The Strange Case of World War Zero... or Iron Storm

What if the Great War never ended? What if it continued into the 1960s? How would the world's history unfold? Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and today I'm going to be talking about a PC First Person Shooter entitled Iron Storm. Or is it World War Zero? Or is it World War Zero: Iron Storm? This game has quite a strange history, involving closed down internet service providers, movie compression tolls, and, theoretically, FlatOut as well. But not FlatOut 3. We're not talking about FlatOut 3. So, let's start off at the beginning. What is Iron Storm?

Iron Storm is a First Person Shooter released exclusively for the PC, developed by 4X Studio and published by WanaDoo Edition. Both of those names will probably sound quite unfamiliar, so I'll explain. 4X Studio was a games development subsidiary of 4X Technologies, mostly known for middleware software (video compression, game engines, etc.), formed in 2002 and shut down only months after. Iron Storm was their first game, and two other games were also in development, Stalingrad and Times of Trouble. These games, however, were never released, as 4X Studio shut down soon after the release of Iron Storm. WanaDoo Edition was a subsidiary of French internet service provider WanaDoo (now part of Orange), who began publishing games in 2000 until being bought up by Microids in 2003 and eventually stopping publication of games in 2005. What happened next?

Lovely game.
Image credit: Z Mighty 1 / Fandom

Coinciding with the release of Iron Storm was a browser Flash game, tentatively titled, well, Iron Storm, but it's not really great. Just a typical Flash shooter. What is interesting though is that Iron Storm was meant to receive a sequel, most likely titled Iron Storm 2, that was in development in 2003. Due to 4X Studio being shut down, this game was never released, but many of its assets were used to create a spiritual successor under a new name. After the closure of 4X Studio, its employees moved on to create a new company, Kylotonn, who are well known for their various racing games, including their upcoming Test Drive Unlimited Solar Drive game. However, in 2005, when they were but a new, unknown company, Kylotonn released their first game, an alternate history FPS by the name of "Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport".

Just another Flash shooter game.
Image credit: ironstormpc / ModDB

While Iron Storm focused on a "What if World War One never ended?" scenario, Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport puts the spotlight on a World War set during the 1990s, where soldiers fight in 1v1 deathmatches that are televised worldwide as "Bet on Soldier", a popular show that money people gamble on. What is interesting is that the game makes many references, both verbally and visually, to Iron Storm, even saying that this world has been in a war for 80 years. Ironically, that's around the time of World War One. BoS then received two expansion packs which act as prequels to the main game, centering on the stories of two characters from the game. This was the end of 4X Studio/Kylotonn's war story, but that's not the last of Iron Storm.

Gambling for survival? You tend to shoot more than gamble in this game.
Image Credit: GameFaqs / GameSpot

A year before the release of Bet on Soldier, in 2004, Rebellion Developments, the people behind the AvP First Person Shooters, the Sniper Elite series and its spin-off series, Zombie Army, developed World War Zero: Iron Storm for the PS2. World War Zero is a remake of Iron Storm, featuring two new things: enhanced graphics and a couple of new weapons. Is that it? No, the remake removed quick saving, it removed third person mode, it removed most of the cutscenes, and IT REMOVED THE MULTIPLAYER. Now I will tell you that World War Zero received a PC port the next year, but you know what? It is still missing quick saving, still missing third person mode, still missing most of the cutscenes, and still missing the multiplayer. 2004 had Half-Life 2, it had Far Cry, it had Halo 2, it had Doom 3, it had CS:S, it had UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004. Do you think PC shooters should have omitted multiplayer at the time? Of course not. That's enough of my ranting.

I thought it was just called AvP.
Image Credit: Rebellion / Valve

Well, that's the story of Iron Storm. Or World War Zero. Or both. In case you're interested in actually knowing what the game is like, rather than the stories surrounding it, I would recommend watching Jarek4's video here. I think that's enough for today. But just as a head's up, next time I have something EDF-related planned that may make some people happy... Well, that's a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

**Iron Storm is available on ZOOM Platform, GOG and Steam**

**World War Zero is available on Steam**

**Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport is available on Steam and GamersGate**

Coded Arms: Assault - The Cancelled Sequel to My Favourite PSP Game

What's this time? Time for me to discuss my favourite PSP game ever made? Half yes, half no. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and, in my ongoing quest to blog about my favourite PSP games, I was planning on making a post on Coded Arms, a First-Person Shooter published by Konami, that happens to be BOTH the first FPS on the PSP AND the first roguelike on the PSP. There are a couple of other interesting things that Coded Arms achieved first, but that's not the subject of today's blog post. Just over two months after the release of Coded Arms on the PSP, Konami released Coded Arms: Contagion, another PSP-exclusive FPS that continued the story of the first game. However, until two days ago, I was yet to learn that Coded Arms had a PS3-exclusive sequel in the works entitled "Coded Arms: Assault".

