posted
Dog, you appear to be avoiding the question. Are you going to make time on this trip to see your family? Y'know... us?
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:I think it's funny that they originally promised UXO for like February of this year, and they're still not ready to show it And we've still got the same top 3 games from last year — Halo 2, Half-life 2, and Doom 3. Note that none of them made my list. I'm just tired of them.
Yeah, it's kind of frustrating, and really confusing. They had an event in San Francisco late last year where they showed the game, and somehow they aren't ready to show it at E3. I'd say it's probably got something to do with the dissolution of Origin and the fact that the whole team in Redwood Shores is basically new, and probably not quite complete either. If you ask me, not having the game there is a huge mistake for EA to be making right now. But they don't seem to be all that interested in the MMOG market, so who knows, maybe the suits at EA are trying to bury it without actually cancelling the project. That would be sad, considering how good the game is looking to be.
Posts: 609 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Rivka beat you to the punch, Pop Unless we want to make it a joint get-together ...
Camper, as excited as I was about some of UXO's unique features, I'm not going to get choked up if some of these MMORPG hopefuls start self-weeding before the inevitable market glut ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Argh, this is an outrage! Let me talk to the manager! That was the genre's final chance, and they had to screw it over. Now it's just going to come back and spurts like disco and bad eighties hair styles.
posted
Geoff, do you have any idea of the people who made up Smoking Car Productions, the development team that created The Last Express back in about '96 or so, are still involved in the industry?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Noemon, all I know is what a Google search gave me:
quote:Founded by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, Smoking Car Productions developed the highly original but severely undersold The Last Express and seems to have subsequently faded into thin air. (The recent Prince of Persia 3D, designed by Mechner himself, wasn't made under Smoking Car's banner).
posted
What about Halo 2? It comes out this Sept and the guys at our local EB Games says they are expected to sell something riduculous, like 3 million copies in the first run. So I would expect it to have a huge display at e3. Plus it's going to be X-box live compatible which means hours upon hours of online death matches. IMO that would be a great booth to check out.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Note that it seems to depict a whole lot of humans-vs-covenant multiplayer action, and the ghost-hijacking maneuver is in there, too. No idea how that is supposed to work ... but they've got till November 9th to figure it out!
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Damn. E3's not bad at all. A surprising number of hot women there.
Holy crap, there's an X-Men game coming out! It doesn't look as good as some others I saw, but damn, I'm a sucker for all things Marvel.
Speaking of which, I saw in person both Doc Ock's tentacle and the "reactor" which fused the arms to his spine. Otherwise, the entire booth -- I forget the brand name -- was rather a disappointment. The new Spider-Man game has terrible graphics. And heh, the rest was Tony Hawk crap. Oh, excitement.
Geoff was right about Prince of Persia 2. The preview spins the game as what could be a damn pretty movie. I'm not as excited about the game itself, though -- it looks like cheap run-and-jump-and-pull-the-switch button play, though I could be wrong. I distinctly recall being distracted by two women in latex and fishnet stalkings, one bearing a whip.
Some other games look like busts. Tabula Rosa has some nifty features, but the gameplay's awkward as hell. I disliked playing Thief III, but then, I was unused to the controls. It may be worth it.
I am in love with the World of Warcraft game. Holy crap. If only for the preview. Just stunning. I died repeatedly in the opening mission of Starcraft: Ghost, and I blame it on the poor controls, but it may well be my own 2-da-Xtreme l334 gaming skilz.
No Microsoft display that I saw, which was a disappointment. I can't wait to find out the successor in the Age of Empires series. And Halo's the only video game that's kept me enchanted for longer than a few months.
There were a surprising number of remarkably stupid games at the convention. There must be a huge market for suburban white boys who want to be getto thugz or punk skater boiz.
I'm definitely buying Goldeneye: Rogue Agent or however it went. Very pretty, plus, I miss the old N64 game like nobody's business.
The Battle for Middle-Earth game looks pretty, but I didn't get the chance to take a closer look.
The sequel to Kingdom Hearts looks okay, but I've no experience with the original to judge with. All I know is the effect it had on my heterosexual lifemate, Sean: "Whoa, I gotta get outta here. I've seen Donald Duck kill FAR too many people for one day." Belle looks hotter than I remember. Possible reconsideration of my hottest Disney princess list is in order. She still doesn't beat out Ariel or Jasmine, but Quasimodo's chick may well be demoted. Which may do her relationship with Q a hell of a lot of good, anyway -- she needs something to identify with the dude.
Hmm. There were many more, but they're all blurring in my mind. There was a something 2 that looked interesting -- computer-animated anime, but the footage ran as a movie. Something about an eager young blonde boy crossing swords with a pale green goblin-boy over what appeared to be a blindfolded pale green goblin-girl who started bleeding from her eyes when the Moon opened up its red eye.
Don't ask me to explain. Still. Pretty swordplay.
Hmm.
There were some I was passionate about, but damn if I can remember them. I'll definitely plug Warcraft, though. Javie's a beta for the program, and I can't say I've ever envied him more. Except for that whole thang thang with Niki. But still. Does she have a pet bear or a nifty little gun?
