Introduction (#39498)

Articles

Introduction

I had the great privilege of attending the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo last week in downtown Los Angeles. The gaming world’s biggest promotional show was a bit more restrained than in the old days, but it was spectacular nevertheless.

There weren’t a ton of adventure games on display, but there were two really important ones. There was lots of other cool stuff, too!

Let’s get to the big news right away:

Jane Jensen’s Gray Matter

Release Date: October 2010 PC, 360

It’s always a pleasure to see Jane, even more so when she has a new game to demo!

I was lucky enough to sit down with the Doyenne of Adventure.

Happily, it looks like our long wait for Gray Matter is near an end. The game looks good enough to eat.

I got to see the opening cinematic, which is done in a very appealing, graphic novel style. The in-game rendered environments are gorgeous and greatly detailed.

The game begins as a rather questionable young woman named Sam. She’s an American girl who, under false pretenses, stumbles into a job at a mysterious estate outside of Oxford, England. Her employer is David, a mysterious, masked scientist who’s conducting rather unusual experiments on the local college students.

The game is intensely story-driven, as only a Jane Jensen game can be. It’s told across eight chapters, and in each chapter you play as either Sam or David. There are traditional inventory-based puzzles to solve no matter which character you’re laying, but there’s more: Each of the two lead characters has an unusual type of puzzle challenges.

With Sam, it’s magic tricks. Sam is a trained magician, and some of the obstacles the game’s story throws in front of her can be solved by choosing the correct magic trick. Each of these tricks requires props (purchased at the convenient novelty store in town) and requires a recipe, or formula. Putting the trick together in the right way, using the right props, in the right situation is the key to Sam’s success.

David’s specific challenges relate to memory reconstruction through sensory stimuli. David is haunted by the memory of his dead wife, and it’s up to you to help him put the memory pieces back together.There are also puzzles which require interaction with the other characters in the game, as well as a huge multi-part riddle that’s a bit like following the clues on a treasure map.

The story is strange and intriguing. I asked Jane what her goal was for this game, and she told me that she wanted the player to be constantly motivated by all of the unknowns. As in the Gabriel Knight games, it sounds like we’ll be compelled to tease out the various strands of the mystery. Jane also wanted the game to create a potent mood . . . which I can happily report it does, in spades.

An additional feature that I really liked was the Chapter Progress screen. When you bring it up, it shows you the overall percentage of progress you’ve made on thechapter you’re in, as well as the percentages of each of the chapter’s major tasks. Interesting in itself, it’s also a good road map to help you remember what you need to be working on to move the story forward.

I can’t wait to get my mitts on the game when it ships this October!

Dreamcatcher

Ah, Dreamcatcher, home of a tidal wave of adventure games, right? Well, this year, not so much. In fact, the Canadian company didn’t have a single adventure title to show at E3. However, they have made a couple of recent acquisitions, including a very promising German game, and they promised to share with us more details on that when they are available.

However, Dreamcatcher is now owned by Jowood, who was there showing the drool-worthy:

Arcania: Gothic 4

Release: Q3 2010. 360, PC, PS3

Yep, Gothic 4. For anyone who’s played any of the first three Gothic games, that’s good news. And the game looks very worthy of the franchise.

For the first time, however, you won’t be playing as the Unnamed Hero of the first three games. In fact, that guy is this game’s antagonist! Your character starts out (but I’m confident does not remain) a lowly shepherd.

As in the earlier games, the character system is wide open. You are free to develop whatever talents and skills that you wish (in a somewhat streamlined system). Also returning is the concept of the huge, open game world and NPCs with lives of their own.

Oh, and one more thing. Diego is back!

Bethesda’s Burgeoning Blueprints

My first appointment was at the ever-busy Bethesda Softworks. They have an impressive lineup of games this year with an unusual emphasis on third-party developers. But I guess if you’re taking your development outside, you might as well be hiring teams as talented as Obsidian Entertainment, id Software and inXile.

Fallout: New Vegas

Release: October. 360, PS3, PC

When they were looking for a studio to develop their big ticket 2010 title Fallout: New Vegas, Bethesda hired the talented folks at Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian was founded by team members from Black Isle Studios (Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale II). In recent years, they’ve been the go-to team for some major sequels, creating Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2 for Bioware, Fallout: New Vegas for Bethesda, and the recently-announced Dungeon Siege III for Square Enix).

