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The AceGamez Guide to E3 2008
It's E3 time again and 2008 is shaping up to be packed full of promising, high profile game releases. Traditionally the most important parts of the most important games show of the year are the big three's press conferences - and this year there was no shortage of major announcements. So let's skip the lengthy introductions - there are too many great new games to tell you about!
The U.S. giant got things underway on Monday with the news that this fall it would be reinventing the Xbox 360. Not with a new machine or hardware of any kind, but by introducing software called the Xbox Xperience. This will provide Xbox 360 owners with a new interface, new dashboard, and the ability to create avatars, which are personalised characters that sit somewhere between Miis and the lifelike alter egos who will eventually inhabit Sony's Home. It's promised that the avatars will be integrated into all areas of the re-imagined 360 set up, including the new Community Channel, which will show who amongst your friends is currently online and available to party with. Partying was certainly a major theme of the press conference, with the announcement of the new Prime Time channel, in partnership with TV production company Endemol, which will give individuals the chance to play games such as 1 vs. 100 against the rest of the community for real prizes and a new casual game called You're In The Movies which sets you and any friends you have around a series of mini-games and improvisations using the Xbox Live vision camera that it then fits together into a short, mock B-Movie style film that can be shared online. There will also be new partnerships with NBC, Universal and Netflix which not only vastly increase the amount of downloadable TV shows and movies available but also allow you to share these with the other people partying with you over the net, as long as they have the right subscriptions. Microsoft also promised some exciting new Xbox Live Arcade games including Geometry Wars 2, Portal: Still Alive and South Park but their really huge game news came right at the very end of the conference when Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada took to the stage. Initially he showed off Star Ocean: The Last Hope, The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery before disappearing off again, but, just as Don Mattrick was rapping the show up, Wada returned and announces that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to Xbox 360, at least in the U.S. and Europe. As well as all of the above, here are the big games Microsoft were touting at the show: Banjo
Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts A jump of platforms means a jump of focus for the Banjo Kazooie series and, while the bear and bird duo haven't left platforming behind altogether, their new adventure is all about designing and building a serious of strange machines that would have the organisers of the Wacky Races reaching for their rule books. The tale goes that the Lord of Games has been brought in to set a series of challenges that will decide whether Banjo or Gruntilda get the deeds to Spiral Mountain. All of the tests require the construction of vehicles and, thankfully, Banjo seems to have spent the time since his last outing studying for an engineering degree. His workshop contains hundreds of different items, such as body parts, engines and weapons, for him to try and put together to build machines that can travel on land, water and in the air. With numerous ways to attempt each of the tasks, this new direction for the Banjo games could really get the series motoring again. Fable
II Judging by the delight of lead designer Peter Molyneux, it seems he believes that he might just have the game of the year on his hands. Set in the olde-world land of Albion, Fable II is being billed as the ultimate fantasy epic, allowing you to literally live the life of a heroic adventurer who is unique to you. Starting as a small boy or girl, your character will grow and age as the game progresses and you explore the huge world around you. The promised 'one off' experience for every player will come from the morality and social interactions at the game's core, which is packed with personal choices such as how your hero looks and dresses, whether they're married and have children, what quests or other activities they occupy their time with and whether they're good or evil. The main focus of Molyneux's E3 speech, however, was the way that your version of Albion can be filled with orbs showing the positions of other players in their worlds. By going to one of these orbs you can invite that player into your game, without the need for a lobby of any kind, to co-op with you until they decide to leave you to carry on your journey alone. Gears
of War 2 Marcus Fenix, the man who makes all other meatheads look like tofu, is back to stop the evil Locust hordes from once again pillaging the human race - and designer Cliff Blezinski used his press conference demo to show off some of the two player co-op in potentially the 360's sequel of the year (just make sure you whisper that if you're anywhere near Peter Molyneux!) As the duo worked their way down the sides of a vast Locust sinkhole, the entire environment looked to be covered in a layer of grime so thick that even a double dose of Cillit Bang wouldn't get it clean and, at points, everything was engulfed in further clouds of dust and blackened smoke. The action was fast paced, shaky camera, run and gun, with plenty of opportunities for chainsawing, flamethrowing, head stomping and using a Locust as a meat shield, with the famous cover system seemingly as important as ever. In short it looked like classic, brutal Gears. The demo ended tantalisingly at the bottom of the hole with the twosome confronted by a huge Brumak and Marcus asking why, if the Locust can ride them, can't we? Halo
Wars Ensemble Studios has the unenviable task of trying to convince the gaming world that one of the greatest first person shooters ever can also provide an amazing strategy experience. Set before the original Halo, Halo Wars once again sees the UNSC locked in combat with the Covenant but, whereas in past Halo games you had a chief but not enough Indians, now you've got plenty of Indians but no chief - and it's up to you, as well as a buddy if you fancy playing co-op, to guide the forces of good to victory over the course of the campaign mode. The developers have tried to create a simple control system that uses as few buttons and movements as possible, while the resource management options guarantee the creation of lots of familiar units for you to boss around, such as Scorpions, Spartans, and, of course, Warthogs. On the multiplayer front, Halo Wars' skirmish mode will allow up to six real or A.I. competitors to pick from either the UNSC or the Covenant to take each other on. Lips Up until now, one of the main things missing from the 360's casual line up was the chance for people to recreate the sound of Alvin and the Chipmunks being strangled to a backing track of the latest popular music. Gladly those sad days are soon to be a thing of the past - thanks to Lips. While the name might sound like an Eighties nightclub, Lips is actually a karaoke game with wireless, motion sensitive, light up microphones. This might just look like Microsoft's answer to Sony's SingStar, but here comes the difference: Lips will allow gamers to sing along to tunes on their own with music devices like iPods and Zunes, and it's exactly how this last point will work that could have other makes of similar games doing some serious pouting. Too
Human Gamers waiting for Silicon Knights' much vaunted title have been a patient bunch and, with a demo of the early stages of the title now available on Marketplace, their wait is soon to be over. Trying to pin down a release date for Too Human is about as difficult as trying to pin down what the game is actually about. Set against a background of Norse mythology and science fiction, the story sees machines trying to defeat the human race by becoming more human, whilst humans try to protect their species by developing their abilities using machine-based cybernetics. The genre bending gameplay combines role playing elements, such as skill trees and a levelling system, with the hunting and gathering of dungeon crawling, as well as fast paced action combat that rewards more impressive moves, all of which can be enjoyed alone or in two player co-op.
Nintendo spent a considerable portion of their press conference taking about how great it is to be Nintendo and showing how much fun it is to play Nintendo. After speaking about their success in creating a new paradigm in videogaming, they then went on to show how they planed to keep the revolution moving forward. Firstly there will be two new pieces of kit to link up to your Wii; Wii Speak, a kind of open mic that picks up all the sounds from a room no matter how many people there are, and Wii Motion Plus, a small device that attaches to the bottom of the Wiimote to make it more precise and responsive to movements. The company were also keen to get across the message that both of their machines are ideal for both hardcore and casual games and that third party support is helping to achieve this. To prove their point they showed upcoming Wii titles Shaun White Snowboarding, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party and Call of Duty: World at War for the Wii, and DS games Spore Creatures, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Guitar Hero On Tour Decades (which will allow song sharing with the original Guitar Hero: On Tour). The big announcement for Nintendo's handheld, however, was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and, although only a logo for this was shown, there was confirmation that it will be set in a modern day Liberty City with a customised game engine and new characters. Animal
Crossing: City Folk A game without any specific goals might seem like an obvious bust on paper but it's the character and attention to detail in Animal Crossing titles that has made the franchise so popular. Now the series has hit the Wii you once again have the chance to live in and manage your own town where life goes quietly on, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, albeit this time using the Wiimote to move your character around. Important calendar days, such as Easter and Halloween, will be celebrated, you will be able to indulge in wholesome activities such as fishing and fossil hunting, involve yourself in transactions with Tom Nook or simply try and get things just how you want them. If all this gets too boring though, you can now jump on a bus and head into the city and visit new places such as a fashion designer's and a beauty salon. The staple community parts of Animal Crossing will return once again, only this time enhanced thanks to the ability to use the new Wii Speak to talk to other players and download content to your DS. Wii
Sports Resort The first game to be announced that will feature the new Wii Motion Plus functionality will also come bundled with one of the little add-ons packed to fit on to your Wiimote. Bringing fun in the sun to your Wii, the title picks up where the original Wii Sports left off by giving you another collection of mini-games, this time based around a day at the beach. These include Disk Dog, where you use Wiimote motions to throw a Frisbee to allow your dog to catch it before it hits the sand, a jet ski racing event, which requires you to hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk as if you were gripping the handlebars to steer and rev the throttle to go faster, and a sword fighting game. Other activities of the kind you would normally get up to on a beach vacation will also be included (although it's unlikely these will be based around a British holiday, as these would involve using the Wiimote to mimic the actions of downing fifteen pints as fast as you can, getting into a fight and eating a kebab before, finally, trying to be sick in a dustbin and missing.) Wii
Music Saved for the last big announcement at their E3 press conference, Nintendo has chosen to enter into the music game genre in their own unique way. Billed as a game for all ages and musical abilities, Wii Music is a title that doesn't require precise timing to hit notes; instead it concentrates much more on players physically improvising playing instruments and then fits appropriate sounds in around this. Playing the guitar, for example, requires you to hold the Wiimote in one hand and the Nunchuk into the other, as if you were holding an invisible guitar and then pretend to play this in whatever way you feel like. There will be over fifty instruments to tackle including the piano, saxophone, trumpet, bagpipes and a range of percussion options, with some instruments also having lessons modes attached to them and the drums also allowing the incorporation of the Wii Balance Board to operate the foot pedals. The game will even feature a chance to conduct an orchestra and to record and share your performances with others.
