Slashdot Mirror

While most of the games at the show are coming out this Holiday season, some are tantalizing glimpses of 2008. Two titles that are (most likely) coming out next year also happen to be highly anticipated follow-ups to RPGs. Bethesda's Fallout 3 has been getting the bulk of the press between the two, as the post-apocalyptic title recaptures the interest of veteran gamers looking for some nostalgia. Part Oblivion, part retro, part humor, and all Fallout , expectations still seem to be high despite the lack of hands-on experiences. Fable 2 has been an equally anticipated roleplaying title, as Peter Molyneux's promise to make us love NPCs stands as a challenge to the Lionhead team. After much discussion of other gameplay elements, the focus of presentations at this year's E3 appears to be on 'one button combat': "Imagine satisfying combat with just one button. Every movement of your weapon, every parry, thrust, and counter is controlled with a single button ... Swiping away at enemies was simple enough by just mashing away at the button, hearkening back to the simple sword combat of a game like Prince of Persia. There was far more depth to take advantage of, however. Holding down the button took a defensive stance, and parried incoming blows from all directions. That classic Hollywood swordfighting move, the behind the back parry was a piece of cake to pull off. More complex counter moves, ripostes and finishers are more difficult to pull off, requiring specific timing, but once again, it's all accomplished with a single button."

There's been some good previews of Pox Nora, as well as an interview with the development team. I've been playing PoxNora a bit recently, and have greatly enjoyed. The description most people have given is part collectable card game, part RPG, and part strategy game -- and roll them all together. The game itself is available for both PC and Mac with the main focus being the collection of runes to summon your champions on the battlefield. I also like that the entry level is free, whereas adding more runes in, trading with others and such is basically a la carte service. At launch, the online store will have nearly 200 Runes. Starter packs ($8.49) include 30 random Runes and boosters ($2.99) contain 10 random Runes. Players can play PoxNora with pre-constructed starter decks for free. There some more information that I've pasted below, but I'd be interested to hear about other folks playing -- or you haven't, try out and lemme know what you think. Plus, the notion of crushing my friends via online cards a la MTG is one that brings a smile to my face.

A better break down of the basic information:

In PoxNora, players collect Runes that allow them to summon champions, equipment, relics and spells to the battlefield. The game is played out across a variety of maps where champions do battle to collect Nora, a vital resource used to summon additional Runes into play. The construction of your battlegroup and careful use of powers and attacks are vital to success. Runes also gain experience during play that can be used to upgrade or learn new attributes and abilities, meaning that as your play style evolves, so do your Runes.

Runes gain experience during play that can be used to upgrade or learn new attributes and abilities, meaning that as your play style evolves, so do your Runes. PoxNora also allows players to compete against bots if they want to play alone so they can experiment tactically in a more controlled environment.

At launch, the online store will have nearly 200 Runes. Starter packs ($8.49) include 30 random Runes and boosters ($2.99) contain 10 random Runes. Players can play PoxNora with pre-constructed starter decks for free.

An expansion will be released in late October with an additional 70 Runes and many other abilities.

There's been some good previews of Pox Nora, as well as an interview with the development team. I've been playing PoxNora a bit recently, and have greatly enjoyed. The description most people have given is part collectable card game, part RPG, and part strategy game -- and roll them all together. The game itself is available for both PC and Mac with the main focus being the collection of runes to summon your champions on the battlefield. I also like that the entry level is free, whereas adding more runes in, trading with others and such is basically a la carte service. At launch, the online store will have nearly 200 Runes. Starter packs ($8.49) include 30 random Runes and boosters ($2.99) contain 10 random Runes. Players can play PoxNora with pre-constructed starter decks for free. There some more information that I've pasted below, but I'd be interested to hear about other folks playing -- or you haven't, try out and lemme know what you think. Plus, the notion of crushing my friends via online cards a la MTG is one that brings a smile to my face.

A better break down of the basic information:

In PoxNora, players collect Runes that allow them to summon champions, equipment, relics and spells to the battlefield. The game is played out across a variety of maps where champions do battle to collect Nora, a vital resource used to summon additional Runes into play. The construction of your battlegroup and careful use of powers and attacks are vital to success. Runes also gain experience during play that can be used to upgrade or learn new attributes and abilities, meaning that as your play style evolves, so do your Runes.

Runes gain experience during play that can be used to upgrade or learn new attributes and abilities, meaning that as your play style evolves, so do your Runes. PoxNora also allows players to compete against bots if they want to play alone so they can experiment tactically in a more controlled environment.

At launch, the online store will have nearly 200 Runes. Starter packs ($8.49) include 30 random Runes and boosters ($2.99) contain 10 random Runes. Players can play PoxNora with pre-constructed starter decks for free.

An expansion will be released in late October with an additional 70 Runes and many other abilities.

Some more great writeups of GDC events are now available. Gamasutra's coverage continues to be comprehensive, with articles on the localization of Counter-Strike, the development of God of War, and the a design postmortem on the Xbox 360. God of War: How the Left and Right Brain Learned to Love One Another discusses the ways the dev team balanced the needs of the artists, designers, and programmers to create a cohesive title. The Localization of Counter-Strike in Japan gives the reader some object lessons in what it's like to take western ideas and translate them to an eastern culture. Finally, Ophelea wrote to mention a GamersInfo.net story on the design of the Xbox 360. From this last article: "The user interface was one of the more difficult designs to accomplish. While the original Xbox had 250MB of space to utilize, the Xbox360 had only 4.5MB uncompressed or 1.5MB in total! Not only this, they expanded on the original Xbox's 45 screens and grew it ten fold to 450 screens! Several iterations were gone through with the end result being a combination of several of these schemes."

Last week was so interesting I caught the plague and died for two days. Now that I've gotten a rez and E3 has wrapped up, a look back is in order. Ferrago takes a look at E3 no-shows, like STALKER, while GamesIndustry.biz has a look at statistics. The big three PR conferences were some of the highlights of the Expo, and Gamespot tells us who 'won'. The best way to get a feel for what happened last week, though, is to get it firsthand. The Casual Gamer Experiment is over, with his impressions now available. Personal accounts are available at Press the Buttons, GamersInfo.net, CliffyB.com, Grimwell.com, John Davison's Blog, and Jeremy Parish's Blog. Was there any firsthand E3 coverage that you particularly liked this year? What did you think of G4's live broadcasting, if you caught it? Update: 05/23 18:56 GMT by Z : Obligitory PA link. From the post: "I don't believe there is any such thing as a 'Playstation 3' yet, and I don't believe in the Killzone video. What I do believe is that Sony harnessed the media and then rode it from place to place, one hand on the bridle while the other waved madly in the air."

Ophelea writes "Anyone who knows Jay Moore of Tribes fame may know about his great company Garage Games. Today it was announced that Marble Blaster Gold, one of their best games was bundled on the iMac G5. Woot! Go Go Garage Games!"