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E3 2006: From An Xbox Nerd POV
For me, E3 started on Tuesday, when I attended Microsoft’s Media Briefing at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. I am sure that for a lot of the jaded gaming journalists it was just another day at the office, but this was my first time attending such an event, and I must confess I found it quite exciting. I grabbed a seat about 10 rows back from the podium, settled back, took some pictures and just watched the crowd filter in. I was surprised to see so many typing away on their laptops, I guess giving real-time commentaries on the goings-on.
The briefing itself was very cool and was kicked off with a Gears of War trailer followed by Cliffy B giving a live demo. The crowd was cheering nearly the whole time and then screamed out when Cliffy fired up the chainsaw on a Locust Hordes skull. Surprise announcements of GTA 4 and Live Anywhere all helped to keep everything flowing with nary a dull moment. Special guest Bill Gates talking about PC, mobile phones and Xbox 360 all sharing content and your one gamer tag was just icing on the cake. Not every day are you within dwarf-tossing distance one of the richest men in the world and and a first-time E3 attendee.
After the media briefing but before I headed to Microsoft’s After Party, I had the opportunity to meet Peter Molyneux of Lionhead studios, which recently was acquired by Microsoft and now is hard at work on Fable 2. Mr. Molyneux is well-spoken and seems genuinely interested in making great games that push the immersive experience.
The After Party was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel right across the street from the theater and was a who’s who of the gaming world. I recognized lots of the gaming press and developers alike. Out by the pool in a dozen or so rooms, Microsoft had all of their first-party games on display with the lead developers on hand giving demos. I got my hands on the new HD-DVD drive as well as the wireless steering wheel. The afternoon just flew by, and at 3pm it all came to an abrupt end as a small army of well-dressed security types swept the grounds. So now it was off to the LA Convention Center to pick up my badge holder, meet up with my colleague Frank Provo of psxextreme.com and go to another industry party.
On with the show
The next morning came very early as Frank and I attended the Media Briefing & Breakfast. Covering the Xbox 360 at this year’s E3 was a huge task, and I knew going in I would not be able to see all the games on display. Last year was just doable, but ’06 is in a whole other league with just the sheer number of games on display, not including all the Live Arcade titles. In addition to getting my hands on the playable demos and peeking behind closed doors, I spent some of my time introducing myself and meeting PR reps from the various game companies. These are the men and woman who ultimately control who gets into their respective press events, so a little face time can go a long way.
E3 this year was a little less crowded and a little less noisy, which was much appreciated, but it is still a three-ring circus with every booth screaming for your attention. Most of the media make appointments with the various companies as did I, so you spend a lot of time running back and forth between the two main halls. The booth babes were a bit more subdued compared to past years with the enforcement of dress code in effect. Still, if that is your bag you had no problem finding the eye candy. Nintendo’s Wii drew massive lines as they close off their booth and let in a few people at a time to sample their new machine. Sony’s booth next door was a different story. Although it always had traffic, it just lacked any real excitement or buzz. I could not afford to waste three to four hours waiting in line at the Nintendo booth, and since there was no wait at Sony, I took a trip upstairs to look at GT4 running in 1080p on an 1080p display. It looked great and ran a smooth 60fps but did not look any better than PGR3. In fact, had PGR3 been running on that same TV, other than the framerate difference (PGR3 runs at 30fps), it would be too close to call. I briefly checked out Warhawk, which also looked great but was no better than any other Xbox 360 game. In fact, I saw nothing at the Sony or EA booth that surpassed the Xbox 360 graphics-wise.
Onto the Xbox 360
I often hear people ask what the deal is with games being shown behind closed doors as apposed to being on the show floor for all to see. The answer can vary, but it usually is because the developers don’t have a truly playable demo or feel it’s not ready for the picky masses. Most journalists know that early code does not represent how the final game will look or play and will cut them some slack, as they should. There may have been one exception that I know about, and that was Gears of War. Some who got to play wondered why it was not on the show floor as it was very playable and looked fantastic. I sadly was not one of those fortunate people. Trust me - I tried my best all three days to scale Microsoft’s walls, to no avail.
