E3 2008: Atari steps up to the plate, swings and scores big

LOS ANGELES — The biggest underdog story of E3 was by far Atari. As a company that’s been through every kind of trouble imaginable in the last few years; management changes, financial troubles, and struggling through complicated ownership situations with their French parent company, Infogrames, Atari managed to put out a well-rounded display of their game development potential.

Winning E3’s Best in Show for DS and PSP, N+ led the charge to highly acclaimed gaming. Based on the award winning flash-game N, N+ is a uniquely addictive platformer experience.

As a ninja trying to obtain as much gold as possible during your average one and a half minute lifespan, N+ has 300 puzzling levels to explore, plus some hidden unlockable ones. Each level of N+ has a door to the next level, gold coins to obtain, and various robotic bombs and missiles to explode a player as often as possible. Luckily for N the ninja, he has remarkable regenerative capabilities that allow the player to restart the same level where they most recently had a tragic death.

In addition to the faithful translation of the original online game, the DS and PSP versions also have a wide array of multiplayer capabilities. With 100 cooperative levels and 50 competitive levels, N+ also had the ability to download new maps from the N server as well as design new maps with the integrated level editor. The ability to share levels over the PSP and DS wireless connectivity services is new to the N universe.

N+ is coming to handheld systems worldwide on August 12.

Atari’s big PC title came in the form of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition; an updated version of the role-playing game released in October 2007. In addition to updated features like more than 5000 rerecorded lines of dialogue and a new character differentiation system for non-playable characters, the enhanced edition also includes a multilingual game disc which allows any language combination of voice-over and subtitles, the official soundtrack CD and a short story by The Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Witcher, based on the novels by Sapkowski, has won more than 90 awards and has sold more than 800,000 copies worldwide since its release in 2007. The player takes on the role of the renowned monster slayer Geralt of Rivia in a world where moral ambiguity reigns. A unique feature of the game is the way that each decision made may not directly affect the game until hours later. The Enhanced Edition of The Witcher is set to be released in September.

On a different note, RACE Pro is an ultra-realistic simulation racing game coming from Atari in November for the Xbox 360.

RACE Pro’s new ‘Hot Seat’ feature gives a different meaning to multiplayer racing. Each player drives in the ‘hot seat’ for a short period of time before they have to pass off the controller to the next player. This unique feature accelerates the pace of the game and makes multiplayer a more communal experience.

Atari went out of their way to produce as realistic a racing game as they could. RACE Pro features more than 15 real life tracks that span all continents across the globe. Players can win official championship titles using a wide variety of realistic car models. Participants earn their skills as a true racer would in real-life; through intense training, scoring key wins and receiving big sponsorship deals.

Hailed by many as being better than 2K’s 2008 tennis title Top Spin 3, Smash Court Tennis 3 was Atari’s big sports game release. Coming out in August to the Xbox 360, Smash Court Tennis 3 allows players to compete against or alongside some of the biggest names in the industry such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Justine Henin.

Smash Court Tennis 3 allows the player the ability to compete in the tennis world on more than a dozen courts and championships in five different modes; Arcade, Tutorial, Exhibition, Pro Tour, and mini-games.

Players can play with their local or online friends via Xbox Live. Smash Court Tennis 3 has already been released on the PSP.

Coming this fall is the newest installment of the Deer Hunter franchise and, as the Atari producers said, the most addictive. Deer Hunter Tournament is to be released for the PC and, for the first time, the Xbox 360 later this year.

Atari has made some radical changes since the series’ original release in 1997 by Infogrames. The animals in the game can see, smell, hear and even fight when they are targeted in a hunter’s sights, unlike previous games where they typically respond after a shot is fired. Some of the animals targeted even threaten and hunt the hunter down until a final showdown where it is the player being attacked, not the animal.

Deer Hunter Tournament has the first ever online hunting community through its tournament system that is designed to create a massive network of players who regularly compete and communicate with one another in the Deer Hunter universe.

In addition to the tournament community, the game now involves new dynamics such as bullet time, thermal scopes and rag doll physics, so that hunters can scout their hunting area before they start shooting in order to set up traps and hiding spots.

The latest expansion pack for the Neverwinter Nights 2 franchise will be coming in late 2008 to the PC under the title Storm of Zehir. This most recent expansion to the Neverwinter Nights 2 universe occurs concurrently with previous expansion pack Mask of the Betrayer.

Continuing the legacy of Dungeons and Dragons role-playing videogames, Storm of Zehir features a new map, improved party game play, a world economy that reacts to players’ adventures and choices and new classes, spells, creatures, and playable races.

One of the coolest games in Atari’s line-up was also the only unnamed game at the convention. Created by Atari producer David Geudelekian, the DS title is a platformer with a plot like no other. The story switches between its two main characters; Felicity and Felix. The male and female lead met at the beginning of the game and set up a date. The rest of the game is focused on the two of them trying to reach their date in time while maintaining their crush’s interest.

The point system is a type of ‘crush-o-meter’ which can either gain or lose interest in the characters’ significant other dependent upon their actions. Using cool skills and getting to the end goal fastest allows players to gain crush points, while dying or spending a really long time getting to the end-goal causes them to lose points.

Definitely the coolest aspect of the upcoming in-the-process-of-being-titled game, slated for a Valentine’s Day release, is its usage of DS functionality. A player can use their stylus to draw platforms for themselves across the top of the screen.

However, instead of making it so that a player can use the draw-yourself-a-platform skill to cheat their way through the entire game, a power bar depletes on the DS’s top screen the more the player draws platforms. If a player is unable to multitask and navigate the top screen while keeping an eye on their power bar, the drawn platform changes in color as the power bar depletes from green to yellow to red, which we at Blast found very, very cool. It is our recommendation of a title to keep an eye out for, once it gets named.

All in all, Atari came out with a very well-rounded line-up; dabbling in a little bit of every genre, but doing it well. It’s been a hard past few years for Atari, but they have come back strong and it only seems like they’re coming on stronger. They came to this year’s E3 to say ‘Hey, we’re not out of this business,’ and they said it well.

Terri Schwartz is a Blast Magazine staff writer

In E3 2008, Gaming News, Previews, Technology on July 18, 2008 at 21:25 with with Popularity: 3% [?]

2 Responses to “E3 2008: Atari steps up to the plate, swings and scores big”

  1. Ghidoran on July 25th, 2008 10:39 pm

    Yes Atari! Godzilla, Dragonball Z, The Witcher, yeah!

  2. John Guilfoil - E3 2008: Penny Arcade nailed it - PRrag.com on July 27th, 2008 4:51 pm

    [...] three didn’t bore you to death, there was some actual content at E3 this year, including the rise of Atari, the balls descending on Electronic Arts and an awesome looking Fallout [...]

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