There were a lot of hot chicks. Either gaming's a more lucrative opportunity to meet large-breasted blondes than I thought, or they were hired. Which they may well have been. I took a load off in some bizarre lounge area filled with New-Age sofas, and some cute blonde and what appeared to be an employer sat down and started ruffling through forms. I think the blonde was being hired to stand around and hit on geeks.
Gotta tap more of these conventions.
I looked around for my favorite redhead, but no sign of him. Were you only around for the first day, dude?
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Ah, yes, I remember how it felt the first time I snuck into e3 ... [reminisces]
Sorry you didn't see me, Lalo ... The second day, I spent several hours hanging around with Jake Simpson, the lead simulation engineer on The Sims 2. He's been in the industry a long time, and it was actually kind of fun to watch as he greeted every single big-shot we passed as an old friend I got to meet major players at Midway, Paramount, Epic, etc ... and got to feel kind of cool when I already knew and had business to discuss with one of the producers he introduced me to
The third day, I only had a couple of hours before I had to make my flight, and I spent them playing Unreal Championship 2 with Cameron Dayton, one of the designers on Advent Rising. Their game is definitely shaping up, by the way. The controls are pretty original, and can be hard to get used to, but once you catch on, you can do some pretty amazing-looking stuff.
My picks of the show ...
THE SIMS 2. Hands-down the most revolutionary game I saw. They took the gameplay of the original game, which was focused on managing the immediate physical needs of your Sims, and pushed it into the background, making it much easier to handle. Then atop that layer, they added REAL, COMPELLING motivations for the Sims. Hopes, dreams, fears, etc. Basically, at the beginning of a Sim's life, you decide if his ultimate goal in life is Romance, Family, Fame, Fortune, or Knowledge. Then over the course of that life, he naturally develops hopes and fears associated with that goal, and it is your job to help him realize his hopes while avoiding his fears (or, if you're sadistic, vice versa).
This can be rough, though. For instance, in the demo, they showed a man with Romance as his goal, and then married him to a woman who saw Family as her major goal. Her greatest fear was being cheated on. His greatest goal was to sleep with ten different women before he died. You can see where this is going. Someone is about to be disappointed.
They also showed off how aware the Sims now are of their relationships, memories, and experiences. So this Romantic guy sneaks off during a party to make out with an old high school flame. His wife's sister walks in and sees him. She freaks out, and runs to tell his wife. His wife starts crying — her worst fear has been realized. Her husband tries to come out and apologize ... but the old flame follows him out and kisses him again, right in front of the wife. The wife collapses and has a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, the wife's sister starts brawling with the old flame, and the wife's brother starts beating up the husband.
On top of all that, you Sims will unlock new animations based on their personalities and achievements. A shy Sim has completely separate talking animations from an outgoing Sim, for example. An outgoing Sim will wave her hands around exuberantly while speaking, while a shy Sim will hold her elbow and look off to one side, as though trying not to be seen. And that Romantic guy we were talking about ... he had already achieved enough romance in his life that he had earned himself a new walk animation ... a sort of sexy swagger. I can't wait to see the one they give the girls
More reviews to come ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Oh! Yeah, I did. Having not played any of the console Sims games, I really didn't have a foundation to build on. That is, I didn't know what was new and original, and what was just like Bustin' Out. But apparently, you're in the city, where there are a bunch of different social groups (like punks, ravers, etc) and your goal is to define your own style, and then build up your reputation with the different groups. You can also earn special emotes and social skills (like the BLASTI-KISS, which they demonstrated to me with some girl-on-girl action) which let you impress people more efficiently. It seemed pretty cool. It's interesting that the console branch of The Sims has taken such a completely new direction from the PC original ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Here's some stuff I posted at another website:
The Sims 2 — You've already heard me rave about this one, so I don't need to repeat myself. Brilliant choices all round. Can't wait to see how they pan out in gameplay.
Mercenaries — Somehow these developers (a few of whom I met this year — cool guys) have managed to take the freedom and emergence of GTA and blend it with the killer cinematic moments that you usually only see in a more linear game (eg, hijacking a chopper in flight). Some of the stuff you can do on the fly in this game only happens in cinematics everywhere else.
Full Spectrum Warrior — On Friday, I went to the FSW station in Microsoft's pavilion to give myself one last chance to play this game without killing half my squad. I mean, this sucker is UNFORFREAKINGIVING. Which is awesome, in my opinion. Until now, there has never been such a thing as a truly realistic tactical game, and now here it is. I feel like playing this game will make me smarter. And, unlike every other game on the floor, dang it, this one is actually coming out reasonably soon
Fable — They were really smart about their demo. They actually had FIVE different demos showing different aspects of the game at different stations. I was impressed. The combat is fun and intuitive, and the personality of the game is really cool and unique. (Actual authentic English accents? Wow!) I do get nervous about clear, direct good-and-evil dichotomies, but it looks like they're handling it a little better than some other games have. Can't wait to take this one for a spin, so I can actually see the character grow before my eyes.
Vampire: Bloodlines — Great demo. The creepy dudes in the sewer actually scared me when they jumped out the first time. Celerity really works the way it should. The characters and dialogue are awesome. The hacking interface rocks! Whoever had the idea that the whole thing should consist of typing into a DOS-like interface deserves a bonus. The hacking is actually really easy, but you're hitting enough keys that you feel like you're doing something complex Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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