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[Sysgen]

Following a good suggestion in another thread, here's a look at what's coming soon in Official Xbox Magazine:

October issue: available now, featuring a huge Halo 2 multiplayer hands-on feature. You've seen it, you love it.

November issue:
-Exclusive hands-on with *all* of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Major single player hands-on details plus huge multiplayer announcements!

-A feature peek at Xbox's hottest upcoming RPGs.

-The eagerly-anticipated review of an even more eagerly-anticipated game, Fable!

-Reviews of Star Wars Battlefront, Def Jam: Fight for NY, Otogi 2, and tons more! 'Tis the season for reviews!

-Demo disc:

Single player and Xbox Live-enabled playable demo of OutRun 2,
plus demos of
Otogi 2,
Area 51,
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders,
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow,
BloodRayne 2,
SNK vs. Capcom,
and Fight Club.

-The "official" on sale date of the November issue is October 5, but subscribers should start to see it VERY soon!

December issue:
-If I give the slightest hint, I'll be mysteriously killed and my body will never be found. When I can clue you all in, I will.

Happy gaming!
__________________
Ryan McCaffrey
Assistant Editor
Official Xbox Magazine

 

[BuddyC]

Hey! Outrun 2 and Area 51! Sold!

Whoa, Otogi 2 and BloodRayne 2? Yea, this one's mine.

 

[Sysgen]

No Halo 2, Oh well. I played the KUF demo at EB. Get ready for some major loading, as in longer loading than Morrowind, at least in the beginning.

Otogi 2, Outrun 2 on the same disc - woot. The mag I don't care for and I just subscribe for the demo discs.

 

[Wario64]

How was Otogi anyway? Is it worth getting? Is it comparable to something like Shinobi?

 

[Sysgen]

Haven't played Shinobi but Otogi was very cool. I wrote this a while ago.

Well, I have it and the game is great. Sweet graphics and you get to break just about everything in the game. Cons: Slightly repetitive and the camera isn't perfect but not anything bad.

Left Trigger : Locks On Enemy. Very important as it keeps you centered on the enemy and you don;t have to deal with the camera.

Right Trigger: Dash / Dash Attack when combined with B

A: Jump / Double Jump / Float down slowly.
B: Small attack.
Y: Heavy attack (Use this to bust up most things)
X: Magic (4 classes, longer you hold the more powerful, however if you get hit you lose the charge )
Left Stick In: Center Camera
Right Stick In: Toggle show health of enemies. (Little bars under them).

The camera is set to inverted. Push up look down.

Your character levels up.
You earn gold to shop with.
You can buy / sell weapons (All kinds of swords , hammers . staffs .. more?, I;m only on level 9)
You can buy / sell accessories that enhance / decrease attributes (Attack, Defense, Magic Power).
You can repair your weapons to keep them in tip top condition (Very important as each weapon has a vitality rating).
You can buy / sell magic.

You get rated on destroying objects. Some objects on each level have souls that you can release.

You can do a fair number of combos that are various combinations of the small, heavy attack and magic button.and the game keeps tracks of your hit strings. I believe as many as 400.

IMO, an excellent and pretty polished title. Even gamespot liked it

When I started, I really didn't understand what I was doing so I played around the first 2 levels for a bit. The manual is good but not great. Once I figured everything out and started destroying (more like pulverizing) entire levels I was hooked. There was just something about having a level all setup for you and then hacking your way through it, looking back and see all of the destruction and debris.

You can replay levels with the option to have the levels reset or enter the level as you left it. You'll want to replay some for some easy gold and experience.

The Japanese mytholgy theme was implemented really well. Cool game.

 

[DopeyFish]

No Halo 2, Oh well.

EGM and/or XBN are having Halo 2 single player features that are due out in 1-2 weeks.