E3 Post Show Impressions #2

-- May 22, 2006 by: Maarten Goldstein

Unreal Tournament 2007
Developer: Epic Games, Publisher: Midway
PC, PS3

At E3, Epic and Midway had a theater running an Unreal Tournament 2007 presentation, with the game being played in real time. The focus was on the game's Warfare mode, which was shown on a snow and ice filled map where the Axon and the Necris forces were battling it out. The Warfare mode is one based on objectives taking place on asymmetrical. What I saw were the Axons doing things like constructing conduits or building sentry guns to get through the level while the Necris were more focused on defense.

Warfare mode is one of several modes, looking for favorites like DM and CTF to return too. And if you want something like vehicular CTF, that will be available as well.

There weren't a ton of vehicles in the map shown, but I did get a glimpse of the latest incarnation of the Leviathan. It's still pretty damn big! Meanwhile the Necris busted out with Darkwalkers, which looked like something out of War of the Worlds. Though not a particular fast vehicle, I was told the main weapon more than makes up for that by being very powerful. Also shown was the player moving around on a hoverboard, which looked like it could be a fast way of moving around on a map. You are not able to shoot while on one though, so you'll have to keep that in mind in advance. One fun thing is that you can hook up with a vehicle and kind of surf behind it.

Besides destruction on foot or through vehicles, Unreal Tournament 2007 also features a bit of world destruction. Certain sections of levels that you have to advance through with vehicles might have arches, which can be destroyed, temporarily blocking your vehicles and making them an easy target for the enemy team.

Epic's Steve Polge mentioned to me that the team was playing the game very early on in development, as the focus is entirely on refining the gameplay instead of just wowing everyone with the game's graphics. More than forty levels have been built for the game so far, though several will probably be cut before the game is released. Unreal Tournament 2007 will be released on PC and PS3.

Jade Empire
Developer: BioWare, Publisher: TBA
PC

BioWare announced just before the show that Jade Empire was coming to the PC. The company has hired LTI Gray Matter for the technical part, while they focus on the creative elements.

The game now supports WASD and mouse movement, plus things like 1/2/3 for creature transformation and Q and E for powers and healing. If you happen to have a gamepad you can just plug it in and still control the game that way though.

If you're worried about the graphics, it should probably be mentioned that the assets for the game were created at a higher resolution than what ended up in the Xbox 1 game, so muddy textures should not be a problem. Load times will also be much improved.

The PC version will also feature some new fighting styles, with two specific ones mentioned being Viper Style and Iron Palm. Several of the new styles are based on what BioWare fans had requested in the community forums. Feedback from the forums has also resulted in some improved game balancing.

There's no publisher for the game as of yet so BioWare is taking their sweet time to make sure the game is right for the PC, but look for it late this year.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Developer: Gearbox Software, Publisher: Ubisoft
PC, PS3, Xbox 360

On the last day of the show, I went and saw the theater presentation for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. I'm not a big fan of the series myself -- though I can appreciate what Gearbox has done with it -- but I wanted to see if the graphics would hold up compared to the screenshots we've seen so far. Let's get that out of the way: they do.

The demonstration started in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where Matt Baker (the player character) and his squad were resting in a store. The conversation focused on one soldier's infatuation with a girl named Stella, before an explosion rocked the store and sent glass flying everywhere. Everyone survived, though Baker had to deal with removing a big piece of glass from his forearm. Yeah, it was pretty nasty looking.

Moving around outside really showed the power of Unreal Engine 3. Convincing lighting, vibrant colors, a slight motion blur as the player moves around, volumetric smoke, dust particles; it was all very impressive looking. As the squad proceeded to move around the town, we also saw that the world is now actually inhabited as we ran into a girl and her dad.

Anyway, the rest of the demonstration focused on how the squad had to take out Germans operating 88 guns as they were shooting at American C-47 planes. The squad snuck up (prone is now in the game) on one German flak gun team, before jumping up from behind a wall and taking out the surprised Germans. Taking out the second 88 was not as easy, and required the help of another squad. Throughout the demonstration there was not a moment's rest, just constant tension and action.

Hell's Highway will be filled with cinematic moments from the first person perspective (Brotherhood Moments). The demonstration ended with Baker ordering the bazooka team to fire at the Germans, with the camera locking on the soldier with the bazooka (which had Stella written on it) as he fired away. Earlier in the demonstration Baker looked back as he saw one of his men stumble after hopping over a wall. It provides that extra bit of immersion without going to full blown cutscenes that take you away from the action.