To cut to the chase, if you liked Fallout 3, you’ll like New Vegas. It’s set a few years later in the same post-apocalyptic world of the first several games. The much-beloved S.P.E.C.I.A.L. character stat system returns (for you noobs, that’s Strength, Perception, Endurance , Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck). The Obsidian team is adding new Perks and returning Traits, which were in the first two games, but absent in last year’s Fallout 3.

The gameplay will be quite flexible. If you feel like playing it like a shooter, you can, or if you want to be more tactical and use the VATs system from Fallout 3) you can. (VATs is a game feature that lets you freeze the action and zero in on a particular body part of your foe.)

One welcome thing that I noticed was that New Vegas has a much more generous and vivid color palette than Fallout 3 did. This is a good thing, because as detailed and vivid as the visuals were in that game, I got a little overwhelmed by all the, well, brown.

Rage

Release: TBA. PC, 360, PS3, Mac

id software’s Rage, despite its unimaginative title, looks quite promising. It’s a post-meteorite apocalyptic setting (as opposed to Bethesda’s Fallout: New Vegas’s post-nuclear apocalyptic setting . . . thanks to Bethesda’s Pete Hines for clearing this up for me).

It’s a game that looks like, well, Fallout 3 without the hardcore RPG elements. This is not necessarily a bad thing. What I mean is, it’s a story-driven action-adventure game with lots of combat and blood and vehicles and mutants and yeah, it looked really fun to me. The developers are emphasizing story, story, story.

In the demo I watched it was also pointed out that there was a great effort to create variety in the game. There are fewer enemies and NPCs than in other games like this, but they are more distinct, and feature first-class voice work. The gameplay will also include lots of crafting.

From what I could see it looks like Rage could be one of those games (like the first Far Cry) that makes you feel like you are starring in your own kickass action movie.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge

Release: TBA. 360, PS3, PC

Another talented third-party developer, another very promising game.

Hunted is being developed by inXile, which is a studio run by the original Interplay founder Brian Fargo.

It’s a co-op fantasy action game. It’s designed to play the entire game with another person. You and your gaming pal control a tanky male character and a range-combat female character. The gist of the gameplay is that the two teammates’ strengths complement each other.

Here’s an example: E’lara (the hot chick with the bow) sends a frost arrow into an enemy. Caddoc (stud with an axe) then gives the frozen bad guy a big whack, thereby shattering him into many tiny pieces.

I had a chance to play the game for a few minutes and I really enjoyed it. The fantasy environments are rich and compelling, and include light environmental puzzles to break up the combat. An additional feature I liked: You’re able to switch roles with your partner in certain places in the game.

I was disappointed that there was no way to play the game with a friend who’s in the same room on the same screen (you have to play together on line). Still, Hunted looks like good fun to me.

Brink

Release: 1Q 2011. 360, PS3, 360

Not really my thing, but this multiplayer shooter from Splash Damage combines team- and class-based gameplay with the trendy parkour (free walking) concept. I played through a couple of levels and it seems to be the kind of thing that you’ll like if you like this sort of thing, as they say.

Savoring Southpeak

Two Worlds II

Release Date: September 21, 2010. PC, 360, PS3, Mac

Remember Southpeak Interactive? They brought us two adventure games in the late 1990s which used technology which had much promise for games. Remember Temujin (1997) and Dark Side of the Moon (1998)? Both games had problems, but they also hinted at greatness to come. That greatness was supposed to have been on display in their 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and I remember how heartbroken I was when that game was cancelled.

However, with the shortened name “Southpeak,” the company is very much alive and they were showing a solid new RPG at E3.

It’s the sequel to their 2007 game Two Worlds. Called Two Worlds II (so many dull titles this year!), it features an open world and a great look.

The game will include some interesting features dealing with crafting new items and harvesting key materials from existing one. It’ll also include an interesting “village” multiplayer mode.

The reviews on the first game were mediocre, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this one is a big improvement.

RIFT

Release Date: TBA 2011. PC

World of Warcraft changed everything. Before Blizzard’s juggernaut was released in November of 2004, MMORPGs (that’s Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games) had a pretty bad reputation. Ugly graphics, punishing death penalties and tedious grinding were the norm.

