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Games of E3 2005 There was no shortage of great games this year, but none of them particularly blew my mind like they did last year. Most of the games I'm really looking forward to were only represented by trailers. I couldn't rightfully choose a favorite game based solely on a trailer. Without actually playing it how could I get an honest impression and have any understanding of the gameplay? Out of what was playable on the floor I had to make a decision. Would my favorite be the Katamari Damacy sequel, the unique pinball war game Odama, or Okami, a game where a wolf uses calligraphy to save the world? The next great fighter, Soul Caliber III, would have been an easy choice for my favorite game of the show. Or I could go with a game that was playable last year and this year, like Conker: Live and Reloaded. After the greatness of Burnout 3, maybe Burnout Revenge would be my top game. This year, I'm going to put my money on one of the more unique games. My favorite game from E3 2005 was We Love Katamari. Since most of the games I'm excited about only had trailers, I needed to pick my favorite trailer as well. That was an easy choice, though. My favorite trailer was for Metal Gear Solid 4.
So why is the sequel to a quirky Japanese game about rolling a ball my favorite from E3? Because it exists. Katamari Damacy had so much going against it. Weird Japanese games are lucky enough to even get released stateside and if they do, they usually find a small audience. It was an instant $20 game and many people shrug off the instant bargain bin games because they don't think they could be any good... and most of them aren't. The graphics were simple and not up to the standards of nearly all the PS2 games being released during the year. However, Katamari Damacy rolled over all its obstacles and became a huge success. The E3 demo featured a stage in a school where you could roll over innocent kids and another stage where you had to collect the most flowers. The best part about the demo was that is was tailored just for E3. The King of All Cosmos commented about the expo and how you should show everyone at E3 that you could get the biggest Katamari. The graphics were much improved from the previous game and the core simplistic fun remained. I am hoping that OPM is able to get the E3 demo on one of their discs because it would be a shame to have it lost forever.
This was going to be my favorite, but then the E3 specific humor of the We Love Katamari demo won me over. This demo had an E3 comment as well, but there was only one. The first thing that captured me were the unique graphics. The visuals in Okami are a work of pure art, making the game seem like a living painting. The fifteen minute demo gave me a decent understanding of the unique gameplay mechanics. Basically, your character is a Goddess that was turned into a wolf, or something along those lines. A fairy, or some other tiny magical sprite, helps the wolf learn and use calligraphy. When your artistic skills are needed, you switch over to the drawing screen and a calligraphy brush is in control. Sometimes you needed to complete a constellation by adding a star, draw a bridge over a chasm, or even draw a line over enemies to deliver the final fatal blow. The wolf's movements were very fluid. When the wolf started running places it would start with a kind-of trot and then get faster and faster. Okami will deliver a unique game experience.
Nintendo really has a thing for unique game experiences lately and it looks like the pinball game of strategic warfare will finally see a release. Originally shown in a corner of Nintendo's area last year, it was placed in the opposite, but more prominent corner this year. Odama was initially going to use the bongos for rallying the troops, but now it uses voice recognition. Maybe it will still use the bongos in some way for two players. As you do your pinball thing, your army of tiny red men fights an army of tiny blue men. Your ball flattened the opposing military and your troops ran out of its way when it came rolling through. During play you shout orders into the GameCube microphone like "Send more men!" and "Charge!" to command the movement and tactics of the troops. The voice recognition seemed to work pretty well. It's a very unique take on pinball and battle strategy. This will be one to check out.
Well, it looks like Kojima lied once again as he will be directing MGS4 for the PS3. Watch the trailer for this one. Even if you're not into MGS, but you know a little of the controversy about the introduction of Raiden in MGS2 or about Hideo Kojima saying he'll never direct another MGS, it's still pretty funny. The game will continue the story where MGS2 left off so we can look forward to more shocking truths and confusing revelations. These are PS2 visuals by the way, so don't say it doesn't look next gen, because it's not.
Like each MGS game before it, MGS3 receives an updated version with Subsistence. New additions include a first person camera, a new duel mode, and the new demo theater. It will also have an online mode where players can battle one another in the lush forests and environments of MGS3. If that's enough it will also contain the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. It's about time. I've been waiting for Konami to somehow re-release the original Metal Gear games since MGS1. Metal Gear 2 never even made it to the US before, so we'll have another "new" Gear to play. Metal Gear Ac!d 2 (Trailer - PSP) Wow, more Metal Gear! The PSP's Metal Gear Ac!d "evolves and expands." It gets a new comic book look, new cards, abilities, and gameplay. I have yet to play the first installment of this interesting take on Metal Gear, but it looks like fans of the first will have to check it out.
