Live Fast, Die With Honor

Something old and something new will be making an appearance from BAM! on PS2 this year. The long awaited and almost that's-old-news-department material is Wipeout Fusion from the development team that produced the first two games for PlayStation under Psygnosis. This game is absolutely rockin'. Being a big fan, I was pleased to get my hands on this puppy, and to learn the U.S. market is finally due for this beauty in June or July at the latest. 45 tracks, 8 teams, and more of everything that we love, not the least of which are some excellent weather effects. Orbital and some other U.K. bands provide the thumpin' beats. It's good to own a PS2.

Around the same time, look forward to another great PS2 title from BAM!, Way of the Samurai. This game is bigger than Iron Chef in Japan, they tell me, and it's easy to see why. Okay, I made that Iron Chef thing up. But, imagine a samurai game combining the mood of Tenchu and the action of Bushido Blade and you can get an idea of how cool this game plays. The amazing thing to see is how the game changes and adapts to your actions. The character you play is fairly unformed in the sword arts at first, but as you play, button combinations you use will actually cause him to innovate various fighting styles. You'll be able to grab 40 different swords with a possible combination of 200 moves and attacks! I played through a few sections and ended up in a fight where I created a new move, and I was hooked immediately. Couple this with deep AI interaction and some fine graphics and you've got a winner in my book.