SDCC Bragging Thread (Con Report re Games)
I went to Comic Con this weekend. THE San Diego Comic Convention.
It freaking rocked.
Now, it is primarily a comic book convention, someone figured out a long time that the people that are into comics are also into video games. The whole nerd thing, ya know?
So many companies that threw stuff together at E3 also drove 150 miles south to San Diego to show off their stuff again to more people.
Here are some of the highlights of those games...
LUCAS ARTS
Lucas arts has 5 games coming out in the next year, and four of them were playable at the convention. Lets go over the games:
KOTOR 2:
The game I am most excited about, since the first one kicked ass. However, I was a bit underwhelmed by the demo. Yeah, its a new storyline, yeah there are new force powers, and yeah there are some new things, but it feels more like an expansion pack to KOTOR than an entirely new game.
Some of the new force powers are really cool. Force Scream, for instance, is very similar to force wave, except more powerful it looks like, but its based around you instead of the target. Force Sense is intresting, and could be useful, but not useful in a fight, really. 'sides, it wasn't very hard to figure out who was evil in KOTOR 1.
What I do love, tho, is the new combat animations. After seeing your character flurry so many times, it got rather annoying.
No word on the plot, tho, but I have a feeling you'll run into your char from KOTOR 1 here. Call it a hunch.
Battlefront:
Battlefield 1942 in the Star Wars universe. Didn't actually get to play this, tho, so I have no idea how it is, but I seriously doubt it will be amazingly spectacular.
Than again, you CAN be a stormtrooper that actually hits his mark occasionally :).
And you can kill Ewoks.
FINALLY.
Republic Commando:
I managed to get some play time into this, and its an intresting way to do squad based shooters. You are forced to be one of the guys, and can not switch units. This means, if you get incapacitated, you gotta lay around until a buddy helps you up.
Oh, and none of your units can die. They get knocked out, tho, and have to be brought back to life via a nifty tool you have, but they just don't die. That might sound disappointing, but it does get rid of some of the really annoying aspects of Ghost Recon that always bugged me, that sniping was always a more effective tool than actually going in. The mission shown wasn't that hard, however it was annoying that they didn't let me change the y axis sensitivity. Any idea how hard it is to shoot fliers with an amazingly sensitive y axis? Like when you tap it and it zooms up?
Still, looks pretty good. Can't wait to play it.
GBA Trilogy game:
zzzz. Completely forgetable. Lightsaber combat is too easy, and I got sick of the blaster combat really fast. Might actually become good, but I seriously doubt it.
Mercinaries:
Sick of Star Wars? Well, this is Lucas Arts only non-Star Wars game. I'm really not sure about it, since I didn't play it, but it looks like a M rated game that will likely allow you to blow shit up good.
Just like every other game out there :).
Episode 3:
This is the game, btw. They did not have it out on the floor, but they showed us glimpses of it in the Star Wars Extravaganza show. The makers of the game were taught lightsaber combat by the fight coordinator from the movie, and had Hayden Christensen come and show them how he fights. This could make for the best Lightsaber combat from any game. How do I know this?
They showed the game makers playing a VERY early build, and he was using buttons besides the right trigger to attack.
That's right, SKILLED Lightsaber Combat in an engine not pulled from Quake 3!
Suck on THAT, Jedi Knight series!
Still, could end up tanking. But its looking pretty intresting so far.
Nintendo:
They had a couple games out there, all of them playable, and my reactions range from sweet ass to crappy as hell.
The Incredibles:
Played some of this. Its an action platformer.
'nough said. Crappy camera angles, standard combat. Nothing remarkable here. Its the standard Franchise game thrown out to make more money.
Snooze.
Viewtiful Joe 2:
Its the same thing as the original, as far as I could tell, except you get to play as Joe's Girlfriend this time.
Still, the original game was fscking sweet, so this is nothing to be mad about. It'll rock, of course. No such thing as too much of a good thing.
Metroid 2:
I really didn't see much of this, so I really have little to say.
In fact nothing.
