Nenjin
05-19-05, 10:46 PM
Day 2 of E3 has come and gone. Here's what I looked at today.
Dawn of War: Winter Assault
Relic Entertainment/THQ
Release Fall 2005
With the success of Dawn of War, Relic wasted no time in preparing an expansion pack. Although they had many races to choose from, Relic decided to expand on the already present Imperial Guard, and the results are impressive. Once again Relic has drawn on the volumes of information present in the WH40K table top game, ripping the Imperial Guard units straight from the codexes. The Imperial Guard are not the only race to get an update in Winter Assault, each of the other races also get some additional love.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4337g.JPG
4 new unit types:
Space Marines- Chaplain. A high powered melee character unit, equipped with the Crozius Arcanum.
Eldar- Fire Dragon Aspect Warriors, equipped with Fusion Cannons.
Chaos- Khorne Berserkers, close combat Chaos Marines
Orc- Nob Squads equipped in ‘Eavy Power Armor
2 campaigns types, the good campaign with Imperial Guard and Space Marines, and the bad campaign with Ork and Chaos.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4335.JPG
Bunkering- Bunkers not only produce your Imperial Guard infantry units, squads may enter bunkers and defend them. More squad members in the bunkers give the squad access to additional heavy weapons beyond their unit capacity.
Build able defenses for the Imperial Guard
Imperial Guard Units-
Sentinels
Ogryn (squad based heavy fighters equipped with Ripper Guns)
Commissar (Squad leader, can kill squad members to boost morale).
Sanctioned Pyskers (Powerful psyker units, that have the potential to backfire on themselves when using psychic powers)
The Bane Blade, a super heavy tank from Epic 40k, is the Imperial Guard Super Unit, the equal of the Land Raider, the Squiggoth, the Avatar, and the Bloodthirster.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4344.JPG
The demo was gorgeous, and made me want to go home and fire up Dawn of War to get my fix. The expansion shows great promise, and if it’s successful in the stores, it could pave the way for the full incorporation of the WH40K universe into Dawn of War.
Praise the Emperor!
Stubbs the Zombie
Wideload and Aspyr
Xbox
I stumbled upon this game while wandering the expo floor, and it immediately caught my eye. Why? Because my first glimpse of the game was the main character snacking on, you guessed it, someone’s brain. Chris Cobd was on hand at the booth and gave me the run down. Your objective, as Stubbs, is to infect the human population, turning them into a ravenous horde of flesh eating monsters. Newly made zombies will act on their own, but can be forcefully directed by the player so they can assist in infecting humans. Cute features include the ability to detach your hand, and send it crawling through tight spaces. Your hand can serve as a scout for you, in addition to attacking humans. If you are sneaky, and a human does not notice your hand approaching, you can latch on to the heads of humans and control their minds, allowing you use of human weaponry.
I didn’t get much time to play the demo, but I had a good time none the less. While this may not be one of the high powered titles at E3 this year, I think it will definitely be worth the time to play when it releases.
The Suffering: The Ties that Bind
Surreal Software/Midway
PC/PS2/Xbox
Release: Fall 2005
If you missed the original The Suffering, you over looked something special. The Suffering is and was a 1st/3rd person action. While the game play was nothing revolutionary, The Suffering excelled at creating an atmosphere that kept you on your toes and jumping at shadows. Clever scare tricks like sudden hallucinations, haunted visitations, and a grim and bloody story line kept you playing the game, even when you had exhausted most aspects of game play. As Torque you were constantly faced with moral decisions in game that determined what really happened when Torque’s family died.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB1.jpg
In the sequel, you once again play Torque, a condemned man convicted of murdering his wife and children. After his escape from Carnate Island Penitentiary, Torque finds himself in Baltimore, and once again all hell has broken loose. Monsters from Carnate have found their way into the city, and once again challenge Torque as he works towards understanding his own dark and confused past. The monsters from the original Suffering make another appearance, in addition to a whole new group of horrors, each designed around a particular theme relating to their death, such as the junkie monster, which is stuck full of hypodermic needles. Or the blade monster which has sword for limbs.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB2.jpg
New additions to game play include an expanded list of weapons and a melee attack for Torque while he has a weapon equipped. As an added bonus, if you have your old save file from the original Suffering, you can reload it for The Ties That Bind, continuing the story where you left off in the last game. But don’t worry, having not played the first one will not inhibit your gaming, or the story line. Rather, having the old save file just further cements what you already knew about the the Torque YOU played. Continuing on the good track will reveal who actually killed Torque's family (yawn). Continuing down the evil path will demonstrate just how low Torque can go. And continuing down the neutral path...we...you're neutral, so no one really cares what you think! This is actually where my save file has left off, so I'm kind of intrested to see what the outcome is.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB3.jpg
On returning to the Surreal Booth, I got to talk to Richard Rouse of Surreal . He was majorly responsible for writing the back story of the first Suffering, as well as the second. After kowtowing to him for being able to get such a twisted, mind bending story to work perfectly within the game, I pumped him for more answers.
