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Gaming Sites Sum Up E3
Now that E3 is done and the press have gone home, they're consolidating all their E3 reports into handy indexes. Here's the massive Gamespot index listing all the titles they covered, here's the IGN index for E3, and you can also try the Gamespy E3 index or a multitude of others via Gametab News. Do you have a 'best in show' for E3, or at least a roundly ignored game that people may have missed amidst the hype?
I thought Duke Nukem Forever was even better than Doom III when I saw the screen shots.
Then going through the playable demo, it just blew my mind away. Everything they had going through, the graphics, the sound, I could just go on forever. about that game.
Needs some work... but definitely shaping up to be a great game. I'll be interested to see a playable demo.
Waht surprised and impressed me most was the Half-Life 2 Tech Demo, I had a URL to an 200 mb rar file with a high res version of that movie, but I accedentily erased it. but I was able to watch the first part, it was so cool. It seems that the V-Source engine created for Half-Life 2 will bring in some big bucks and make the modding community drool. Especially the physics and the use of materials (so that wood behaves like wood) are going to make this engine something special.
As a Metal Gear Solid fan (i don't mind cinematics) i'm afraid that part 3 will move too far away from the already established storyline and will have just more of the same gameplay in a diffirent enviroment. I suppose woodlands would create some options instead of straight rectangular hallways.
Doom III looked very nice too but the gameplay it self looked rather dull, just have to wait until it's out.
This was my 7th E3. That being said, I'm pretty much immune to the hype and lights, the smoke and mirrors. And I guess this is why each E3 seems to get a little bit less impressive each year.
I'm not a big FPS gamer. I could care less about the Big Three (Doom 3, Halo 2, Half-Life 2) so those are automatically out of my Favorite Thing at E3 list.
But I will say what I WAS impressed with - the GBA->GCN Connectivity games.
Yeah, you heard me.
This was something new that nobody had seen before, and that nobody expected. The Pac-Man game was great, great fun. It was a game of tag - three people used the Gamecube controllers and played as ghosts on the screen, while one person used the GBA and played the arcade version of Pac-Man. If a ghost caught Pac-Man, the two switched controllers - that ghost became "It" with Pac-Man and the old Pac-Man became a ghost. It ran on a timer and then at the end, the scores were tallied up.
Tetra's Trackers and Four Swords (both Zelda titles) were fun too, but required a GBA for each person. I'm not sure how many times you'll find people with 4 GBA's with the Link Cables, but if you can find them these are really great party games. In Tetra's Trackers (at least in the demo we played - the training level) you raced the other three people to collect stamps from pirates in numerical order. On the Gamecube would have an overhead map showing the location of the other players and circles representing the pirates. At times, they would how the number of the pirates (so if you needed Pirate #3, you could see which one he was on the map.)
Four Swords plays the same as the GBA version, except the main board is on the Gamecube - you use the GBA as your controller, unless you fall into a pit. If you fall into a pit, you fall into your Gameboy, where you have to climb back up into the Gamecube.
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles used the connectivity, but it wasn't required. If you used a GBA as your controller, you could see a map and your status without flipping to another screen. It was a real-time 4-player battle game, much like a Gauntlet Legends type of thing.
And Splinter Cell used it for a map of some kind - I never really looked at it closely, but it was a cool feature. You basically kept the GBA next to you and looked at it when you needed it (such as in Wind Waker with Tingle.)
I was also impressed with the GBA Camera Tech Demo they were showing. They took a picture of your face, uploaded it to the Gamecube, and it mapped your face onto a polyginal naked person. Then, it asked you a series of questions, and determined who you were by your answers. (It actually pegged me correctly - said I was a programmer) So, it had my face, with long hair, glasses, and tshirt and shorts dancing around with other Mario characters. It even blinked the eyes and changed the expression of the face, too. Very, very cool technology that was in it's early stages.
Everyone else pretty much seemed like...eh...But Nintendo blew me away this year. Let's hope they actually do this stuff right - because I was impressed with the E-Reader last year, and the lack of software for it made it stumble in my eyes.
Although there was a gigantor amount of games shown at E3 this year, it didn't seem like there were any huge groundbreaking games shown, at least nothing that got websites' panties in a bunch. Lots of part 2's and 3's... Overall, though, lots of good showings. Here are some of the games I thought stood out: (Besides the obvious HL2, Doom3, etc..)
:)
Evil Genious: Sounds really good. I have this wanna-be-evil bug in me since Dungeon Keeper, and this looks to fill it. Although it would be nice to see a villian game minus the humor. I wanna be a serious evil genious!
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time: Big fan of the original, so I hope the new one does it justice. Although the remaking old games trend is wearing a bit thin, this one seems rather exceptional.
Sam & Max: Freelance Police: OMG! A new Sam and Max!!! This was one of my all time favorite PC Games back in the day, and the trailer for the new one seems to keep the same themes and witty banter that i've come to know and love (and randomly quote on a regular basis)(side note: new Full Throtle looks good too
Star Ocean:Till the End of Time: Gotta give respect to the non-SquareNix RPG's showing. This game looks especailly promissing. I played the previous Star Ocean, and liked it, but this game seems to be bringing the series a bit more up to date. The real-time battle system sounds pretty good, and graphics are great! Definatly one to watch for RPGamers.
CUSTOM ROBO!!!: Big Robots. You build em. Fighting! *drooool*
Tony Hawk Underground: Hrm... could be really cool, or could be GTA with skateboards... Although I was really curious when I read 'create-a-trick' mode! WTF! Could be really cool. Must have Online mode though!!! Plus it's acronym is THUG... sweet...
River City Ransom EX: YESYESYES!!! River City Ransom was THE BEST Nes game! Hands down! Nothing equates to the sheer pleasure derived from beating enemies sensless with a body at like 30 times a second! FWAPFWAPFWAP!
Well those are some titles I thought deserved some more attention. I left out some obvious choices (FF Tactics Adv, MGS3 + TS, etc...) but those games will rule as well.
Polaroid. See what develops!!
So when will the new Counter Strike mod be out for HL2.... Do you think that the gameplay will be significantly different from the current CS..? I think that a new CS would be awesome...better graphics better physics...what more could you ask for..?
jC - sweet sweet squirrel on sheet metal
Sony's new handheld doesn't really excite me as there is no price tag and little about launch titles, though many would probably still buy it
The N Gage doesn't look good at all to me. It has blue tooth which is cool, but it looks like too many buttons and a bad way to put in game cards.
Half Life 2 looks good, Halo 2 looks alright even though I'm not a fan of the original, and Doom3 doesn't affect me. It will have nice graphics I'm sure, but I probably will stick with Half Life 2 instead.
X Box Live updates seem cool, but not enough for me to buy the system as it seems to be a selling factor for some. Conker does look good though.
Gamecube seems to have some impressive new titles, just I'm not crazy about getting an GBA to use all the new functions.
The big three shooters were getting a lot of attention, but one PC FPS game (and engine) that seems to have been overlooked (likely because it's no-name title right now, as opposed to sequel) is Far Cry. Looking at the demos they have on GameSpot, it does look pretty impressive and I'm surprised it's getting little press. Anybody see this in person?
The best stuff I saw was in Kentia Hall, the night market underbelly of the high-profile action upstairs. I wrote about it here, with photos:
E303: Kentia - Where Gamers Fear to Tread
Check out Netjak's coverage here. Never hurts to have more coverage.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga