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Well I just got back from my annual trek to E3.
In the ATI booth, they had a special theater showing Prey so I thought
I'd take a gander at this long-delayed title I've been wondering about
for years. It looks cool, but cool only in the sense that it's another
slick first-person shooter. The Doom 3 engine is used well, but I
really can't say the thing blew me away. We'll see. Right now I'd
classify it as a very competent, polished FPS with nifty visuals, but
pretty much the same exact gameplay we've seen a dozen other times.
One word I kept hearing over and over at E3 this year was "Next Gen".
Well let me tell you, I didn't see a SINGLE game that truly felt "next
gen." Nothing blew me away graphically. Every year I could always count
on some game at Nvidia or ATI's booth to knock my socks off (STALKER
comes to mind), but this year I searched in vain. As for the XBOX 360
-- time will tell. They had a nice racing game running, and Call of
Duty 2 looked identical to the PC version, but nothing else to really
write home about. I'll admit it was cool just seeing a console game run
on an HDTV that finally looked as sharp as PC.
Random tidbits:
I didn't see Quake IV in action, only the big-screen video/trailer they
were showing, and yeah, it does look fun, but trailers always look
good.
Best graphics were probably Half Life 2: The Lost Coast. Some very
elaborate environments, on top of the HDR lighting made this stand out.
Age of Empires III was also fairly impressive. Watching a cannonball
hit a group of soldiers - and then seeing them all tossed around with
true physics - that was fun!
F.E.A.R. - I watched some multiplayer action. I dunno. I've seen so
many rave previews about this game I was expecting more. Maybe the
actual single-player game will impress.
Fable (PC) - if you didn't play Fable on the Xbox, here's your chance
for the PC. Same game, but with much sharper graphics at higher
resolutions. It makes a difference.
Half Life 2 (XBox) - I mention this only because I was pretty impressed
by how good HL2 looks on the Xbox. Somehow they managed to keep most
all of the bump-mapped goodness.
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - I only saw the brief trailer running on a
TV, so I can't really comment. From another preview I've read, actual
hands-on time with this game reveals it's the only one worthy of being
called "next gen".
Finally, the game that actually had a "wow" factor and made me take
notice was (of all things) a Playstation 2 game! It's called Shadow of
the Colossus and I have to say, it drew quite a crowd of onlookers. I
had no idea the PS2 was capable of graphics like this. Basically, you
journey around fighting these enormous 5-story tall creatures. You have
to see the screenshots to know what I'm talking about, but this had
atmosphere, style, and the "it" factor that really felt new and fresh.
But take all this with a grain of salt. It's very difficult to judge a
game at E3 when you're jostling with 10,000 other people. You get only
a few minutes with a game, you almost never hear the sound, and your
senses are totally numbed from the onslaught of the whole place. I
remember seeing KOTOR the year it debuted and thinking it looked lame.
So these brief snapshots are not always accurate and only favor the
fast-paced games, whereas a gem like Thief or KOTOR is only revealed
when you actually have time to play it.
I'd say that next year's E3 will be the true test of "next gen" when we
finally get to see what the XBox 360 and PS3 are truly capable of (and
how much of that will cross over to the PC or not). This felt like a
transition year.
PS -- the booth babes were much better looking this year. Last year a
lot them had that aging porn star/hooker look, but this year, oh mama,
there were some stunning hotties (who didn't mind walking around with
thong shorts that covered absolutely nothing. That was some 100%-grade
ass! I watched whole hallways full of men stop to have a gander).
Well I just got back from my annual trek to E3.
In the ATI booth, they had a special theater showing Prey so I thought
I'd take a gander at this long-delayed title I've been wondering about
for years. It looks cool, but cool only in the sense that it's another
slick first-person shooter. The Doom 3 engine is used well, but I
really can't say the thing blew me away. We'll see. Right now I'd
classify it as a very competent, polished FPS with nifty visuals, but
pretty much the same exact gameplay we've seen a dozen other times.
One word I kept hearing over and over at E3 this year was "Next Gen".
Well let me tell you, I didn't see a SINGLE game that truly felt "next
gen." Nothing blew me away graphically. Every year I could always count
on some game at Nvidia or ATI's booth to knock my socks off (STALKER
comes to mind), but this year I searched in vain. As for the XBOX 360
-- time will tell. They had a nice racing game running, and Call of
Duty 2 looked identical to the PC version, but nothing else to really
write home about. I'll admit it was cool just seeing a console game run
on an HDTV that finally looked as sharp as PC.
Random tidbits:
I didn't see Quake IV in action, only the big-screen video/trailer they
were showing, and yeah, it does look fun, but trailers always look
good.
Best graphics were probably Half Life 2: The Lost Coast. Some very
elaborate environments, on top of the HDR lighting made this stand out.
Age of Empires III was also fairly impressive. Watching a cannonball
hit a group of soldiers - and then seeing them all tossed around with
true physics - that was fun!
F.E.A.R. - I watched some multiplayer action. I dunno. I've seen so
many rave previews about this game I was expecting more. Maybe the
actual single-player game will impress.
Fable (PC) - if you didn't play Fable on the Xbox, here's your chance
for the PC. Same game, but with much sharper graphics at higher
resolutions. It makes a difference.
Half Life 2 (XBox) - I mention this only because I was pretty impressed
by how good HL2 looks on the Xbox. Somehow they managed to keep most
all of the bump-mapped goodness.
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - I only saw the brief trailer running on a
TV, so I can't really comment. From another preview I've read, actual
hands-on time with this game reveals it's the only one worthy of being
called "next gen".
Finally, the game that actually had a "wow" factor and made me take
notice was (of all things) a Playstation 2 game! It's called Shadow of
the Colossus and I have to say, it drew quite a crowd of onlookers. I
had no idea the PS2 was capable of graphics like this. Basically, you
journey around fighting these enormous 5-story tall creatures. You have
to see the screenshots to know what I'm talking about, but this had
atmosphere, style, and the "it" factor that really felt new and fresh.
But take all this with a grain of salt. It's very difficult to judge a
game at E3 when you're jostling with 10,000 other people. You get only
a few minutes with a game, you almost never hear the sound, and your
senses are totally numbed from the onslaught of the whole place. I
remember seeing KOTOR the year it debuted and thinking it looked lame.
So these brief snapshots are not always accurate and only favor the
fast-paced games, whereas a gem like Thief or KOTOR is only revealed
when you actually have time to play it.
I'd say that next year's E3 will be the true test of "next gen" when we
finally get to see what the XBox 360 and PS3 are truly capable of (and
how much of that will cross over to the PC or not). This felt like a
transition year.
PS -- the booth babes were much better looking this year. Last year a
lot them had that aging porn star/hooker look, but this year, oh mama,
there were some stunning hotties (who didn't mind walking around with
thong shorts that covered absolutely nothing. That was some 100%-grade
ass! I watched whole hallways full of men stop to have a gander).
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