Firstly, I got assurances that like Carnate Island, the city of Baltimore is also like a prison, trapping the people that live there. As it Baltimore in reality wasn't already dark and forebodeing, after the "mysterious" earthquake that kicked off the original game, the weirdness and darkness are amped up. Surreal is again going for a closed enviroment, except instead of keep it strictly limited to an island, now they have the flexibility to make an entire city go straight to hell.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB4.jpg
One gripe I voiced to Richard Rouse, was that, even though the story and the atmosphere of The Suffering kicked butt, the gameplay didn't care through the entire game. About half way through, the majority of weapons had been recieved, you had maxed out the potential for your insanity mode, and the only things left to the player were to see the last few enemies, and to read the last chapter of the Torque's time on Carnate.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB5.jpg
I was assured that steps have been taken to guarentee that gameplay has more to it than in the previous game. For one, the Insanity mode now changes based on your alignment, resulting in a different look, and different attacks. I was told it also allowed you to assume the powers of your foes, although I didn't get to see that demonstrated. A greatly expanded list of weapons such as multiple meele weapons, different versions of the same weapon type, means that The Ties that Bind will offer the player more choices on how they want to play the game.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB6.jpg
I also wanted to know about the scare tactics. One of the best parts of the original game in my opinion, they sucked you into the whole insanity of Torque's mind, confusing you and just plain weirding you out. While Richard Rouse wouldn't specifically say anything about them, he affirmed that those little psychological tricks have a big place in the game, and his self satisfied smile told me it was probably devious as hell.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB7.jpg
But is the story still there? The biggest theme of the storyline is that you never really know if Torque is just bat **** crazy, or if there really is all this weird stuff going on until the end. Baltimore, as with Carnate Island, is depicted as a cesspool of human suffering and evil. With long histories of atrocities and bloodshed, the city radiates evil that is just barely contained. And as with Carnate Island, there was a catalyst to the insanity. Torque. It was never really explained in the original why Torque made it all happen (or if it really did happen). Perhaps the answer is coming in TTB.
And the story will grow. I was surprised to learn that, not only is the deranged and brilliant Dr. Killjoy making a return to the story, but two new antagonists. The Creeper, a dark, rotund appartion that appears to Torque much like Kill Joy, and the mysterious Blackburrow, who apparently is responsible for getting Torque sent to jail in the first place. Maybe each one is tied to the alignment chain you follow, who knows?
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB9.jpg
I felt that, between the Xbox and PS2 demos, the PS2 looked much cleaner and crisper. I don't think I really got the time to enjoy any game while at E3, the environment isn't very conducive to getting into a game as atmosphereic as The Suffering. But I think it's definetly worth a look, and if game play can be kept up (or at least extended) throughout game play, they've got more than a solid title. They've got a hit.
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Konami
Fall 2005
Ah, Castlevania. I was thrilled when I read about this latest release from Konami, and it has been at the top of my list since. After muscling my way to the booth, I got my hands on the demo.
Konami received a fair amount of criticism for their last Castlevania Title, Lament of Innocence. While the game was visually impressive, and combat was fun and entertaining, fans complained that the game play was shallow, compared to the hours upon hours of things to do in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which to this day is considered one of the best Castlevania games of all time (and arguably was one of the last and greatest side scroller action-RPGs). Konami took this criticism to heart, and it showed in the demo. Curse of Darkness, on first impressions, is a fusion of the 2 games, combining Lament’s fast paced, combo driven combat, with Symphony’s sprawling level design and RPG elements, such as item collection, experience, and skill acquisition.
