E3 Day 3 Impressions: Fashionably Late

-- May 18, 2006 by: Jake Rodkin

I got back from the whirlwind jetset lifestyle of an E3 freelancer only to be slapped repeatedly in the face by my real job. It was terrible.

Resistance: Fall of Man
Developer: Insomniac; Publisher: Insomniac
PS3

Resistance was a game I knew nothing about at all going in. It appeared on a list from Maarten, late Thursday evening, "Resistance, that PS3 shooter." I got a look at the multiplayer.

Resistance is an FPS for the Playstation 3 by Insomniac, known for their Ratchet and Clank games. They're also, by extension, known for their over the top (but not retarded) weapon design. A good start.

I walked past the game a few times on the show floor before sitting down to play it, and knowing nothing about it after those quick glances I thought it was another WWII shooter. Resistance sports the standard washed out tan and grey look people have been cribbing for their WWII games since Saving Private Ryan. After actually stopping to look, though, I noticed some of the guns weren't the standard old style US Army machine guns, but were boxy metallic things covered in odd pulsing tubes and other odd appendages which, while utilitarian, seemed to be alive... or at least not at all historical. Was this actually not a WWII game but, you know, the other kind of FPS (hint: a sci-fi)? Apparently it's both.

According to a rep from Insomniac, Resistance takes place in what was described as an "alternate version" of the early 50s. Instead of WWII, strange humanoid creatures - mutants or monsters or invaders maybe - called the Chimera have started descending from Eastern Europe, destroying everything and everyone in their path. The game (or at least the part shown at E3) is set in England, as it's the last place not fully infected and overrun by the Chimera. You play as a US ranger who is fighting along side the remaining British resistance force, and naturally you need to shoot a ton of guys.

Fortunately, the game is by Insomniac, so that will at least be interesting. In the demo I saw plenty of standard FPS weapon use - shotguns, machine guns, hand grenades - presumably the weapons used by the various military forces in the game. The weapons belonging to the Chimera (all of which you can pick up and use) were a bit more over the top.

The example which stood out the most was the chimera machine gun. It operated like a standard automatic FPS weapon in standard firing mode, but the alt-fire button would drop a homing beacon which would attract every bullet you fire. The beacon could be stuck to surfaces, left floating in space, or attached to enemies. If there was nobody nearby the beacon (and no surfaces to take the impact of your shots), bullets would hover around it until you either moved the beacon, someone walked into it, or you held the alt-fire button to turn it off, causing all the orbiting projectiles to shoot off in any random direction. I don't know why the other guys didn't notice me doing it, but I was able to get a triple kill by dropping a beacon into the middle of a firefight I was currently losing, spraying bullets at it and then hopping behind a crate before detonating.

Other weapons included a gun whose alt fire would project a temporary bulletproof forcefield, a gun powerful enough to fire through walls, and the hedgehog, a hovering grenade which shoots ridiculously powered needles in every direction. Also, Chris will be pleased to hear that every weapon in the game has a melee attack. Everything there sounds quite extreme in print, but it felt entirely reasonable in-game. I didn't play long enough to make a statement one way or another on how balanced things are, but everyone playing seemed to be surprised by how good a time they were having playing a preview build show floor console FPS demo.

In addition to 32 player online the game will support split screen-multi (though I forgot to ask if it will support seven controllers and two screens or whatever the PS3 can allegedly do) and split-screen cooperative play (hooray!). I tried to get the Insomniac guy to divulge gametypes other than standard deathmatch but he wouldn't say, but of course promised that they'd be revealed eventually. I also broke my own personal rule and asked him how long the single player campaign would be (I don't know why I asked - I've never bothered before because I don't generally care). He looked at me like I was retarded.

The game will be releasing in the PS3's launch window, so we'll likely be dumped on with information about Resistance in the coming month.

Star Trek Legacy
Developer: Mad Doc Software; Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Xbox 360, PC

Apparently there are no good Star Trek games. I didn't know this, as I haven't played a Star Trek game since "25th Anniversary" on my family's Mac LC II in the early 90s, but it seems to be the case.

Fortunately for Trek fans (maybe even for long-ago Trek fans like myself), Mad Doc Software is trying to change that with their upcoming ship / fleet combat title Star Trek Legacy for the Xbox 360 and PC.