The original Coded Arms.
Image Credit: LewisLongshanks

Coded Arms: Assault is one of those games that sadly hasn't had a leak yet. As of now, there is no playable demo available online, so all of my info for this post is from roughly 2005-2007. To start off with the basics, Coded Arms: Assault was its own thing. I'm okay posting about the cancelled sequel first because it essentially only shares the name and very rough premise, that premise being that you are a hacker-solider who is hacking into a virtual world for profit. To start things off, I'll be covering the basic plot elements that have been released. These are only confirmed points, as I will be speculating some things:

• The game takes place within Kagura, a virtual version of Tokyo
• You are a skilled hacker who has been hired to steal data from the Ashihara Corporation
• The enemies in the game are essentially the firewall of the Ashihara Corporation
• You will meet other hackers who are trying to steal the same data
• You will meet a professor who helped create the virtual world that the games takes place in
• You will meet a mysterious female hacker whose mission is to eliminate "visitors" into Kagura
• The mysterious female hacker is ambushed by three armed soldiers at one point
• The real world is being affected by what is happening within Kagura
• People are dying in the real world because of the situation in Kagura
• Kagura can be accessed using the TokyoWars_20.07 drug

The mysterious female hacker.
Image Credit: NeoGamer

So, these are some points that I've put together using various articles and clips. I still need to compile sources, but you should be able to find these articles and videos by searching for Coded Arms: Assault. Now that we've got the pure facts over and done with, let's move on to some theories I have about the game's story.

• The female hacker has the number "03" on her armour. Could this mean that she is one of the original hackers in her group?
• The AI of the Kagura system is self-aware but tells the player character that "this is not a virtual game world". Is Kagura another dimension or something more than a virtual reality system entirely?
• The player character is seen fighting a giant, green-eyed creature made of headless naked bodies in one trailer. Could this creature be the manifestation of people who have died in Kagura, or are these soldiers working for the Ashihara Corporation?
• The female hacker states that the player character is "kind of different". Could this be because he has survived the virtual world thus far, unlike other hackers?
• The previous theory is backed up by showing the player character with three other hackers wearing the same armour. Did they not survive the Kagura system?
• The female hacker says that "eliminating visitors is [her] mission", yet she is seen being attacked in the same trailer by people who don't look like the player character. Are these people security guards for the Ashihara Corporation, or are they other hackers trying to get the data like the player character?
• The female hacker says "My warning is for all visitors infiltrating Kagura. This isn't a game. There's real death here". Do people who die in Kagura die in the real world, and is this causing all the strange occurrences in the real world?
• The female hacker has a voice line saying "they're dead. In the real world". Does the player character have a family that has died due to his actions in Kagura, or are these the other hackers seen with the player in the screenshot mentioned earlier, following the previous theory?
  

The mentioned screenshot.
Image Credit: Yota/Unseen64

Well, those are some story theories of mine. In terms of gameplay, the game was being developed on the Unreal Engine 3, and would've been a First-Person Shooter. It most likely was not procedurally-generated, but rather a linear, story-based game. Two trailers were revealed for the game, and two playable demos were available at E3, as far as I remember. Hopefully this game will have at least one playable demo someday. Well, that's a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Initial Ramblings - Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable: A PSP Must Play

Ugly graphics, unstable frame rate, quantity over quality and inconsistent gameplay. These are all characteristics of a bad game. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and today, I'm going to be changing things up a bit. Yes, I know, it's been MONTHS since I last posted, and, yes, I do ALWAYS tend to post an "I'm back" blog whenever I'm, well, back, BUT THIS TIME, I may have found a working routine for my blogging scheme. So, let's jump right into it.

Video gaming is a massive part of our modern culture. You may be obsessed with Call of Duty, adore Pokémon, or just love driving around some famous area in Forza. No matter, most people have played, made or enjoyed games for a very long time, and that isn't going to stop any time soon. You've constantly got new console generations being rolled out one after the other, each with their own exclusives and cross platform games. That's enough of that, though. Handheld gaming has been around for a long time, too, mainly being a Nintendo thing, but eventually expanding into the microtransaction-filled world of mobile gaming. Nintendo had their GameBoys, DS's, Switches, etc., Nokia had the disaster child N-Gage, and Sony had the PlayStation Vita. I mean, there was also the PlayStation Pocket, but whatever. However, my personal favourite of the Sony handhelds is the PlayStation Portable, better known as the PSP, which is home to tons of my favourite games, one of which I shall be talking to you about now.

Yep, that's the one.
Image Credit: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia Commons.

If you're a Japanese gamer from the PlayStation 1 era and you are constantly looking out for bargains, you've probably heard about the Simple Series. For those of you that haven't, the Simple Series was a, well, simple series. Designed solely to be a quantity over quality experience, the Simple Series would provide gamers with a new and simple game every 4 months or so, gradually increasing the price in Yen for each Series. The PlayStation 1 had the Simple 1500 Series (costing 1500 Yen), the PS2 had the Simple 2000 Series (costing 2000 Yen), etc. etc. Originally these games would be, I know, simple, usually a remake of something classic, like a sport or popular card game. Sometimes you would get lucky and find an all-new original title, which is where Monster Attack comes in.