When it first announced the game, Blizzard very arrogantly announced, “We’re going to fix the MMORPG genre.” I remember thinking, if anyone can, it’s Blizzard.

And I was right. They did.

Because of World of Warcraft’s success, and its example, there’s a much better blueprint for MMO success. That means that even new games that blatantly rip Blizzard off can end up making really good games. Two examples: Lord of the Rings Online and Age of Conan (made by Funcom, the Viking geniuses behind The Longest Journey).

Rift: The Planes of Telara from Trion Worlds, may indeed be a WoW clone, but from what I saw at E3, it looks to be a pretty darned good one.

The fantasy world presented by the game is gorgeous, alluring and detailed. The races aren’t simply the fantasy standards of orcs, elves and gnomes. One race example that looks interesting is the Defiants, a technology-based race.

Trion Worlds wanted to offer the players more choice in customizing their characters, and to accomplish that they have come up with an intriguing character development system. The player starts with one of the four standard archetypes: Warrior, Mage, Healer, or Rogue. As the character gains levels, talent trees open up (which look pretty much exactly what they look like in WoW). But here’s where it gets interesting. Using a mechanic called “souls” will allow the players, as they reach different experience levels, to add additional talent trees beyond the traditional three. The result can be magic weilding tanks, sneaky healers . . . whatever the player would like to create.

Another appealing idea is that dungeon instances will have different levels depending on what level your character is.

Going for a dynamic overworld mechanic that will appeal to casual and hardcore players alike, Rift will feature many “real time” ongoing events in the game world that the player can get involved with casually, reaping small rewards, or with a larger time investment of time, reaping larger rewards.

When I call Rift a WoW clone, I’m not kidding. There’s a map that looks VERY much like Shadowmoon Valley and it’s even called, uh, Shadowlands. But that doesn’t really bother me. It’s always a good policy to emulate the very best.

I hope to get into the Rift beta in the next few months. If I do, I’ll keep you posted on this very promising MMO.

LucasArts

My level of affection for the behemoth that is LucasArts ebbs and flows with the season, but this year there’s a lot to celebrate at the House That George Built.

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge

Release: July 7. Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

There’s adventure game bliss to be had this summer with the release of this retooled version of one of the greatest adventure titles ever made. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge, is back with all its hilarious jokes and monkey-wrench-brain-damage-causing puzzles. But this time, it’s got more cool new features than you could stuff into a dead man’s chest.

Well, what the heck is this game? Let’s be clear: It’s not a reimagining, or a retelling, or a sequel. It’s the original game . . . . only better. To help with the more chewy puzzles, there’s a built-in hint system. The game also allows you to use the original “click on the appropriate verb” system of the original game or a new radial menu system that gives you various choices as you explore the game’s beautiful screens.

First and foremost are the visuals. Fear not, this is not the slightly awkward 3D look of the fourth Monkey Island game. The remake has 2D art so lush and luscious you’ll want to fall into the picture.

For the voicework LucasArt enlisted many of the voice talents from the third and fourth games, including the ever-popular Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood. The game also includes a brand-new musical score.

But wait, there’s more! In the style of a DVD movie, there’s a commentary audio track featuring game legends Ron Gilbert, Tim Shafer and Dave Gussman.

There’s also a set of unlockable art assets.

If you feel like revisiting the original game, or comparing the visuals between the new version and the old, you can do so with a simple toggle. You can also toggle the commentary track on or off at any time, with either version of the game.

All in all, this appears to be a deluxe trip down memory lane that will be very worth taking.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Release Date: TBA PC

LucasArts, Bioware and Electronic Arts have joined Forces (pun intended) in a stunningly ambitious attempt to dethrone Blizzard and World of Warcraft from ruling the MMORPG roost.

Briefly, this is a massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game set a few years after Bioware’s two Knights of the Old Republic games. It’s essentially the Star Wars universe, a few thousand years before the movies. Much has been said and written and reported about this game, so I’ll try to stick to the stuff I saw at E3.

The big reveal at the show was that every player will command her own starship. How cool is that?

Also revealed are Player-vs. Player “Warzones” which sound like a nod to WoW’s battlegrounds. Not a bad idea, that.

