E3 Day 2 Impressions: Super Crazy Edition

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Developer: Funcom; Publisher: Funcom
PC

"Conan! What is best in life?"

"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. Oh, and apparently, since it's the thing to do, I'd like to have my own MMOG, as well. Everyone else does."

What King Conan wants, King Conan gets. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is an MMO action-RPG being developed and published by Funcom. I decided to drop by a theater presentation of AoC to see what, if anything, sets Conan the Barbarian apart from the rather large flock of MMOs we've got suffocating the market these days.

Surprisingly, Conan starts out as a single player game. The story begins in the lower holds of a large trading ship. You are a slave and have been assigned to the arduous task of manning a pair of oars. Right at this point, you get to start the design of your character. Choose male or female, shape his or her face and body to your liking, and then get ready to throw down barbarian style. Your first task is to overpower the slave trader, which somehow--we were not shown specifics--causes the ship to wreck upon an island. For the next 15-20 character levels, AoC will remain a single player game. Once you've hit level 20, you join the main segments of the world and can band with other players to form guilds, or do whatever you want to do.

Because you'll spend a large portion of your time in a single player game environment, considerable attention was spent on the AI in Age of Conan. The AI functions by utilizing what is known as a "needs system." Each NPC has certain needs, and they are arranged in a pyramid scheme: survival is at the top, along with the desire for food and water. Then there's stuff like socializing. The audience was treated to a rather humerous example where the presenter snuck up on a guard taking a Wii... err, a pee in the woods. Why? Well, because he's human! When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

Combat is the focal point of Aoc, and it's actually a bit unique from all the other MMOs out there. If you're equipped with an oar, for example, you can press attack once to swing. Press it twice, and you'll bust out a combo. Press it more times, and the combo increases. The hits vary with each combination attack and always end in a fatality, for lack of a better term. The presenter had equipped a sword to attack two foes. The first he swung at twice, then finished off the chain attack with a decapitation. However, the next enemy was stabbed in the gut instead of deprived of everything from the shoulders up. It's a nice little feature that takes some of the bore out of constant button mashing.

Another way to fight is through Formation Combat. You and a group of buddies can band together and form a formation, then march and fight in your set positions. This may seem superfluous, but it's main use is found in Massive Combat, which is explained below.

You can also purchase mounts to aid your fighting in AoC. The horse is quite a bit more efficient here than in WoW, for example. When you ride your mount, you'll lean into turns depending on how fast you're going, which is a nice touch. But that's not what sets this facet of AoC apart from Blizzard's epic. In this game, mounted combat actually means something. The damage you inflict on your enemies is determined by how fast you're riding toward them. If you come blazing at them, your avatar will lean forward and throw a lot of weight behind the strike. Devastating effects, lemme tell ya.

"Massive Combat" is a feature that was integrated into the game in order to promote comraderie and teamwork. Here's how MC works: You and a group of folks (probably a guild, which you have the ability to form) get together and begin construction on a city. Here, the game takes somewhat of an RTS perspective. You continue to build buildings and produce units to form an army. Why are you doing all of this? Well, the army will be used to wage war against a rival city, which can be either creature (AI) or human (live players) controlled. The process of getting your city running efficiently is something that will take weeks to complete from start to finish. And by "weeks," I don't mean days measured in game time. I mean real time. I think it's a cool feature, but... literal weeks? That's quite a bit of an investment, and I don't know that it will be for everyone, even though it is a unique idea in the context of MMOs.

Age of Conan looks to be what combat intensive fans have been looking for in an RPG. If you're tired of WoW, SW: Galaxies, and the like, Age of Conan might be a nice change of pace. Look for it later this year.

CivCity: Rome
Developer: FireFly Studios; Publisher: 2K Games
PC

It is a well known fact (and an extremely overused cliche which I am about to abuse) that Rome was not built in a day. However, with FireFly Studios' CivCity: Rome, you can sure give it your best to prove this annoying adage wrong. Though it seems that my first year attending E3 has been full of nothing but nonplayable game presentations, I sat down to view the CCR demo with a bit of excitement to see how the game was coming together. Without getting even a second of play time. Did I mention that? Just making sure. (Sob!)