With the most active consoles currently on the market, time at Sony's press conference was certainly at a premium, but the Japanese electronics giant still managed to get round all the bases with some interesting announcements along the way. While Sony didn't respond in kind to the Microsoft 360 price tinkering, they did confirm the replacement of their 40GB core pack with a new 80GB model at the same price point in the U.S. of $399. The company hope that this extra space will encourage owners to make more use of their improving online services. The recently revamped PlayStation Store will now house a much larger range of content, in HD and standard definition, from the likes of Sony Pictures, FOX, MGM, Warner and Disney, including films such as Cloverfield and Rambo, which can either be rented or purchased. The developments in this area of the console's capabilities will also finally provide a use for the much-touted connectivity between the PS3 and PSP, with owned content that's been downloaded capable of transfer for viewing on the handheld device. Also coming to the store in the near future are a new wave of games including the headlining Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty and Buzz!, the unique Flower and the humorous Rag Doll Kung Fu. As for Home, Sony insist that this is still on the way, with dedicated spaces for companies such as EA and Ubisoft, and games such as Resistance and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Finally, in terms of games in shops, the company confirmed that a range of top selling titles, such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas and Ninja Gaiden: Sigma will now be available in the U.S. for the knock down price of $29.99. As well as the strengthened bond with the PS3, the big news for the PSP was that it was going to get its own Resistance game, called Resistance Retribution, which will be a third person shooter rather than the first person view of its PS3 big brother, as well as sequels to Loco Roco and Patapon, while the PS2 would continue to receive versions of top titles such as Tiger Woods 09 and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. God
of War III Thanks to the shortest of short trailers, Sony confirmed that Kratos is smashing his way towards the PS3. Although no gameplay footage was actually shown during the clip, it's probably reasonable to expect that the game will feature the same brutal, hack and slash third person violence resulting from the misbehaviour of the gods that has made the games in the series to date so great. inFAMOUS Watching an entire city explode in one giant bang is a pretty mind blowing experience, but seeing it happen on the title screen of a game and then finding your character left standing in the middle of the blast crater with lightning arcing around him definitely raises the stakes several notches further. Playing as Cole, your task in inFAMOUS is to try and get to the bottom of what has happened in Empire City, and what has happened to you as well, as you now seem to have become some sort of modern day super hero with abilities such as shooting lightning from your hands and lifting objects into the air using electromagnetism, and weaknesses that also seem to revolve around electricity. Along the way the most difficult discovery you will make, however, is whether your actions have been for good or evil. Killzone
2 While the single player aspect of Killzone 2 is still very much an enigma - with not much known apart from the fact that it will see the humans retaliating to the Helghast attack from the first game by invading their enemy's home planet of Helghan - some new information has now emerged concerning the multiplayer component. This will support up to thirty-two players and, initially, provide eight maps, with the ability mess around with options to suit player preferences. There will be six distinctive styles for characters to be based on, each of which has two special abilities, but it will also be possible to mix abilities from different styles to create, for example, an engineer/medic. Also up for grabs will be ribbons and medals for completing specific tasks and the game will even include the ability to form clans who can then compete against each other for in-game currency. LittleBigPlanet Unless you've had your head buried in a bag for the last year, you'll surely be aware of the big expectations on the little shoulders of Sackboy and Sackgirl. The real joy of LittleBigPlanet is that so much has been put into creating the ultimate blank canvas. There are levels for you to work through, all of which have been built by the developers from some of the mammoth amounts of real world materials, like wood and sponge. The longevity of the game, however, comes from the chance for players to use exactly the same tools as the developers, including sampled sounds and noises, to create levels of their own from the almost endless options on offer, and then share these online. MotorStorm:
Pacific Rift For MotorStorm's second outing, Evolution Studios has decided to ditch the desert and turn to the tropics. A Hawaiian islands setting provides the backdrop this time around for the racing action, which is still more like wars on wheels, and, introduced with the new venue, is a new vehicle class - monster trucks - which joins the buggies, rally cars and the like from the first title. Another addition is a sideways boost move that allows you to indulge in some even more aggressive barging, especially with the larger machines. There will be sixteen tracks, online racing options and four-player split screen. Tactics during the mayhem will once again come from the multiple route choices around each course that favour different vehicles and the boost meter. On top of this you'll need to keep an eye out for areas of water, which can cool your engine down, and bits of scenery that can separate you from your ride as you dodge between the vines and volcanoes. Resistance
2 During Sony's E3 media conference, the lack of time spent on the long hyped Killzone 2 was most likely down to the attention given to Insomniac Games' Resistance 2 - which can only be described as massive. As the first major game presented to the audience, the demo began with the central character from the first Resistance, Nathan Hale, on a city rooftop. Suddenly everything begins to shake and a huge monster, easily pushing 300ft tall, lumbers out from between the skyscrapers and starts to bat Hale around from building to building whilst our hero tries to find some way to fight back. It's an awesome set piece and one that apparently sets the tone for the huge scale that Resistance 2 is trying to capture. Now set in the 1950s with the alien Chimeran invading America, the storyline will shed more light on the aliens' origin and their link to Hale, and the player can experience all of this through a choice of options including single player, up to eight player co-op and sixty-person online multiplayer. M.A.G.
