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Hands-on: Uncharted
What happens when you mix one part Gears of War, one part Tomb Raider, and one part Prince of Persia? You get one potentially awesome game. We really want to like Naughty Dog's upcoming PS3 exclusive, Uncharted, but technical issues seriously hindered our enjoyment of the title.If there's one thing everyone has been talking about with Uncharted, it's the complex animation system. Thousands of animations are blended together in real-time to create a visually complex world that feels alive. Drake responds to his surroundings: you'll see him look at points of interest, struggling to keep his footing, and more. In one heated gunfight, we had him take cover fire and could see the worried look on his face as he breathed heavily The animation system helps make Drake not only a more believable character, but one we can relate to.Drake is supposed to be a normal guy in an extraordinary situation, and the platforming sequences deliver upon the feeling of overcoming overwhelming obstacles. Drake will have to climb along rocky ledges, or jump from a shaky pillar to the next. Seeing what Drake can interact with the environment is intuitive due to Drake's focus on where he must go next. By observing what Drake wants to do, players will be able to navigate tricky areas with relative ease. Swinging from a rope and jumping to a ledge feels intuitive and empowering. We love the feeling we get when exploring the environment.%Gallery-3209%
Jam Sessions gets the demo treatment
Advertising for Jam Sessions may be somewhat less than good, but that doesn't make the title less worthwhile -- nor does it detract from this hilarious E3 demo! We've tucked it away after the jump, but first you have to run the screenshot gauntlet. We're bad, bad people.We do find some of the screens a little disturbing, however. Is that redheaded chick puking? We really only need so much rock-and-roll realism in our video games, thanks ....%Gallery-3427%
Joystiq hands-on: Dementium: The Ward
Pleasant surprises end up being more than pleasant because pleasant surprises are so few and far between -- Dementium: The Ward is a pleasant surprise. The first-person survival horror game for the Nintendo DS does the best it can with the hardware's technology and could, at a minimum, be a serious break-out sleeper hit. When you find out Renegade Kid will have finished this game with a development cycle of 11 months, with only three internal guys and five external guys working on it, you'll be surprised. The reason they could pull this off is because these developers are all veterans of the N64 and were "firing on all cylinders out of discipline" knowing how to work with the development software, for them the trick was how to incorporate the stylus, but it all came out just fine.The most shocking thing you'll notice about Dementium is how smooth it runs. It uses the Metroid Prime Hunters control scheme, but because the pacing is slower than MPH, the concept feels better. Left hand stays on the control pad with one finger on the left bumper for action, right hand uses stylus on the bottom screen. The top screen is uncluttered standard FPS fare. The bottom screen has a heart monitor which gives a standard thud-thud when you are at normal health and gets more rapid as you take damage. Currently the heart beat can't be turned down or silenced, the developers said that will put that option into the final game -- listening to a heart beat for that long would drive you Edgar Allen Poe telltale crazy. There is a simple action button when you need to open doors (loading times are nil) and an easily accessible notepad when you need to remember codes or keep notes to figure out puzzles. Items are easily selected by tapping them on an inventory tray which runs along the bottom of the screen. The only thing is that the flashlight is so important to seeing more than a few feet in front of you that a quick hotkey on the bottom menu would be nice -- especially because you can't use the flashlight as a melee weapon (hello Doom 3 irritation all over again). The map is great showing you where you've been and which doors are locked and unlocked. The game takes approximately 7 hours to complete, so figure a few extra hours if you take your time. Puzzles include stuff like finding a code written in blood that you'll need to input into a door and searching around a room for notes to play on a toy piano. Dementium looks like it'll be a great unflinching M rated addition to the DS library. The story is still under wraps, but if the story is as tight as the controls, this'll be a winner for the independent games movement.%Gallery-3636%
Pachter pauses to percolate E3 thoughts, says $499 PS3 is here to stay
Wedbush-Morgan's Michael Pachter has been around the industry long enough to know that the first thing you do as an analyst the Monday after E3 is a brain dump. Bright and early this morning we received his report entitled "E3 2007 Review: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" in which Mr. Pachter fills you in on the stocks to buy, hold on to, and sell in the relative future (Cliffs Notes version found after the break).Pachter says the theme of this E3 was "non-traditional" game software. Music games, games targeting or including female gamers and titles focused on the casual market. He also says that unlike prior E3s, access to new product offerings was relatively unrestricted -- well yeah, because everyone was there for business and barely had time to see the hangar. The key companies Pachter says to invest in are Activision, EA, THQ and Ubisoft. He also says the the big news of E3 was the Sony "price cut" and that he expects Microsoft to follow by the end of the year. But what about that 60GB not being manufactured news? Pachter thinks the $499 PS3 is here to stay and, when those 60GB units are depleted, the 80GB model will take its place.
