Mass Effect

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Bioware
Review Type: Looky
Version: E3 Preview


In the same closed off meeting room that I saw Mercenaries 2, I was given a look at Bioware's Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect. Unlike Pandemic's game, this RPG looked close to finished. But then, this game is due in the winter not "sometime in2007."

The look is not far off from Knights of the Old Republic. Only where the previous game tapped into McQuarrie's signature look, Mass Effect seems to be paying huge homage to Syd Mead. Look out a window in an alien metropolis and the city lights look painted on the sky in impressionsitic blots, like concept art from Blade Runner. The music playing in the background looked to be hitting similar notes. I'm thinking Giorgio Moroder and Vangelis were high on the lists of influences.

We were specifically told that the game is "not a shooter" despite the fact that many characters are armed with blasters. Combat seemed to play out in real-time much the way it did in Knights of the Old Republic.

The designers seemed particulary proud of the game's conversation mechanic. They've streamlined player response, making it quite easy to create diverse and believalbe sounding discussions between your character and the NPCs. If Bioware really can eliminate the huge pauses that now gap our in-game communications, they'll effectively unlock a huge new world for game writers to explore.

My biggest fear for Mass Effect is that it will be as joyless an experience as Jade Empire. Lighten it up a little, guys. Okay?

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Platform: PlayStation 3
Publisher: Pandemic
Review Type: Looky
Version: E3 Preview


There was quite a bit seen "behind closed doors" this year at E3. I'm going to try to burn through all of these previews before talking about more accessable games.

If there's anything I took away from seeing this year's PS3 offerings it's that many of the games have a long way to go. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames impressed when it came to computational muscle. The game could render tons of objects in motion and depict the destruction of a oil-rig in real time, but just didn't look all that pretty.

The impression I got from PS3 developers across the board is that they're still getting used to the challenges of the hardware. The guy from Pandemic intimated that they'd not yet wrapped their heads around the part of the Cell architecture was going to be dedicated to effects such as explosions, particles, etc. So I'm taking the fact that vehicles didn't kick up any dust as as a product of the early state of the game.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature shown was the ability for a second player to jump into the game at any time during a single player campaign. In the demo player two cruised in on chopper, lower the merc onto a target, then airlifted him out before the whole thing went up in flames. Apparently, you can also jump in and fuck with your friend or just cut out and work on a completely different mission.

And the game's got Peter Stormare. I hope its not too late in the voice over recording process to get him to say, "I need...unguent."

Assassin's Creed

Platform: PlayStation 3
Publisher: Ubisoft
Review Type: Looky
Version: E3 Preview


Assassin's Creed is the kind of game I initially dismiss. It's a game about killing people -- not exactly new ground. But it seems like the creators of this game are trying very hard to come up with new ideas. Firstly, the game is a bit more "realistic" than others. Your assassin doesn't appear to be a superhero. His acrobatics are based of free running, rather than the gravity defying acrobatics of Prince of Persia. Swordfights feel more weighty as well. If you don't block a blade that's swung at you, two blows will probably kill you.

The most interesting aspect of the behind closed doors demo was how NPCs behaved. The ragged villagers wandering around this midevil town pay attention to the protagonist does. Climb a wall and they'll gawk at you. Shove one and he'll shove back. Soon an angry mob forms. To lose the crowds attention the killer stealthily joined a band of monks, pulled his hood down and began to pray. As he turned a corner, he suceeded in blending in with the crowd.

Another interesting twist was that escaping after an assassination seems to be more difficult than the first kill. With a town's worth of guards on his tail, the killer leapt across roofs and made towards a gate, only to have the only exit slammed shut.

And then there's the twist. Upon death, the screen went to static. In first person view we found ourself in modern-day, in some sort of laboratory -- suggesting a contemprory or futuristic framework to this tale of 12th Century assassins.

I could have sworn that they were demoing this game on the Xbox 360, but it's only been announced for the PlayStation 3.

Watch the trailer here.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Platform: Wii
Publisher: Nintendo
Review Type: Looky
Version: E3 Trailer


Nintendo's presser was solid, but not mindblowing. My theory is that they originally intended to debut the trailer for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, an announcement that would have brought the geek press to their feet, inspired tears of joy and a fair share of soiled undies. And I think that's precisely the reason they didn't show it.

Here's the thing. This trailer is absolutely bananas. It introduces new playable characters like Metaknight (Kirby), Pit (Kid Icarus), Wario and Fan Service Samus. And then, just as you think its over it throws Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid into the mix. All awesome, funny stuff for dorks like us but the mainstream press wouldn't have been left in the dark. We'd have been howling in the aisles and they would have been left scratching their heads.