A new twist in game play is the addition of “Innocent Devils”, spirits which are allies of the main character, and will fight along side you at your behest. Each Innocent Devil has a range of attack abilities which you can call upon, as well as utility actions, such as allowing you to glide over pits.
My first impression of the demo (which was fairly limited), is that the game is more Lament than it is Symphony. One of my primary complaints about Lament was the simplistic level design. While the textures were beautiful (and are again in Curse of Darkness) in Lament, they served to disguise the fact that most rooms/areas were unimaginatively designed, and were often redundant. In the short time I played the demo, I got the feeling that had not changed much. I moved the main character from room section to room section, killed the enemies, and moved on, finding very little to interact with beyond the enemies. I only played through a handful of rooms however, and so I think it’s very premature to write off the game as embodying the worst parts of Lament. The RPG elements in the demo were not very prevalent, as many options in the character menu were marked as ??????, and the main character did not have any items or armor to speak of. Again, my exposure to Curse of Darkness has still been pretty limited, and I think it definitely warrants a second (and probably third) look. I have faith that Konami will not disappoint. And even if they do, chances are the game will still be an entertaining play through experience. Lament sure was.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
GSC Gameworld/THQ
Release Date Pending (THQ’s website has it pegged in 2006).
Being developed by the Ukrainian company GSC Gameworld based out of Kiev, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a first person shooter/RPG, which emphasizes flexible, non-linear game play. Think Morrowind. The game is set in the 2012, in the Ukraine, and is based around the tragic events of the Chernobyl accident. The game story goes like this. In 2006, a second explosion occurs at the contained reactor. Abruptly, an area of 10 km around the plant goes crazy, heralded by an intense bright light. Gravitational anomalies, toxic dust clouds, and a whole host of bizarre occurrences suddenly spring to life. Not to mention the teeming hordes of mutated beasts and people that crawl from the desolated wreckage around the nuclear plant. The army cordons off the area around the plant, preventing anyone from entering. The area comes to be known as “The Zone”, and as the years pass, the anomalies begin to grow and expand to over 30km in diameter. This is where the player comes in, as a Stalker. An independent “poacher” of sorts, you bravely (and/or foolishly) venture into the zone in search of artifacts, which are items that have acquired special properties from the effects of The Zone. Scientists and traders pay the Stalkers good money for acquiring these items.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R features a non-linear story line where the player chooses where in the zone they want to travel, who they want to work for, and how they want to approach different situations. The game is an RPG in the sense that players explore a world, play a role, and collect items, vehicles and gear that allow them to further explore The Zone. GSC Gameworld has devised an entire eco-system where the different beasts and factions interact with each other, sometimes fighting, or migrating across the Zone, in an effort to create a life like (yet bizarre) world. At the start of every new game, the Zone is randomly populated with creatures and items, meaning that you will never play a game of S.T.A.L.K.E.R the same way twice. GSC’s attention for detail is readily apparent in their website, going to great lengths to describe the lore of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, the items and equipment, and even going as far as to describe how radiation works and is quantified.
Sadly, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is not present at E3 this year (or it’s only being screened in private). Which is surprising, considering that just before E3, GSC Gameworld released new game footage that looked very polished and really showed off the features of their in house developed X-ray engine. (You can find it HERE (http://www.stalker-game.com))So I’m a little puzzled that it’s not present (not to mention disappointed) at E3.
Samurai Showdown V
SNK Playmore
Xbox
Release Date Pending
Samurai Showdown was one of my all time favorite games to play at the Arcades. American fans of the game have routinely been frustrated when trying to get the latest renditions of the game in console format, as Samurai Showdown titles after 3 (and there are many varieties) were not released in the US. So I was pretty excited to learn that the latest game would be released here. Well I was pretty excited…til I sat down to play the demo that is.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4332.JPG
The graphics look as if they were ripped straight from the PlayStation versions, receiving no extra goodness for being produced for the Xbox. The combat seemed to be a little wonky as well. The AI was brutally cheap even in the first fight, and many of the character’s attacks seemed unfinished (where is my heavy slash damnit! It looked just like the light slash!). I can honestly say that the earlier versions of SS for the Playstation managed to look better, and play better than what I saw in the demo. Much disappointment.
That's all I have for today. Check back tomorrow for the final wrap up of E3, including The Safehouse's in depth look at Vanguard.