E307: SMG developer walkthrough - Stardust Galaxy
This latest Super Mario Galaxy video doesn't introduce any new outfits like the last developer walkthrough, but it does demonstrate star-hopping, gravity tricks, and other essential skills for traveling in this 3D platformer. The latter half of this two-minute movie even features that curious portion of the E3 trailer in which the level builds itself as Mario moves around.How will we make it to November 12th without our heads exploding from all this exciting media? Collect five star shards and fly past the post break for the embedded video.%Gallery-4735%
Joystiq impressions: Fable 2 'Combat Testbed'
Peter Molyneux describes Fable 2's combat as "kind of a little bit mad." It's just one blue button; a system that doesn't punish casual gamers (button-mashers), but still satisfies hardcore players. The number of experience points earned in any given skirmish is determined by how skillfully one uses the X-button. Timed button presses, including counters, are worth more than mashing, while incorporating blocking and charge attacks (both accomplished by holding X) will net you even more points to build your hero. The attack button is also context sensitive, as you'll automatically pick up and toss items strewn about the ground if your foes are at a distance, or you'll grab an enemy and shove him into a wall if you're battling in close quarters.Magic and ranged attacks (mapped to the Y- and B-buttons) will apparently operate in much the same way, but only the X-attack was on display at E3 in Lionhead's "Combat Testbed," a visually-lacking demo not meant to impress, but to arouse curiosity. "I know, it's bloody awful," Molyneux said of the current level of polish, while urging us to focus on more abstract concepts, like the amount of dedication that the development team has put into Fable 2's design. Molyneux is still haunted by his bold claims about the original Fable, lamenting his infamous 'greatest RPG evar' comment, made while Fable was still a rough draft. But the celebrated game designer insists that this -- to be the greatest -- is the goal for Fable 2, he's just not as (publicly) convinced he'll get there.%Gallery-4807%
Nyko's Xbox 360 wireless guitar -- an alternative?
Nyko is still not sure if they'll go to market with this concept for a wireless Xbox 360 guitar, and until we saw the Red Octane wireless guitars it was an option which made sense. The guitar is still viable, anything for a buck, but it just seems strange now given the relatively close future option. The reason for this guitar and its awkward set-up goes back to the whole mess with Microsoft's proprietary wireless. Nyko came up with a wireless guitar (seen above left) which uses a wired Xbox 360 controller and the white box (center) as a receiver for the signal. The box acts as a bridge for the wireless. The catch is the fact you need a wired controller which retails at $39.99. The guitar could either be -- they're floating prices -- $59 or $69 dollars, raising the question of whether people would pay $10 or $20 less for a wireless guitar which avoids the possibility of the Microsoft licensing fee being passed on to consumers. Once again, the licensing fee is pure speculation at this point, but nobody is saying anything at Red Octane, Harmonix, or Microsoft about it -- send up the red flags.But here's the key to this guitar -- it works really well. Really, really, well! While testing it we walked out of the room, across the hall, hid behind a stand and the only reason we started missing notes was because it was hard to see the screen from 60+ feet. Is the guitar worth filling the wireless gap for the few months that Red Octane waits to release their guitars with Guitar Hero III? That's up to the consumer, if Nyko decides to release the guitar. The hidden cost in this product is the wired controller, which raises the question of how big will they have to put those words on the box for the average consumer to see and register the information? The whole thing is still a toss-up about what they'll do, but as for the quality and functionality of the guitar -- it's definitely working.
Blizzard: Our new, secret project is "totally awesome"
It's not World of Warcraft, it's not Starcraft II, but it is, according to Blizzard, totally awesome, and it's in super-secret development by a super-secret sect of the company called Team 3. It was during a conversation about workforce with Gamasutra when Frank Pearce, senior vice president of product development for Blizzard, semi-spilled the proverbial beans. After mentioning the 40-person Team 3, Pearce would only add "Team 3 is working on something really awesome. I can't give you any hints, but it's totally awesome."Oh, no hints? Too bad that we've already cracked the case. With Blizzcon just around the bend, hopefully we'll find out if our hunch holds water. What's your theory?