The first thing you should know about getting your personal Rome up and running is that houses are to CivCity: Rome what cities are to Civilization games. After choosing a plot of land to begin with, you should begin constructing homes. This begins a cycle of growth and expansion. As you build more houses, they'll get better due to the taxes you can begin to charge. Constantly expanding your empire (while making sure to keep it clean and extravagant looking) is the quickest way to ensuring the contentedness of your citizenry, which is the key to ensuring your empire's continued existence. It's essentially an endless circle of constant and necessary productivity. You can view a variety of charts and graphs to keep track of how well (or how not so well) everything is doing, but the determining factor is your Civilization Rating. As long as this is a decent number, you can be sure that overall, everything is going all right.

While of course you'll have to work hard to keep your people happy, they'll gladly carry some of the slack for you. The NPC population operates on what is known as a "freetime" meter. It's a slider, with work on one end and freetime on the other. You'll need to make sure your people work to keep the day-to-day operations of keeping an empire alive, but they're not gonna be happy if you force them to work a bajillion hours a week. So the trick is to balance work and play, just like in the terrifying realm of the "real world."

During their freetime, you can watch your people walk around, clean up around the house, eat dinner, and generally live their lives the way however they wish to. However, no one has too much fun cooking and cleaning, so you'll want to make sure to construct structures for such events as gladiator bouts, chariot races, etc. in order to give your people the entertainment they so rightfully deserve. I got to watch (not play) each of these two events in particular, and lemme tell ya, it's really easy to lose track of what you're doing due to getting caught up in cheering your chosen horse and rider team, or gladiator.

The last portion of the presentation (in which I did not get to participate at all) consisted of education, something which the Civ games have always held in high esteem. The Civilopedia, selectable from the game's main menu, contains detailed facts about the history of the true Roman Empire. Best of all, it's presented graphically, so you don't have to sit and scroll through a bunch of text. For example, you can take a look at a Roman kitchen and see what all was involved in running it back in the day. Did you know that toilets were actually installed in the kitchen? That's right: you could Wii during dinner time.

You'll soon be able to see (and play) CivCity: Rome for yourself, as it's due out in July.

BioShock
Developer: Irrational; Publiser: 2K Games
PC, Xbox 360

There are some games that, for whatever reason, I know nothing about until practically everyone I know is screaming about them. BioShock happened to be one of those games. I got an issue of Game Informer in the mail about three months back, and there was a scoop on the cover about an interview with the dev team behind some game called BioShock. I thought, "Whateva," and let it go. Then, about two weeks ago, for whatever reason, I picked up that same magazine and opened it to the interview. Inadvertantly scanning the page, my eyes relayed to me such phrases as, "... team behind System Shock 2," and "spiritual successor to System Shock 2." System Shock 2 being the key theme, you see. From that point on, BioShock has had my attention. Today, Chris and I each had a chance to separately view the near twenty minutes long demonstration being held at the 2K Games E3 booth, and decided to give the game its rightful due by way of offering our individual perspectives. For those of you that have an interest in games with extremely high potential, read on. All the rest of you: keep reading anyway.

The premise of BioShock is a simple one. Your character survives a shipwreck and manages to survive long enough to swim over to a mysterious lighthouse. A tunnel leads down, down, and down some more until you find yourself in a domed Atlantis-like city beneath the ocean's surface. Taking a look around, you realize that this beautiful domed city is a beautiful, perfect utopia--or at least, it was at one point. Now torn apart by war, your only objective is to escape the city of Rapture before the ocean reclaims it, the bad guys reclaim it, or the other bad guys reclaim it.

The graphical style used in BioShock is known as "art deco," which is an architecural design style from the 1920s to 1940s. As can be clearly seen from any screen shot, Rapture was indeed a beautiful paradise at one time, created for the elite from all walks of life (athletes, artists of many varieties, intellectuals, etc.) to live in harmony. Some parts of Rapture are still quite pleasant to gaze upon, though there are now unmistakeable traces of both war and the ocean fighting to take back its own. Many areas of Rapture are flooded; you can see water pouring in from the walls and ceilings. Sometimes it's more subtle; you'll see tiny trickling paths emanating from cracks in the walls.