I payed no attention to this, cause next to it was...
Resident Evil 4:
*jaw hits floor*
Goodbye crappy camera angles. Sayonara overused zombies. Adios worn graphics.
Hello trailing camera, oddly durable baddies, and amazing graphics.
The demo they had basically was one long fight, in which you had to try to stay alive against constantly increasing baddies. The targeting camera they have is very good, allowing you to reliably hit your targets with ease.
The graphics, tho, are amazing. Every player made a beeline to the shotgun, so you could blow heads off.
And I mean blow heads off. This was pretty much the only way to reliably kill them, tho. Sometimes a group of them would take a shotgun at point blank, only to get back up again and attack the player. The grenades were occasionally useful, but it was REALLY hard to kill the baddies.
The only thing that might make the game suck is if there is still a lot of backtracking. Still, its pretty awesome so far.
Konami:
Only one game of intrest: MGS 3, Snake Eater:
Bad name jokes aside, it looks good. There are a few noticable changes tho, that immensely change the game.
The stealth part has been vastly improved, with camoflauge, and enemy sight based on light and what clothes you have on. Also, the radar isn't quite as cheap now, as you can't figure out the direction the enemy is facing from the radar now, thank god. So, stealth is much harder now.
Combat is much more difficult, tho. The biggest change is the dropping of the auto-lock feature, where you press a button and Snake aims at the nearest enemy he's facing. Although a very useful feature for automatic weapons, it can be overpowering easily. However, since its gone, you have to go into first person mode to be at all accurate with your weapons.
However, they added a new weapon to your arsenal: The shotgun. While not an auto-kill, since the baddies are wearing armor, the force of the shotgun will knock your enemies down, giving you time to find proper cover.
Finally, the enemy AI now takes note of grenades. Now, if you need to fall back, toss a grenade down in the general area of the enemy. They all dive for cover, giving you time to run.
Oh, and Snake in this game is so clearly Big Boss. Part of the footage they were looping nearby showed "Snake" with an eyepatch.
*cough*
It it isn't Big Boss, then someone is on something.
It freaking rocked.
Now, it is primarily a comic book convention, someone figured out a long time that the people that are into comics are also into video games. The whole nerd thing, ya know?
So many companies that threw stuff together at E3 also drove 150 miles south to San Diego to show off their stuff again to more people.
Here are some of the highlights of those games...
LUCAS ARTS
Lucas arts has 5 games coming out in the next year, and four of them were playable at the convention. Lets go over the games:
KOTOR 2:
The game I am most excited about, since the first one kicked ass. However, I was a bit underwhelmed by the demo. Yeah, its a new storyline, yeah there are new force powers, and yeah there are some new things, but it feels more like an expansion pack to KOTOR than an entirely new game.
Some of the new force powers are really cool. Force Scream, for instance, is very similar to force wave, except more powerful it looks like, but its based around you instead of the target. Force Sense is intresting, and could be useful, but not useful in a fight, really. 'sides, it wasn't very hard to figure out who was evil in KOTOR 1.
What I do love, tho, is the new combat animations. After seeing your character flurry so many times, it got rather annoying.
No word on the plot, tho, but I have a feeling you'll run into your char from KOTOR 1 here. Call it a hunch.
Battlefront:
Battlefield 1942 in the Star Wars universe. Didn't actually get to play this, tho, so I have no idea how it is, but I seriously doubt it will be amazingly spectacular.
Than again, you CAN be a stormtrooper that actually hits his mark occasionally :).
And you can kill Ewoks.
FINALLY.
Republic Commando:
I managed to get some play time into this, and its an intresting way to do squad based shooters. You are forced to be one of the guys, and can not switch units. This means, if you get incapacitated, you gotta lay around until a buddy helps you up.
Oh, and none of your units can die. They get knocked out, tho, and have to be brought back to life via a nifty tool you have, but they just don't die. That might sound disappointing, but it does get rid of some of the really annoying aspects of Ghost Recon that always bugged me, that sniping was always a more effective tool than actually going in. The mission shown wasn't that hard, however it was annoying that they didn't let me change the y axis sensitivity. Any idea how hard it is to shoot fliers with an amazingly sensitive y axis? Like when you tap it and it zooms up?
