National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 113

T032 G3: GAMES NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2005 Fantastic Four's The Thing has his own song, but it's hip hop, not rock For the first time, four popular bands have written and recorded original tracks specifically for the lead characters in a game. The four will be unlockable bonus content in Fantastic Four, coming out this summer by Activision. Taking Back Sunday leads the team with Error Operator, for Mr. Fantastic; hip-hop veterans Jurassic 5 offer Clobberin' Time, for the rock-like The Thing; punk-rock up-and-comers The Explosion have I'm on Fire, for The Human Torch, and all-girl punkers Go Betty Go sing Everywhere, for The Invisible Woman (played by Jessica Alba in the movie, right). "This is a whole new approach at in- UBISOFT Don't know what it is, but you'd better shoot it anyway.

Cold Fear offers every survival horror in the book. YOU'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE Cold Fear Xbox, PS2; Mature BY MALCOLM KELLY REVIEW Imagine a TV-movie-of-the-week version of Resident Evil, starring a B-movie action hero named Tom Hansen, a collection of sidekicks who die faster than the guys in the red shirts did in the original Star Trek series and more than a stage revival of Grease. That's a synopsis of Cold Fear, a survival horror adventure game from UbiSoft. While it isn't the greatest game in the world, it's enough fun to round up a few friends and rent it for a weekend. In the tradition of films like Ghost Ship, Cold Fear opens on a tegrating music into Activision's Tim Riley.

tastic Four game also the signature musical from the film's score, by John Ottman. National NOTEBOOK Gaming gets degree programs XBOX 2 ON THE WAY BY MALCOLM KELLY McMaster University in Hamilton has joined a growing number of degree and certificate granting institutions across the country that are offering video-game development as a credit course. But McMaster has taken it one step further by announcing a full degree in "software engineering" for game design starting this fall. Run jointly by the engineering and humanities faculties, the course will include computer architecture and graphics processors, 4D modelling, real-time systems and control, and all the other skills and knowledge you need to spend your life creating the next Halo series, and the one after that. Graduates leave Hamilton Mountain with a Bachelor in Engineering.

In February, Montreal-based UbiSoft announced the creation of the UbiSoft Campus, in conjunction with the de Matane and the de Sherbrooke. Frenchspeaking and soon English-speaking students can earn video-game creation credits that can be applied toward a degree. There are also graduate degree programs. Several community colleges in Ontario offer computer-graphics courses with video-gaming components, and courses in video-game design. More are expected to climb on board.

What's propelling the interest is a shortage of Canadian programmers and designers, especially in Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver. Much is being revealed about Mi- games," said The Fanfeatures theme composed Post crosoft's next-generation video-game console code-named Xenon but also rumoured to be called the 360 that points to a late-fall release. The computer giant announced earlier this week that it has joined with MTV to produce two specials on its next console (in effect, the "Xbox scheduled for May 12 and 13, followed a week later by a release of more specific information at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the National Post's senior game writer, Marc Saltzman, has been invited to Microsoft's home in Washington state this weekend to play with an unspecified new product. He knows what it is, but can't write about it until the embargo is lifted in mid-May.

And more than one major game developer has said it is creating new titles for an "Xbox 2" for release in the fall. Microsoft has vowed not to lag behind Sony's PlayStation in the console battle this time around. It well remembers the advantage the PlayStation 2 gained by being first out with the current generation. All of which adds up to this: You will be asking your wife for a Microsoft Xbox this December. Or vice versa.

Both Nintendo and Sony are expected to make announcements about their next generation consoles at E3. seemingly abandoned Russian whaler listing in a heavy sea. Tom is a coastguardsman with a past (naturally) who goes aboard the ship with his team after receiving a distress call. They can't find anyone aboard, but then, of course, team members go to the other side of the ship and (stunner!) are slaughtered by an unknown force. What follows is a fairly linear path toward completing certain goals: You shoot it out with the crewmen who are still alive and mistake you for a mutant; you rescue the daughter of the idiot doctor who created the mutants; you team up with a CIA guy; and on and on.

Along the way, you find useful items, better weapons, solve puzzles and mutter such as, "This door needs a handle, I better find one" and the memorable "What's that sound?" Next you advance to an oil platform, meet ever more gruesome mutants, and finally figure it all out. Cold Fear exploits every survival horror trope around including the notion that you must shoot the mutant in the head so it will explode, lest it survives and comes after you again. The aiming and firing system is similar to that of Resident Evil 4, with the right thumbstick providing aim. A trigger pull takes you from third-person view to aiming mode. That's a feature that helps, given the camera difficulties.

The game has OK graphics, the sound effects are pretty good and the outside scenes (i.e., rain) are nicely done. It's fun as far as it goes, but it doesn't go all that far. (out of four) National Post NEW RELEASES A bit of a quiet week coming up, but Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict is out for Xbox from Midway Games, offering more firstperson shooter action, especially in multi-player mode. It ships Monday. Also out is Stolen, a third-person stealth-action game in which a "sexy, high-tech female thief" named Anya Romanov, and her friend Louis Palmer, get involved in a web of conspiracy in a dark, nasty city.

Shipping Tuesday for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 from HiP Games. And Toronto's DreamCatcher, which continues to be the Little Game Company That Could, offers Dungeon Lords, for PC, a combination 3D fantasy RPG and fighting title. It ships April 20. National Post with files from wire services.