You read that right, this is the 93rd game in the series.
Image Credit: D3 Publisher, Amazon

Monster Attack was game #31 out of #107 (do you see what I mean about quantity over quality?) in the Simple 2000 Series, and offered a strange experience, something in the vein of a B-Movie. You are part of the Earth Defense Force, a group defending the Earth from all sorts of threats, including aliens who ironically look identical to Earth's insects and other little creatures. I won't talk much about Monster Attack, as it's a subject that I may cover in another blog post. Monster Attack did eventually receive a slightly altered version in Europe, and was later remade as Earth Defense Force 2017 (EDF3 in Japan), being the first game in the series to be released outside of Japan or Europe. EDF2017 was later rereleased on the PlayStation Vita, and more recently on the Nintendo Switch, albeit exclusively in Japan. A sequel to Monster Attack was eventually released two years later as Simple 2000 Series Vol. 81, known in Europe as Global Defense Force.

Look no further than the box art to see how strange this game is.
Image Credit: Agetec, Retroplace

Global Defense Force (or "The Chikyū Bōeigun 2" for the extremists) didn't change that much of the basic gameplay from Monster Attack. What it did add was a second playable character, larger maps and more variety in terms of weapons and aliens. Being part of the Simple 2000 Series, GDF was a PlayStation 2 exclusive, later receiving a PAL port for the same console. Unlike Monster Attack, in 2011, GDF received a PSP port titled "Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable", extremely late into the PSP's life span (in fact, it would only be 8 months until the Vita was released in Japan), although it was exclusive to Japan, despite the original PS2 version being available in Europe as well. I recently got my hands on Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable (quite a mouthful, but expected for Japanese games), and that's where today's history lesson ends.

Attack of the Killer... Ants?!
Image Credit: GameSpot

As I said in the beginning of this post, EDF2 should be a bad game. It has the characteristics of one, and I was expecting nothing at all. Well, I was kind of excited, knowing that D3Publisher also published Demolition Girl and Dead Head Fred (the latter of which is an excellent game in my opinion, while the former is, well, strange, and something that I'll hopefully discuss sometime soon). I was pleasantly surprised. I don't own a physical PSP, but rather use the PPSSPP emulator. In fact, I don't own any consoles, I'm really a Windows guy. First off, I'll talk about the story. There is none. Well at least to me, because I don't speak Japanese, and the PS2's English translation was not used for the PSP version. That's where the next interesting thing comes in: What lies inside the game's files?

There will always be a spot in my heart for Demolition Girl.
Image Credit: GameFabrique (please don't use their site, they give you malware)

Here is where I'll recommend you take a read of Zenade's post on EDF2 Portable (just click on the text). Zenade has a HUGE write-up of cheat codes for the game, and managed to find files for the English translation. He even gave a tutorial on how to use it! Sadly, he has only written up on how to use this translation on an actual PSP, but I have reached out to him to see if he knows how to use the translation on the emulator. Please, give Zenade's article a good read, and now, back to the game.

According to Zenade, you can do this.
Image Credit: Zenade

EDF2P (no, not that F2P) is a simple game, so even if you are clueless about Japanese text, you should be able to figure out how to play. The game has something like 80 single player missions, which can be played by two different characters, a male and a female. Both can be used for different strategies, and both can use different weapons. Also available for gaming pleasure is a multiplayer mode, which is incredibly fun and really enhances the gameplay. In terms of enemies, from what I've played so far, I've fought giant ants, giant spiders, giant FLYING ants, UFOs, Quadpods, laser dish thingies and Godzilla. I'm not kidding. The maps are quite large, and vehicles are often present, which are quite fun to use in grassy areas. So far, I have found tanks, a jet ski sort of thing (it looks like it's straight out of Jet Moto, a PS1 favourite of mine) and a helicopter, which I used to mow down flying saucers. This game truly is awesome. So, is this game good?

This game is lovely.
Image Credit: Spike, CDRomance

Now, I'm not one to usually use ratings out of 5 or 10. I prefer to just say whether something's amazing, great, good, bad, awful or horrendous. EDF2P is not the best game, far from it in fact. What it is though is a truly fun game that never fails in making me have fun. I would say that this is a PSP gem, and is definitely something that you should take a look at if you are interested in shooters, PSP or just games in general. I quite enjoyed rambling about EDF, so hopefully I'll be able to do the same in the future, be it Coded Arms (my favourite PSP game), more EDF or something else. Well, that's a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

**EDIT (06/02/2022)** It turns out that Monster Attack was remade (source), and the post has been edited to reflect this. **/EDIT**