Still, looks pretty good. Can't wait to play it.
GBA Trilogy game:
zzzz. Completely forgetable. Lightsaber combat is too easy, and I got sick of the blaster combat really fast. Might actually become good, but I seriously doubt it.
Mercinaries:
Sick of Star Wars? Well, this is Lucas Arts only non-Star Wars game. I'm really not sure about it, since I didn't play it, but it looks like a M rated game that will likely allow you to blow shit up good.
Just like every other game out there :).
Episode 3:
This is the game, btw. They did not have it out on the floor, but they showed us glimpses of it in the Star Wars Extravaganza show. The makers of the game were taught lightsaber combat by the fight coordinator from the movie, and had Hayden Christensen come and show them how he fights. This could make for the best Lightsaber combat from any game. How do I know this?
They showed the game makers playing a VERY early build, and he was using buttons besides the right trigger to attack.
That's right, SKILLED Lightsaber Combat in an engine not pulled from Quake 3!
Suck on THAT, Jedi Knight series!
Still, could end up tanking. But its looking pretty intresting so far.
Nintendo:
They had a couple games out there, all of them playable, and my reactions range from sweet ass to crappy as hell.
The Incredibles:
Played some of this. Its an action platformer.
'nough said. Crappy camera angles, standard combat. Nothing remarkable here. Its the standard Franchise game thrown out to make more money.
Snooze.
Viewtiful Joe 2:
Its the same thing as the original, as far as I could tell, except you get to play as Joe's Girlfriend this time.
Still, the original game was fscking sweet, so this is nothing to be mad about. It'll rock, of course. No such thing as too much of a good thing.
Metroid 2:
I really didn't see much of this, so I really have little to say.
In fact nothing.
I payed no attention to this, cause next to it was...
Resident Evil 4:
*jaw hits floor*
Goodbye crappy camera angles. Sayonara overused zombies. Adios worn graphics.
Hello trailing camera, oddly durable baddies, and amazing graphics.
The demo they had basically was one long fight, in which you had to try to stay alive against constantly increasing baddies. The targeting camera they have is very good, allowing you to reliably hit your targets with ease.
The graphics, tho, are amazing. Every player made a beeline to the shotgun, so you could blow heads off.
And I mean blow heads off. This was pretty much the only way to reliably kill them, tho. Sometimes a group of them would take a shotgun at point blank, only to get back up again and attack the player. The grenades were occasionally useful, but it was REALLY hard to kill the baddies.
The only thing that might make the game suck is if there is still a lot of backtracking. Still, its pretty awesome so far.
Konami:
Only one game of intrest: MGS 3, Snake Eater:
Bad name jokes aside, it looks good. There are a few noticable changes tho, that immensely change the game.
The stealth part has been vastly improved, with camoflauge, and enemy sight based on light and what clothes you have on. Also, the radar isn't quite as cheap now, as you can't figure out the direction the enemy is facing from the radar now, thank god. So, stealth is much harder now.
Combat is much more difficult, tho. The biggest change is the dropping of the auto-lock feature, where you press a button and Snake aims at the nearest enemy he's facing. Although a very useful feature for automatic weapons, it can be overpowering easily. However, since its gone, you have to go into first person mode to be at all accurate with your weapons.
However, they added a new weapon to your arsenal: The shotgun. While not an auto-kill, since the baddies are wearing armor, the force of the shotgun will knock your enemies down, giving you time to find proper cover.
Finally, the enemy AI now takes note of grenades. Now, if you need to fall back, toss a grenade down in the general area of the enemy. They all dive for cover, giving you time to run.
Oh, and Snake in this game is so clearly Big Boss. Part of the footage they were looping nearby showed "Snake" with an eyepatch.
*cough*
It it isn't Big Boss, then someone is on something.
posted by Wraithy at 7/26/2004 10:39:00 PM
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