Dawn of War: Winter Assault
Relic Entertainment/THQ
Release Fall 2005
With the success of Dawn of War, Relic wasted no time in preparing an expansion pack. Although they had many races to choose from, Relic decided to expand on the already present Imperial Guard, and the results are impressive. Once again Relic has drawn on the volumes of information present in the WH40K table top game, ripping the Imperial Guard units straight from the codexes. The Imperial Guard are not the only race to get an update in Winter Assault, each of the other races also get some additional love.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4337g.JPG
4 new unit types:
Space Marines- Chaplain. A high powered melee character unit, equipped with the Crozius Arcanum.
Eldar- Fire Dragon Aspect Warriors, equipped with Fusion Cannons.
Chaos- Khorne Berserkers, close combat Chaos Marines
Orc- Nob Squads equipped in ‘Eavy Power Armor
2 campaigns types, the good campaign with Imperial Guard and Space Marines, and the bad campaign with Ork and Chaos.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4335.JPG
Bunkering- Bunkers not only produce your Imperial Guard infantry units, squads may enter bunkers and defend them. More squad members in the bunkers give the squad access to additional heavy weapons beyond their unit capacity.
Build able defenses for the Imperial Guard
Imperial Guard Units-
Sentinels
Ogryn (squad based heavy fighters equipped with Ripper Guns)
Commissar (Squad leader, can kill squad members to boost morale).
Sanctioned Pyskers (Powerful psyker units, that have the potential to backfire on themselves when using psychic powers)
The Bane Blade, a super heavy tank from Epic 40k, is the Imperial Guard Super Unit, the equal of the Land Raider, the Squiggoth, the Avatar, and the Bloodthirster.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4344.JPG
The demo was gorgeous, and made me want to go home and fire up Dawn of War to get my fix. The expansion shows great promise, and if it’s successful in the stores, it could pave the way for the full incorporation of the WH40K universe into Dawn of War.
Praise the Emperor!
Stubbs the Zombie
Wideload and Aspyr
Xbox
I stumbled upon this game while wandering the expo floor, and it immediately caught my eye. Why? Because my first glimpse of the game was the main character snacking on, you guessed it, someone’s brain. Chris Cobd was on hand at the booth and gave me the run down. Your objective, as Stubbs, is to infect the human population, turning them into a ravenous horde of flesh eating monsters. Newly made zombies will act on their own, but can be forcefully directed by the player so they can assist in infecting humans. Cute features include the ability to detach your hand, and send it crawling through tight spaces. Your hand can serve as a scout for you, in addition to attacking humans. If you are sneaky, and a human does not notice your hand approaching, you can latch on to the heads of humans and control their minds, allowing you use of human weaponry.
I didn’t get much time to play the demo, but I had a good time none the less. While this may not be one of the high powered titles at E3 this year, I think it will definitely be worth the time to play when it releases.
The Suffering: The Ties that Bind
Surreal Software/Midway
PC/PS2/Xbox
Release: Fall 2005
If you missed the original The Suffering, you over looked something special. The Suffering is and was a 1st/3rd person action. While the game play was nothing revolutionary, The Suffering excelled at creating an atmosphere that kept you on your toes and jumping at shadows. Clever scare tricks like sudden hallucinations, haunted visitations, and a grim and bloody story line kept you playing the game, even when you had exhausted most aspects of game play. As Torque you were constantly faced with moral decisions in game that determined what really happened when Torque’s family died.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB1.jpg
In the sequel, you once again play Torque, a condemned man convicted of murdering his wife and children. After his escape from Carnate Island Penitentiary, Torque finds himself in Baltimore, and once again all hell has broken loose. Monsters from Carnate have found their way into the city, and once again challenge Torque as he works towards understanding his own dark and confused past. The monsters from the original Suffering make another appearance, in addition to a whole new group of horrors, each designed around a particular theme relating to their death, such as the junkie monster, which is stuck full of hypodermic needles. Or the blade monster which has sword for limbs.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB2.jpg
New additions to game play include an expanded list of weapons and a melee attack for Torque while he has a weapon equipped. As an added bonus, if you have your old save file from the original Suffering, you can reload it for The Ties That Bind, continuing the story where you left off in the last game. But don’t worry, having not played the first one will not inhibit your gaming, or the story line. Rather, having the old save file just further cements what you already knew about the the Torque YOU played. Continuing on the good track will reveal who actually killed Torque's family (yawn). Continuing down the evil path will demonstrate just how low Torque can go. And continuing down the neutral path...we...you're neutral, so no one really cares what you think! This is actually where my save file has left off, so I'm kind of intrested to see what the outcome is.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB3.jpg
On returning to the Surreal Booth, I got to talk to Richard Rouse of Surreal . He was majorly responsible for writing the back story of the first Suffering, as well as the second. After kowtowing to him for being able to get such a twisted, mind bending story to work perfectly within the game, I pumped him for more answers.
