life’s most important step forward seems to be the introduction of real-world physics into