One more E3 under the belt and I don't know what to make of it. E3 is pretty hard to explain when you have never been to one, because it just IS. It's pretty much a maddening throng of game geeks, loud sounds and flashy displays everywhere you look.
One of the hardest things about going to an E3 show is the fact that you just can't see everything in one day. I could have probably gone all three days, but the fans of EverQuest II would probably think my time could be better spent getting some new fun stuff into the game, so alas one day it is.
I'll just cut right to the games I liked, and then my thoughts on the showing from the 3 major hardware guys.
Games of Note:
EverQuest II: Echos of Faydwer - Of course, I'm going to mention how great our newest expansion looked on those big LCD screens. I can't give out any real details about the expansion, but being an EverQuest fanboi, I geek out pretty bad to some of the old school zones.
Tabula Rasa - I got a chance to sit down and play this for a while, which is a rare treat at the E3 show with so many people around. I really dug the PVE elements that they have added to what is basically an MMOFPS/RPG hybrid. The environment art was very nice, and the feeling of epic battles really pulled me in with this one. The AI was a bit early at this stage, so I can't really comment on that, but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to this game.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - I admit, I didn't take that close of a look to the new WoW expansion. Maybe it was the fact that I had an EQ2 Desert of Flames t-shirt on, but I just wasn't feeling it. For those of you who don't know, I have a level 60 on one of their servers, and I enjoyed the game as I went through it, but based on what I got to see yesterday, I just didn't see anything that got me excited. Perhaps if they showed the flying mounts I would have probably been a little more into it.
Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins - This PSP game looks amazing! A 3d treatment to the traditional sidescroller really did the game justice. I am going to be picking this one up without a doubt. Please note! This plays as a sidescroller, the way it was meant to be! Woot!
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - OMG. Best game I saw at the show hands down. Must have purchase.
Crysis - This game looked pretty hot, but hard on the computer. The scenes I saw for this FPS were all in the jungle, but they had some neat hit detection on some of the flora so you could cut down trees with your machine gun. The foliage was alpha'd out like crazy, so I'm imagining this game will be a monster to try and run on most people's computers.
Gran Turismo HD - I know that this was pretty much a tech demo, but it looked drop dead gorgeous on the PS3. I can't get over how clean it looked.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - I don't think much needs to be said about this title. It's a hit waiting to hit the shelves.
Warhawk PS3 - Looked gorgeous at this point but little else. I recall the original PSone version being super fun in it's day, so I have high hopes for this one based on it's visuals.
Consoles:
I won't get into specifics, because this isn't a review site. I have to admit that all of the game consoles were very impressive. I was surprised that the Wii controls were as intuitive as they were, but I don't think they would take that kind of risk without being sure about where they were hedging all their bets. I was a little surprised at the look they went for in some of their games, because the old school super poly'd game look is a bit tired imho. It comes off stylized and quaint in a way, but then again, you would think they would showcase their visuals as best they can at this stage in the game.
The PS3 had an amazing response in my opinion and the games looked stellar. The clarity and speed in which that system can display things are phenomenal, and I'm sure it will be a hit.
The 360 had a very strong showing in terms of software, and it will be interesting to see their 2nd gen games start hitting the market.
Right now is a great time to be a gamer, just save those pennies and be ready.
4 comments:
Did you get a chance to see the Shadowrun FPS? I'm not terribly happy with the direction they've taken the IP on that one, but was curious to know your personal take.
I did get a peek at the game, and I definitely didn't gleen the feeling of "Shadowrun" when I saw it. It just looked like another action game to me.
Trying to take Shadowrun to the modern pc market as a straight up action game just doesn't sit right with me. A Bioware style overhead RPG would have been great.
I was very surpised by how cool Tabula Rasa was. It was so cool, I forgive them for their demo crashing. If they can agree on a general direction of the game in NCSoft (see Computer Gaming Magazines article for June on Tabula Rasa) I think this could be a great game.
I didn't really have time to get over and see much of the console stuff. Too many assignments. The EQ2 stuff looked really really impressive though
hello,
i love eq2 much and would thank you for all your work. sometimes i think it would be better play on a us server because on our german server valor are a view ppl on who rule the game on a kind which isnt good for soe.
well thats all no ground eq2 is the best game i played ever and i wish to stay many days and weeks and that you guys will hold your hands about us customers.
thank you for all!!!
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