In a move that I feel adds to its immersion, BioShock features only sparse use of a soundtrack. In games like this, background music is just extraneous. It would serve no other purpose than to throw off the mood of the game, so instead, BioShock allows its sound effects to do the talking. You'll hear water twisting through passageways, the steady clomp, clomp, clomp of Big Brothers (more on these guys below) trudging through dilapidated corridors.... It just relays more eeriness, more uneasiness, more everything than a constant soundtrack ever could.

But BioShock is much more than just a sexy package. The AI is a crucial element to what will inevitably be its success. Irrational Games devised what they call an "AI ecology," which essentially means that all NPCs have relationships that they've established and are able to follow. Take the Big Brothers (formerly the "Protectors") and the Little Sisters (formerly "Gatherers"). The Big Brother's role is to guard the Little Sister as she hunts for Adam, a type of fluid that serves as BioShock's money. Oh yeah: she does this by impaling a corpse with a foot long needle, filling it with blood, then she drinks the blood, coughing some of it up. Talk about disturbing. Now then, where was I? Ah, yes. You see, if anything messes with Lil' Sis, Big Bro's gonna come a knockin', and you do not want to be the guy who has to answer the door. However, unless you (or any NPC) happens to attack a Bro or Sis, they will not bother you at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they won't even acknowledge your existence.

System Shock 2 is known for its eerieness above all else, and BioShock looks to carry on the torch in a variety of ways. Not only do the graphics set a haunting, this-could-have-been-wonderful-but-now-it's-in-ruin kind of mood, but the day-to-day life in rapture is extremely unsettling. You see, Adam is what is used to "enchance" the remaining denizens of the doomed city. Some of them, such as the Big Brother and Little Sister, are hardly even human, and because the player will continually have to answer the question of "how much of my humanity do I really want to lose just to improve myself?" the use of Adam will also be a concern for the protagonist as well. As you find Adam, you can enchance yourself, but at what cost to your humanity? Is it really worth losing your sense of self just to become "better?" BioShock makes you think, and I enjoy those types of games.

Through the use of Adam, any enhancements you do choose to utilize will serve to help you through sticky situations. Though you'll have access to a limited number of guns--and an even more (less?) limited supply of ammo--players will find it difficult to progress through the game without using any Adam enhancements at all; there again, it's all about choice and consequences. But let's say you do choose to modify yourself just a little bit. What should you go for? There will be a wide array of solutions to each and every problem BioShock will pose to gamers. One ability, known as Aggressor Irritant, causes any creature caught in the skill's grasp to come under attack the moment an Aggressor (a bad guy, for all intents and purposes) sees it. The Irritant offers a strategic advantage. Let's say you want to kill a Little Sister to steal her supply of Adam. Well, okay, but remember you'll have to deal with the Big Brother, which is a daunting task to say the least. You could try to overpower him in a firefight--or, you could shower Irritant on him in the presence of an Aggressor, then kill the Little Sister while Big Bro is otherwise occupied. Here again though is another choice and consequence scenario. You see, the Little Sisters resemble twelve year old girls. Can you really shoot a little girl in the head? Sure, she's not human any longer, but she still looks human. Is it worth the Adam you'll receive to listen to the Little Sister scream in agony before she dies? If you think you can do it, go ahead.

The type of scares BioShock promises to offer (along with countless scenarios that will actually force you to think about causality) are what has me most excited. Resident Evil's classic dog-jumping-through-a-window is creepy, but after the first time it happens, it usually has no effect. But choices revolving around humanity and what it really means... that will always cause me to pause. Look for BioShock on Xbox 360 and PC some time 2007.

The Darkness
Developer: Starbreeze Studios; Publisher: 2K Games
Xbox 360, PS3

The Darkness is coming! Run! On second thought, letting the Darkness catch up to you might not be so bad. Coming from Starbreeze, the developers who brought you the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Darkness aims to give you a unique kind of FPS experience--with the aim of scaring the crap out of you at the same time. I had a chance to sit in on a video presentation at E3 to find out how this PS3 and Xbox 360 title is coming along.