(Massive Action Game) Not to be outdone by Microsoft's 'one last thing', Sony unveiled their own in the form of M.A.G., a modern day shooter from Zipper Interactive. The big selling point here will be the size of the battles, which will accommodate up to 256 players who will be split up into squads of eight, each of which will be led by players who have shown themselves to be strong leaders. The announcement of the title also included the mention of character advancement trees that allow players to tune their soldiers, adding further depth during these massive battle royales. As well as the announcements from the trio of console manufacturers, there was plenty on offer from the many other games publishers showing a strong presence at the show. Here are a few details on a selection of the other big games featured at E3, which are listed in alphabetical order by publisher. Bethesda Softworks Fallout
3 Sometimes even a nuclear apocalypse isn't enough to keep a family together, especially a single parent one living in a fallout shelter. With your dad one day performing a mysterious disappearing act, your character in Fallout 3 decides to head out into the ruins of Washington D.C in 2277 to try to find him. Along the way he'll take on quests and run into powerful factions, including the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel, who Fallout fanatics will already be intimately familiar with. The game's world is slated to be as large as that of Oblivion and to get around it you will have the choice to play in first or third person view, as well as the chance to customise your character using various skills and perks in a similar way to previous Fallout titles. Whilst the combat in Fallout 3 can be played out in real-time, the new VATS system allows you to basically pause time, giving you the chance to unleash some awesome attacks that lead to what the developers have referred to as ludicrously entertaining violence. Capcom Bionic
Commando A twenty-year wait for a proper sequel to one of the most popular and notorious games of all-time comes to an end this year when Nathan 'Rad' Spencer finally swings back into view. After his efforts in the original Bionic Commando you'd think that Rad would by now be enjoying a well-earned retirement at the pleasure of the U.S. government - and you'd be half right. Unfortunately, the way the state is providing Rad with his room and board is by dumping him in prison for crimes he didn't commit, where he awaits execution. That is until an experimental weapon is detonated, destroying Ascension City, and the government, very generously, decide to release Spencer to sort out the crisis. Once again, the man who is basically Tarzan 2.0 will need to rely on the swinging, blasting and object moving abilities of his bionic arm to make his way through the environments, and with Super Joe from the first game also confirmed as a returning character, there's no telling who else might make an appearance. Street
Fighter IV If you loved Street Fighter II then the chances are that you've already made up your mind to buy Street Fighter IV. Already available in Japanese arcades, SF IV, which is set between the second and third titles in the series, is now also definitely headed for home consoles. Featuring the entire cast of immortals from Street Fighter II, including the four boss characters, the game also includes a quartet of new faces - Crimson Viper, an American female with long red hair, El Fuerte, a luchador, and Abel and Rufus, who are both martial arts experts. While the game has certainly moved on visually from previous outings, Street Fighter IV still has more of the series' 2D DNA flowing through it than just its roster of combatants, so both old and new players alike will be hoping that it can live up to both its hype and its proud history. Resident
Evil 5 You can imagine that the first meeting held by Capcom to discuss the sequel to the much revered RE4 probably contained phrases such as "let's not screw this up" and "if it ain't broke..." As such, RE5 is looking distinctly like a next gen version of its predecessor, which isn't a bad thing at all. That isn't to say that the game doesn't see some important changes. Chris Redfield from the original Resi returns as the lead character, replacing Leon S. Kennedy, and is accompanied by a new character called Sheva. Chris now works for an organisation called the B.S.A.A who investigate incidents of bioterrorism - and he has travelled to Africa with Sheva in tow, to try and trace the roots of the T-virus. Unfortunately, their welcoming committee is a whole town of infected locals, wielding machetes, giant hammers, chainsaws and other objects you'll want to keep well away from. Having Sheva around allows for on or offline, jump in/jump out two-player co-op, or if you can't find a friend, the A.I. takes control, providing covering fire and helping you to access parts of levels that cannot otherwise be reached. Some of the features that Capcom are particularly pleased with include the ability to switch weapons, ammo and items between the two characters on the fly and the new environments, which are more destructible than ever. With Capcom positively encouraging talk that RE5 will tie up many loose ends from past titles, you can bet that you may well run into more than one familiar face from the past before the game is no longer resident in your console. Codemasters Operation
Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising Still at a stage where the developers are releasing very little in the way of information, this follow up to Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis looks set on retaining the themes and high standards of its predecessor. The events of Dragon Rising are set on a semi-fictitious island in the Pacific Ocean, which has become a battleground between U.S. and China, and the game aims to be advanced in terms of both graphics and realism. With an expected area of around one hundred square miles, a multitude of weapons and vehicles, as well as up to thirty-two players online and eight in co-op, Dragon Rising is likely to spark more and more interest the closer it gets to release. EA Command