Firstly, I got assurances that like Carnate Island, the city of Baltimore is also like a prison, trapping the people that live there. As it Baltimore in reality wasn't already dark and forebodeing, after the "mysterious" earthquake that kicked off the original game, the weirdness and darkness are amped up. Surreal is again going for a closed enviroment, except instead of keep it strictly limited to an island, now they have the flexibility to make an entire city go straight to hell.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB4.jpg
One gripe I voiced to Richard Rouse, was that, even though the story and the atmosphere of The Suffering kicked butt, the gameplay didn't care through the entire game. About half way through, the majority of weapons had been recieved, you had maxed out the potential for your insanity mode, and the only things left to the player were to see the last few enemies, and to read the last chapter of the Torque's time on Carnate.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB5.jpg
I was assured that steps have been taken to guarentee that gameplay has more to it than in the previous game. For one, the Insanity mode now changes based on your alignment, resulting in a different look, and different attacks. I was told it also allowed you to assume the powers of your foes, although I didn't get to see that demonstrated. A greatly expanded list of weapons such as multiple meele weapons, different versions of the same weapon type, means that The Ties that Bind will offer the player more choices on how they want to play the game.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB6.jpg
I also wanted to know about the scare tactics. One of the best parts of the original game in my opinion, they sucked you into the whole insanity of Torque's mind, confusing you and just plain weirding you out. While Richard Rouse wouldn't specifically say anything about them, he affirmed that those little psychological tricks have a big place in the game, and his self satisfied smile told me it was probably devious as hell.
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB7.jpg
But is the story still there? The biggest theme of the storyline is that you never really know if Torque is just bat **** crazy, or if there really is all this weird stuff going on until the end. Baltimore, as with Carnate Island, is depicted as a cesspool of human suffering and evil. With long histories of atrocities and bloodshed, the city radiates evil that is just barely contained. And as with Carnate Island, there was a catalyst to the insanity. Torque. It was never really explained in the original why Torque made it all happen (or if it really did happen). Perhaps the answer is coming in TTB.
And the story will grow. I was surprised to learn that, not only is the deranged and brilliant Dr. Killjoy making a return to the story, but two new antagonists. The Creeper, a dark, rotund appartion that appears to Torque much like Kill Joy, and the mysterious Blackburrow, who apparently is responsible for getting Torque sent to jail in the first place. Maybe each one is tied to the alignment chain you follow, who knows?
http://nenjin.thesafehouse.org/Suffering%20TTB9.jpg
I felt that, between the Xbox and PS2 demos, the PS2 looked much cleaner and crisper. I don't think I really got the time to enjoy any game while at E3, the environment isn't very conducive to getting into a game as atmosphereic as The Suffering. But I think it's definetly worth a look, and if game play can be kept up (or at least extended) throughout game play, they've got more than a solid title. They've got a hit.
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Konami
Fall 2005
Ah, Castlevania. I was thrilled when I read about this latest release from Konami, and it has been at the top of my list since. After muscling my way to the booth, I got my hands on the demo.
Konami received a fair amount of criticism for their last Castlevania Title, Lament of Innocence. While the game was visually impressive, and combat was fun and entertaining, fans complained that the game play was shallow, compared to the hours upon hours of things to do in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which to this day is considered one of the best Castlevania games of all time (and arguably was one of the last and greatest side scroller action-RPGs). Konami took this criticism to heart, and it showed in the demo. Curse of Darkness, on first impressions, is a fusion of the 2 games, combining Lament’s fast paced, combo driven combat, with Symphony’s sprawling level design and RPG elements, such as item collection, experience, and skill acquisition.
