PO Box 800057, Valencia, CA 91380-0057 February 21, 2005 Hardcore Gamer Magazine is Coming! We’re sending this message out to announce a new enthusiast publication, Hardcore Gamer Magazine. HGM is being made by a group of dedicated gamers who recognize the need for a new multi-platform magazine — one that caters to the interests of the die-hard, hardcore gamer, as well as the masses of regular game fans. We have been hungering for a magazine which delivers interesting content about the fascinating yet unexplored aspects of video game culture, but still features the reviews, previews, news, strategies and other pertinent video game info everyone loves to read about. We’re tired of waiting for someone else to make something we could enjoy and respect, so we’ve gotten off our collective duffs and done it ourselves! The magazine will make its debut this spring, and we plan to give away free issues of HGM to the core gaming community. We know everyone loves free stuff so we’re making it quick and easy for folks to get the HGM goods and we’re making sure what we present is the best product that we can make. We realize that content and quality is key, and that is why we have assembled a talented staff of recognized industry veterans who bring over 25 years of combined print journalism experience to the table. While DoubleJump Publishing is a relatively new company, the President and founder is Tim Lindquist, one of the same folks who started GameFan Magazine back in 1992 and many other print magazines in the years since. Also along for the duration is Greg Off, another GameFan founder who has been working on the print media side of the industry since the early ‘90s. Greg will lend his skills by doing the thing he is most experienced in doing as the Editor-in-Chief of HGM. As if that weren’t enough, the person in charge of artwork and illustration is Terry Wolfinger, who was the man behind the look of GameFan — the one who drew more than 60 of their covers and countless illustrations within. In addition, we have handpicked our editorial and art staff to reflect our vision of delivering new products and ideas to the marketplace. We’ll introduce the rest of the staff with bios in the magazine. With so many of us being former GameFan creators, you might expect to see a little bit of that old feeling in what we’re doing with HGM. However, we’re not looking to recreate an old magazine, we’re inventing a new one to fill the void which exists in the gaming magazine industry today. We are confident that we will strike a chord with those of you who want a magazine which caters to the things you enjoy most about gaming. We are passionate, we are committed and our entire staff has two other things in common — we truly love games and we enjoy writing about them. Please take a few moments to go over the enclosed sample content which is a sneak peak at some of the things we plan to include in the first issue. Tell us what you think. You can visit our official message boards to give your feedback directly at www.hardcoregamermag.com, where we will listen and talk to you to make sure we do it right. If we are to succeed it will only be because you demand it. Sincerely, Tim Lindquist and the whole HGM Staff Half the fun of Stranger’s Wrath comes from playing around with the animals you can load into your crossbow. You can find new animals in stores, in the wild, or in clearly labeled crates. Stunkz: Firing a Stunk creates a short-lived cloud of gas at Publisher : EA Genre(s) : Action Adventure its point of impact. It doesn’t affect Stranger, but paralyzes Developer : Oddworld Inhabitants Category : FPS/Platformer outlaws with nausea. It’s great against crowds. Release Date : 1/25/2005 # of players : 1 Rating : TEEN; Blood and Gore, Realistic Violence, Strong language Bolamites: One shot from a Bolamite wraps ordinary en- emies up in spider webs, allowing you to capture them alive. Stronger outlaws or bosses will tear free immediately, but it I knew I liked the game when my ammunition started slows them down a bit. talking to me. Chippunk: This mouthy little squirrelly hamster thing makes a single enemy angry enough to race to its position. The I was never a great fan of the Oddworld games, but that was back Chippunk won’t make an enemy stop attacking you, but it’s when they were deeply idiosyncratic puzzle/platformers. Oddworld: perfect for ambushing unsuspecting outlaws. Try it in con- either perspective, but you can change them out as you see fit Stranger’s Wrath reinvents the