Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
PlayStation 3
Rated T for Teen
All told, third-person shooter Uncharted 2 might’ve been the best game at E3 this year. Its strongest rivals were games that were only playable for judges (Splinter Cell: Conviction, Assassin’s Creed 2) and quirky underdogs like Scribblenauts. It’s difficult to adequately gauge a game’s quality after only playing the multiplayer for maybe 10 minutes, but Uncharted 2 impresses so thoroughly in so many ways that it’s hard to not be excited.
Like its predecessor, Uncharted 2 promises to be highly cinematic without resorting to long-winded cut-scenes. During the single-player scene demonstrated at Sony’s press conference and in a private session in Sony’s booth, gameplay and narrative bleed seamlessly into one another, as lead character Nathan Drake avoided a helicopter by scampering through various blasted-out buildings. That chopper was a total asshole. Continue reading “Loafing at E3: the Sony booth” »
Capcom had more playable titles at E3 than almost any other publisher, both on the floor and behind closed doors. The company’s highest-profile 2009 titles have already been released (Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando), and most of the games in its booth will probably come out in 2010. So it was a bit like stepping into the future, a future that was in almost every regard exactly like our present.
Dark Void
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Release date and rating TBA
If it wasn’t for the jetpack, Dark Void would feel like a middling, bare bones third-person shooter. I took cover, I shot some dudes, I picked up new weapons and ammo, and I did this all over and over. Thankfully the encounters were spaced out with stretches of highly entertaining jetpackery. As with Capcom’s recent Bionic Commando, the fun of Dark Void isn’t the combat as much as the transportation. It was uniquely thrilling to fly around with Dark Void’s jetpack, once I got accustomed to the awkward controls.
The jetpack also opened up opportunities not available to most shooters. The part of the demo I played didn’t have any airborne shoot-outs, per se; I had to blow up some shield generators and then storm a couple of enemy installations, which is where the mediocre ground-based third-person shooter action factored in. The second installation illustrated how the game embraces the spatial possibilities opened up by a jetpack, though. I flew up a horizontal tower, jetting from platform to platform while taking out the bad guys. This open-ended attitude toward space, combined with the joys of jetpacking, made Dark Void one of the better action games on display at E3.
Here’s the thing with E3: You’re mostly just looking. There are a lot of games on the floor that anybody can walk up and play, but a significant number of high-profile titles are shown exclusively in closed-door, hands-off demonstrations. Instead of driving classic cars, shooting dudes, and speaking with a stereotypical Italian accent in 2K/Take-Two’s Mafia 2, I watched a tester do all those things in a 15-minute demo. That demo made the game look awesome, but almost every demo I saw last week made a game look awesome. I saw many designers play many different games, but that Mafia 2 guy had to sit in that room playing those same fifteen minutes all day. At least he was in one of the few air-conditioned parts of the convention center.
I understand why game publishers don’t want to provide hands-on access to games that aren’t yet finished. I understand why they’d want to pull the string on the hype machine and watch it whir. But writing about trailers and games I watched other people play wouldn’t really help you. I wouldn’t watch an author read one chapter aloud, and then write about the book. Over the next few days I’ll be writing briefly on every game I actually got to play with these here two hands, the very same hands I am currently using to type these words. These hands have touched many things, and people, and hopefully even hearts and minds. Hands are useful.
So I’m at this thing called E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, where most of the major video game publishers and developers show off upcoming titles to press, retail, and each other. It’s a massive trade show that fills up both halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center with an overwhelming assortment of video games and video game peripherals. Some might remember when E3 was held in Atlanta back in ’97 and ’98. It’s basically fun and business mingling awkwardly for three or four days out of the year, with a steady soundtrack of explosions, upbeat dance rock, and whatever music game happens to be nearby. And there’s always a music game nearby.
The biggest news of E3 thus far has probably been the new Wii-esque motion control systems from Sony and Microsoft. Sony’s motion control wand operates much like the Wii remote, interfacing with the Sony Eyetoy to bring one-to-one motion sensing to the PS3.
Microsoft’s Project Natal is something different, though. Natal is a camera that attaches to the Xbox 360 and that reads motions without need of a controller. To kick a ball, you swing your leg. To strike with a sword, swing your arm. You can even scroll through menu screens with a wave of your hand, and select options by pushing an invisible button. With a testimonial from Steven Spielberg, Project Natal made a huge debut.
Microsoft also impressed with a video demo of Lionhead Studios’ Milo project. Milo is a computer generated boy who reacts with you through the Natal camera. In the video Milo recognized a Lionhead employee and carried on a surprisingly realistic conversation. Of course demos exist to make products look amazing; it’s too early to assume Milo works as well as this video showed.
Sony officially announced the new PSP Go, coming this fall for $249.99. That’s a steep price to pay for a minor revision of a 5-year-old handheld. The most notable thing about the Go is its lack of a UMD drive. Gaming on the Go will be download only.
Other than those announcements, E3’s memorable moments have been mostly software related. More on those later.
