This year was my first E3. I was ready to piss my pants with excitement the few days before the show started. I was super-stoked. The best E3 tip I got was from Tycho of Penny-Arcade when I had him and Gabe sign a poster for me at the Seattle Comic-Con: “BRING A BACKPACK”. No one could have been more right. You get SO much crap (well, it’s not ALL crap) at E3 it’s amazing you don’t have to bring a second empty suitcase with you for the trip back just to haul it all home! There were just too damn many games to absorb in three days. The first day was hell; you could barely walk anywhere, let alone play any of the more popular games without waiting in line. The second day was a bit better. By the third day, 2/3rds of the people were gone and the experience was 1000% better. In this little tidbit, I’ll be talking about the Xbox games that really made an impression on me at E3.
Knights of the Old Republic
One thing the Xbox needs very badly is a good run of RPG’s. Who better to give us one of the first (besides Morrowind) than one of the few kings of the genre? I got a chance to sit down with Derek French, a Producer at Bioware, as he ran me through the Xbox version of the game.
Knights of the Old Republic, or ‘KOTOR’ as most refer to it, is a Star Wars role-playing game based on the Star Wars D20 system. The easiest way to sum this game up is to think of it as a 3D version of Baldur’s Gate, set in the Star Wars universe. KOTOR takes place 4000 years prior to episode one. “4000 years!? How come the technology in the screen shots I’ve seen looks a lot like the star wars tech we see today?” you ask. Well, after your universe has been around for tens of THOUSANDS of years, things may tend to taper off after a while. To put it in perspective, Hyperspace technology has been around for over 10,000 years! Being set so far in the past gives Bioware some freedom to write the book, so to speak. Of course everything must be approved by Lucas (or whoever has that job) to be considered worthy of the Star Wars name.
In KOTOR, your characters are caught in the middle of a fierce battle with an armada of Sith, led by Dark Malak. Your crippled capital ship crash-lands on planet Taris. From here, you must seek out a young Jedi, Bastila, who holds the key to defeat the unstoppable Sith army, and of course, save the universe from the galactic scourge – classic Star Wars. Your base of operations will be conducted from your ship, which much resembles the layout of the Millennium Falcon. It is here where your party members will hang out until they’re needed. You can have three people in your party at a time, and up to nine are available throughout the game. You also have a workbench where you can modify your weapons, lightsabers included.
One of the coolest things about most Bioware games is the non-linear gameplay and the multiple paths you can take towards the final outcome. KOTOR is no different. You can play as either a light or dark character (Jedi’s included). Your light and dark side will be measures by what Derek referred to as ‘the dark-o-meter’. The meter gives a visual indication and representation of your alignment - everything from the light/dark slider bar to the pose and background your character has. Of course there are two endings, and many different dialogue options along the way, depending on your alignment. Like most Bioware RPG’s, KOTOR looks like it will give the player the same amount of clever scripts and dialogue that we’d expect from a game by this company. Not to mention KOTOR has over 14,000 recorded voice-overs, as pretty much every single NPC verbally addresses you while you engage in dialogue with them!
The gameplay looked smooth, the graphics were great, and the setting was authentic. KOTOR is due out for the Xbox in July and later this Fall for the PC.
HAAAALLLLOOOOO 2!!!!
It pays to know people. I say that because I was able to get a VIP sticker at the Microsoft booth, and bypass the horrendous line to see the Halo 2 gameplay demo. Ok, enough of my bragging (for now). Halo 2 is going to be one of the biggest hits of all time, on any platform, easily. I guarantee it. Unless Bungie does something incredibly stupid between now and the estimate release of early 2004, I don’t see HOW they could screw up something this good.
Our favorite marine is back in Halo 2 and he’s kicking more alien ass than ever before. We were shown the first part of the first mission in the game and it was intense! This game has everything you’d expect from a Halo sequel: faster gameplay, improved graphics and more dynamic gameplay. I don’t know what part of the demo excited me more… the part where the fallen commander throws you his rifle saying “here… you’ll need this… *hack* die” as you equip both rifles and wreak total devastation upon your enemies, or the straight up Grand Theft Auto style hover-bike jacking as you relieve an alien of his vehicle and soar back into the fray. It even looks like you’ll get more opportunities to play the gunner in the Warthog, as the original Halo primarily had you in the drivers seat. Some people may unemotionally state “Smoke and mirrors... all smoke and mirrors”. Well of course, dipshit, that’s the whole point of E3. Regardless of how the game was presented, it didn’t take a veteran critic to see that Halo 2 is going to be a smash hit and a helluvalot of fun to play. The original Halo game had to be done in time for the launch of the Xbox. No question about it. This time around, Bungie has all the time in the world (and trust me, they do) to create a spectacular and ferociously stimulating shooter.