We got to watch a couple of real-time battles showcasing the Alliance classes. There’s the Trooper (the tank), Smuggler (basically a ranged rogue who uses cover), the Jedi (specializes in picking off smaller enemies, or “adds”) and the Consular (heals).

I got to spend a few minutes playing as a smuggler. I did a series of combat quests which gave me a chance to play with the cover-based combat, which was fast, furious, and exciting.

The biggest difference with The Old Republic, at least for a World of Warcraft veteran like me, is the voicework. Remember, this is the first fully-voiced MMORPG. That means that every word of dialog in the game is performed by Bioware-quality actors. This decision was financially insane (it required more than 10 times the vocal content of Knights of the Old Republic) but is going to pay off in a big way.

First of all, the voicework gives a much more cinematic feel to the gameplay experience. Also, I found it really made me slow down and listen (rather than just speed through a chunk of on-screen text, like I am used to doing). This made the handful of missions I completed feel more like I was starring in a cool action movie. This is a good thing.

The voice work is going to go a long way toward helping Bioware fulfill their vision of The Old Republic being a more story-driven MMORPG than any game that has come before it.

I had the opportunity to chat briefly with James Ohlen (Lead Designer) and Richard Govel (Executive Producer). One comparison they made between their game and other, non-fully-voiced MMOs was the difference between talkies and silent movies.

By the way, those of you who are impatient gamers, don’t worry, you’ll be able to spacebar-through the dialog if you don’t want to listen to it.

I asked Ohlen and Govel how they were dealing with what I consider to be the most vexing problem in an MMO: the perpetual present. I was referring to the fact that it’s difficult to have events which actually change the world in an MMO, because of the way players interact with the world. This is a big way in which MMORPGs fall short of the intense experience of a single-player MMO.

Ohlen gave me an interesting answer, which was that they recognized that this was a difficult problem to solve, and their way around it was to make sure that the player in their game would end up focusing on the development of his individual storyline. Not a bad answer, I thought, and I look forward to seeing how this plays out when the game launches.

I was also very happy to hear that it’s a strong priority of the team to make sure the game runs well on low-end computer systems. This strategy is vital for anyone wanting to capture a large audience.

There are several big game subjects LucasArts isn’t talking about yet. The two big ones for me are aggro management (making sure the big monsters are paying attention to the tanks and not to the more squishy classes) and out-of-game player community development. I’ll be very curious to learn more about these components over the next months.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Release Date: October 26 360, PC, PS3

LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was a 2008 action game about a secret protégé of Darth Vader. The game got very high marks for its storyline but was dinged by critics for its clunky controls. Despite the mediocre reviews, it was the fastest selling Star Wars game ever.

The sequel, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II looks to build on the first game’ s strength and bolster its weaknesses. They’ve put a lot of emphasis in tightening up the controls.

Like the first game, the sequel takes place between movies 3 and 4. It continues the story of Starkiller, the ex-protégé of Vader, after the dark lord betrays him. Starkiller has dizzying force powers, and the game uses not one, not two, but three physics engines (Havok, DMM and Euphoria) to render his amazing exploits. This time around he’s a dual light saber wielder.

LucasArts seems on the same page as id Software in that the sequel features fewer, but more distinct, enemy types. There’s also more environmental variety than the first game, with the action broken up with some light puzzle solving.

Starkiller has some fun new powers, including a set of mind-control techniques which can make enemies attack each other or even commit suicide.

It goes without saying, though I’ll say it anyway, that the game’s visuals look absolutely incredible.

Hardware

Nintendo 3DS

Easily the most hyped piece of hardware at the show was Nintendo’s much-ballyhooed 3D handheld gaming device. I stood in line for over an hour to get a glimpse of the prototypes.

The new DS has screens the same size as the standard DS (as opposed to the larger screens of the supersized DSi LL). The top screen is the 3D one, and bottom one is the traditional touch screen.

The good news is, the 3D images look remarkably good, and don’t require that you wear any stupid glasses. The bad news is, the little device is very fussy with both the angle you hold it and the distance from your eyes. These are not small issues for a handheld gaming device, since it’s going to make your hands and arms tired much faster than earlier models.

I personally think 3D is the devil’s work, and that it’s being foisted on us by Hollywood, electronics companies and now game developers. I don’t think the public is clamoring for 3D. I think it’s a gimmick. I never find myself thinking, if only this game [movie, hot fudge sundae] was in 3D . . . It just doesn’t happen.