Nintendo's philosophy behind the Wii is one of inclusion. And there's not much room for in jokes and geekery at a party where every one is invited. Sorta sad for us, but that's the price of making video games a true mainstream medium, no?

So that's my theory: Nintendo deliberately risked second place in the press conference battle so that they'd have a better shot at winning the war.

Watch the trailer here.

PlayStation 3

Platform: PlayStation 3
Publisher: Sony
Review Type: Looky
Version: Press Conference

At the tail end of a marathon press conference, Sony announced PlayStation 3 launch date (11/17) and pricing. Like Microsoft, they're offering two flavors of the console -- both with a built-in harddrive. The cheaper option announced today costs $499 with a 20 gigabyte harddrive. The $599 model delivers a larger 60 gigabyte drive. What they didn't mention at the press conference are the other differences between the consoles. The technical specs found in this pdf (thanks, NeoGaf) seem to imply that the cheaper version won't support wifi, HDMI and memory sticks. That's a way bigger difference than the Core and Premium Xbox 360s who's differences were entirely periferal-based.

The other big news is the PlayStation controller undesign. Last year they unveiled a banana shaped controller that didn't win many fans. Today, they presented a controller that is nearly identical to the Dual Shock -- except that it's silver, wireless and has Wii-esque tilt control.

Tons of games were shown most of which, I suspect, were dressed up with aiming reticles and ammo counts to simulate gameplay. I have serious doubts that much of what we saw was genuine gameplay. Still there were some interesting moments to be found in the myriad clips. Here are some quick impressions.

• Grand Turismo HD: They game is a port of GT4 that supports 1080p. It looked nice, but not that much better than Project Gotham Racing 3.
• Lair: A dragon-riding game. Also a dragon killing game.
  
• Getaway: Another British crime game. I'm still not convinced they have crime there.
• Afrika: Easily the most intriguing concept of the night, mostly because the trailer showed only wild animals living on the Savannah. Not a gun in sight.
• Monster Kingdom: A bit of a blur. I remember a cool looking Jabberwocky ghost. I don't think he was royalty.
• Eight Days: Trailer consisted of car crashes, a big gunfight and a guy walking away from an explosion. I'm not convinced this one was gameplay.
• Untitled Naughty Dog Game: Imagine The Rundown starring a fratboy, rather than The Rock. There's something about the game's slightly stylized realistic look that I found appealing.
• Resistance: Fall of Man: Halo + WWII. I was hoping for so much more.
• Assasin's Creed: Midevil violence with a Prince of Persia flavor. I'm reading Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle. My interest is purely theoretical.
  
• Gundam: Big robots. Crappy explosions.
  
• Coded Arms: One of the lines in the trailer was "Commence Hacking" something Sony only encourages in your fantasy life.
• Ridge Racer: More cars.
• Brothers in Arms: More war.
• Tekken 6: More fighting.
• Sonic: More hopes dashed across lovingly detailed rocks.
• Virtua Tennis 3: Ugly faces.
• Stanglehold: A John Woo game. Can't be any worse than his last five movies.
• Fatal Inertia: Launch Game! Wipeout, but not.
• Bladestorm: Launch Game! Dynasty Warriors, but not.
• Armored Core 4: Fighting robots, with impressionistic lighting.
• Army of Two: We saw two seconds of fighting.
• Final Fantasy XIII: Set in a techno-future, similar to FFVII. Female protagonist. Difficult to determine playstyle. I'm listening.
• Metal Gear Solid IV: Dark. The game's politics seem fairly hopeless. Endless war. Shades of insurgency. Snake samples the flavor of a gun barrel and likes what he tastes. Kojima's cry for help finally heard?
  

Reservoir Dogs

Platform: PC, PlayStation 2
Publisher: Eidos
Review Type: Looky
Version: Screenshot


File Reservoir Dogs along with The Godfather and (the now M.I.A.) Taxi Driver as movies that didn't really need to be made into games. I think the mistake with all three of these is the thought that you can (or should) translate any flick with a little gunplay into an action game.

On the big screen Reservoir Dogs saves most of its bullets for the movie's finale. Kinda like how you don't usually see a pop shot at the beginning of a porno. There's a reason why Tarantino left the botched robbery to the imagination. And I mean besides trying to distance himself from City on Fire. No, Quentin was swiping Hitchcockian slight of hand, doing much of his dirty work offscreen. Ask anybody who has seen the movie about the infamous torture scene and they'll probably say how gross it was to see that guy's ear cut off. But they saw no such thing. Tarantino pans away at the last moment. Reservoir Dogs is as much about the threat of violence than the actual act. It's about the predicament Mr. Orange has found himself in and about the inevitabilty of everything going to shit. And it's also got some pretty sharp fucking dialogue.