The story for The Darkness, the video game is loosely based on the comic book's general storyline. Paul Jenkins, the storywriter on said comic, was brought aboard in order to demonstrate the dev team's commitment to giving Darkness fans everything they expect, yet different enough so that video gamers who may not be familiar with the comic book won't overlook the game as some obscure comic geek thing. In the game, the player takes on the role of Jack, a Mafia hitman, who gets possessed by the Darkness, a somewhat evil influence that is at its strongest in dark areas. The Darkness grants Jack powers, and of course, Jack decides to best utilize his unique new abilities by beating the tar out of his foes.

So you need darkness to use the Darkness, right? Right. So check it out: imagine walking into a room full of bright lights. This will not do, not at all. So, whip out your pistols and shoot the lights. Whenever the player is esconced in shadows, the Darkness will appear. The form I saw it take look like two thick, black, long-necked heads growing out of the players shoulders, obviously positioned to best take advantage of the first-person perspective. They have sharp, gnashing teeth, so it's a lot like having zerglings perched on your shoulders.

The fact that you're encouraged to use conventional weapons only for removing light did not go unnoticed by the audience. In The Darkness, your dark powers are your best offense and defense. Bullets, really, are around just because you might need them every now and then. The dark powers allowed the presenter to, for example, hoist a police car into the air and throw it into the cops. They didn't get back up. In another instance, a Darkling--little critters the player can call to his or her aid--was summoned to crawl up through a ventilation shaft in order to scope out guard positions below. When this occurred, the perspective changed to that of the Darkling, leaving the player standing unprotected at the entrance to the shaft. The Darkling crawled through the vent, killed the guards below, and after making sure the coast was clear, the presenter recalled control to the player. When he walked through the gate over to where the Darkling had performed its macabre duties, the guards were there, dead, so we didn't have to worry about that.

Far from being a ventilation shaft spelunker, Darkling's can make themselves useful by interacting with the environment around them. During a portion of the game where Jack was under assault by a multitude of foes, a spawned Darkling was able to make use of nearby power tools which, as one might expect, made short work of the baddies and allowed the player to not have to dive into the thick of the fray.

Another interesting--if not altogether useful--feature of The Darkness is Darkness TV. Throughout the game, you can walk up to television sets, flip them on, and actually watch full length movies and television shows. Also, you'll be able to watch some of the events in the game. The reason for this odd feature's existence is to give the player a bit of a break from the action. If you so desired, you could flip on Darkness TV, go to the kitchen, grab a cold drink, and watch a movie playing on the game. Hmm.

The game looks to be progressing nicely, but not near fast enough. Due to the desire for a simultaneous PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launch, we won't be summoning Darklings until some time in 2007. Still, the game should be worth the wait--except if you buy it just to watch TV.

Neverwinter Nights 2
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment; Publisher: Atari
PC

It's certainly been a fantastic E3 so far for RPG fans. Games like Titan Quest,Final Fantasy XII and XIII, Age of Conan.... The list is quite extensive, but the anticipation for Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2, which showcases the awesome talents of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale franchises, might have enough hype to overshadow everything else coming out in the genre. I had a chance to check out the map building system and the character development process at Atari's booth. Read on to find out how the game is continuing to shape up.

It's been stated in countless other previews and interviews, but I feel it bears repeating: if you're into modding, Neverwinter Nights 2 will be your dream come true. Perhaps the aspect that has prospect campaign builders in such a frenzy is the fact that if the developers have access to it, so will the modding community. The representative I spoke with stressed this over and over again. It is important to the dev team to give the users just as much freedom and power as the team itself uses. If they can do it, so can you.

There are a few subtle differences separating the construction of exterior and interior maps. The former makes use of a more free form "painting" style of building. You choose the landscape and simply paint it on. Grass, dirt, bridges, bubbling brooks, the works. The interior is handled using a more conventional tile-based system. However, don't look at that as a limitation: you'll be able to place items with just as much freedom indoors as you will out of them. Treasure chests, torches, tables and chairs.... Whatever you want, wherever you want.

