PSM Issue 3

Features:

• Start (Editorial: Out with the new, in with the old--The classic games are back!)
• Fighting Force lid sticker!
• There's A Party in Your PlayStation! (Throwing the ultimate gaming bash with a little help from Sony's little grey box that could)
• Accessorize Your PlayStation, Part 2 (Continuing the madness from last issue, PSM looks at joysticks, racing wheels, light guns, and a variety of other peripherals on the market to separate the gold from the lead)
• Letters (Reader love, reader rage)
• Top This! (Are you gamer enough to meet these harsh challenges?)
  • Challenge #1: Fully upgrade with every heart, energy tank, weapon, capsule, and armor upgrade in Mega Man X4.
  • Challenge #2: Find every Limit Break manual in Final Fantasy VII.
  • Challenge #3: Build the coolest-looking yet best-functioning mech possible in Armored Core.
• Marketplace (Buy, sell and trade your gaming gear with other, like-minded readers)
• Reset (Coming next month: A Holiday Special, Tomb Raider 2, Women of PlayStation, and more, more, more!)

Monitor (News, gossip, rants, etc...):

• Tokyo Game Show, Fall 1997 (All the Japanese stuff too cool for everybody else to get)
• Gran Turismo Unveiled
• Playstation Overheating Problem Solved? (Maybe, with this little intercooler gizmo thingie...)
• Playstation's Value Grows (Sony's dropping prices on some great games)
• Cardinal Syn's coming to Playstation exclusively
• Net Yaroze Update (All things homebrew for the Yaroze dev scene)
• Gossip (FFVII breaks sales records, Bond coming to Playstation, Tobal No. 2 might come to the US, Jersey Devil's coming, and some very, very early PS2 hardware news)
• Nihon Game Otaku (Bill Paris shows us all the neat stuff we're missing out on in the Land of the Rising Sun)

Reviews:

• NFL GameDay '98 (5/5)
• Armored Core (4.5/5)
• Time Crisis (4/5)
• Mega Man X4 (4/5)
• Colony Wars (5/5)
• Madden '98 (3/5)
• Ghost in the Shell (3.5/5)
• Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (4.5/5)
• Intelligent Qube (3.5/5)
• Steel Reign (3/5)
• G-Police (4/5)
• Marvel Superheroes (4/5)
• Maximum Force (2.5/5)
• NASCAR '98 (3.5/5)
• Formula 1: Championship Edition (4/5)

Flashback (Re-reviewing old games to current standards):

• Ridge Racer - Old Score: 3.5/5. New Score: 2.5/5
• The Adventures of Lomax - Old Score: 3.5/5. New Score: 2/5.
• Philosoma - Old Score: 3/5. New Score: 2/5.

Backlog (Reviews for games released in the last few months):

• Battle Arena Toshinden 3 (3.5/5)
• Brahma Force (4/5)
• Bushido Blade (4.5/5)
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (5/5)
• City of Lost Children (3.5/5)
• Clock Tower (3/5)
• Codename: Tenka (4/5)
• Contra: Legacy of War (2/5)
• Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (4/5)
• Disney's Hercules (3/5)
• Fantastic Four (0.5/5)
• Felony 11-79 (3/5)
• Final Fantasy VII (5/5)
• Grand Tour Racing '98 (3.5/5)
• Independence Day (2/5)
• Jurassic Park: The Lost World (2.5/5)
• Machine Hunter (4/5)
• Mechwarrior 2 (3/5)
• Mega Man 8 (4/5)
• Namco Museum, Vol. 4 (2/5)
• Nanotech Warrior (4/5)
• NCAA Football '98 (3.5/5)
• Need For Speed 2 (2.5/5)
• NHL Powerplay '98 (3.5/5)
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (4.5/5)
• Ogre Battle (3/5)
• Parappa the Rapper (5/5)
• Peak Performance (3.5/5)
• Persona (3/5)
• Porsche Challenge (4/5)
• Power Slave (4/5)
• Poy Poy (4/5)
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (5/5)
• Super Street Fighter Collection (5/5)
• Syndicate Wars (3.5/5)
• Psychic Force (3/5)
• Rage Racer (3.5/5)
• Rally Cross (4/5)
• ReLoaded (2/5)
• Resident Evil: Director's Cut (5/5)
• Rush Hour (3/5)
• Soul Blade (5/5)
• Spider (3/5)
• Suikoden (5/5)
• Tail of the Sun (4/5)
• Tecmo Stackers (2.5/5)
• Treasures of the Deep (4.5/5)
• Twisted Metal 2 (4.5/5)
• Vandal Hearts (4/5)
• VMX Racing (2.5/5)
• Warcraft 2 (3.5/5)
• Wild Arms (5/5)

