E3 Thoughts

So, after watching some of the coverage last week, what were my highlights from this year’s E3 offering?

The press conferences by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft were the usual blend of camp, meme-creating presentations, with a few nuggets of good games thrown in for good measure. Press conferences aside, it was really good to see some more information revealed on Gears of War 3 and Halo: Reach.

You can watch the press conferences in full here (If you can stomach the hype and marketing/PR hyperbole which comes with them, of course):
Nintendo press conference
Sony press conference
Microsoft press conference

Cliff Bleszinski conducted a short interview on IGN’s live coverage and gave a running commentary on a short gameplay segment of Gears 3′s campaign, which, finally, gets 4-player co-op. He also detailed their new co-op mode, called ‘Beast’, which sees players assume the role of the Locust. It should definitely make a nice diversion from Horde, which, if Gears 2 was anything to go by, will be played to death by Team Gash when we get our hands on it!

In a similar vein, Bungie detailed Halo: Reach’s Firefight mode (as well as many other details about the game), which is really sounding like it’s going to be great fun (and we can now turn off those damned Skull modifiers, including the retarded ‘Black Eye’ one…). From my short burst of play through the Reach Beta, I’m definitely looking forward to the final Halo game from Bungie – a lot of my hopes for the series were realised in the Beta, and so things are looking good. Time to book September 14th off of work…

In terms of new tech, Microsoft’s Project Natal finally got rid of the awful name in exchange for (the slightly less-awful) ‘Kinect’. Sony unveiled their ‘Move’ stuff too, although as noted in a previous post, I’m not overly excited about either of them (except for maybe getting the chance to say “Xbox; On!” in a Star Trek manner every time I want to switch it on).

Nintendo managed to wow me with their 3DS though – although without having seen the 3D effect in person, I can’t pass judgement, but I’m sure it’ll be good. I’m just hoping they make the casing more akin to the DS Lite or DSi though. I’ll have to get my sticky paws on one as soon as they’re released!

Of course, I’m not going to harp on too much, lest this post turn into War and Peace – if you want to catch up on this year’s E3, check out some of Eurogamer’s E3 coverage here: http://www.eurogamer.net/e3.

Until next time, game-fans!

Halo: Reach Beta – First Impressions

Just a short post tonight – As you no doubt are aware, the Halo: Reach Beta went live this evening (approximately 6pm GMT). After waiting a ridiculous 2 hours 25 minutes for the download to complete, I was soon in and linked up with two Team Gash members for our first game. Well, not quite – I spent a few minutes looking at the armour configurations, sorting my emblem and armour colours out – you know, the really important bits.

Once I’d faffed around, we jumped straight into our first game – Team SWAT. No grenades, no motion tracker, Sprint only, Spartan vs Spartan. I must say, a great way to introduce myself to Reach. The weapons definitely feel like they have more ‘oomph’ in them, which is good. Controls feel pretty solid, although there are a few button changes to get used to (but then, I always feel that games should either allow you to re-map your own controls, OR have a standard layout across all games (ie: Reload is always X, crouch is always click the Right Stick etc).

I must say, I enjoyed SWAT, although after this game we struggled to find another match due to server load (which we’d expected), so after some messing around in Theatre (or Theater… *sigh*) mode, we finally got into a second game – Team Oddball, which was over pretty quickly. Oddball involves a single Skull on the map which, when carried, grants the holding team points. The first team to 150 points wins the match. Although the match was fast, I was able to see a few other weapons in action – they’re looking pretty solid in terms of noise/hitting power, something which I’m pleased Bungie have done. Tragically, they still haven’t gotten rid of the annoying ‘stand up and zoom out when you’ve been hit’ feature (a term which I use extremely lightly). See my previous ‘Halo Hangup’ posts for more info on how I feel about the previous Halo games and my expectations for Reach – The Halo Hangup: Part 1, Part 2.

One thing I do like is the persistant character creation – what you look like in Campaign will carry over into Multiplayer and vice-versa. Also, win or lose, you gain Credits (rather than XP) with which to upgrade your character’s appearance (and that’s the key here – it’s all cosmetic – no new abilities/weapons are unlocked – everyone’s on an even playing field when it comes to your toys in game).

Unfortunately, after the Oddball game finished, we were stuck waiting for the servers to come back online (hardly surprising, given the popularity of the franchise), so we headed off for some Modern Warfare 2. However, I’ll be adding another post (or two) as more game modes become available and as the servers settle down.

The Scarier side of Gaming

CVG posted up a link last week to an article which was originally published in the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago (yes, I’m being incredibly lax in reporting it, so sue me…). The article in question refers to the increasing amount of kids who become addicted to video games.