& Conquer: Red Alert 3 Time-travelling to mess with history is a dangerous game, and one that, in Red Alert 3, the Soviets wish they had never got involved in. By going back into the past and eliminating Albert Einstein they failed to wipe out their old rivals, the Allies, and have now created a brand new enemy: The Empire of the Rising Sun. With all three factions vying to become the world's sole superpower, Command & Conquer once again throws you into the fast paced, tech-tree-driven development of a vast list of units, all of whom now have secondary abilities, to wage a crazy war on the ground, in the sky and on water, with the comical bent of the Red Alert series driving everything forward. Dead
Space There aren't many games where you main concern is how you're going to go about cutting off your enemies limbs but, in Dead Space, it should be your first thought in almost every situation. Sent into the depths of the universe in the distant future to repair a stranded mining ship, engineer Isaac Clarke needs to use all the tools he can find as rudimentary weapons against the evil he discovers on the vessel, and these guys don't go down without a serious fight - so serious in fact that just pumping rounds into them just won't do the trick. Instead you're going to have to think carefully about how you can change the odds in your favour. Needless to say, the game is looking very futuristic, with its hologramatic inventory and node levelling up systems, and also very much like a giant, haunted house, lost in the infinite blackness of space. Facebreaker If you've been searching for some over the top, old skool, arcade boxing action with crazy, action figure style characters beating each other into a bloody pulp in a variety of hilarious ways then make a note of the name Facebreaker, because it's promising to deliver everything you need. The game includes thirteen characters - twelve playable and one left a mystery - who go by names such as Voodoo and Molotov, but if these aren't enough then you can create your own pugilist and even stick your face on him or her and put them on the EA Sports website. The combat itself is based around basic high and low punch controls and a series of increasingly powerful special moves and there will also be a range of multiplayer party options. FIFA
09 Just as night follows day, you can be certain that the start of each new European football season will be followed by a new version of FIFA. After the dramatic change to much more of a simulator style in the 08 version, the 09 release looks as though it will be concentrating on refining the new product. Much of what's to come will already be familiar to anyone who played UEFA 2008, with enhanced tactical options to make matches, especially those between teams where there's a gulf in class, closer, and slightly increase the speed of play. Probably the best news though is that the innovative but limited Be a Pro mode, where you control just one player rather than the entire team, has been expanded to four whole seasons in length. Left
4 Dead Aiming to put the 'survival' very definitely into 'survival horror', Left 4 Dead sees up to four players co-operating as a group of everyday people who have to help each other escape the onslaught of zombies in four different scenarios, which include a hospital and an area of wooded countryside. Equipped with a range of different weapons and some melee attacks, the survivors will need every trick they can muster to get away with their lives as the game will intelligently throw wave after wave of infected enemies at you, adjusting its difficulty to your abilities and saving the best action for those who can survive even it's toughest challenges. Madden
NFL 09 The granddaddy of sports videogames is celebrating its Twentieth anniversary and EA has decided on this of all this years to take their titular hall-of-famer, Mr Madden, off in-game commentary and replace him and Al Michaels with Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth. John is still appearing in the game as your guide through the new Tron-like virtual trainer, which not only lets you run the usual practice drills but also uses these to give you your very own Madden IQ, which can then be used to customise the difficulty accordingly. While the weapons system from last year returns with an update, completely new features include stadium exteriors and the backtrack feature, which reviews plays after they have taken place to give you tips on where you got it right or went hopelessly wrong. As well as the standard version of Madden 09, a special anniversary edition will also be available and will come with a second game, NFL Head Coach, which is devoted to managing teams rather controlling them. Mercenaries
2: World in Flames Trying to sum up Mercs 2 in a single word leads to some obvious suggestions such as "destruction" and "devastation" but, according to the developers, the correct one is "Yes". Can I go wherever I want? "Yes." Can I steal that car? "Yes." Can I have my helicopter support deliver a monster truck right to my feet in ten seconds' time? "Yes." Can I take control of that helicopter flying above me by attaching my grappling hook to it and then get into a fun mini-game to wrestle the controls from the pilot? "Yes." In my time in between missions, when I'm hanging out with my Merc friends in our villa, can I take on wagers from them to try insane things? "Yes." Can I blow up that bridge with an air strike? "Yes…" No wait, can I take it out with a tactical nuke? "YES!" There is a plot, which sees the game set in the lush environments of Venezuela as you try and hunt down a drug lord, but the only real thing you need to know is that Pandemic Studios are about to light a fire under your console that could fuel the most ridiculously anarchic fun you've ever had. Mirror's
Edge Attempting to bring a new perspective to first person games, Mirror's Edge is a title that strives to put movement ahead of combat in a genre where main characters could, for all the player knows, often quite easily be motorised dessert trolleys with human arms attached for holding weapons. Set in a sterile, future city run by a big brother-esque ruler, the heroine, Faith, is a messenger who delivers information around town using free running moves to evade the authorities. To help find routes across rooftops and through buildings, Faith's special ability to spot useful objects is represented by these items being highlighted so that you can use them to string moves together and keep Faith's momentum going, which is vital to getting safely to your destination. Skate