The new Zelda trailer revealed more of the environments and creatures. Link was riding on horseback once again and battling orcs. He was shown talking to villagers and seemed to be living the good life when suddenly he transformed... into a wolf! Wolf Link was then in a prison cell when some kind of weird, cutesy creature broke him out and rode him during more of the demo. I'm not going to say anything about it looking stupid, because I don't think it is. Wind Waker proved to be beyond awesome so we all know the final game is going to rock.
The demo of the fourth Soul fighter had only two playable characters: Mitsurugi and Tira. The game was mostly what I expected: Beautiful graphics, outstanding gameplay, and awesome fighting moves. I was wondering how Tira would use her circular weapon and it's an amazing display of fighting artistry. As I said the visuals were outstanding for a PS2 game. I just hope they fixed the flicker problem that charmed the PS2 version of SCII.
The next Burnout focuses on eye for an eye gameplay; Get revenge on those that hurt you first. The graphics were better than Takedown and more realistic. However, as the graphics achieved more realism, the racing became less so. In previous installments, slamming into a vehicle caused your car to crash or initiated a scene of symphonic destruction. In Revenge, however, hitting normal cars and minivans sends them careening into other cars or your opponents. Crashing into semis is still deadly, but using the traffic instead of avoiding it gave the game a somewhat different feel. I didn't feel in danger as I did in Takedown, or even Point of Impact, where my adrenaline was in high gear so I could avoid smashing into a soccer mom. I'm sure I'll get used to this alteration in no time and that the final game will be awesome.
The newest Midway compilation is heavy on the racing games. Actually, it's only racing games, which is fine with me. The best part about this disc is that it contains STUN Runner: a futuristic racing shooter with polygon graphics. I've been waiting for this game to show up again for years and years and now my wait will come to an end. Other games included are San Francisco Rush 2049, Rush: The Rock, Super Off Road, Off Road Thunder, Bad Lands, Race Drivin' and Hydro Thunder.
This is very much like the Federation Vs Zeon game that came out back in 2002, but with improved graphics and loads of playable mobile suits. This new Gundam game, which features the word "Gundam" three times in the title, will follow the Zeta Gundam storyline and features thirty-one new mobile suits. You choose a mobile suit from the AEUG or Titans and go wreck havoc on your foes. After recently viewing the Zeta Gundam series I can't wait to blow apart some mobile suits myself.
I've questioned the absence of Sonic CD in Sonic Mega Collection before because that collection contains the opening and closing movies, but not the actual game itself. Sonic Gems will fix that by bringing Sonic CD and a host of other Sonic games onto the GameCube this Fall. I played some Sonic Fighters and have to say it's pretty awful. The disc will also include Sonic Drift and the six Game Gear titles previously on the PS2 and Xbox versions of Sonic Mega Collection. Whether or not the Game Gear games will be actually playable, unlike the ports to PS2 and Xbox, remains to be seen.
All we got to see of Full Auto was a guy playing a demo for the crowd. It looked damned impressive, though. Full Auto has the racing and crashing of Burnout, but with guns and missiles from Twisted Metal. And everything was destructible. Cars were exploding, semis, and buildings. It was incredible. Taking another idea, this time from the Prince of Persia games, he rewound time and destroyed some buildings he missed before. He also accelerated time and moved around the camera to make sure everything in his path and around him was annihilated. You could see the individual pieces of everything being destroyed. This will definitely be a 360 or PS3 game to play.
It's another Prince of Persia game, woo! This time as the Prince swings to ledges and battles evil, he'll have to contend with another version of himself: The Dark Prince. Oooo, creepy. The player will be able to play as both Princes in alternate timelines, each timeline spiraling off the two endings of Warrior Within. It's a very cool concept as each Prince has some of their own moves and abilities. Kindred Blades is yet another sequel I can't wait for.
