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Shacknews:
E3 Day Two Report
May 16, 2002 by: Jason Bergman (loonyboi)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC): Given this game’s title, I wasn’t expecting this to be a whole lot different from UT2k3. And so I was pleased when I saw how many changes were in here. We were shown the game by the irrepressible Cliff Bleszinksi, who was completely frank about their intentions with this game. Here’s what you get in this year’s Unreal Tournament: all content from last year’s game, including the bug fixes, maps and extras that were released since its debut, integrated voice over IP technology, lots of new maps, 3 new teams, 2 new game modes, a much improved user interface, and incredibly, the return of software rendering (primarily for those playing on laptops, wher e the CPU power can compensate for a crappy video card).
One of the new teams is the Skaarj, who were recently shown in Unreal 2. In this game they’re just as beefy as they were in that game. It’s nice to see these guys back, as they really are such a staple of the franchise.
One of the new gameplay modes is Assault, which has one team defending a base against another invading team, and was featured in the first Unreal Tournament, but not UT2k3. It’s been given quite an overhaul here, and the changes are all for the better. One mission we were shown had a human team invading a Skaarj space station. This started outside the station, with the team coming in on space cruisers, and the defending team attacked using external turrets. Once inside, the attackers have to get to the core and blow the place up, and the environments all felt appropriately alien. Another one we were told about (but not shown) involved an assault on a robot academy, where scores of enemy bots were being cranked out.
Another gameplay mode is Onslaught, which Cliffy described to us as "Battlefield 2942," thanks to its emphasis on vehicular combat. We saw quite a few of these vehicles, including a skimmer and tank, and also saw how players will be able to man turrets. At least a couple of these vehicles were very reminiscent of the ones from Halo, which was quite surprising (and may change before the game ships).
As players will be using armored vehicles, there are several additional weapons for this mode to combat these while on foot. There’s a Spider Mine, which when fired sprouts legs and runs towards the closest enemy. If you’re on foot, it will actually climb your body, drill into your head and jump off after depositing a mine in your forehead (which explodes shortly afterwards). It’s a concept reminiscent of the Cerebral Bore from Turok 2, although not quite as over-the-top as that. There are also sticky mines (an FPS classic, at least for those of us who remember the Hipnotic pack for Quake 1). We were told that Sticky Mines will not make it into deathmatch, something I for one really hope they reconsider. The reason we were given is that Epic worked very hard to get UT2k3 respect with companies like The CPL, and they don’t want to start heading towards the gimmicky style of deathmatch shown in other games. At the very least, they’ll be available as a DM mutator, allowing server operators to add them if they wish.
Some other miscellaneous bits o’ UT2k4 info: you can now carry dual assault rifles, there will be a rebate offer for owners of UT2k3, and bullet decals have been added to the walls. And I had to ask about a Mac port, especially since the demo for UT2k3 was only just released last week. I was told that the main reason for the delay with 2003 was the OS itself, and that it’s now up to speed, and porting 2004 should be a much easier process.
Halo (PC): Remember last year when I was told that a PC port of Halo was not going to happen in the immediate future? Funny how much can change in a year. The PC version of Halo was up and running, and it looks great. The single player game has been ported 100% intact, and aside from the new control options, it’s virtually identical. Which isn’t a bad thing of course, as it means PC gamers can finally find out what Xbox gamers were talking about. As for multiplayer, it’s been given an overhaul, and the changes are all good ones. There are 6 new maps, including many that showcase the various vehicles. There’s a new weapon, which is the super powerful one used by the Covenant Hunters.
But the real changes here are the controls (mouse + keyboard!) and increased resolution. On a high-end system, the PC version seriously puts the Xbox to shame. One nice side effect of the controls, is that multiplayer maps feature much more varied terrain than their console counterparts, as it was sort of difficult to look up and down quickly.