series as a frantically weird Western junction with Fuzzles. depending on what you’re trying to accomplish at the time. It’s a tale, complete with a laconic cowboy (cowthing?) hero and a simple mechanic elegantly instituted, and if there’s any justice, it’ll Zappfly: Your default weapon, a charged Zappfly can acti- frontier full of bandits to hunt down. be imitated by scores of games to come. vate certain kinds of machinery and acts as a one-hit instant stun on any unarmored outlaw it hits. It also has the longest As the Stranger, you’re a bounty hunter in the frontiers of horizontal range and shallowest arc of any of your initial Another unique quirk is how Stranger fights, which is a big part weapons, which is great against distant targets like snipers. Oddworld, bringing in outlaws to pay for an unspecified and of the game’s charm. In a world full of people wielding shotguns, possibly sinister “operation.” You’ll see a lot of familiar Oddworld homing missiles, explosives, and metal limbs, Stranger’s walking Fuzzle: You can place Fuzzles on walls, ceilings, and floors sights, rendered here in amazing and colorful 3D, but most of the as traps, or fire them directly onto enemies to distract them. around with a double-barreled crossbow and a pouchful of hostile time, you’ll be too busy ducking flying lead to appreciate it. While an enemy has a Fuzzle attached, he’ll run around like animals. This is a game that’s all about launching an electric bug an idiot. This is your chance to punch him out. into somebody’s face at point-blank range, or setting a series of difficult experience with a decidedly dark sense of humor. Stranger’s Wrath is a rare thing; it’s a platformer and a first-person traps with angry furry monsters that’re 90% teeth. Thudslug: At close range, this’ll stun and knock down almost shooter, but both styles of gameplay are done equally well. Usually, If the game’s got any flaws, it’s that Stranger’s deadpan Clint anything. A great nonlethal strategy against bosses is to whenever someone tries to blend the two, you get insane alternate between Thudslugs and charged Zappflies at close There’s a lot of charm in that. I’ve played a lot of shooters, Eastwood impression wears a little thin after a few hours. jumping puzzles that teach the world how to hate. range. especially recently, that took an odd amount of glee in the flawless We get it. He’s a parody of the Man with No Name. You can There’ve been a lot of otherwise good FPSes depiction and unrestricted use of military hardware. In Stranger’s stop now. There are also a few parts where I would’ve really Boombat: Flying rodents with a slight homing capacity, a that’ve screwed themselves over by including Wrath, I am firing angry Muppets at people. I can’t begin to tell you appreciated an in-game map, or at least some onscreen Boombat’s explosion will stun or kill virtually any ordinary one too many (which is to say, one) enemy. They’re best employed to destroy enemy turrets or how refreshing that is. indication of where my next objective was. difficult jumps. machines. At the same time, this is not an easy game. The platforming is fairly Those of you who’re expecting a traditional Oddworld game Stingbee: They don’t do much damage, but Stingbees fire The difference here is that in Stranger’s Wrath, simple, and doesn’t require a lot of thought. Combat, on the other should probably look elsewhere. For the rest of you, Oddworld: at a furious rate and track their target, allowing you to duck you can switch from third- to first-person at any behind cover while they do their thing. A few salvos of Sting- hand, is usually a question of taking on a well-entrenched enemy Stranger’s Wrath is a lot of fun, both in its own right and as a time by clicking the right thumbstick. You still bees are great for slowly whittling away at a boss’s health. force on their own turf. You’ll have to outwit enemies as often palate-cleansing antidote to the glut of nearly-identical FPSes have access to a lot of Stranger’s moves in as you outfight them, by sneaking up on their that’re clogging the shelves. It’s just hard enough and offers position, knocking snipers out, or using your critter just enough freedom that you’ll want to play it again. arsenal to its fullest extent. Despite its slightly cartoony look, Stranger’s Wrath is a surprisingly Rating : 4.5 of 5 2nd opinion by Fatebreaker • Alternate Rating : 5 of 5 Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is a real gem, and this is coming from a newcomer to the series.