That being said, I think 3D is here to stay, so we might as well make our peace with it.

The problems with the 3DS go beyond simply how uncomfortable it’s going to be to hold. I guess developing a 3D screen that’s also a touch screen is a trick that even the smartest Japanese engineers have not quite figured out how to do yet. And since the two big gimmicks of the machine – 3D and touch screen – are on two different screens, it’s going to create a vexing problem for game developers. Let me give you an example.

I got to play with NintenDogs and Cats 3D. Cute idea, right? Okay, so on the top is my adorable little puppy, quivering with delight, staring up at me in glorious 3D. It would be cool to be able to pet his little virtual head, wouldn’t it? Well, you can’t, really, since the sexy 3D screen isn’t touch. So how do you pet the dog? Look down on the lower screen, the touch screen. There’s a silhouette of your fuzzy little darling. You pull out the stylus and pet the silhouette, and Spot reacts on the top screen as if you’ve just patted his head.

It’s awkward and unconvincing, and I think this core problem will be a real challenge for game designers to overcome.

On the other hand, there’s not even a release date set for the machine (sometime next year, probably) so they’ve got plenty of time to work on these issues. It’ll be interesting to see how this product develops as it gets closer to launch.

Speaking of Nintendo . . .

One of my favorite moments while I was at the show happened late in the afternoon on the third day. I was resting at an out-of-the way table behind a forest of temporary meeting rooms. I was alone, and it was a big table. Here comes a gaggle of important-looking people in suits. They ask if they can share the table; I graciously comply.

Turns out they are high-level Nintendo America execs having an impromptu meeting! I carefully cultivated an expression of bored, distracted nonchalance, so they’d forget I was there.

What did I overhear? Nothing too racy, but I am happy to report that hardware sales for the DS are up 22%!

A Gaming Laptop to Die For

By far the toy that most made my credit card want to jump out of its wallet was the Alienware M11, a tiny titan of a gaming laptop.

The first remarkable thing about the M11 is its size. Yeah, 11 inches. Sounds like too little screen to game on, right? Think again. You wouldn’t believe how gorgeous and smooth the graphics are on this baby. It packs a lot of power under its miniature hood as well. The base model ships with a 1.3GHz Pentium SU4100, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT335M, 2GB of memory, and 160GB HDD. If you feel like spending a bit more coin, you can customize the little beast within an inch of its life. For example, switch in a 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 for $100. With a base price of around $800, this little machine is a remarkable value. Why don’t you buy me one, right now?

Odds and Ends

Favorite Old Friend

I was delighted to run into Megan Gaiser, the President and CEO of Her Interactive, the studio behind all of those terrific Nancy Drew games. Megan is her usual dynamic self, and is busy cooking up all kinds of cool schemes, but they weren’t really ready for public consumption yet, and if I talk about any of them she’ll have me killed. I’m sure as the plans develop she’ll share with us what they’re working on over there in Seattle.

Favorite Image To Copy And Send To A Video-Game-Hating Lawmaker

The poster for the new Mortal Kombat game, which gleefully depicts one fighter ripping the head off another with his bare hands.

Best Promotional Image

Disney’s upcoming Epic Mickey is a tricky game to sell. It stars Mickey Mouse, but it’s edgier and scarier than audiences might expect from the big-eared mascot. I mean, Warren Spector (System Shock, Thief, Ultima Underworld, Deus Ex) is the director of the project!

So how to sell the game? How to use imagery to give gamers an idea of what to expect? Disney always has lots of money to spend, and they spent it well solving this particular problem.

The image: A silhouette of the unmistakable Mickey Ears . . . but down at the bottom, they are kind of . . . dripping . . . and the interior of the silhouette is filled with a variety of images suggesting the darker-than-usual content of the game. I’m not describing it very well, but trust me, it does a beautiful job of communicating the tone of this ambitious hybrid.

Biggest Disappointment

No more star-studded panel discussions. Boo.

Conclusion

I’m crossing my fingers that at next year’s show we’ll be seeing shiny new 3D adventures on the Nintendo 3DS.

I’m also hoping that, spurred by the successes of their reboot of the Monkey Island franchise, LucasArts will be emboldened to commission a new, original adventure. (Or a Full Throttle sequel, finally!)