According to the Mad Doc employee demoing the game, the main goals of Star Trek Legacy (aside from the already huge goal of making an actually great Trek game) are to tell a story that spans the entire run of all the Trek shows (from Enterprise to the Original Series up through The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine/Voyager), and to actually make ship to ship combat compelling and fun without turning it into dogfighting (they were quick to point out the fact that the ships in Star Trek are more akin to battleships or even floating cities than fighter planes). Their goal was to make it look and feel like the battles from Star Trek and somehow still be fun.

The first scene demoed was a recreation of a scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which the Enterprise chases Khan's ship into a nebula cloud of some sort, enabling the Enterprise to destroy it. Though we were told that actual scene would probably not appear in the game (likely due to licensing/cost reasons), it was a nice introduction to the mood and ideas they were going for. I was (and still am) dubious, as I've never found the space battles in Star Trek particularly engaging, but the first thing they did in the demo was to lock onto Khan's ship with the targeting camera, and bring the Enterprise about, a good 45 degree rotation around his ship. The Enterprise did The Turn. Anyone who has watched an episode of Star Trek (especially the 60s show or the Next Generation) knows what I mean - that over-the-top majestic swoop past the camera, momentarily tipping up to light the underside of the ship as it arcs by. It's not particularly revolutionary, but its very Star Trek, and it looked right. I was starting to think maybe it wasn't a wash after all.

The next scene was a confrontation with a few Romulan ships. While the Khan scene was there to introduce the basic movement and camera work in the game, this battle was largely used to demonstrate the more tactical aspects of the game. Set vaguely in the Next Generation time period, the battle included an assortment of ships including the Enterprise as commanded by Captain Pickard, a ship based on the later-era TNG movies, as well as the Voyager and Deep Space Nine's little Defiant ship. In the game the player can control a fleet up to four ships in battle. One ship is controlled directly at a time, while the other three are given commands either by switching control to the ship and changing its course and operations or by switching to an overview tactical map which reduces all enemy ships, friendly ships and objectives to a series of icons and lines. Ships can be ordered to warp to specific locations, to target and attack an area or a specific ship, etc. After I had my ships doing what I wanted and was able to start focusing on the minutiae of the battle, I was having a pretty good time.

The combat reminded me of sailing ship or submarine combat from various sea based games (which was probably the whole point) - in Star Trek Legacy it isn't at all about chasing the guy down as it is about protecting crucial areas of your ship while trying to position yourself properly to fire front and aft torpedos and your ship's phasers. I was also glad to see, in classic Star Trek style, that main power could be shifted from weapons to shields to thrusters throughout the battle, giving you a little extra control and of course one more lever to mess with. A nice fanboy bonus: I was told that in the single player campaign, if you managed to keep a ship alive and in good shape over the course of the game, you could conceivably retain old ships in your fleet, allowing players to bring all of the comedy 60s Star Trek craft up into the modern shows if they so desired.

The game will also support multiplayer, with each player able to control a fleet of four ships in versus or (hooray!) co-op through many of the main game's missions. There was also talk of releasing downloadable mini-missions, notably more Khan-esque recreations of classic battles throughout the many series' runs.

Yoshi's Island 2
Developer: Nintendo; Publisher: Nintendo
DS

The first Yoshi's Island made me hate Mario 64. Yoshi's Island came out right at the end of the Super Nintendo's lifespan, and it pretty much changed my perception of what was possible in terms of pure creative insanity in art and level design in a platforming game. The thing was beautifully crafted in every way, looked like nothing I'd seen before in a game, and it had those fuzzy guys which sent Yoshi on a stumbling psychadelic binge, turning the music into a bunch of squeaky farts and the screen into a weird rainbow effect I didn't know my SNES was capable of. And the boss battles! Oh man.

I felt so dejected when the next big Mario title looked like goddamn Lemmings 3D. Broke my heart.

I've since made my peace with Mario 64 (though I still don't particularly enjoy playing the game, I at least respect its contributions to 3D gaming), but when I think back to gaming in those years, Yoshi's Island continues to own my soul.

Needless to say, I was excited to hear that Nintendo had a Yoshi's Island 2 for the DS on display at their E3 booth this year.

What's it like then? Thankfully, it's more or less a direct continuation of the original SNES game from all those years ago. The art still looks like it was drawn with a bunch of broken crayons, the gaming still centers around a series of slightly-bulkier-than-usual Mario platforms (connected by spinning cartwheels and spring blocks), and the 10-30 second baby-retrieval timer is still annoying as hell. Also, of course, Yoshi still spends most of his time eating enemies with his tongue, squatting down with a tap of the down button, unsettlingly popping an egg out of his rear, which he'll then throw at an enemy or target later in the level. (It's less off-putting in game.)

