PSM Issue 11

Features: 

• Cover Story: Mortal Kombat 4. Interviews, strategies, move lists, and a contest to win your very own MK4 arcade machine.
• Vigilante 8 Strategy Guide: All the maps, all the levels, all the secret moves. What more do you need?
• Einhander Secrets Guide: Hidden ships, extra weapons, secret bonuses...all this and a Gallery mode too!
• Final Fantasy VIII Is Coming: New screenshots and where you can score the playable demo.
• Sony's Dual Shock Controller: It's got two sticks, and it knows how to shake, rattle, and roll. Why you need one right now!

Monitor (Rumours, gossip, news, etc...): 

• The gang's all fired up for a visit to Atlanta for E3.
• Peripheral Reviews:
  - Innovation "Shock Pak": 1/5 stars
  - Mad Catz "Mouse": 2.5/5 stars
• Hot New Peripherals on the Way (The Interact "Dex Drive" game save manager and "Game Champion" cheat device are on their way!)
• Update: Parappa 2 and Resident Evil 3 (Two hot sequels are underway)
• The Latest PlayStation 2 Buzz
• Microsoft and Sony Licensing Exchange (Could Windows CE power the PS2?)
• Bomberman Kart for the U.S.
• Legion X to Resurface
• Fox Flirts With Buffy
• Namco Planning New PS Arcade Hardware
• Checkpoint: The PSM Release Schedule
• PSM's Most Wanted: (Metal Gear Solid, Spyro the Dragon, Tomb Raider 3, Crash 3, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Colony Wars: Vengeance, Madden '99, Syphon Filter, Final Fantasy VIII, Parappa the Rapper 2)
• Nihon Game Otaku: Armored Core models, Shake Kids, Bomberman Fantasy Race, Echo Night, Art Truck Battle, Cybernetic Empire, the Metal Gear Solid control scheme, and Macross Digital Mission VF-X 2, plus the 10 best-selling Japanese PS1 games, Chibi's July Picks, and the July release schedule. All this, plus Chibi's Terms, and you've got everything an import gamer needs to keep it real in '98.

PlayStation Charts (The EB Chart / NPD Chart):

1. Tekken 3 / Resident Evil 2
2. Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit / Triple Play '99
3. Triple Play '99 / Crash Bandicoot
4. Deathtrap Dungeon / NBA ShootOut '98
5. SaGa Frontier / WCW Nitro
6. Diablo / March Madness '98
7. MLB '99 / NASCAR '98
8. Resident Evil 2 / Tomb Raider
9. Dead or Alive / NBA Live '98
10. NBA ShootOut '98 / Twisted Metal

Q&A: 

• Ed Boon and Dave Michicich sit for a two-page interview with the PSM crew on all things Mortal Kombat, from upcoming games to the two feature films.

Previews:

• Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
•  C - The Contra Adventure
• Madden NFL '99
• Tail Concerto
• Syphon Filter
• Rogue Trip (See 'Notable Stuff' below)
• Alien Resurrection (See 'Notable Stuff' below)
• Big Air Snowboarding
• Streak (released as Streak: Hoverboard Racing)(See 'Notable Stuff' below)
• Turbo Prop Racing (See 'Notable Stuff' below)
• Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
• Ninja
• Thrill Kill (unreleased)
• LAPD 2100 (released as Future Cop: L.A.P.D.)
• Monkey Hero

Reviews:

• Gran Turismo (5/5)
• Tomba (4/5)
• X-Men vs. Street Fighter (3/5)
• Jersey Devil (3.5/5)
• Sentinel Returns (1.5/5)
• Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. (3/5)
• World Cup '98 (3.5/5)
• Azure Dreams (3.5/5)
• N2O (2.5/5)
• VR Baseball '99 (3.5/5)
• The Granstream Saga (3.5/5)
• Vigilante 8 (4.5/5)

Code Junkies:

• Beast Wars: Transformers
• Ghost in the Shell
• Judge Dredd
• X-Men vs. Street Fighter
• Pitfall 3-D
• Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit
• San Francisco Rush
• Reboot
• Deathtrap Dungeon
• Steel Harbinger
• Diablo
• Rascal
• Game Shark Codes:
  - Armored Core
  - Blasto
  - Bloody Roar
  - Critical Depth
  - Dead or Alive
  - Legacy of Kain
  - March Madness '98
  - MLB '99
  - Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit
  - Point Blank
  - Powerboat Racing
  - Ray Tracers
  - SaGa Frontier
  - San Francisco Rush
  - Shadow Master
  - Speed Racer
  - Syndicate Wars
  - Theme Hospital
  - Triple Play '99