Halo for PC is looking very good. It’s the same game, so unless you really want to play multiplayer with a mouse and keyboard, chances are that if you played the Xbox original you’re going to want to skip this. But if you’re new to Halo, there’s a lot to like here.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (PC): After seeing how amazing Half-Life 2 looked, I was definitely looking forward to checking out this, as it’s the first time an external company has licensed Valve’s Source Engine. Vampire is a strange mix of RPG and FPS elements, and I wasn’t given a very clear picture of how well the two complement each other. The RPG side of things looks pretty good, aided by the licensed White Wolf universe. You can create your character based on the various classes from the Vampire universe, which all feature varied levels of humanity. Your character’s humanity level (or lack thereof) determines his dialogue in the game, and we were shown how a particularly beast-like character uses less…dignified dialogue than someone with a higher humanity level. You also are more likely to slide into a berserker rage if you have less humanity.
The game world looks good. Not spectacular, but it’s solid, and certainly looks like a next-generation first person title. One nice benefit of using Valve’s technology is that all the character models have great detail, and they have those great, realistic eyes that follow you around.
The combat is all done from an FPS perspective, and it doesn’t fit in as well with the RPG side of things as I was expecting. Bloodlines is very much an RPG. It features quests, character creation, etc. But then there’s this FPS aspect, which oddly enough, doesn’t give you any experience points. Experience points are gained by completing quests, not combat. We were shown some quests, which are the usual kind of RPG fare. Go talk to X, get Y, etc.
I have mixed feelings about this game. I loved Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, and so I have high expectations for this. And Troika, is an experienced developer, having made Arcanum and the company’s founders worked on Fallout. With any luck, this game will come together a bit more before its release next spring.
Vectorman (PS2): My reaction to this game was simply, "what the heck is this?" If it weren’t for the logo, I’d have no way of knowing that this is supposed to be a Vectorman game. If you haven’t seen the shots that have been released, this game features a realistic robot fighting against other robots. Which is fine, even if it looks somewhat somewhat generic. But what it most certainly did not look like, was Vectorman. Remember Vectorman? The game with the little guy made up of balls? That was a fun and clever platform action game featuring a likable character. This was something else entirely, and it didn’t control well at all. The camera was lousy, the action boring, and the enemies dumb as dirt. Sega is capable of resurrecting old franchises well, but this doesn’t look to be the case at all with Vectorman. They should have left this one alone.
F-Zero GX (GameCube): While I’ve enjoyed every F-Zero game to date, I can’t say this is the series I think of when I think of any real innovation. Like most of Nintendo’s core franchises, this series set itself up with the first game, and has been refining the experience ever since. And while that is definitely the case with F-Zero GX, this game could very well be the best game to date. GX really does feel like every other F-Zero, but what Amusement Vision has done is crank up the speed big time. F-Zero GX is fast, and twists in near-vertical ways, with occasional drops that have to be seen to be believed. The visual style is really sort of Wipeout-lite…it’s techno, but not raver. In this regard, it’s sort of cheesy, as it doesn’t have the edge that Wipeout brought to the table. But GX delivers on creating a fast, fun experience. It’s still F-Zero, but it’s done right. And multiplayer looks to be a blast, with four players and no noticeable slowdown.
Pac-Man (GameCube/GBA): For a game that started as a tech demo, this was a ton of fun. Here’s the idea: there are four players. The first three use GameCube controllers (here they were WaveBirds, which makes things easy when you start passing them around) and the last player uses a connected GBA. On the TV screen, the first three players (who play as the ghosts) see a small area of the Pac-maze around them, but only that small piece. The player on the GBA sees the classic Pac-Man view, and plays normally. If the player on the GBA catches a ghost, he gets points, but loses them if and when he gets killed. When killed, the player using the GBA switches with the person who killed him, and the game continues. After the allotted time runs out, the person with the most points wins. If it sounds weird, it’s because it is…but it’s also very, very fun, and let’s face it, this is the first real innovation we’ve seen in Pac-Man in well…a really long, long time.
As fun as this was, I have no idea how Nintendo is going to sell it. This game only works if you have four players and one GBA. There simply is no other way to do it. Single player is out of the question, because if the ghosts are AI-driven…well, then it’s just Pac-Man, isn’t it? If I had to guess, I’d say that this will be the centerpiece of an upcoming GameCube Pac-Man collection. And if that ever happens, it’ll make for a great party game.
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