Hands-on: Metroid Prime 3
Nintendo fans, rejoice. Metroid Prime 3 is going to be the best Metroid Prime game yet. It's been burdened with the enormous task of fulfilling Nintendo's promise of providing unsurpassed FPS controls through the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Surprisingly, Metroid Prime 3 has more than delivered in this near-final E3 build. Not only do the controls work exactly as we'd like them to, Retro Studios has surprised us by fleshing out the Metroid experience with its most ambitious story yet.Long-time Metroid fans will appreciate the game's opening moments. We're taken inside Samus' trademark space ship. Have we ever been here before? Interfacing with the ship through the Wii Remote certainly felt exciting, allowing players to control Samus' ship -- something we can't remember ever doing in the series' history. Players will touch various panels within the ship, and pull a lever, providing a simple facsimile of piloting a real space ship.As you dock your ship in a battleship, you'll meet a small army of NPCs. Imagine our surprise when they referred to Samus' previous exploits, fully voiced. In the game's opening moments, Samus will be able to interact with characters that feature full voice acting, seemingly a rarity in modern Nintendo-published efforts. We appreciate the series attempting to connect Corruption to the previous Prime games, but we have to admit that the heavy-handed nature of the story caught us a little off-guard. Watching the Galactic Federation talk about the conquest of the Space Pirates made us think we were watching Halo 2, not a Metroid Prime game. However, Metroid purists need not worry: Samus still goes on as a mute.%Gallery-3355%
Joystiq impressions: Not F.E.A.R. 2
It might not be dubbed F.E.A.R. 2 due to certain legal entanglements, but Monolith's upcoming first-person shooter is instantly recognizable, at least unofficially, as F.E.A.R. 2. The name selection contest has yet to produce a final result (plenty of hilarious ones though), but producer Troy Skinner assures that there won't be any acronyms this time. "We're all acronymed out," he says, no doubt referring to the developer's excellent FPS catalog which includes titles like Contract J.A.C.K. and A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. Regardless, that which we call a Refined Ominous Sequel Experience by any other name would smell as sweet...or something. The now thoroughly-mangled point we're trying to convey here is that the game looks to be strongly building upon the concepts first introduced by the original title, notably enhancing the cinematic presentation and expanding environmental interaction in combat. As Skinner puts it, these are important steps in Monolith's slow-mo shot at producing the "best FPS combat ever."
Joystiq impressions: Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
Nintendo fans, rejoice. Metroid Prime 3 is going to be the best Metroid Prime game yet. It's been burdened with the enormous task of fulfilling Nintendo's promise of providing unsurpassed FPS controls through the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Surprisingly, Metroid Prime 3 has more than delivered in this near-final E3 build. Not only do the controls work exactly as we'd like them to, Retro Studios has surprised us by fleshing out the Metroid experience with its most ambitious story yet.Long-time Metroid fans will appreciate the game's opening moments. We're taken inside Samus' trademark space ship. Have we ever been here before? Interfacing with the ship through the Wii Remote certainly felt exciting, allowing players to control Samus' ship -- something we can't remember ever doing in the series' history. Players will touch various panels within the ship, and pull a lever, providing a simple facsimile of piloting a real space ship.As you dock your ship in a battleship, you'll meet a small army of NPCs. Imagine our surprise when they referred to Samus' previous exploits, fully voiced. In the game's opening moments, Samus will be able to interact with characters that feature full voice acting, seemingly a rarity in modern Nintendo-published efforts. We appreciate the series attempting to connect Corruption to the previous Prime games, but we have to admit that the heavy-handed nature of the story caught us a little off-guard. Watching the Galactic Federation talk about the conquest of the Space Pirates made us think we were watching Halo 2, not a Metroid Prime game. However, Metroid purists need not worry: Samus still goes on as a mute.%Gallery-3353%
Hands-on: Ratchet & Clank Future
First off, does Ratchet look this good? The answer is clear: yes. But, is that enough to make the upcoming PS3-exclusive Ratchet & Clank Future worthwhile? Not necessarily.As innovative and new as the graphics may appear, the gameplay feels identical to previous iterations of the Ratchet series. Of course, that's not a bad thing -- the franchise has rightfully earned its legions of fans. However, we couldn't help but feel as though we've played Tools of Destruction before. It feels more cinematic than before, but we were running, gunning, and swinging our wrench as though nothing had changed. Some may point to the new Groove-a-tron weapon, a colorful new weapon in Ratchet's arsenal. But, there are no significant gameplay ramifications: enemies will simply dance, instead of attack Ratchet. There's also a free-fall sequence, where the player must tilt the Sixaxis controller to navigate Ratchet past flying cars. But, these tilt controls do little to add a feeling of innovation to the series.The polish of the game's presentation is certainly commendable, but we were puzzled by the lack of an adequate targeting