I was, however, able to finagle my way into BioWare’s Mass Effect, WEBZEN’s Huxley, THQ’s Frontlines: Fuel of War and Pandemic’s Mercenaries 2, which was shown on a PS3 dev kit and has not been announced for the Xbox 360, yet. The rest of the games I got to see or play were on the show floor: Sega’s Chromehounds and Sonic the Hedgehog, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Vegas and Splinter Cell Double Agent, THQ’s Saint’s Row, Atari’s Test Drive Unlimited, Capcom’s Dead Rising, 2K Games’ Prey, Bethesda’s Star Trek: Legacy, Microsoft’s Crackdown, Shadowrun, Viva Pinata and a few Arcade titles such as Lumines and TotemBall, a new ‘gesture’ game that will ship with the new camera. I also played around with the face mapping option in Activision’s World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions.
So now the question is, what game stood out the most? What got me the most excited? Although I did not get to play it myself, I would have to say Gears of War. The demo that Cliffy B put on looked and sounded fantastic, with little cinematic touches that help amp up the visceral excitement. The hype on this game has gone to 11, and I believe it will live up to it when it launches in the fall. I know there are some who are just plain tired of action shooters, but not me, when they are done this well.
Coming in a close second is Mass Effect. This game looks to take the action RPG to the next level. BioWare sticks to what they know and do best. Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic before that were just the tip of the iceberg. The live demo given by Jay Watamanivk, BioWare Community Manger, not only showcased the game’s beautiful graphics but gave us a glimpse at the amazing character interaction that heightens the overall emotional involvement and impact. The facial animation and attention to detail I saw was very impressive. The game is completely voice-acted, including your character, which is fully customizable, including gender. To say the game world – or, shall I say, game galaxy - is huge is an understatement. There will be many planets in different solar systems to explore.
Ubisoft had a solid showing with the next-gen versions of Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six, but I see them doing to these franchises what they have done with Ghost Recon and that is taking niche titles that appeal to rather specific gamers and continuing to change and rework them to appeal to a larger, more general audience. For example, no longer is Sam Fisher skulking around the shadows in submarines, trains, back alleys or corporate towers; now he is basking in the sunlight skipping across ice floes and trying to outmaneuver tanks in a dessert town. Playing that latter level just felt more like Ghost Recon than Splinter Cell. The live Rainbow Six Vegas demo looked very impressive, but the addition of the third-person view may turn off some of the core audience. The third-person view can be toggled on and off when approaching and hiding behind walls and other objects. I have no doubt both games will be shiny with all the trimmings, as Ubi is putting a lot of time and money into them, but I am just not sure the hard-core fans are going to be completely happy.
A couple of open-world “sandbox” third-person action games are headed to the Xbox 360, THQ’s gang bangin’ world of Saint’s Row and Microsoft’s future cop Crackdown. While both are very similar, I think they are different enough to each warrant a closer look. Saint’s Row not only should ship two to three months before Crackdown, it offers up a whole host of multiplayer mayhem via Xbox Live. It is a very ambitious title that has seen its release get pushed back a good six to nine months. Crackdown does not appear to have quite the diversity but does offer full co-op play over Live and lots of bitchin’ explosions and over-the-top physics.
Over at the Sega booth I checked out Sonic the Hedgehog and the soon-to-be-released Chromehounds. Sonic played much like Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, which in my book is a good thing. However, I felt the control was much too sensitive and could use some tweaking. Chromehounds was showing off its multiplayer with eight-player two-team deathmatch set on a ten-minute timer. The game boasts an incredible amount of mech customization but did not appear to have any of that available in the demo. Also, the mech you used was pre-defined by which kiosk you played on. The game ran smoothly and displayed sharp graphics with destructible environments. The aiming concerns me the most as you only get a reticule when you are zoomed in; otherwise, in the upper right-hand corner is small window with a zoomed-up view with reticule that you can use to help target the enemy mechs. It’s just odd to have to keep glancing up at the PIP to aim your weapons. When you do zoom in, the PIP switches to third-person view. One cool feature was the need to capture communication points that allow you to talk with your teammates if they are within that cell. Get enough of them - they overlap each other just like a cell phone network - and you will be able to communicate from one side of the map to the other. With the deep customization and online clan support, I am still very interested in this one.
