'AceGamez at E3' Update - 11:18AM PST
Good morning! Your E3 rat has returned for another day of sniffing out news and bring you all the impressions and hands-on reports he can. I need to catch myself up from yesterday, as I was rushed out of the media room before I could finish my thoughts, but at that same time, I have a meeting with SOE real soon and need lunch, so here's a small catch up bit to last you until I return!
Condemned 2 - simply amazing. Easily the most impressive game I have seen in playable form here so far. We were shown around about 25% of the first level, steered by one of the developers. The game opens after the main character (the same one from the first game) and his homeless friend being kicked out of a bar and are now off to find more booze. New to the series are context sensitive moments where if you hit the A button quick enough, you'll interact with the cut scenes. These are generally very simple gestures, such as shaking hands, flipping someone off, etc. I didn't get to see what happens if you don't press the button, though it doesn't seem to be wholly detrimental to your experience.
While the graphics, even in its unfinished state, were very slick. Textures were varied and detailed, frame rate was silky smooth and the physics were accurate and impressive. But what really impressed was how enemies took damage. Depending on where you hit them and with what, enemies would bruise, cut and bleed. You can also break arms and disable your enemies, the key, I was told, to taking on multiple enemies at once. Environmental kills are also making a return, but are far easier to pull off now.
After seeing more of the first level, we were shown the improved forensics parts. You will be called upon, at more random times this time around, to discover why and how someone died, much like in CSI. You will be given essentially a form to fill out, answering questions such as 'who is the person dead?' and 'where is the murder scene?' Your cursor will highlight certain objects, wounds and other items around and you must select from a menu what the answer is to your questions. For example, when answering who the dead person was, we looked at the face and determined it was a male, looked at the uniform to determine he was a police officer, then looked at this badge to figure out who he was. I felt like I was playing Phoenix Wright - a grand compliment!
Finally, we were shown a survival mode dubbed 'bum fight.' This is exactly what it sounds like - you against waves after waves of enemies until you die. I was told this mode actually came from developers playing around, testing A.I. and after a few hours, they decided it was so fun to make it an accessible mode. It is basically a way to 'crack skulls for 15 minutes' I was told - nothing wrong with that! You can set the parameters of the fight, since as how many enemies at a time, what weapons are available and what enemies you want to fight (all of which are unlocked as you complete levels in single player).
A few more notes to wrap Condemned 2 up. Multiplayer is going to play a big part, with a promise given to us that the same stale multiplayer will not be simply rehashed in Condemned 2 - they plan on exploring the possibilities the game world they have created allows. What that means I wasn't able to find out, but it is nice to at least hear a developer willing to branch out and take a risk or two.
All in all, this game is nothing short of amazing in its demoed form and as long as the development team keeps pushing forward and pushing the envelope of game play as they showed yesterday, Condemned 2 will easily be a huge hit when it drops.
Before I go, I want to make a few comments regarding Ubisoft, once press conference I am watching right now. Much like everyone else, Ubisoft is jumping on the casual bandwagon hard, with more than a dozen new DS titles coming out soon. Lots of new animal with a 'Z' at the end games coming, including Dolphinz and Tigerz. A line of games to cater to preteen/teen girls is on its way as are the My Coach series of self-help titles. Jam Sessions was shown off and looks just as interesting and creative as it did a few months ago. One Wii game was show, Nitro Bikes, which looks to take the Excitetruck experience back to the bikes, with fast, arcade action and much welcomed online play.
Then the big guns came out. The new Brothers in Arms next-gen title, Hell's Highway, was shown in playable form and looked quite good. Graphics were crisp and gameplay was tight, varied and extremely realistic. Also shown in playable form was Assassin's Creed, which simply stole the show. Breathtaking visuals, superb sound effects (voice, effects and music) and the gameplay looked to take the Prince of Persia formula to new highs with more interactive environments and a greater sense of improvision in how you accomplish a task as well as get to where you are going.
Well, Ubisoft is over and lunch is waiting. Expect more updates as the day continues!
Condemned 2 - simply amazing. Easily the most impressive game I have seen in playable form here so far. We were shown around about 25% of the first level, steered by one of the developers. The game opens after the main character (the same one from the first game) and his homeless friend being kicked out of a bar and are now off to find more booze. New to the series are context sensitive moments where if you hit the A button quick enough, you'll interact with the cut scenes. These are generally very simple gestures, such as shaking hands, flipping someone off, etc. I didn't get to see what happens if you don't press the button, though it doesn't seem to be wholly detrimental to your experience.
While the graphics, even in its unfinished state, were very slick. Textures were varied and detailed, frame rate was silky smooth and the physics were accurate and impressive. But what really impressed was how enemies took damage. Depending on where you hit them and with what, enemies would bruise, cut and bleed. You can also break arms and disable your enemies, the key, I was told, to taking on multiple enemies at once. Environmental kills are also making a return, but are far easier to pull off now.
After seeing more of the first level, we were shown the improved forensics parts. You will be called upon, at more random times this time around, to discover why and how someone died, much like in CSI. You will be given essentially a form to fill out, answering questions such as 'who is the person dead?' and 'where is the murder scene?' Your cursor will highlight certain objects, wounds and other items around and you must select from a menu what the answer is to your questions. For example, when answering who the dead person was, we looked at the face and determined it was a male, looked at the uniform to determine he was a police officer, then looked at this badge to figure out who he was. I felt like I was playing Phoenix Wright - a grand compliment!
Finally, we were shown a survival mode dubbed 'bum fight.' This is exactly what it sounds like - you against waves after waves of enemies until you die. I was told this mode actually came from developers playing around, testing A.I. and after a few hours, they decided it was so fun to make it an accessible mode. It is basically a way to 'crack skulls for 15 minutes' I was told - nothing wrong with that! You can set the parameters of the fight, since as how many enemies at a time, what weapons are available and what enemies you want to fight (all of which are unlocked as you complete levels in single player).
A few more notes to wrap Condemned 2 up. Multiplayer is going to play a big part, with a promise given to us that the same stale multiplayer will not be simply rehashed in Condemned 2 - they plan on exploring the possibilities the game world they have created allows. What that means I wasn't able to find out, but it is nice to at least hear a developer willing to branch out and take a risk or two.
All in all, this game is nothing short of amazing in its demoed form and as long as the development team keeps pushing forward and pushing the envelope of game play as they showed yesterday, Condemned 2 will easily be a huge hit when it drops.
Before I go, I want to make a few comments regarding Ubisoft, once press conference I am watching right now. Much like everyone else, Ubisoft is jumping on the casual bandwagon hard, with more than a dozen new DS titles coming out soon. Lots of new animal with a 'Z' at the end games coming, including Dolphinz and Tigerz. A line of games to cater to preteen/teen girls is on its way as are the My Coach series of self-help titles. Jam Sessions was shown off and looks just as interesting and creative as it did a few months ago. One Wii game was show, Nitro Bikes, which looks to take the Excitetruck experience back to the bikes, with fast, arcade action and much welcomed online play.
Then the big guns came out. The new Brothers in Arms next-gen title, Hell's Highway, was shown in playable form and looked quite good. Graphics were crisp and gameplay was tight, varied and extremely realistic. Also shown in playable form was Assassin's Creed, which simply stole the show. Breathtaking visuals, superb sound effects (voice, effects and music) and the gameplay looked to take the Prince of Persia formula to new highs with more interactive environments and a greater sense of improvision in how you accomplish a task as well as get to where you are going.
Well, Ubisoft is over and lunch is waiting. Expect more updates as the day continues!
posted by Male Pattern Radness at Thursday, July 12, 2007
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