system. The on-rails platforming, a series trademark, had us bored. Jumping left or right to avoid oncoming trains was tedious, at best. The utter simplicity of the sequence had us feeling like we were simply going through the motions. We're also disappointed to know that Insomniac has opted to remove a crucial component of the franchise in this latest rendition: multiplayer is gone.Tools of Destruction might not end up being a bad game, but it did very little to convince us otherwise. We're sure that hardcore Ratchet fans will love it for its story, which will focus on the mysterious origins of its star. Although playing it safe might work for Insomniac and its fans, it's pretty obvious to us that team spent a lot more time focused on its graphics technology than what really matters: gameplay. As it is now, Tools of Destruction is an uninspired experience, one that feels like a backwards step for the series.%Gallery-3204%
Joystiq impressions: Ratchet & Clank Future (PS3)
First off, does Ratchet look this good? The answer is clear: yes. But, is that enough to make the upcoming PS3-exclusive Ratchet & Clank Future worthwhile? Not necessarily.As innovative and new as the graphics may appear, the gameplay feels identical to previous iterations of the Ratchet series. Of course, that's not a bad thing -- the franchise has rightfully earned its legions of fans. However, we couldn't help but feel as though we've played Tools of Destruction before. It feels more cinematic than before, but we were running, gunning, and swinging our wrench as though nothing had changed. Some may point to the new Groove-a-tron weapon, a colorful new weapon in Ratchet's arsenal. But, there are no significant gameplay ramifications: enemies will simply dance, instead of attack Ratchet. There's also a free-fall sequence, where the player must tilt the Sixaxis controller to navigate Ratchet past flying cars. But, these tilt controls do little to add a feeling of innovation to the series.The polish of the game's presentation is certainly commendable, but we were puzzled by the lack of an adequate targeting system. The on-rails platforming, a series trademark, had us bored. Jumping left or right to avoid oncoming trains was tedious, at best. The utter simplicity of the sequence had us feeling like we were simply going through the motions. We're also disappointed to know that Insomniac has opted to remove a crucial component of the franchise in this latest rendition: multiplayer is gone.Tools of Destruction might not end up being a bad game, but it did very little to convince us otherwise. We're sure that hardcore Ratchet fans will love it for its story, which will focus on the mysterious origins of its star. Although playing it safe might work for Insomniac and its fans, it's pretty obvious to us that team spent a lot more time focused on its graphics technology than what really matters: gameplay. As it is now, Tools of Destruction is an uninspired experience, one that feels like a backwards step for the series.%Gallery-3182%
Hands-on: LittleBigPlanet
Don't be surprised to see LittleBigPlanet score big time when we make our "Game of the Show" awards later this week. Best described as a social game creation experience, LittleBigPlanet left us pleasantly surprised with its charming personality and incredibly intuitive design mechanics.At GDC, the team at Media Molecule wanted to showcase the "play" element of the game. The cooperative physics-based platforming had everyone talking at the show. For E3, the team has prepared a "creation" demo for us to partake in.Up to four players (either online or off) can join in on a creation session. Making a level and its elements happens within the game's regular environment, allowing all participants to play whilst designing the level. For example, while one developer was creating a staircase, I decided to drag Chris Grant's stunned avatar, as it flailed around helplessly. Adorable? Yes. Afterwards, we saw a few blocks being created, and we were able to play with them from the moment they appeared in the game world. The instant gratification, we're reminded, allows level designers to fully understand what works and what doesn't from the moment it's made.%Gallery-3199%
Joystiq impressions: LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Don't be surprised to see LittleBigPlanet score big time when we make our "Game of the Show" awards later this week. Best described as a social game creation experience, LittleBigPlanet left us pleasantly surprised with its charming personality and incredibly intuitive design mechanics.At GDC, the team at Media Molecule wanted to showcase the "play" element of the game. The cooperative physics-based platforming had everyone talking at the show. For E3, the team has prepared a "creation" demo for us to partake in.Up to four players (either online or off) can join in on a creation session. Making a level and its elements happens within the game's regular environment, allowing all participants to play whilst designing the level. For example, while one developer was creating a staircase, I decided to drag Chris Grant's stunned avatar, as it flailed around helplessly. Adorable? Yes. Afterwards, we saw a few blocks being created, and we were able to play with them from the moment they appeared in the game world. The instant gratification, we're reminded, allows level designers to fully understand what works and what doesn't from the moment it's made.%Gallery-1943%
Joystiq hands-on: Hail to the Chimp
