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Games of E3 2004 - Paul's Views Paul's Game of the Show: I'm very fickle when it comes to games, and I'm not the most avid gamer in the world. That would explain why I'm the DVD editor, but I still love games and have my occasional bouts of addiction to certain titles. My list of games that I thought were the best of the show reflects this. This is my personal favorites list, and not anyone else's, so many of the official "Best of" games aren't on this list, because I couldn't give two damns about games like Paper Mario 2. I also left out the obvious choice of Halo 2. Is it just me or should this game even be included? I think there should be a limit on the amount of times a game is shown at E3 before it is released, how about one E3 then come out the next year? The nominees for Paul's Best of Show are:
The Winner is… MechAssault 2 Lone Wolf: As much as I love Star Wars and X-Men, this is the game for me. I loved MechAssault and for a brief time I was even a member of a MechAssault clan, as nerdy or whatever as that may sound. A lot of depth has been added to the game this time around. A larger sense of scale has been added to it by having you start out as a little lowly human. As a human you can jump into a mech, a jet-like vehicle, a small tank, or even battle armor that slightly resembles the Elemental from the first game. Each of the vehicles has its own specialties, and most exciting (yet possibly very aggravating) is the ability to "jack" or hijack other mechs in the game using this new battle armor. I can't wait for this game to come out, and when it does you may not hear from me for quite some time. Other Games of Note:
The very close runner up to Mech Assault 2 is Republic Commando. This game is like eating a bowl of frosted flakes with added sugar. In Republic Commando you take the role of a specialized clone trooper unit responsible for performing highly dangerous infiltrations. It looks, sounds, and plays great. LucasArts is going for a fast paced tactical game and they so far have got things right. If your squad has the option of doing something as breaching a door, a holograph of your men by the door appears. You can have them do the command by pressing a button. So far it seems as if the AI is intelligent to do what they are told, and kill things when they have to. It's due out this fall on X-Box and PC, and I can't wait. There are actually a few Star Wars games coming out that were very noteworthy aside from Republic Commando. Star Wars: Battle Front for PS2, Xbox and PC is an exciting foray into the world of tactical team based combat. The game looks great and is pretty fun to play. It was odd seeing an in-game message that said, "Han Solo killed Vader."
Both Shawn and I were really impressed and excited about the demo of X-Men Legends. You control a team of four mighty mutants as you fight many of the X-Men's worst enemies. It's a real time combat RPG that has you fighting as one of the four members of your team, but you can switch off whenever you feel the need. Like most RPGs, as you kill stuff and get experience, you'll level and as you level you gain better powers and abilities. There are 15 X-Men in all, but we weren't given a full list... let the guessing begin. The cut scenes looked very impressive as well, featuring full CGI. Patrick Stewart will voice Professor X. I think credit should be given where its due for Mr. Stewart, he's not too good to voice any game that features a character he has played... ah hem, most of the Star Wars cast. The release date is quoted as, "before Christmas" so I'll add it to the heap of games I'll have to save up for.
Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed is the first expansion pack for the highly disappointing Star Wars Galaxies. Finally, the component that really helps make the game feel like Star Wars will come out. The graphics look great, and while LucasArts isn't giving out minimum systems specs, they are trying to get everyone that could play Galaxies to be able to play this one. One of the cool features of the game is that if you own a ship like the Millennium Falcon you can have other players roaming around inside doing things like crafting, or even manning your gun turrets in order to fight off enemies. Jump to Lightspeed will add 4 new professions to the game: Empire pilot, Rebel pilot, a mercenary/privateer pilot, and a shipwright. Shipwrights are going to play a vital role in the game, since these ships need to be built before anyone can fly them. The expansion will also add 2 new species, but these have not been named yet, and I was told that they are, "popular choices." We'll have to wait and see how this turns out, since I'm not interested at all in the ground based game. I don't want to have to buy the game and the expansion and then have to spend hours and hours trying to scrape up enough cash to fly a ship. Let's hope there is some sort of military program that gives away fighter craft, perhaps a player group could do this if LucasArts doesn't include such a thing.
Another game that I'm excited about is Tribes: Vengeance. I spent many a happy night playing Tribes 2 and I'm pumped to see this new installment. The graphics have taken quite a leap over the previous game, and the addition of a full single player campaign is a great bonus. I managed to get some hands on experience with the game and I thought it was great. Especially since I got to easily kill a couple of newbs who didn't know the disc gun is best shot from the air down to the ground. The release is scheduled sometime in the 4th Quarter of this year.
Midway had a more than a couple of exciting titles this year. Most exciting for me was the update of the old arcade shooter Area 51. I was a little disappointed that they dropped the light gun action and instead made it into a first person shooter, but after playing it a little, I like the feel of the new game and it captures the look of the original perfectly. Area 51 is headed for the X-Box and PS2 and they both promise some online fighting.
A groovy little title I'm looking forward to is Midway Arcade Treasures 2 coming out on Xbox and PS2. The games that are included are a total blast from the past including several Mortal Kombat classics, Narc, and Total Carnage.
Nintendo had a bunch of cool titles on display, but none of them really got me that excited. For some reason, I feel nostalgic about old games I played like Mario, but I have no need to play the newest & latest version of them. I did like the look of the new Advance War for the GameCube though. Taking a departure from its portable past, the game is a fully 3D real time strategy game. It looks like it would be an awesome title to play online and the developers still don't know if it will have online play, but as we all know Nintendo barely has any online enabled titles so I doubt it.
A game that looks like it could be very bad or be very good is Playboy: The Mansion. You're playing in the slippers of the legendary Hugh Heffner as you create the Playboy empire on the foundation of pictures of lots of naked chicks. The booth was awesome because two bunnies were there surrounded by hundreds of horny fan boys. I think I was the only one who actually asked about the game. Anyway the game was described as, "more about living the lifestyle than going to the bathroom or dying in a horrible kitchen fire.” The game looks like it may be fun simulation, but it could just as easily be a bunch of computer characters getting busy all of the time. Playboy: The Mansion will be for Xbox, PS2, and PC.
One of the biggest and most eagerly anticipated of titles is of course Halo 2, but since everyone knows most everything about it and we weren't able to play a demo of the game (elitist bastards) then I won't really get into it other than the fact it is supposed to be released in November of this year. The other big named game, Fable we got a peak at and some hands on time. Fable follows your character from childhood to old age, and it's supposed to be amazing. Unfortunately, I got to play as the little kid who doesn't do much, but I did figure out how to hit the other kids, so that was pretty cool. The guy next to me got to play as the badass character a lot further along on his career to becoming evil. The game looked a lot more fun at that point, because you can actually fight things. Now read about Shawn's game picks, and if you already did, read them again! |
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