Death, Jr.Konami (developed by Backbone Entertainment) PSP Death Jr. is an action platformer for PSP that looks really entertaining. It has a funny storyline, engaging graphics, and has been getting really good press. It's scheduled to release in August, and was playable and fun at the show. It could be a big PSP title. Other PSP games from Konami include a port of their Japanese-style action-RPG Ys: The Ark of Naphishtim. I played that for a few minutes, I think that style of very easy action-RPG actually makes more sense on handhelds than it does on consoles anymore. |
Lost in BlueKonami (developer KCE Hawaii) DS True to Nintendo's word, the DS had more innovative games on it this year than any other platform. While it's clear most of them are pretty niche titles, at least they're trying a lot of new ideas. This title is basically a videogame of the movie, Blue Lagoon. Anime-styled boy and girl are marooned on desert island, and have to fish, hunt, trap, and cook their way out of trouble while figuring out what's going on on the island. Some of the other DS titles are described below, including the surgery simulator and the lawyer simulator. |
It's impossible to overstate the number of MMOs that were shown this year. There are way too many people chasing this space -- even though I believe it represents the future of RPG and related gaming. Here's a quick list of the MMOs I heard about; a couple of them are worth describing and get their own section in the report as well. I'm sure I missed a few, too (acknowledgements to mmogchart.com for reminding me about a couple I forgot). I also list a couple MMOs such as the Star Trek title that are known but weren't shown.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed KingSquare Enix (developed by Level 5) PS2 This is the best-selling RPG ever, thanks to being #1 in Japan. The visual style is a well-developed cel-shaded look and the gameplay is classic turn-based story-aligned RPG. This series is just starting to catch on for American gamers, probably due to the anime influence. |
Buena Vista Gamesa division of Disney all Buena Vista Games had a big booth immediately to the left of EA to reinforce the idea that they're back in the games business. Unfortunately, they had almost nothing of note; their offerings will all movie license games that looked and played like, well, movie license games: competent but not innovative or especially comeplling. They'll live or die on the strength of the underlying movie title, which is especially hard for properties like the Nightmare Before Christmas game they're doing. They're also working on Chicken Little, Chronicles of Narnia, and so on. |
Mark Ecko's Getting UpAtari (developed by The Collective) PS2 Like Jet Set Radio, this is a tagging game, in this case with a license from the Mark Ecko clothing line. The game really seemed to emphasize the platforming elements of getting to the hard-to-tag places before uncorking the spray can. |
Gauntlet: Seven SorrowsMidway PS2, Xbox, PC This new version of Gauntlet looks great in person, as the screenshots they've been releasing would suggest. John Romero is helping Midway's team create this version. |
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin MonksMidway (developed by Paradox Entertainment) platform There was a lot of hype generated by Midway about this, for relatively little meat as far as I could see. The only thing I really enjoyed about playing this game was 2-player co-op mode, which was fun (non-splitscreen, constrained camera). Of course, you can't really enjoy the RPG elements of a game on the E3 floor! |
One PieceBandai PS2, GameCube This was a very cute kid-oriented pirate-themed fighting game, shown more prominently in the Nintendo booth than Bandai's own. Nothing out of the expected range, but well-executed and the series it's based on looked fun. |
TecmoTecmo showed their Dead or Alive 4 for Xbox 360. While it got a lot of press, I thought it was an incremental rather than revolutionary advance in graphics -- and no advance in gameplay. But what I really liked was Tecmo's blatant honesty about the appeal of their games, as shown by this sign outside their booth! |
NintendogsNintendo DS This game is every bit as cute in person as it looks in the movies that have gone around online. It's completely engaging and clearly destined to be the next Tamagotchi. If you haven't checked out the various promos for it, definitely click here and have a look at the movies! (it's actually even cuter when you see how the stylus integrates with the dogs). While this is deifnitely not a hard-core gamers' title, this is one of the few things at this year's E3 that actually has potential to grow the market for electronic entertainment. |
HandheldsSony PSP, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Micro This year at the show I noticed two things about handhelds. One was that they clearly had more design innovation and thought going into them than the console games. With the escalating prices for console projects, the steady march to sequels and/or line extensions in the console games continued. The other thing I noticed about the handhelds was that on average they were much "stickier" than the console demos. When an E3 attendee went to play a handheld game, the average time they stayed at the booth was longer than for a console. I suspect this is something about the psychology of a handheld experience more than due to the game quality -- even on the E3 show floor, and handheld feels more like a one-on-one interaction. But it was an interesting effect of this relatively new form of gaming. By the way, one rule of handheld demos became painfully evident after trying a few games: always have your handhelds attached to the stand by a flexible steelcable, not directly attached to some hard-to-bend stand. Playing a handheld game for more than a few seconds on those difficult-to-maneuver flexible necks was painful, all the more testament to the gamers who did so. At right is the human security device used for the Micro -- the units were cabled to this woman's belt! |