FableThe demo I saw introduced us to the basics of gameplay. Combat takes place in real time and seemed to offer a variety of moves over your basic ‘wack, wack, dead’ scenario we see in most 3D RPG’s. The view is over the shoulder, but you can also switch to first person just to take a look around your surroundings. Fable is going to be one of those games that rewards players based on their creativity. Players that can think up creative scenarios will likely be rewarded with specific actions and reactions from the environment and NPC’s. As an example, our demo dude stripped off all his characters clothes, all the way down to his knickers. He then ran outside and started to interact with some of the townspeople. A few women giggled and pointed, while some tried to act like they didn’t notice him (but obviously did) while others simply ran the other way. You’ll also be able to learn gestures, such as belching, farting, waving, etc. (ok, so I made up farting, but I bet they include it!). When you learn a new gesture (learned from any old NPC), you can assign it to the D-Pad and use it to greet NPC’s. In most cases, if you greet an NPC with a belch, you’ll get the reaction you’d expect.
The key aspect to Fable will be your reputation. You will be given missions from the Hero’s Guild. You’ll have good and evil options for each mission. It’s up to you on how you accomplish these tasks and the outcome will effect your overall reputation and determine whether people will worship you, or fear you. You will not be expected to perform the missions in any certain way, good or bad. That’s entirely up to you and the game should accommodate you on whichever path you choose. Fable is due out Holiday, 2003.
Xbox updates galore!
So here’s the story. Matt and I had our appointment all set to go with Microsoft. We thought they’d simply take us upstairs, show us some games and answer our questions. Unfortunately we didn’t get any special peeks due to the fact that Snoop Dogg showed up right about the time we were going upstairs. They kicked everyone out except Microsoft/Xbox people. As we come to find out, that was supposed to be the second half of our appointment. The first half consisted of a surprise (surprise to us) private interview with John O’Rourke, Senior Director of Consumer Strategy (Marketing) at Microsoft. We about shat our pants when we found out the first 30 minutes of our ‘appointment’ was an interview with him. John was a very down to earth fellow, but you could definitely tell he was in marketing *grin*. We asked him some tough questions and he was a very good sport about it.
Some of the biggest changes to the Xbox are coming via Xbox Live. The big hype was all about the Microsoft XSN, or Xbox Sports Network for Xbox live. Real time ladders, leagues, tournaments and alerts will all be available through future Xbox Live updates. You’ll even be able to receive alerts of league standings and messages from friends via your cell phone. The goal is to make it as realistic as possible. You get real time scores for the NFL on your pager or cell phone? Well, so you will for NFL Fever and other sports titles as well!
Another hyped feature coming to the Xbox is the addition of the Music Mixer. The music mixer will allow you to turn your Xbox and home entertainment system into a full-fledged Karaoke machine. It will be able strip the lyrics out of your favorite songs and even come with a mic so you can sing along, American Idol style. I bluntly asked Mr. O’rourke if this was a tactic to help drive sales in Japan. He only smirked, then gave the answer I was expecting to hear from a man in his position at Microsoft.
The last thing we touched on was the move towards widening the appeal of the Xbox. This is where key decisions such as the Rare purchase come into play. Rare is developing several news games for the Xbox. I got a chance to play two of them. Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conkers Online. Both are due out in the near future. Grabbed by Ghoulies felt a LOT like a Nintendo game. One of those fun pick-up and play kind of games. I was able to master the controls almost instantly. The gameplay was fluid and very familiar. I fought off little imps by kicking wildly, doing WWE style body slams and even bashing chairs across their skulls. A bit further along, I found myself in first person mode, slowly creeping down a dark hallway full of creepy looking animal trophies. Suddenly one of them jumped out and scared the living crap out of me, as the screen demanded I press a series of buttons or die a horrible death. Needless to say I didn’t catch it in time, but I did manage to get past this entire stage the next time around.
I also managed to play Conkers for a few minutes, as other were eagerly waiting behind me to lunge in and play. Conkers Online is a multiplayer deathmatch style game that lets us play our favorite Conkers characters in an all out varmint brawl using rocket launchers, grenades and other various weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play this much more beyond discovering that the controls were your typical Xbox FPS style, and the graphics looked pretty respectable.
Brute Force
Last but definitely not least, I vegged out in front of Brute Force for a while. Brute Force is a tactical, squad based first person shooter developed by Digital Anvil. Not as twitchy as Quake or Halo, but not as slow paced as Ghost Recon. Playing careful strategy pays off. Picking the right tool for the job will make your life that much easier. Sometimes you’ll need to snipe your enemies from a distance, while other times it’s best to go in, dual machine guns blazing, and shoot every goddamn thing in sight! The graphics were fabulous and the gameplay was intense. The only downside I see this game is the lack of multiplayer. It SCREAMS for Xbox Live multiplayer support, but it won't have it. You will be able to download content, like new maps and missions, but that's it.
Closing arguments
I looked at a lot of Xbox stuff, after all my interests are primarily focused on Xbox and PC gaming. The titles I’ve reported on here are the ones that left the biggest impression on me after I left the show and looked back on it all. There’s a lot more coming out for the Xbox, some that looked promising, others not so much. These new Xbox games and features are definitely going to be the highlight of 2003-early 2004. Expect Halo 2 to sell several million copies worldwide.
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