Tecmo only had a trailer for their premier fighter for the Xbox 360. Like all of Tecmo's games the graphics were dead gorgeous. Tecmo has always had the best looking Xbox games and will probably have the best looking first generation games for the 360. The environments were absolutely huge, with many falling points and interactive backgrounds. For example, a fighter was hit by a speeding cop car in one stage and in another, a fighter got slammed down a flight of stairs, with the hit of each stair painfully sounding out. Three new fighters join the DOA crew: Kokoro the Japanese girl, a mysterious female wrestler that uses Mexican wrestling, and Elliot, a young boy that looks a lot like a girl.
This is not a sequel, but a re-release of Ninja Gaiden with added features, kind of like MGS3: Subsistence. It will include the content from the downloadable Hurricane packs on Xbox Live along with new bosses, enemies, and cut scenes. And for those gaming weaklings that could never beat the game because of the high difficulty, it will include an easier Ninja Dog setting.
The demo for Most Wanted left me unfulfilled. It was way too short and, for the most part, seemed like just a glorified drag race with some traffic. The graphics and sound were superb on the Xbox 360, but I needed more in my demo play. Supposedly it will combine the cop chasing thrills of Hot Pursuit 2 and the customizing frills of Underground. I loved Hot Pursuit 2 so I'm hoping this will be equally as good, if not better.
This Onimusha will kick off a new trilogy of samurai demon slaying. The first trilogy is an incredible series, despite the original Resident Evil tank-like controls. I was used to the fairly motionless cameras and static, yet gorgeous, backgrounds of the series. I didn't really like the free roaming camera of this version because it was a bit difficult to get centered during combat. I had to keep moving the right analog stick to keep my foes in view. The game felt a lot like Dynasty Warriors, minus the legions of angry Asian warriors.
Gone is the 2-D fighting of the time-honored classic beat-'em-up. Now it's free roaming 3-D. You still beat up many guys that look exactly the same, using various objects as weapons along the way to fight the boss. The bad guys were also dropping F-bombs like nothing, which was a little surprising. I'm not to fond of the more realistic graphics. I would have preferred the cartoonish graphics of the original. While it's nice to see the return of a classic, I'm not sure if I would really stick around to play the final game. It was fun, but has the potential to become a boring me-too beat-'em-up.
Shaolin Monks is 3-D action/adventure game starring Liu Kang and Kung Lao. The design of the characters was straight from the newer Deadly Alliance and Deception games. The beefy demo gave a few different examples of gameplay which consisted of beating up guys and throwing them into things to progress. The boss of the demo was Baraka who quickly kicked my ass. A Mortal Kombat match is quite different in free roaming 3-D. Keep in mind that MK has deviated from straight fighting before with the horrid Sub-Zero and Special Forces games, but this seems like it will be pretty good.
A new Castlevania would be good news if it wasn't in 3-D again. The free roaming camera proved to be difficult to position during battles and the graphics didn't seen that much improved from Lament of Innocence. The main character, Hector, gets to use innocent demons and their abilities in his fight against Dracula's minions. The demo had a hawk that would attack other enemies while Hector was busy fighting skeletons of his own. The game will probably turn out as mediocre as Lament did. Why can't Konami just make a side-scrolling Castlevania for the PS2? Imagine how impressive it would be with 2-D visuals that were better than the great Curse of Darkness.
Are we finally going to get a new Warhawk? We've been teased for years that a new game is coming but something always happens to prevent it from getting off the ground. Let's hope it actually comes out this time and looks just as good, if not better, than the trailer.
If this is what first generation PS3 games are going to look like, then we'll all be loving our shiny new Sony consoles. The trailer was said to be rendered in real time, and much of it looked like it was stuff you would be doing in the game. If this is not what we're getting in our gameplay then we can all call Sony and Incognito a bunch of dirty liars.
Tekken 6 (Teaser trailer - PS3) I figured there would be another Tekken and there was a trailer for the series' move to PS3, but it was only a teaser, complete with the dramatic music teasers are full of. All it showed were a few shots of a CG Jin doing a couple moves. Give me a real trailer Namco. Mobile Gaming Games for cell phones and PDAs had a big presence this year. Namco, Square, Tecmo and a few other companies had kiosks and tables set up with cell phone and playable games. Namco's seemed to be the biggest with all of their games being playable. Square was showing off Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding and Tecmo announced the original Ninja Gaiden. There was also a Doom RPG announced, but there were no screen shots. It is supposed to be turn-based, which may be bad if it's anything like the mobile game Aliens: Unleashed. - Shawn - 05/30/05 Click Here For More E3 Goodness: Hardware, Booth Babes, Images. |
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