Sparta: Ancient WarsPlaylogic International (developer World Forge) PC Yes, it's Yet Another PC Historical RTS, although it's very nice-looking and well-executed. Still, it will be hard for anything to hold on against the new Age of Empires III, which also looked absolutely gorgeous. |
Battlefield 2: Modern CombatEA (EAUK) PS2, XBox As I mentioned above, there were a whole slew of fast-paced action/shooter games that ran on PS2/XBox at the show this year, and quite a number of them played well. BF2:MC was definitely a fun game to play; I played from the Sony booth, but I believe were hooked up to the same battle as the station in the EA booth (we were certainly in a good-sized battle with at least 8 if not 16 people). Generally smooth, play was fun and very reminiscent of BF:1942. The only negative I had on the E3 build of this game was that it doesn't have nearly the art direction of Ghost or some of the other fun console games, but that's not to say it won't be fun. |
Above: an attendee hard at work on BF2MC |
Spartan: Total WarriorSega (developed by Creative Assembly) PS2, XBox, GameCube This game is kind of a surprise from the Total War people, since it was a good-looking, console-only, action game. I couldn't tell whether it would become just a button-masher, but you're a Greek soldier trying to kill lots of Romans (and accomplish other mission objectives) through big, big levels with lots of enemies and allies, often all at once. The scale aspect of it was pretty nice, and the game was good-looking (not that you can tell from my photo!). |
We KatamariNamco PS2 Namco wisely is jumping in with more Katamari! Besides having a giant Katamari ball that people could come attach items to, they had lots of stations both in their own booth and in Sony's where people could come play the new Katamari. The only really new elements were new challenges and a variety of two-player modes, but boy this game is fun. Even on the chaotic show floor it was hard to stop playing (fortunately the canned demo prompted you to give others a turn at the end of a challenge!). |
Battalion WarsA Cute Little WarNintendo GameCube Battalion Wars is a small-scale war game -- a la Army Men -- ported to the GameCube. Without the specific conceit of the armies being plastic, it's extra weird to see a tactical game going on with the aesthetics of early Saturday morning cartoons. Go Nintendo. |
Donkey Conga LineHow can you resist a full assortment of E3 nerds playing Donkey Conga? Nintendo continues to try and convince us all to buy the Bongo accessory. |
Trauma Center: Under the KnifeAtlus Co. DS OK, so here was more proof that most of the experimentation in games is going on in Japan, on the Nintendo DS. This is a surgery simulator. On the top screen at right, you're getting the grave Nurse character saying "Let's go do surgery in a determined manner!" while on the lower screen, you see the patient's abdomen, and you use the stylus as, you guessed it, a scalpel. You actually try to cut into the patient and successfully perform the surgery using your "scalpel." I didn't have too much luck since I can't quite parse enough Japanese to follow the instructions, but at least I can say I've never played a 3D handheld surgical simulator before! |
Phoenix Wright: Ace AttorneyCapcom DS Continuing in the "all unusual games except Katamari run on DS" thread, Phoenix Wright is pretty much a classic early-90s adventure game in the legal genre, running on the DS. The anime-styled characters prevaricate, squirm, and generally try to prevent you from exonerating your framed partner. Bizarro anime elements provide a break from the stern courtroom segments. As you can see at right, the characters you're interviewing, examining, or receiving judicial pronouncements from appear on the top screen and the bottom screen provides UI. This should be out in the US in a few months. |
Nintendo GameBoy MicroNintendo's New GameBoy Nintendo wasn't talking much about Revolution, their next-gen GameCube, but they were happy to let you play GameBoy Micros. These things are small -- iPod Mini sized -- and have all of the functions of a GBASP. While I don't think these threaten the higher-end PSP market (the screen is small), they do have one of the same attractions as the PSP: the dot pitch on the screen is really tight, so the screen is a joy to look at. They also weigh approximately nothing and fit in any pocket. While they won't generate as much press as PSPs, I'll bet these have more unit sales in the coming year. |
OkamiCapcom (Clover Studios) PS2 This watercolor-stroke-rendered game is edging ever closer to completion (scheduled for 2006 release). The game's look has been shown for awhile and it's still impressive, really bringing a watercolor world to life. At the show it was possible to see more of the gameplay, which is mostly centered around making calligraphic brushstrokes for combat, world alteration, or special powerups. I really want to get this game home and try it out to see if the experience works once it's put together. |
GamePipe Research GroupUSC I ran into Mike Zyda, who filled me in on his latest academic venture. Mike ran the lab at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey for many year. NPS built some of the first (publicly disclosed) large-scale distributed simulations as a follow-on to the classified SimNet research in the 80s. The SimNet algorithms became the basis of almost all of the strategies used in network gaming. After that, his lab was the military half of the partnership that produced the America's Army game (free copies of which were still being given away at the show -- the military has found it to be an effective recruiting tool). Mike has now moved to USC, but he isn't part of the ICT (Institute for Creative Technologies, the unit that teaches game design and with which EA is currently involved). He's starting a program called GamePipe out of the computer science department which is focused on gaming technologies. Their research agenda is more focused on the technological needs and research that supports gaming (both for entertainment and educational purposes). Sounds like it could be a good academic program to keep an eye on. |