Penny Arcade

Let me tell you of the wonders I beheld at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Full Spectrum Warrior rocks the entire house.  It doesn’t just get in the foyer and rock a little bit, thinking hey, that’s probably fine.  It’s in there with some pressure. 

It was apparently situated in the back room of THQ’s own booth as well, but they also had this little alcove near one of the mail halls that drew me inexorably.  I should start by saying that putting Pandemic on practically anything will draw me inexorably, or any other way.  Now, I didn’t like Star Wars enough to tolerate the Clone Wars game, particularly the portions that took place outside of vehicles - but the Conquest mode, fast action coupled with light strategy, made my heart sing.  Shit, these guys were able to take the Army Men license and make a remarkable RTS out of it.  That is a herculean act.     

But like I said, they had an alcove with some camouflage drawn over it and a banner for the game that gripped my spirit.  There was the emblem of the Army on there - had the Army chosen to fund another game?  Certainly, it wouldn’t be another first-person shooter then.  Would they try to simulate squad level command?  As it turns out, yes.  That is exactly what they’re doing, with a combination of intensity and tactics that I have not seen before.  I would link to their video with more vigor, but aside from a fantastic voiceover by R. Lee Ermey it doesn’t do a great job of communicating this game. 

The level I saw was clearly meant to simulate street fighting in the Middle East, with a squad dropped in a small clearing by a Black Hawk.  Just to get the lingo out of the way, Full Spectrum Warrior is a real-time strategy game that takes place right down with the individual soldiers that follow your commands.  Indeed, when issuing a command, a soldier looking back at your disembodied form will receive it and then disseminate the order to the rest of the squad.  Your soldiers are not idiots.  If someone gets hurt, you don’t need to tell them, “Hey, see if Bob is okay.”  They handle that.  Checking around a corner for danger?  They’re on it.  What you handle yourself is the grand scheme - directing them towards quadrants you want to suppress, moving groups to provide superior cover for each other.  It is, quite simply, the strategic game I wait for each Christmas.     

And Painkiller, I mean, Jesus.  Feel free to check out the site, if you’d like.  I was under the impression that id had run gothic environments right into the ground, and that I would never be surprised by such scenes again - that was a hasty assessment.  Add to that huge - and I mean Serious Sam, huge - bosses that not only tower over the player but have lost no apparent detail or quality in trade for that scale.  Perhaps most shocking was their deft utilization of the Havok 2.0 physics engine, which made me yell words like “holy shit” directly into the ear of the man giving the presentation.  The huge beast I mentioned before brings his hammer down, and the shock causes the assorted rubble of our battle to fly into the air, where it rains down on the field of play.  Indeed, this level begins with the large creature I mentioned before walking through an arch that then crumbles in the most convincing way I have ever seen, because some level designer with obsessive-compulsive disorder chose to construct the entire thing with individual bricks because he is crazy.  Don’t even start me on the rock columns!  And hey, why not have a story about being God’s hitman in Purgatory?  Now you’re speaking my language.     

Halo 2, you know, what could I possibly say that could turn new ground on the topic.  Everything people loved already, plus dual weapons, melee combos, massive, destructible enemy ships, and urban environments.  This clipped version of what is a greater, more elaborate internal dialogue on the topic isn’t meant to be an insult to Bungie.  I just don’t like to duplicate the work of the entire edifice of gaming journalism when I don’t have to.  I’m sure there’s an article out there somewhere.  It’s amazing.

I thought for a very long time about what it was at the show that disappointed me, and the only thing I could think of was my own E3 buddy poking me in the fucking eye in an epic act of betrayal.  I just don’t have it in me to generate displeasure where there is none, I’m afraid.  This wasn’t one of the big announcement expos, everyone knew about Half Life 2 and Halo 2 going into it, and no-one doubted that they were en route.  This was just your run of the mill, average, every day display of the titles and talent that make gaming the finest hobby in the world. 

(CW)TB out.

i hear words in clips and phrases

I just wanted to comment quickly on some of the other titles I saw at the show that really impressed me.