A new twist in game play is the addition of “Innocent Devils”, spirits which are allies of the main character, and will fight along side you at your behest. Each Innocent Devil has a range of attack abilities which you can call upon, as well as utility actions, such as allowing you to glide over pits.
My first impression of the demo (which was fairly limited), is that the game is more Lament than it is Symphony. One of my primary complaints about Lament was the simplistic level design. While the textures were beautiful (and are again in Curse of Darkness) in Lament, they served to disguise the fact that most rooms/areas were unimaginatively designed, and were often redundant. In the short time I played the demo, I got the feeling that had not changed much. I moved the main character from room section to room section, killed the enemies, and moved on, finding very little to interact with beyond the enemies. I only played through a handful of rooms however, and so I think it’s very premature to write off the game as embodying the worst parts of Lament. The RPG elements in the demo were not very prevalent, as many options in the character menu were marked as ??????, and the main character did not have any items or armor to speak of. Again, my exposure to Curse of Darkness has still been pretty limited, and I think it definitely warrants a second (and probably third) look. I have faith that Konami will not disappoint. And even if they do, chances are the game will still be an entertaining play through experience. Lament sure was.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
GSC Gameworld/THQ
Release Date Pending (THQ’s website has it pegged in 2006).
Being developed by the Ukrainian company GSC Gameworld based out of Kiev, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a first person shooter/RPG, which emphasizes flexible, non-linear game play. Think Morrowind. The game is set in the 2012, in the Ukraine, and is based around the tragic events of the Chernobyl accident. The game story goes like this. In 2006, a second explosion occurs at the contained reactor. Abruptly, an area of 10 km around the plant goes crazy, heralded by an intense bright light. Gravitational anomalies, toxic dust clouds, and a whole host of bizarre occurrences suddenly spring to life. Not to mention the teeming hordes of mutated beasts and people that crawl from the desolated wreckage around the nuclear plant. The army cordons off the area around the plant, preventing anyone from entering. The area comes to be known as “The Zone”, and as the years pass, the anomalies begin to grow and expand to over 30km in diameter. This is where the player comes in, as a Stalker. An independent “poacher” of sorts, you bravely (and/or foolishly) venture into the zone in search of artifacts, which are items that have acquired special properties from the effects of The Zone. Scientists and traders pay the Stalkers good money for acquiring these items.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R features a non-linear story line where the player chooses where in the zone they want to travel, who they want to work for, and how they want to approach different situations. The game is an RPG in the sense that players explore a world, play a role, and collect items, vehicles and gear that allow them to further explore The Zone. GSC Gameworld has devised an entire eco-system where the different beasts and factions interact with each other, sometimes fighting, or migrating across the Zone, in an effort to create a life like (yet bizarre) world. At the start of every new game, the Zone is randomly populated with creatures and items, meaning that you will never play a game of S.T.A.L.K.E.R the same way twice. GSC’s attention for detail is readily apparent in their website, going to great lengths to describe the lore of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, the items and equipment, and even going as far as to describe how radiation works and is quantified.
Sadly, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is not present at E3 this year (or it’s only being screened in private). Which is surprising, considering that just before E3, GSC Gameworld released new game footage that looked very polished and really showed off the features of their in house developed X-ray engine. (You can find it HERE (http://www.stalker-game.com))So I’m a little puzzled that it’s not present (not to mention disappointed) at E3.
Samurai Showdown V
SNK Playmore
Xbox
Release Date Pending
Samurai Showdown was one of my all time favorite games to play at the Arcades. American fans of the game have routinely been frustrated when trying to get the latest renditions of the game in console format, as Samurai Showdown titles after 3 (and there are many varieties) were not released in the US. So I was pretty excited to learn that the latest game would be released here. Well I was pretty excited…til I sat down to play the demo that is.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/users/nenjin/IMG_4332.JPG
The graphics look as if they were ripped straight from the PlayStation versions, receiving no extra goodness for being produced for the Xbox. The combat seemed to be a little wonky as well. The AI was brutally cheap even in the first fight, and many of the character’s attacks seemed unfinished (where is my heavy slash damnit! It looked just like the light slash!). I can honestly say that the earlier versions of SS for the Playstation managed to look better, and play better than what I saw in the demo. Much disappointment.
That's all I have for today. Check back tomorrow for the final wrap up of E3, including The Safehouse's in depth look at Vanguard.