Ads:

• Jersey Devil
• Tekken 3 Hardcore strategy guide
• Eidos Games (Ninja / Tomb Raider II / Omikron: The Nomad Soul)
• Ninja
• Crime Killer
• Dead or Alive
• Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.
• Deathtrap Dungeon
• The Granstream Saga
• Command & Conquer Red Alert: Retaliation
• WWF War Zone
• Newman/Haas Racing
• Alien Resurrection
• Dead Ball Zone
• NFL Xtreme
• Next Generation Online website
• Elemental Gearbolt
• Capcom Fighter's Edge club
• Imagine Games Network website
• PSM 1-900-776-4PSM tip line
• Uprising X
• The Unholy War

Letters (Assorted gripes, praise, and questions abound): 

• Pause: Responses to the topic, "What Happened to the Great Videogame Music?". This month's topic: "Violence and Censorship". 
• Top This! (If you can beat Einhander with an 'A' rank, earn 100% destruction in Vigilante 8, or finish Tomba, and be the first to prove your skill, PSM's got a pair of Interact Sound Series Speakers with your name on it!)
• Marketplace: Buy, sell, trade, and maybe rip a few people off too.
• Coming next month: E3 '98 special report, the biggest new games, more Final Fantasy VIII, and that's just the tip of the gunblade, y'all!

Notable Stuff: 

• This issue shipped with two different Mortal Kombat 4-themed covers: one with Sub-Zero, the other with Scorpion. They were printed with roughly a 50/50 distribution, so one isn't rarer than the other. There's a two-sided poster bound into the magazine between pages 50 and 51 featuring the artwork, so you can display your favorite.
• PSM finds the wrist-mounted "Shock Pak", which simulates the ruble feature of a Dual Shock without requiring the user to buy a new controller, suitable "for either the completely clueless or plain old perverts." Ouch!
• The "Notes" section on page 13 incorrectly refers to Dragon Quest VII's producer as "Yuuji Horn". His name is actually "Yuuji Horii". I'm probably the only one who noticed.
• "Chibi's Terms" from Nihon Game Otaku once again deal with text you might see pop up in those JRPGs you're always importing. Still a massively useful column twenty years later.
• The ad for Alien Resurrection gives it an arrival date of "Fall, 1998". They're a bit premature, considering the game isn't released until October, 2000.
• The Previews section includes an awful lot of screenshots, and sometimes regular artwork, in black-and-white. Rogue Trip, Turbo Prop Racing and Alien Resurrection have all their screenshots devoid of colour, while the entry for Streak features black and white screenshots and one piece of artwork, but the sidebars feature full-colour screenies and artwork. The reason, as we would learn in a future issue's letter column, is that they accidentally sent the files to their printing service in an improper format, which resulted in monochromatic images. Due to a tight deadline, they were unable to fix things before the mag shipped, and everyone involved learned a valuable lesson about not leaving things to the last minute.
• Talk about your changes! The final build of Alien Resurrection bears zero resemblance to the preview version PSM got to play. Instead of the third-person, Resident Evil-style controls and camera implemented in the beta, the game turned into a first-person shooter. Gone is the ability to select your character and have it influence how the story mode plays out; Johner was cut entirely, while Call, Christie, and DiStephano each get one playable level...the rest of the time you're playing as Ripley. The proposed thirteen levels were chopped down to ten in the final version. What on earth happened to this game?
• The PS1 version of Diablo has an item duplication trick just like its PC big brother, though this one requires two different characters on two different memory cards to pull off. It's a lot easier though, since there's no timing involved, just a lot of saving and reloading.
• Editor Steve writes in response to a reader inquiry that it doesn't look like the PS2 will be backwards-compatible with existing PS1 hardware. He also posits MiniDiscs as a potential new format for the PS2 software. Zero for two there, Steve. Great work, buddy!
• Editor Noah answers a long-time question I've had concerning the Video Game Control Glove peripheral advertised in magazines around this time. I always wondered if it actually worked, or was just a gimmick. Noah's answer is that while it does provide a great new way of controlling games, the learning curve is crazy steep and ultimately not worth it. Good to know!