All in all it was right up there with other impressive E3 demonstrations, and I think that fans of the series will be extremely pleased with the final product. Look for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway some time next year on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Tony Hawk's Project 8
Developer: Neversoft, Publisher: Activision
PS3, Xbox 360

Tony Hawk's Project 8 is the latest installment in this skating game franchise, with all off the old code thrown out and the entire game made from scratch. The press conference demonstration focused on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, though the project will also make its way to current-gen systems.

With the game being built from scratch, the graphics engine has received a major overhaul. Normal maps, depth of field, shaders, HDR lighting, all that stuff is in there now. To get real skaters in the game, Neversoft used 3D head and body scans, resulting in models that use about a hundred thousand polygons..oh yeah, that's just in the head.

The animation system has also been reworked. Previously, the game had to switch from one animation to another, which didn't always look good. Project 8 features a new tree & blending system, which means the game can potentially combine 20 animations. The game knows exactly what you are doing and what your distance to objects is, so in its animation, it will anticipate you hitting the ground or grinding a rail, which should result in a much more fluid motion.

Project 8 (if you're wondering about the name, the game's story is about Tony Hawk looking across the nation for the eight best amateur skaters) will once again feature one big streaming world, where you can find missions pretty much everywhere. There are AM, PRO and SICK levels of difficulty for the tricks you're supposed to do in these missions, which should help less experienced players advance through the game.

Though the focus for E3 was on the game's next-gen console versions, look for Project 8 to hit current-gen consoles as well.

The Movies: Stunts & Effects
Developer: Lionhead Studios, Publisher: Activision
PC

The title of the The Movies expansion pack Stunts & Effects pretty much says it all, this add-on is focusing on bigger and better special effects as well as stunt work.

Shown at the Activision pre-E3 press conference was how while movies are being shot, you can check in on the scene to see the effects happening in real time. With sliders, you can control their intensity just like you would

As for the stunts part, just like you hire actors, screenwriters, assistants, etc now, the expansion pack will allow you to hire stuntmen. Aspiring stuntmen will first have to undergo training, which starts off easy (ducking and jumping to evade objects), and goes all the way to martial arts training. Basic training is needed to make sure your stuntmen don't get injured easily, while having experienced people means your writer will incorporate bigger stunt scenes (which should result in bigger box office obviously).

When you're getting ready to shoot a movie, a new option will allow you to select a stuntdouble when you are casting actors. While shooting, you can check in on a scene and select the intensity of the stunt using sliders. Go overboard though, and your stuntman might get injured. In one example being shown, a stuntman was injured during a stunt where he lept through the glass of an exploding building, and missed the air cushion. Sporting a heavy limp, the stuntman was dragged to an on-site hospital, where he got a full bodycast. Guess it was more than just a broken leg..

Another new feature is the freeform camera, which was the number one requested feature by the community. It was mentioned that while building the original game the Lionhead team wasn't sure people would know how to use it, but they now realize the community is probably better at building the movies than they are themselves.

The expansion also features many new sets, customes and props. The Movies Stunts & Effects is expected to ship early next month.

EA Sports

When it came to EA Sports' lineup, it was a mix between pretty far along (Madden NFL 2007 and NCAA Football 2007) and tech demos (Tiger Woods and NBA Live). I don't really know enough about football games to comment on those, and instead I'll just skip to the ESPN integration being integrated into the games this year.

From a menu in the games, you can access the latest ESPN news, stats, and even a podcast. ESPN Radio broadcasts will be made into a 2 minute podcast every 20 minutes, so you can keep up with what's happening out there in the real world. During games, you can have a ticker broadcast real time scores (your choice of leagues), show you stats for your favorite athletes, or give you an overview of upcoming games. If you want to read a game recap you can do that as well. PSP version of the sports games will receive this ESPN integration too.

I wasn't going to mention actual games, but what EA Sports did for Tiger Woods was too impressive not to mention. Sure last year's 360 sports games looked good, but to me all athletes looked like zombies. They were expressionless and there was just something missing in the eyes..they just looked dead. EA sure fixed that for the new Tiger Woods game. Instead of mocap, EA used 20 different cameras to capture Tiger as he was moving and talking and whatnot. Now it's almost eery how real it looks. Facial expressions fluidly change, Tiger's eyes are moving around, his shirt ripples just right. That was the only thing shown though; Tiger frowning and laughing and talking to himself, before taking one swing on an unfinished course. But it was higly impressive nonetheless.