New in Yoshi's Island 2 - the Big Feature - is the fact that in addition to Baby Mario, Yoshi can alternatively carry Baby Peach and ... Baby Donkey Kong ... on his back, each of which will give you slightly different powers. For instance, when Yoshi is carrying Baby Peach, longer jumps are easily achieved because at the height of the jump Peach's now-trademark umbrella pops out, allowing a graceful drift (or graceful lift if there's an updraft of air nearby). The downside: as Peach, Yoshi's missing Mario's fat-man belly to weigh him down, and can't properly stomp on guys (he can only eat them). I didn't run into an area that allowed me to switch to Baby Donkey Kong, but presumably we get another feature trade-off with him as well.

Other than that, who knows what's new? The game displays on two screens (ala Sonic Rush), but that's not too surprising considering the choices were either that or to fill the second screen with UI.

The demo itself was clearly rough. While it seemed well on its way to capturing the extremely solid visual design and controls of the first Yoshi's Island, they have a ways to go. Yoshi's controls, especially in the air, felt a little off, and the artwork (especially the pixel artwork on Yoshi and the babies themselves) looked not quite as refined and stylistically coherent as the original game. I'm hesitant to point any of this out though, as if I'm aware of it in a 5 minute demo Nintendo is likely aware of it, as something like a sequel to a beloved 2D Mario platformer is likely under a lot of scrutiny. Plus, I would have said the same thing about New Super Mario Bros last year, and now that title is looking pretty golden and polished.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
Developer: Toys for Bob; Publisher: Activision
Wii

One of the two Wii games I was able to get my hands on amidst the post-line lines (after waiting for hours to get into Nintendo's Wii both one had to wait up to another hour to play each individual game), Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam was (much like many other games at the show) pretty much what one might expect after hearing the basic pitch (or reading the title of the game).

The basic pitch? Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam takes the tried-and-true trick mechanics of the Tony Hawk series and throws them into a racing game, which would be amazingly novel except EA's SSX snowboard racing series has existed since the PS2 first hit. Does the fact that it's Tony Hawk meets SSX make it bad? Clearly not. That's actually a pretty great combo. Hopfully they don't screw it up.

One plays Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam with the Wii remote, though it's held two-handed, like a NES controller. The face buttons are used to crouch and jump, while the triggers are used for grinds, and the d-pad is used to modify jumps and grinds to achieve Tony Hawk's Extreme Tricks. How do you steer? By tipping your hands around, of course. The Wii remote's censors can tell how you're holding your hands, and the guy on screen will lean around with you.

My results were definitely mixed - sometimes I felt like I was in fact a pro skater, gracefully arcing around turns and up onto rails and car roofs, but I spent possibly more time flipping into walls and bouncing around like a retarded pinball... ball. My deeply-ingrained gamepad instincts also contributed to my retardedness, reducing me to the much-talked-of "guy who plays the Wii that looks just like your dumb friend the first time you showed him Super Mario Bros" - I kept leaning the controller to get my guy to turn, but instinctually also kept hitting that direction on the d-pad, to no effect other than to screw up my tricks - the end result being I kept forcibly tipping the controller left and right while also jamming down the left and right directions on the pad as much as I could, to try and get the damn thing to do what I wanted. The demo guy was not impressed.

The fact that I was able to steer at all though is promising - both for my eventual potential Tony Hawk Downhill prowess and for the long-term feasibility of the Wii remote as an abstract steering device. I didn't get over the learning curve in the time allowed for the demo, but it was clearly not too far off. If you like SSX or Tony Hawk (or both), and you want a Wii sports game with maybe some - you know, just a little - added eXtremene, it can't hurt to keep your eyes on this particular Downhill Jam.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
Developer: 7 Studios; Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
PS3

I only really glanced at this game so I haven't got a ton to say. The game is pretty much standard movie license fare - you spend some time fighting guys and finding keys and pickups, set around a vaguely piratical story which takes place between the first and second Pirates of the Caribbean films. You sword guys sometimes, and maybe punch them or push them off things. The AI-controlled Orlando Bloom also has some quips. You know, a video game.

The only real reason I brought this game up at all is to point out that if there was an award for "best idle animation loop," it would pretty much default to the one they did for Jack Sparrow in this game. You'd hope if there was one thing they'd get right in a Pirates of the Caribbean game it would be that, and they did. So kudos there.

Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
Developer: Petroglyph; Publisher: LucasArts
PC

The big hook to Forces of Corruption - the expansion pack for last year's Star Wars RTS Empire At War - is that you get to play a criminal in the Star Wars galaxy, a guy who gets to, you know, "be evil." What does that mean exactly? It apparently means that you can bribe people, sneak past people, and occasionally steal things.

Chris was extremely quick to point out that in real life - as in life not taking place in a video game - things like bribing people, sneaking past guys, and occasionally stealing things are pretty much inconsequential next to, you know, killing hundreds of troops, sacking and leveling cities, maybe obliterating entire planets. In that light, the whole thing does seem a little ridiculous. Sadly, Chris didn't actually point this out to the demo guy's face. I think it might have ruined what was left of his week, but it would have been worth it to get his response.

Anyway, that aside, this isn't real life, it's a Star Wars game, so the relative evilness of ending hundreds of innocent lives versus "borrowing" a tank can probably be tabled for a few minutes (though this editorial by a certain Console Editor might be worth a read).

"The Rebels have just destroyed the Death Star, and the galaxy is in turmoil. In other words, it's just the time that you, an ambitious criminal genius named Tyber Zann, have been waiting for," says LucasArts. "Quench your thirst for power as you build and lead your own forces of scum and villainy. Spread corruption throughout the galaxy using new strategic gameplay elements to influence other factions, steal their funds, slow their production, spy on them and more."

The original Empire At War was LucasArts and Petroglyph's answer to the decade long string of half-assed Star Wars RTS's - an attempt to finally do right by the universe in a top down strategy setting. Both Empire at War and the expansion pack deal with managing your forces on three levels - a traditional land-based battle with troop and vehicle management, space-based ship management and ship to ship combat (capital ships and fighters) above the planets, and a larger abstract map of the current star system and related planets.

In the demo, the LucasArts and Petroglyph guys demonstrated bribing opposing in missions, commandeering their vehicles and being allowed through waypoints otherwise only accessible through brute force. In space, we saw commandeered command ships, we saw cloaking and hiding in asteroid fields to avoid conflict, and on the overall space map we saw the ability to bribe your way past an entire planet on the system map (something apparently totally out of the question in the original campaigns).

Of course in addition to bribing and sneaking and other morally reprehensible acts of war, the expansion pack features a bevy of new units and actions (including Dark Troopers, as first seen in the classic PC FPS Dark Forces)centered around the new criminal underworld race, and multiplayer modes encompassing the criminals along with the Empire and Rebellion from the first game. For more info on the new specifics, I recommend poking around the website.

Gitaroo Man Lives
Developer: KOEI; Publisher: KOEI
PSP

Gitaroo Man was a well received (but poorly distributed) rhythm game for the PS2. The game centered around a nobody school kid who befriends a talking dog named Puma. Puma teaches him how to play the guitar, and by a Japanese turn of events causes him to become Gitaroo Man, a crazily dressed rock god who eventually flies into space and battles skeletons and, you know, lace-cravate-wearing anime villainous types.

Unlike most rhythm games, Gitaroo Man was all about where you were holding the analog stick at a certain moment more than it was about pressing buttons in a particular order. Though you do have to occasionally press colored buttons as they come flying up on the screen, much of the challenge comes from following a curved line around with the analog stick - the line represents a stylized version of the melody you're playing on your guitar, including stops and starts in the line during major breaks in the notes you're playing. The line moves around more quickly and includes more details (big curves, ripples) as the challenge increases. During extreme meedley-meedley or wakka-chicka moments the line leaves and gets replaced by more standard DDR/Guitar Hero-esque button-matching, each corresponding to a ripping chord or fingertippy solo.

Gitaroo Man Lives on the PSP is, from what I can tell, basically the same exact game from the PS2, but in handheld form. The cutscenes and challenges could actually be new, but my limited experience with the original wasn't enough to tell me either way. The core gameplay, though, remains identical.

The game didn't get to make a very big impression in the states, presumably because they stopped selling it almost immediately (a fate that befell rhythm/shooter Rez and was narrowly avoided by Katamari Damacy). There were some scary Gitaroo Man players at the show though, and like all rhythm games of merit, it was possibly more impressive to watch a Gitaroo Man pro than to play it badly on your own. As far as guitar rhythm games go, Gitaroo Man Lives may not be as ridiculous and/or as badass (depending on your perception) as something like Guitar Hero, but it's a solid game that's a blast to play.