Links 2004

You might remember that back when Tiger Woods came out I said that it was great but that what I really wanted was a Links game on the Xbox that used Live. Well this is it. It even uses Microsoft’s new XSN Sports system. You will be able to go online and sign up for tournaments and that sort of thing which sounds fucking awesome to me. Links 2004 is also the best looking golf game I’ve ever seen. I got to sit and play a few holes and I was honestly surprised I was playing a Links game. No more 2D trees every inch of these courses has been lovingly rendered in 3D. Gorgeous water and lighting effects and killer details like birds and other wildlife.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

If you want to know what the coolest thing about Jedi Academy is go back and read my post from when Jedi Knight II came out. Essentially I said it was cool but the multiplayer blew. I said what the game needed was mission based objectives that pitted rebels against imperials. Well that is exactly what they delivered. The gentleman delivering the demo told us that each mission will require players to select certain roles such as demolitions expert, Scout Walker pilot or even Jedi in order to complete the objective. He described how a Jedi might have to provide cover for a trooper as he planted a bomb that would destroy an imperial facility. Or how Imperial soldiers would need to blow open a wall protecting a rebel base allowing another player to pilot a Scout Walker in and start tearing shit up Endor style. It’s got a single player mode as well that looked neat but I’ll be buying this game for the multiplayer.

Sonic Heroes

This game was actually really fun. In Sonic Heroes you control Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all at the same time…kind of. The way it works is that one character is always in the “lead”. The character in this position determines the properties of the group. For example if you have Sonic up front the other two characters drop back to the sides and you are in speed mode. This mode is best for rocketing through levels and hitting speed pads to blow through loops. Switch Knuckles into the lead and you’re in combat mode. Knuckles can actually pick up Sonic or Tails and throw them at enemies like when I was in junior high and I got hit in the face with a volley ball. Only that was thrown by Derek Ames who was certainly a dick but he was no Enchidna. Anyway, slip tails into the lead and now you can grab the rest of the team and fly up to otherwise inaccessible locations. The game was super fast paced and looked really good on the Cube and Xbox.

World of Warcraft

Kiko and I were talking about this while we were staring in awe at WOW. Blizzard is a company of artists. Every game company has artists on staff but at Blizzard it seems like artists are the engine that drives the company. You can see that when you look at WOW. It is the most beautiful MMORPG to date. Each and every character actually has… well character. The environments seem alive in a way that no other game of this type has been able to come close to. I wasn’t actually able to sit and play it but what I saw is enough to make me not only excited to play WOW but just fucking glad that there is a company like Blizzard out there. Oh, I also saw a guy riding around on a mother fucking griffon.

-Gabe out

I just got off the phone with Matt, producer for the title, and he told me some pretty dope shit.  I was thinking about how the readers of this site allow us to lead a truly ridiculous life, and so I thought, hey, maybe they will want to know this stuff.

For one thing, they’re only a couple months away from finishing the version they will send to the Army, after which they will make alterations to the game to make it a retail-ready product.  When asked what sort of things would be changed, he mentioned that it would mostly be visual touches.  Gamers expect a fragmentation grenade to explode with a bit of fire and whatnot, they expect to throw a smoke grenade and have an area be obscured almost immediately.  Actual grenades don’t have a flashy visual effect to accompany their delivery, and actual smoke grenades can take forty-five seconds or so to fulfill their intended purpose - so while many gamers crave realism, and will probably be given an Army Certified play option should they desire to use it, the default will probably be something more along the lines gamers will recognize. 

Though the demonstration I saw of Full Spectrum Warrior did not discuss it, the game most certainly does have some form of Xbox Live support.  When pressed on the topic, Matt said that they were leaning very heavily towards full cooperative play through the single player missions, with each player in command of a fireteam or full squad.  I don’t need to tell you that my heart skipped a beat.

Something else he said that I found very interesting: obviously it would depend very much on how the game was received, but this play concept is something they’d be interested in investigating during other time periods.  That might take the form of soldiers in 2010, utilizing technology currently in development whose specifications they’ve been made privvy to.  Or World War II era Stalingrad.  Or a Martian Colony. 

(CW)TB