It’s slightly worrying to think that anyone could slip into that addiction mentality when it comes to gaming. I’ve certainly spent many an hour playing games (I remember spending at least one particular session with Luke where we were playing Planetside from sundown to sunrise back in our college days), but I don’t think I’ve ever passed up an opportunity to do something else in favour of a video game.

Does it mean we tread a very fine line between hobby, obsession and addiction? Rather than dissect the article paragraph for paragraph, I’ll simply link to it here and let you read it at your leisure – it’s definitely an interesting read.

In other, less scary news, tickets for The 2010 Eurogamer Expo went on sale this week – a few of us went along last year. It was after visiting the Expo that I decided to start this blog, in fact. I highly recommend it to anyone – it’s a great day, and nothing beats heading into London afterwards for a few beers.

Right, back to Real Life™ ! I’ve got AvP to finish before the deluge of games this Summer – Green Day: Rock Band, Super Street Fighter IV, Lost Planet 2, Crackdown 2, the Halo: Reach Beta and Brink to name just a few! Looks like I’ll miss out on all the sunshine!

Atmosphere – Some games have it, others don’t

It struck me the other day while playing Aliens Vs Predator, that some games really don’t have a very effective atmosphere. It’s very rare that a game itself makes me jump, or have me so immersed that I don’t hear someone walk into my room. Something in the game itself just doesn’t ‘click’ and I’m left aware that I’m playing a game.

Aliens vs Predator is the first game in a very long time that’s actually managed that. Admittedly, most of my gaming résumé consists of shooters in the sci-fi vein rather than the survival horror of AvP, and so playing it is a bit of a departure for me. However, the fact that in just the first level I’d managed to be so shocked I’d let out an audible shout spoke volumes for the atmosphere of the game. This happened twice.

When I play other games, I’m constantly aware that it’s a game world, and can usually have a rough idea of what to expect at any given moment. I’m no psychic, but you can usually tell that when there’s a quiet moment, you can expect something big to head your way any minute. Along with AvP, Left 4 Dead has been the only other game to really draw me in in such a way that I can be genuinely shocked or apprehensive of what’s next.

Is it my aversion to horror films (yes kids, I scare easily) which does it perhaps? Psychology students might find me an interesting case-study, who knows?

On the more ‘sane’ side of things (as far as videogames go at least), Battlefield: Bad Company and it’s sequel have always managed to immerse me in their worlds more than your Modern Warfares or Gears of Wars. In these games, I put it down to the sound design – there are echoes, reverberations and even the neat little touch of remember that light travels faster than sound – see an explosion go off in the distance and not hearing something until a fraction of a second later really helps me get into the world.

Anyone else find certain games more atmospheric than others?

Crikey!

Okay, so we’ve all been a bit lax here at AG and haven’t put a post up for about 2 weeks. Shame on us!

So what have I been up to? Well, I’ve now fully moved house and have got myself a much faster internet connection – perfect for (allegedly) lag-free gaming!

I’ve got a few MS points saved for The Passing DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 (and the as-yet-unnamed DLC for Left 4 Dead which ties in with it), and I’ve been saving the pennies for Lost Planet 2, Crackdown 2, Super Street Fighter IV, and Green Day Rock Band, all of which are out in the next few months.

Of course, later this year I also have Brink, Halo: Reach and Call of Duty 7 (yeah, I’ll give it a shot I reckon) to look forward to. Then there’s E3 in June, which, if rumours are right, should see the announcement of Gears of War 3, something which I’m very much looking forward to. Also, there’ll be some Natal stuff which I’ll probably ignore and wish there were more games with guns and swearing in them. A great year for gaming, not such a great year for my wallet!

In an effort to make this post worthwhile (and give it a decent length), I’ll mention how much I love the videos posted by The Angry Video Game Nerd and Zero Punctuation.

For those unaware, The Angry Video Game Nerd (played by James Rolfe) gives reviews of retro games from the 80s (and sometimes earlier), but from a modern perspective – re-living some of the joys and frustrations of the games from the past. James is also an amateur film-maker and also reviews movies and board games. His other work can also be found on his website, Cinemassacre.com.

Zero Punctuation (by Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw) gives us a typically British, super-cynical (and hilarous) review of modern games. Barely pausing for breath, Yahtzee gives us a speedy yet wordy and altogether unique point of view on modern games. Yahtzee also has his own blog at FullyRamblomatic.com.

These two never fail to amuse me with their videos – I suggest you check them out too!