The dev kit is robust, but no where near as deep as the character creation system. You start out by choosing a race and class out of the usual selections: human, fighter, what-have-you. However, the total control you have over the nitty gritty details is what will separate your male human warrior from mine. Just the hair selections alone can be overwhelming: what color, what style, do you want highlights. Same applies with eyes: the exact color shade, the shape, the works. I found the selections to be almost exhausting. I was more anxious to configure my stats than the shape of my chin, but that may just be me.

For those of you that aren't stat whores, you have the option of clicking a Recommended button that sets your attributes to what would best fit your class. If you're a sorcerer, for example, clicking the Recommended button will give you plentiful amounts of intellect instead of strength. This can make jumping into the game easier for gamers who might not be as familiar with what certain classes require in the way of stats. Kinda cool, but I don't expect the hard core RPGers to make much use of it.

You'll also have to choose a background (an origin) for your character that will affect the way you'll play your avatar. Again, with the sorcerer example, you'll want to choose something in the way of studying instead of coming up as a farmhand. It just makes more sense for that type of character.

As you play through the game and level up your character, you will eventually be able to unlock Prestiege classes that are essentially advanced extensions of the class type you're currently playing. Again, let us consider our trusty sorcerer. Through choosing the proper Prestiege Class, you can take the caster in a more specific direction; conjuring, for example. It's a nice way of not overwhelming the player with details all at once. Create your character, get used to him/her/it, then later on, start to think about the specifics of how you want your character to progress.

Though I didn't get to spend any actual time playing, (my rep had to go and do a television interview, and I had another appointment to get to) what I saw of these two important creation systems got me plenty excited for Neverwinter Nights 2. I thought some aspects of the character creation were a little too in-depth (what do I care about the shape of my cheeks? Let me get to hacking and slashing!) but lately, it seems like there's a competition being waged in all gaming genres as to which character creation system boasts the most features, no matter how silly a few aspects of them may be.

Look for the game in mid-September of this year.

Hitman: Blood Money
Developer: Io Interactive; Publisher: Eidos
PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360

Consider the following: Notoriety; customizable weapons; HD on 360. Meaningless gimmicks and acronyms, or features that could make Hitman: Blood Money one of the best stealth-action games available? Agent 47's last three adventures have been hit-and-miss, but Blood Money has all the potential to bring the series to the top of the sneak gameplay mountain. I had a chance to sit down with an Eidos rep and take a look at two levels from the full version of the game--due out on 5/30 for all platforms--to find out.

It seems best to explain the all new Notoriety system first, since essentially, everything you do (or don't do) has an affect of some sort on your reputation. The Notoriety system rewards stealthy players for being just that: stealthy. At the end of each level, you'll get a sum of cash for you to make use of however you see fit: weapon upgrades, new gadgets, whatever. You'll also take a look at a newspaper that features a report on the mysterious serial killer's latest slayings (that'd be you, of course). Depending on how much of a mess you made during whatever level you just completed, you'll be instantly recognized in the forthcoming levels of the game. You can get around this, but it'll cost ya. You'll have to spend money to hire clean up crews (someone has to get rid of all those bodies), bribe your way through the court system so no one will almost instantly recognize you (depending on Notoriety), stuff like that. So essentially, the more trigger happy you become, the less money you earn, and the less money you'll be able to spend on weapon upgrades, new weapons, and/or gadgets.

However, Blood Money goes out of its way to ensure that no part of the game is too difficult for any level of gamer. You have a few ways to solve any problem that could arise. The first level I saw has Agent 47 arriving at a small village to track down and terminate a target. Instead of just walking up to the guy and shooting him in the face, the Eidos rep took the time to set up an elaborate "accident" that had the entire village fooled. There was quite a bit involved: slay a villager to get his clothes; hide his body so nobody finds it; get inside a small complex to steal a security guard; use his clothes to get deeper into the complex; rig a large case of wine with an explosive that knocks the target down the stairs and causes lots of confusion.... And that was only one way to solve the problem.

