Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today several new artists that will be joining the song list in Amplitude -- including P.O.D, blink-182, Freezepop, Dieselboy, and Mekon. P.O.D will contribute its song "Boom" (remixed by The Crystal Method), blink 182 will contribute "The Rock Show", Mekon will provide "What's Going on?", Dieselboy with a remix of Styles Of Beyond's "Subculture, and Freezepop with "Supersprode".

Amplitude is still due out in late March.

With the recent success of Frequency earlier this year, SCEA has given the green light for Harmonix to start work on the sequel. Amplitude isn't due out until about Spring 2003, but it is all ready looking just as additive as its predecessor.

Amplitude will still feature licensed songs, but this time around Harmonix is trying to include a greater variety of music genres. The songs that are confirmed to be in the game are Cherry Lips by Garbage, Drop Nose by Weezer, Baseline by Quarashi, Shades of Blue by Chris Child, and Cool Baby by Naoko Takamoto. By the time the game goes gold, there will be more than 20 songs.

As for the gameplay, Amplitude remains faithful to the original. However, the overall look has been given a major overhaul. Instead of traveling down a claustrophobic tunnel, players are placed on an open track as it moves through futuristic looking cities and backgrounds. The tracks themselves will have branching paths to help keep the game interesting.

The online mode, which is arguably the best feature in the previous game (assuming you purchased a Network Adaptor), will make a return in the sequel. Just like before, there can be up to 4 people in each game and both dial-up and broadband users will be supported. And yes, you can still share custom made songs with other Amplitude players. One new feature that Sony is implementing is tournament play and a ladder ranking system.

We'll have more information on Amplitude at a later date.

---

© Copyright 2003 PlayStation Pro 2