Previews:

• Mega Man Legends (Here shown as Mega Man Neo)
• Monster Rancher
• NBA Live '98
• Shadow Master
• Crash Bandicoot 2
• Gex 2: Enter the Gecko
• CART World Series
• Jet Moto 2
• Resident Evil 2
• MDK
• Youngblood: Search & Destroy (cancelled)
• Cool Boarders 2
• Fighting Force
• Tomb Raider 2
• Critical Depth

Strategy (hard-hitting tips and tricks for beating games):

• Armored Core
• Grand Tour Racing
• Final Fantasy VII (The Extra Stuff)
• Colony Wars

Code Junkies (You cheater, you...):

• Carnage Heart
• Ace Combat 2
• Command & Conquer
• Mech Warrior 2
• NHL '97
• Street Fighter EX
• Thunder Truck Rally
• Triple Play
• Twisted Metal 2
• VMX Racing
• War Gods
• Allied General
• Brahma Force
• Broken Helix
• Coolboarders
• Disney's Herculese
• Herc's Adventures
• MLB '98
• Namco Musuem Volume 4

Ads (in order of appearance):

• Porsche Challenge
• Colony Wars
• Fighting Force
• MDK
• Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown / Duke Nukem 64
• San Francisco Rush Extreme Racing
• Shipwreckers!
• Ghost in the Shell
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert
• One
• Critical Depth
• Test Drive 4
• Vs.
• Tekken 2 / Soul Blade
• Formula 1: Championship Edition
• Youngblood: Search & Destroy (cancelled)
• Rampage World Tour
• The Video Game Control Glove
• Philips/Magnavox Scuba gaming headset
• Ultra Game Players magazine tip line
• Mace: The Dark Age
• Bravo Air Race
• Raystorm
• www.imaginegames.com website
• Ultra Game Players magazine free issue offer
• Red Asphalt
• Pandemonium 2

Noteworthy Stuff:

• It took longer than he wanted, but editor Chris Slate should be happy that Ninja Gaiden, Splatterhouse, and Bionic Commando have all received new games in their respective series at this point. No word on a new Ghouls 'n' Ghosts though.
• Sony releases a new version of the PS1 that fixes the overheating problem mentioned in 'Monitor' above.
• Despite the rumour, Tobal No. 2 never materializes on US shores.
• Bill Paris refers to Lara Croft as 'Laura' in his column. *sigh*
• Sports games outsell virtually everything else in Japan.
• Once again, all three of the games reviewed in the 'Flashback' section of the reviews come off worse than they did originally.
• Intelligent Qube, despite being hailed as one of the best puzzle games ever by gamers, squeaks out a 3.5 / 5.0. NFL GameDay '98, by contrast, pulls off a perfect 5/5. What gives?
• Machine Hunter's 5/5 review from last issue's 'Backlog' has been corrected back to its original 4/5 rating in this issue's 'Backlog'.
• Same with Twisted Metal 2, which is back to being 4.5/5, corrected from its 3.5/5 entry in last issue's 'Backlog'.
• All of the Resident Evil 2 preview information in this issue is based the final release version, as opposed to the Resident Evil 1.5 version artwork which was shown in last issue's 'Reset' column. 
• There's a charter subscription offer to get PSM for $1 per issue for an entire year. What a steal!
• Another desperate reader writes about a potential "Nude Raider" cheat for Tomb Raider. Boys, boys, boys...
• Most of the 'Top This!' challenges are relatively straightforward, but the one for Armored Core isn't based on your skill or ability with the game so much as it is the editors' opinion on who looks coolest while still being useful in combat.