It Finally the Wii Balance Board can be used for something other than trying to get rid of your double stomach and third chin. Skate It once again returns to the skater's dream city of San Vanelona, the setting for the original skate, but also takes its challenges to other locations around the world. Playing the game with the Balance Board requires applying pressure to different areas of the peripheral to recreate all of the different moves included in the first skate, plus some new ones. Thankfully for those who have lost the will to stand, the game can also be controlled using the Nunchuk to steer and Wiimote motions that mimic the movements of your character's board. Spore Trying to describe Spore can be difficult. Creator Will Wright has called it a 'massive single player online game' and it's probably true to say that it's about life, the universe and almost everything. Your task is to begin with a single cell in a tide pool and, through a series of stages, each of which you can spend as much or as little time in as you wish, develop this into a creature, a species, a community and then a world before heading out into the stars to see what wonders they hold. Whilst Spore is a one-player experience, its evolution will be dictated by every individual who owns the game, thanks to the hugely important community aspect that allows players to share the creatures they have created with others who can use them to populate their own worlds. The
Sims 3 Someway off, but still one of the biggest games on the horizon, The Sims 3 doesn't seem to be planning any massive overhaul of the template that won the series so many fans, but rather improving the graphics and adding further content to make it even more immersive. There will be more options to personalise your Sim, including adding their own individual traits, and the world around them, with a particular emphasis on creating a seamless and vibrant outside world where events are happening all the time. Tiger
Woods PGA Tour 09 Although the real Tiger may be done for the season following his gimpy legged antics at the U.S. Open, there was no chance that his virtual alter ego wouldn't be making his regular appearance. While much of the gameplay remains basically unchanged from last year, there will be five new courses, including Sheshan in Shanghai and Wolf Creek, along with a whole golf bag full of famous and upcoming pros. The most noticeable differences, however, come from the way your golfer's skills now develop dynamically as you play, and the ability to tune your clubs, adding power but reducing accuracy on your driver, for example, or changing its balance to compensate for a natural tendency you may have to hook or slice the ball. Warhammer
Online: Age of Reckoning With such a rich font of talent for creating fantasy races, characters and settings, players of MMOs surely cannot fail to enjoy entering Warhammer's Age of Reckoning. Featuring all the aspects you would expect to find in an online RPG, including six different races, character and armour progression, and enough quests and content to fill the pages of the game's vast Tome of Knowledge, there are also many special touches. Capital cities will be living, breathing entities that level up as time passes, opening up more options to the players as they do, while the public quests and open grouping system will hopefully make finding others to join with no longer such a chore. With so much included, this is one game designed to stop you shouting "WOW!" and get you screaming "WAR!" instead. Eidos Interactive Tomb
Raider: Underworld Lara is back once again for more heart-pumping artefact hunting around the globe. Beginning in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Underworld will also take our heroine to places such as Central America, the Thai jungles and the frozen north and, thanks to the all new animations and move sets, Lara will be able to interact in extremely realistic ways with her environment, balance walk along beams, wall kick to get to higher locations, carry out new melee attacks and shoot her dual pistols at two different foes simultaneously. With puzzle solving and fights against natural enemies once again topping Lara's activities, developers Crystal Dynamics are hoping that Underworld will be a definite return to form for the series. Konami Silent
Hill: Homecoming The homecoming referred to in the title of this new Silent Hill is that of main character Alex Shepherd, a soldier who comes back to his home town of Shepherd's Glen to try and find his missing brother; but it could just as easily refer to the series' return to its usual psychological nightmare. While Alex doesn't find his lost sibling, immediately he does run into a mysteriously thick fog, and we all know where things are going next - downhill, and fast. Thanks to his army training, Alex has a bit more fighting experience than previous Silent Hill victims and, as such, he can fend off new enemies, such as skinless dogs, and old ones, like the famous disfigured nurses, by blocking and jumping out of the way of attacks and making better use of the weapons he finds, which range from pipes to shotguns. While Alex's story will stand alone in the Silent Hill universe, there's the possibility that there may be some crossover moments with previous games and that you'll reach one of a number of multiple endings depending upon how you play. LucasArts Fracture The title of Day 1 Studios' new shooter refers not only to its storyline, which sees the United States of the future split into two factions, but also to its main selling point: the ability to break up and alter the very ground you fight upon. You play as Jet Brody, warrior for the cybernetics specialists of the Atlantic Alliance, who are fighting a war against the western Republic of Pacifica, whose structure is based upon genetics. While the back story may be noteworthy, it's just how tactically fast paced things can get that should draw most of the attention and this is down to the way each battlefield can be a constantly changing entity, thanks to the game's weapons, which allow the ground to be raised and lowered in an instant. Star
Wars: The Force Unleashed While LEGO Star Wars was fun in a cute kind of way, it never really had the dark malevolence and amazing heroics that many fans crave from the films' source material. It's exactly this that The Force Unleashed is trying to bring as it bridges the gap between Episodes III and IV with a whole new chapter where you play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice, slowly building your powers as you wipe out the last few Jedi and making some tough moral decisions along the way to get to one of the game's multiple endings. The real stars in this war, however, are the various physics systems that have been brought together to not only create your character's awesome force powers but also the lifelike responses to these of the poor saps who get to witness, first hand, their amazing effects. Midway Mortal