One game that Microsoft seemed to be pushing quite heavily was Shadowrun by MechAssault developer FASA. This game is being developed for Windows Vista in addition to the Xbox 360 and will ship the same day as the new PC operating system. It will be the first game to take advantage of the “Live Anywhere” program and is a true cross-platform game where PC’ers will be able to go head-to-head with Xbox 360 gamers. The game is pretty much a straight up run-and-gun online multiplayer shooter with no single-player story mode to get in the way. The game does have some interesting twists with the use of magic and teleporting, but at the end of the day it’s still just another shooter, and I really had a hard time getting into it. That said, I am sure it will find an audience.
One cool thing about E3 is getting a sneak peak at games that are not overhyped, yet, and that are tucked away a bit. Two such games were Huxley, an MMOFPS from Korean developer WEBZEN, and Frontline: Fuel of War from THQ’s internal developer Kaos Studios. Both games are at least a year away, so what was shown is quite early in development.
Huxley actually was shown quite predominantly at WEBZEN’s booth in its PC incarnation. However, it was the Xbox 360 version that was being shown behind closed doors in a small room with two of the games developers. One of the big draws of Huxley is the persistent world it creates; the other is the interplay between PC and the Xbox 360. They have not worked out all the particulars, but they hope to integrate the two platforms in unique ways that complement each other. For example, an Xbox’er could drive a vehicle while the PC’er does the shooting. While the Xbox 360 version is six months behind in development, it shows great promise. The game is powered by the Unreal Engine 3 and looks great showing off some cool particle effects and lighting. At the end of the demo, they split the screen in half with the other side powered by a PC. They then took the PC character onto the Xbox 360 side and vice versa, showing how they have the integration up and running. It was very cool.
To a lot of people Frontline: Fuel of War is just another FPS, something the Xbox 360 is definitely not short on. But it is one genre that I very much enjoy, so when I heard that they were showing actual gameplay behind closed doors I jumped at the chance. If this type of game is your bag, you will want to keep an eye peeled for this one. Now that I have a direct connection to the developers, I will be following up and hope to dish out more details in the coming months.
We all know Live Arcade has surpassed Microsoft’s expectations and shows no sign of slowing down. I tried out a kids’ game, TotemBall, a “gesture” game that will launch with the Xbox camera later this year. You move your hands up and down to drive and steer the totem around the playing field, picking up the totem pieces that each represent an instrument. You need to pick them up in the correct order, and as each one is added the music becomes fuller. Lumines makes the jump from the PSP and will feature artists like Madonna. Activision’s World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions, with its face mapping technology, is going to shake things up as all nine players playing on Live can have their virtual selves (or whatever body part they choose to have mapped) in the game as well as their real mugs via PIP. Of course, they will need the new video camera to do any of this.
So what about Halo 3, you ask? Well, nothing more than a trailer was shown, the same trailer you can download via the Xbox Live Marketplace. I like Halo, but the truth is I have not played it for months. I am always looking for my next gaming fix rather than playing two-year-old Xbox games. It is just too far away for me to get excited about it yet. That is reserved for Gears of War.
Finally, for me personally, meeting Corporate Vice President Peter Moore was the topper of E3 2006. I attend the Access E3 2006 party at The House of Blues in West Hollywood, and it was there I introduced myself to Mr. Moore, who seemed very relaxed with a big smile on his face, kinda like the cat who ate the canary. He was there to talk about Microsoft strengthening their partnership with retailer Best Buy. While my time with him was brief, he had no problem taking a moment to chat with me and pose for a picture.
Overall Microsoft showing at E3 2006 was very strong. Peter Moore had said all along that this year was all about the software and that is exactly what they brought, gobs of high quality software.
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