There are times when discretion isn't the better part of valor simply because there's no way to make that happen. The second level I got to witness was set in a small city during a Mardi Gras party. There were literally dozens upon dozens of people littering the streets, making it near impossible to get away with killing a target in cold blood do to the mass panic that would result. Well, correction: due to the mass panic that did result. See, the rep killed the target at the mouth of an alleyway where, unfortunately an officer took a keen interest in the proceedings. Agent 47 busted a cap in his head, but this too drew quite a bit of unwanted attention--in the form of a complete panic.

It took a good five minutes to get the panicked crowd under control due to the sensitivity meter. This meter sits right next to 47's health at the bottom of the screen and is used as a barometer to measure exactly how aware all the people are of you. When dozens of people saw 47 gun down a cop, the meter shot right up and stayed there for a good while. The nice thing about the meter is that it will eventually drain down to normal (or at least acceptable) levels depending on what you did to illicit fullscale panic. What's more, the meter won't let you get too comfortable. The Eidos rep demonstrated the fact that NPCs will eventually catch wind of something not quite right. 47 stood beside an NPC in a stolen outfit. The NPC, after a few moments, began to stare curiously at the assassin, and with each glance, the meter continued to slowly rise. It's a neat idea because it ensures that you're never completely safe.

The open-endedness of Blood Money's gameplay seems poised to ensure that each of the 10+ levels will offer over an hour or two of gameplay for even the most hardened stealth-action gamer. Don't let Blood Money's release date sneak up on you: it's only 2 weeks away, so around that time, we'll see how it stacks up to the other three entries.

Just Cause
Developer: Avalanche Studios; Eidos
PC, Xbox 360

Just Cause places you in the role of Rico Rodriguez, hot-shot detective who has been sent to the massive island of San Esperito with the unenviable task of overthrowing the island's corrupt government. The first thing I noticed was how beautiful the game looks. With the lush tropical sights and incredible draw distances, it felt like I was watching Far Cry from a 3rd person perspective. Make no mistake, you'll spend much of your time just gazing at the visuals whenever the action slows down--which is not all that often. My only complain thus far (and this is somewhat understandable, given that the game isn't completed yet) is that much of the foliage is rather blurry. A minor complaint, but a complaint nonetheless, and one I hope will be fixed by the time the game ships.

San Esperito is, in a way, just as much a main character as Rico himself. The land is just massive, comprised of over 350,000 acres of territory. You're definitely not going to want to do much exploring on foot, and it is because of this that vehicles also feature so prominently in Just Cause. Most of your transportation will take place via planes and helicopters, as they provide the means to cover the most ground. Also, there are 314 villages scattered around San Esperito, and each of them is in dire need of a CIA hero's assitance. Each village is under enemy control, but if you launch an attack and are able to successfully liberate the village, you'll gain its citizens as allies. Liberating villages is an entirely optional side quest, but the more people you set free, the more helping hands you'll accumulate.

Because Just Cause is definitely meant to be played like the craziest Hollywood action movie you can imagine, you'll hardly ever find yourself flying around for the sole purpose of covering ground. In one crazy instance, Rico was given the objective to find and assassinate a particular drug lord for the purpose of assuming his identity. So, Rico hops in a plane, tears across San Esperito, heading toward flashing red arrows pointing down at his target. After diving from the plane, our favorite CIA operative proceeded to freefall for about 15 seconds, which provided an incredible view of the island. After quickly pulling the parachute cord to avoid a rather painful death, Rico glided on top of the drug lord's car, hopped through the window, kicked the drug lord out, killed him, and then drove off. It was... really cool, actually. John Woo would've been proud.

Your parachute acts as a trusted ally for much of Just Cause, as does your grappling hook. Picture the following: a car drives by, so you launch the grapple onto it. You get pulled into the air, where your chute bursts open, allowing you to parasail. Quite an unconventional and fun way to get from place to place. And, of course, traveling via this method provides ample opportunities to do stuff like drop down on top of the car (which is as simple as a single button press), kick out (literally) the driver, and commandeer the vehicle.

Aside from a few smeary textures, Just Cause looks to be shaping up Just Fine. The action is intense and crazy, which should make for the perfect game to spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on your time on. Look for Just Cause later this year.