Kombat vs. DC Universe It's a simple equation: take a group of the most brutal videogame fighters ever created and have them go toe to toe with a selection of the most famous characters ever to grace the pages of a comic book - the tagline 'worlds collide' is absolutely right. With plenty of your favourites on both side of the divide, such as Scorpion, Sub Zero, Superman and Batman, reproduced in massive character models that take very obvious visual beatings as fights develop, MK vs. DC is definitely one brutal game to play. There are even moments in battles when things get so intense that special, quick mini-games arise as the characters continue to fight while they fall hundreds of feet through the air or crash through walls. After all this, the final act is to deliver a finishing move to your defeated opponent, with MK characters and DC villains each having their own fatalities, while DC heroes sign off with brutalities. TNA
Impact At the present time there are definite parallels between TNA's position in the videogame world and its position in the actual wrestling world - walking in the imposing shadow of the WWE. This new game is trying to achieve success in the same way that the product it's based upon has, by providing an entertaining alternative to its main rival. Focusing on quick paced, hard hitting play with lots of extreme moves and matches, like Ultimate X, and featuring fan favourites such as A.J. Styles, Kurt Angle and Abyss, all with their signature move sets, Impact is definitely striving to recreate that essential TNA experience, which is somewhere between backyard and Broadway. Wheelman Positioning itself somewhere between Burnout Paradise and Grand Theft Auto IV, and probably closest in ideology to films such as The Transporter, Wheelman is a game where, for the most part, your car is your weapon, with a neat sideswipe move that's particularly useful for whacking other vehicles off the road or making sudden lane changes. While the title is free roaming and there will be sections where you are on foot and have to rely on a range of standard guns, the emphasis is on trying to recreate those thrill ride, car chase sequences in blockbuster films. With your character modelled on actor Vin Diesel and the plot casting you as an undercover government agent trying to infiltrate the Mafia in Barcelona, there certainly seems to be lots of scope to burn some serious rubber around some beautiful locations. MTV Games Rock
Band 2 One year on from the original Rock Band and the music/rhythm genre is now one of the most important in the video gaming industry. With Guitar Hero: World Tour biting at their heels with its promise of original song creation, Harmonix has decided not to go down the same route, for the time being at least, instead concentrating on listening to fan feedback to improve many areas of the original title. Along with new options for single player that focus on individual instruments, downloadable songs can now be used in Band World Tour mode and there will be new Battle of The Bands challenges posted online daily for people to compete in. While the old instruments from the first Rock Band will continue to work with the sequel, a new set of improved versions will also be released that are not only more durable but also feature pressure sensitive drums and an optional extra cymbal pack. It will also be possible to import all previously downloaded content, along with most of the songs on the original disk, into the new game; when combined with the eighty-four all-new master tracks included with the second title, this should be more than enough to keep everyone rocking until this time next year. SEGA Sonic
Unleashed Still trying to recapture that old Sonic magic from the first few games in the series, Sonic Unleashed is a title that's definitely based around the speed and platforming of the 2D games but set in a 3D world. Once again Dr Eggman has gotten his hands on the Chaos Emeralds and used them to split the planet up into different sections and it's up to Sonic to put everything back together. To help him, Sonic has new sidestep and drift moves, as well as an energy bar that's filled by collecting rings, which allow the hedgehog to unleash awesome speed bursts to get through each of the levels, which have various branching pathways. On top of all this, Sonic will also have a new alter ego, called Werehog, who has his very own special abilities. Let's just hope that SEGA can do the blue blur justice after the travesty that was Sonic The Hedgehog released on 360 and PS3 last year. Sierra Entertainment Ghostbusters:
The Video Game Children of the Eighties rejoice! Not only is one of the greatest films from your youth getting its very own videogame, it's getting a videogame that's getting a lot of love and attention from the original cast of the film, as well as developers Terminal Reality. Set in between the first and second movies, you play a new Ghostbuster taken on initially by Egon and Ray to test out some of Egon's inventions. When the paranormal world starts building its powers again, however, you get to hop into the Ecto-1 and fire up your Proton Pack to help your four employers take on the likes of Slimmer, Gozer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. As one of the pre-E3 trailers for the game quite rightly asked "This Fall, who you gonna call?" THQ Saints
Row 2 While the main story mode is said to be much darker than that of the first game, there's no getting away from the fact that Saints Row 2 is still going to be crazy with a capital K. Waking from a coma in a prison hospital some years after the conclusion of the original title, your job is to first help your character break out and then take back the streets of Stilwater from the three gangs who have gained power since your Saints Row crew disintegrated. Both the character creation features, which include body appearance, outfits, masks, and even makeup, and the size of the city have greatly increased this time around. As with other sandbox games, there are missions to complete and a weird array of other activities to pass your time with, so the ultra over-the-top nature of Saints Row 2 is sure to win it more than a few followers. WWE
SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Finding new features to include, and improvements to make, in a yearly franchise is a difficult job, but SmackDown is constantly trying to rework its parts to make them more realistically unrealistic. This time around it's tag matches that have been given a major overhaul, with teammates now sharing special moves and a single momentum bar. The wrestler on the apron will also have more opportunities to interfere with the action in the ring, including obtaining a hot tag that will allow them to burst into the fray to assist their struggling partner. Another new feature, the create-a-finisher section, has been added to the create-a-wrestler options and allows you to put together up to ten different pieces of animation to form the ultimate show stopping bout-ender, while the introduction of Inferno matches to the already long list of main events is sure to get temperatures rising. Ubisoft Brothers
in Arms Hell's Highway Proof that game developers haven't gone completely demob happy on World War II comes from the latest in Gearbox's BiA series, which focuses on Operation Market Garden. With the overarching story dealing with Allied troops fighting behind enemy lines to keep a highway open, some of the latest footage focuses on the way that as well as controlling your own character, Sgt Matt Baker, you will be giving orders to the units in your squad, such as machine gunners and bazooka wielders. As you zigzag from cover point to cover point, these guys are vital to your progress, as they create suppressing fire that helps you flank your enemy and take out tanks that are capable of turning your men into completely the wrong kind of airborne division. On top of all of the fighting, Hell's Highway will also focus on the personal experiences of the soldiers, especially, Baker, all of whom have something to lose. Far
Cry 2 Definitely a game that wears its ambition on its sleeve, Far Cry 2 is an open world title set in Africa, with your character, a mercenary, on the hunt for an arms dealer called The Jackal who is destabilising the region. The lack of linear form to the adventure takes more than a few steps further than similar games before by giving players the complete freedom to ally themselves with whomever they choose, improvise ways to carry out missions using stealth, full frontal brutal force or anything in between, and kill any of the non-playable characters at virtually any point. Prince
of Persia When a developer freely admits that it's taking risks, you know that something exciting could be on the way. Such is the case with the re-imagining of the Prince of Persia series, which introduces a new, non-linear, structure, allowing the story and gameplay to develop in different ways depending upon the path you take, along with a new prince who has no sands of time abilities and a new female companion called Elika. Central to everything you do in the game, Elika is designed to be the ultimate support system; you can summon her to help you in a range of situations, from assisting you in combat to saving your life. Another change that has been made is the move from battles against multiple adversaries to duels against solitary opponents, each one of which is meant to provide the drama of a boss fight. The most obvious difference from previous titles, however, is the new art style, which has been described as illustrative and basically makes the prince's new adventure to defeat the God of Chaos who has escaped from his prison in the Tree of Life play out like an animated graphic novel. Tom
Clancy's EndWar The U.S.A, the Soviet Union and Europe have once more fallen out in a videogame, and yes, it's serious - so serious in fact that energy shortages, the space race and the next step in the nuclear weapons struggle have destabilised the globe to the point where WWIII has been declared. The difference with EndWar is that it's a real-time strategy game that's been streamlined in a way that, rather than dumbing things down, has changed the dynamic to something new for the genre. While types of units and moves are limited, the upgrades and experience levels can add a different angle, as do the various tactical and gameplay choices. However, it's the optional voice control, with its simple click on/click off walkie-talkie instructions, which most embody what EndWar is trying to create: something new and exciting for an already highly developed area of gaming. Tom
Clancy's H.A.W.X. A flight sim set in 2012 in the universe of previous Tom Clancy games, with a storyline that that involves private military companies threatening the U.S.A. sounds like a pretty neat idea. Add to this a campaign that sees you hitting ground targets and dog fighting all over the world from Africa to the Middle East to the skies above Cape Canaveral, high quality satellite mapped level of around 100kms by 100kms and a choice of over fifty jets from F22s to Eurofighters and Migs, and you've got H.A.W.X. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment LEGO
Batman For the first time in a LEGO game, developers Travellers Tales have not had an incredibly famous plot to base their successful template around, so they've come up with their own. It's a dark day (or should that be knight?) for our favourite crime-fighting duo when all of their worst enemies carry out a mass escape from the asylum where they're held - now it's down to the twosome to bring each of the villains back to justice. To do this, you will have to fight your way through numerous goons, collecting the usual LEGO studs and mini kits along the way, and you will need to use a range of vehicles and suits with different abilities to progress. The game will also have its emphasis on action rather than puzzling and, those with a dark side to their nature, will be pleased to hear that half of the levels will allow you to play as some of the different villains such as Mr Freeze, Joker and The Riddler. And
so we come to the end of what has undoubtedly been a very exciting
E3. The second half of 2008 is shaping up to packed to the brim with
blockbusters, with plenty more to follow next year. Now that we're
fully into the next generation, it'll be interesting to see how many
developers can really push the hardware, not just in terms of graphical
power, but in the addition of increasingly realistic AI, physics systems,
and those myriad small touches that can make a game that much more
immersive. One thing is for sure though - fitting in all those inconveniences
like eating, sleeping, work and a social life is going to be that
much harder in the coming year! |