Since our first glance of Hail to the Chimp we've been intrigued. The party game for Xbox 360 and PS3 can be best described as "monkeying" the Pixar philosophy, the game looks like it'd be for kids, but there's a bunch of sly jokes in there that adults will get and the gameplay is simple but deep. The game revolves around 10 animals vying for control over the Animal Kingdom through a bunch of Power Stone-type levels where you need to collect clams in order to fund the campaign. Meanwhile, an anchor for a cable television station style network will give briefs after each battle, along with doing voice-overs during bouts. The anchor isn't your cheap kind of recap character either, this beaver has over 5000 lines of dialog speaking specifically to the action which has occurred.Playing Hail to the Chimp against three of the developers, it was tough to put up any kind of fight, but we got an idea of how the game might play when it releases next year in time for the U.S. presidential election. Each character has special attacks and if players are failing they can even team up for different combo attacks. For example, the hippo and armadillo can join forces and the hippo will kick the armadillo like a soccer ball at opponents. There are also various traps, warps and environmental incidents that occur during any given stage. After about three rounds you get a solid idea of what's going on. Once again, playing against three of the game's developers you'll have your jackass handed to you, but we did win an elimination round fair and square, where a cloud chases the character with the lowest number of clams to kick them out of the game.Hail to the Chimp still has a while to go, but the basics are there and so far it's fun. The depth is involved in learning the animal combinations and what the 10 characters offer, but you can hardly learn that in 20 minutes. The great thing about the game is that it is clearly designed to utilize Xbox Live and PSN so battles will be easily played online -- which is more than we can say about a more famous "party" game. What Hail to the Chimp does truly have working for it is a colorful cast of characters who will supposedly have backstory attached to them and a wit in mocking the political system.%Gallery-4895%
Joystiq hands-on: Zack & Wiki
Here's the scenario: the treasure chest is overhead and guarded by a wall of fire that can be deactivated once you fill a statue full of water using a seemingly unreachable fountain below. Capcom's Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is a fun game that is almost guaranteed to be ignored because of its cartoonish visuals. And it's a shame, too, because we had a lot of fun. The motion controls of Wii remote are used extensively. Movement is done via pointing our protagonist to objects he can interact with. Creatures can be turned into useful items -- here a column that can be used to fill a birdge and plug a lava hold. Our favorite little detail came with using the empty bottle. We couldn't figure out how to draw water from the well until we actually turned our wrist over and filled up the bottle as if we were in real life. It's not a megaton feature, but it certainly shows the attention to detail being taken with the title. We're not going to start a campaign to buy the game, but we'd definitely recommend you check it out. Zack & Wiki is a great example of how to utilize the Wii remote and a smart adventure / puzzler. The game is due out later this year. %Gallery-2568%
Seen@E3: a new Starcraft vehicle
Those cheeky Blizzard developers. Having given us no new Starcraft II information in our meeting, we were ready to go home without any new Zerg sightings. Fortunately as our shuttle came to take the Joystiq crew to the airport, Blizzard gave us a surprise treat: a lifesize replica of a Starcraft vehicle. It even works, too -- must be for the Terrans. How clever!
Ensemble: Halo Wars demo before release
Gamers tend to be (understandably) cautious when it comes to real time strategy games on consoles. The reason for this is simple: RTS games on consoles have been uniformly bad, with the (arguable) exception of Battle for Middle Earth II and Command & Conquer 3 on the Xbox 360. Even with those games, however, the controls are far from perfect, which becomes abundantly clear in later levels. Halo Wars hopes to change all that, or so we were told by Ensemble. Still, we'd like a bit of a safety net if you please. Lucky for us, the folks from Ensemble told us during our Halo Wars E3 presentation that there is a demo on the way. According to producer Chris Rippy, the demo will arrive "for sure before the game comes out." While we were generally impressed with the Halo Wars presentation, our one nagging concern was the control, so it's nice to know that we'll all be able to try before we buy. Halo Wars touches down in 2008.
Joystiq impressions: Geometry Wars Galaxies
Despite what developers Kuju tell us, we don't think fans of previous Geometry Wars games will necessarily enjoy Galaxies for the Wii. Though it may have been more enjoyable with the classic controller, our playtime with the Wii remote and nunchuk proved needlessly hard to use. Movement is done with then nunchuk's joystick, and the direction of your fire is determined by where you point on screen and is shown via a thin red line shooting out of your ship. Given the sheer necessity to be accurate in more difficult phases, having to deal with Wii remote's imprecise pointing proves detrimental. Compensating for the control issues is your little drone buddy that will team up with you against the Shapes of Evil. By collecting geoms, the game's currency dropped by the bad guys, you can upgrade your drone. We couldn't get a descriptive answer as to what upgrades will be available, but a representative gave us the example of buying an upgrade that tells the drone to target a specific type of foe. %Gallery-4889%