See this? This is the world's smallest violin playing for the poor schmucks that got coralled into the thankless job of turning Reservoir Dogs into Grand Theft Auto.

Not Games: Bleep Bloop

Perhaps it's a little sleazy to pimp one of my own projects here, but for the sake of business, I don't mind stooping to a little self promotion. Bleep Bloop is a night of game music performed by 11hz Robot, virt, The 6955 and Dolphinforce. Mark of the Party Scammers is organizing a Tengen Tetris tournament called Clash of the Tetris and Jennifer Juniper Stratford (of Dungeon Majesty) is providing game-themed visuals. There will be tons of unbilled DJs (including lots of Dublab talent), costumes and other fun so if you're in the Los Angeles area for E3, try to show up.

I can't afford to buy you a drink, but I'll down one with you.

Here are the details:

Bleep Bloop
Tuesday May 9th

$7 / 21+ / 8pm-2am

the Little Temple
4519 Santa Monica Blvd
Silverlake, 90029
323.660.4540

Tabula Rasa

Platform: PC
Publisher: NC Soft
Review Type: Looky
Version: Trailer


Those who fondly remember Ultima Online will see few similarities between this footage and Richard Garriot's genre-founding MMO. And yet, the fact remains that Tabula Rasa is an action packed-massive game made by Lord British himself. So far, I haven't been very impressed with a NC Soft-published MMO. I found City of Heroes to be an unimaginative grind after the genius of its character creation. And my brief tastes of Guild Wars did littler more than inspire me to view the game as the K-Mart version of Final Fantasy.

It's because of Garriot's involvment alone that I'll be installing this game on day one. I'm sure that's the idea NC Soft had in mind when they hired the man.

Check out the Eurogamer exclusive trailer.

Final Fantasy XI

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Square-Enix
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

It's hard to talk about MMO's without mentioning World of Warcraft, so I won't bother trying. The first thing I noticed on returning to Vana'diel after years in Azeroth is how user-unfriendly Square's online universe is. Firstly, one must survive the installation and registration process. Mine took several hours, requiring me to click through countless agreements, create several logins and passwords and enter four registration codes (one for each expansion). Granted, getting World of Warcraft running isn't a piece of cake, but once you're done you're not saddled with the unwieldy PlayOnline interface -- a vestigal collection of features that add, for me at least, no useful features, only delay between sitting down and gameplay.

Once you've got your boots on Vana'diel soil, there's more punishment to be had. Final Fantasy IX adds to the sting death a loss of experience points. One false move can erase hours of progress, forcing the player to play conservatively, grinding on smaller enemies rather than venturing off into unknown territories. Also, quests and missions are hidden, discovered only by talking to every NPC you encounter. I see what Square is going for. They're shooting for immersion over ease of use, forcing players to engage their characters and each other to experience the story. Thing is, I don't feel any less immersed in World of Warcraft with its huge yellow exclamation points and question marks. I'm merely grateful.

Final Fantasy XI isn't all bad. While I enjoy the stylized look of World of Warcraft, I have to cede that Square's game wins points in the style deparment. Characters and monsters have been crafted with the utmost care. There's less variety in their models, but they're downright gorgeous. And the world too, while more sparse, is a thing of beauty. Environments are more reality based. Gargantuan trees are few and far between. Instead, they've created believable, but alien environments. Each zone is slightly different rather than the jarring transformations that occur when travelling from on World of Warcraft area to another.

On the Xbox 360 the game looks better than it did on my PC. This build of the game has a very long "draw distance" meaning you can see enemies from farther away. Topographical features don't "pop up" as you approach. There's no mist on the horizon that trees and hills eventually emerge from. You can look far in a direction, pick out almost any landmark and walk to it. And I'm impressed at how playable the game feels with a controller. I'm doubtful that World of Warcraft could ever be managed without a mouse and keyboard. This game's sometimes confusing controls are managable on both PC and consoles -- a feat that I imagine cripples both control schemes in one way or another. But impressive nonetheless.

A particular painful missed opportunity is fact that Final Fantasy IX is one of the few Xbox 360 games without Achievments or Gamer Points. Would it have killed them to hand out a couple points per rank?

The surprising thing is that I'm considering keeping my subscription beyond my trial period. Despite (or perhaps because of) the massochistic game rules, I've grown attached to Mudhoney, my Tarutaru warrior. I played a Mithra before, but I'm finding that exploring from the perspective of a tiny character makes every fight seem much more momentous -- there's not a crab or caterpillar out there that doesn't outsize me.

I'm also looking forward to socializing with other players. My Final Fantasy-obsessed friend, Jeremy, has been playing again. If we're able to pull off regular meet-ups I'd gladly pay to play with him. Some people you just can't convince to play World of Warcraft.