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E3 2002 Report Day 2 by Vincent 'Baff' Austin,
2002-05-24
All these games are in various stages of completion. Some are ready to go gold, others are in alpha stages, so its difficult to compare them, but I have made an attempt to do so by rating my impression of their graphics, gameplay and interface based on watching or playing with them for a few minutes. By the time some of these games go gold I'm sure they will have improved and will deserve higher scores, as more features are added and they are all-around polished. It is extra difficult to rate the graphics since every game would have looked awesome by last years standards.
Game Info I'm getting a bit burnt out on the Infinity engine games, but this one
is shaping up to be a good one. Everyone knows what the graphics look
like, so no need to talk about that. So how is IWD2 different from
IWD1? Well, its all 3rd edition AD&D now, with all the changes that
brings. When you enter an area, the number of creatures it spawns
depends on your level. There are several puzzle games to play with,
such as a tic-tac-toe where you have to beat on monsters to take a
square, and you can set the difficulty of the monsters and you get
bigger prizes for the tougher ones. The focus isn't as strongly hack &
slash as IWD1, its a bit closer to Baldur's Gate, with multiple ways of
reaching your goals. You can fight, talk, or send in your thief, etc.
The game takes place 100 years after IWD1, so you won't be importing
your old characters.
Game Info This being one of the few new games announced at E3, everyone wants to
know about it. It uses a skill system like Fallout, but the look and
feel are comparable to the Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale games in a
magic/science world along the lines of Arcanum. This is an alternate
timeline game. In the 3rd century magic came into the world. The game
takes place in the 16th century. The two opposing forces are the
Inquisition and the Magicians. You start out on the side of the
Inquisition, but its up to you where you go from there. There are
several historical figures in the game, but with a twist, such as
Leonardo Da Vinci is an archmage. You will see lots of his odd
inventions scattered about. The game will also support co-op for upto 3
players.
Game Info This is one of the few games that had that "wow" factor for graphics.
They are using the Unreal engine, but they have rewritten the code for
lighting and shadows. Mostly what was being shown was a tech demo.
Knock over a lamp and it will bounce off a wall and spin around on the
floor with the beam of light flashing around creating realistic and
real-time shadows, not pre-rendered! So what's new in Deus Ex 2? In
Deus Ex 1, you were given the impression that you could choose sides,
but in 2 you really can choose which faction to work for, so you can
play through a second time fighting for the other side. Since the game
is also being designed for XBox, the controls are kept from getting too
complex.
Game Info Gothic was one of my favorite games last year, so I can't wait for this
one. The world is five times larger than Gothic 1. The AI has been
improved, wolves will now attack deer, the deer will run from the
wolves, the wolves will run from you if they think you are too tough.
The game takes place shortly after the end of Gothic 1, but you are a
newbie character, so no importing your awesome character from Gothic 1.
A huge earthquake has disrupted society and now its your job to get
things back in shape and you can join 1 of 3 factions (Mages, Paladins,
Dragon Slayers). Yes there are now dragons in the game, woohoo!
Game Info This is a FPS/RPG along the lines of Rune. The game takes place in 3
different ages as you work towards becoming an archangel, similar to
Vampire: The Masquarade. There is a special ghost mode for sneaking
around and warrior mode for that extra bashing power, but it uses up
your stamina quickly.
Game Info To get the low-down on this game, you can check out the preview here at
rpgdot which goes into much more depth than I would in this small
space. Arx Fatalis is ready for release, it is only being delayed due
to JoWood buying Ravensburger. On the bright side, this is giving
Arkane Studios a little extra time to polish up the game.
Game Info With the recent release of the demo, everyone can get a good look at
this one. It has a quest/dialogue system similar to Baldur's Gate and
action along the lines of Diablo with an over 90 skills.
Game Info So, you want to be a super hero? You can develop your hero from a set
of 50 different powers and 150 sub-powers. You gain money, experience
and fame from completing quests. When you go to the villians hide-out,
the game creates a version just for you and your group, so you don't
have to compete with random people who wander by. Groups of heroes can
join together and build a headquarters. You have over a billion
trillion (yes billion trillion) combinations of destinct outfits to
choose from, so you can match any vision of your ultimate super hero.
Once you've built yourself up, you can test your mettle against other
heroes in the Arena. Look for a Beta announcement in the next couple
weeks.
Game Info The presentation was fairly brief, a two minute movie with time for a
couple questions after. The main changes from Lineage 1 they discussed
is the change from 2D to full 3D and the addition of pledge alliances.
Lineage 2 uses the Unreal engine and is looking pretty good from the
short bit we saw. By E3 next year, this game should be nearing
completion and I'm sure a lot more details will be released. Related Links: |
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