Ray’s
Turn to Talk About E3
By
Ray Ivey
As usual, I had
a wonderful time at E3. The sights and sounds, the people-watching, the games,
and the interesting personalities always make it a wonderfully tiring romp. This
year was marred a bit by the fact that I mostly ran around with Cindy Kyser, and
the near-constant requests she received to work as a last-minute replacement
“Game Babe Model” at this booth or that booth simply got distracting
after awhile. And what am I, chopped liver? Okay, okay, so she did look pretty
great in the costumes (Everquest especially). Darcy and Jenny did their
best to comfort me. My fascinating self-esteem issues aside, it was a very interesting
three days.
It’s a Real Game After All
Okay, sports fans–can
you spot the real diamond among a cluster of cubic zirconium? One of the following
games actually debuted at the show. Which one is the real game?
Snoopy
Unleashed–The bodacious beagle is back in a first-person shooter! You’ll
have trouble keeping the merry tunes of Vince Guaraldi out of your head as you
target character after beloved character from the venerable Peanuts comic
strip. What a pity Charles Shulz couldn’t have lived just eighteen more months
so he could have seen this game–how proud he would have been!
Grandma
Snipehunt–Hilarious third-person shooter in the tradition of Deer Avenger.
You play an escaped mental patient who has it in for old ladies! The game
covers fifteen different scenarios as you blast, pummel, and stab one hapless
octogenarian after another. The gore level can be adjusted, which is sure to please
the parents. And it’s full of witty dialog like this: “Why are you doing
this to me?” “Depends!“
The Olson Twins in Escape
from Child Abuse Island–Something weird is going on at Biff and Judy’s Happy
Summer Island Camp, and Mary-Kate and Ashley are just the girls to get to the,
ahem, bottom of it. In the tradition of the smash hit Nancy Drew series
from Her Interactive, EFCAL is a traditional point-and-fondle click adventure,
with over seven hours of dialog based on actual trial manuscripts. You’ll never
underestimate these adorable blondes again!
Splatter High School–A
first-person shooter that lets the player express his own creativity! The game
comes with a small scanner so that actual pictures of the player’s family, friends,
and teachers can be uploaded and used as faces in the game. Now the visceral experience
of fragging victim after victim won’t have to be so impersonal! Imagine how much
more satisfying it will be to actually blow away that snotty old jerk who failed
you on that trig midterm!
SimBathroom–I’m afraid it’s just what
it sounds like.
Yep, I’m afraid one of these is a real game. First one
to guess correctly gets a free autographed 8×10 glossy of Randy and me mud
wrestling!
The Game Is out There
The game I’m most excited
about is Neil Young’s Majestic. This adventure game takes its paranoid
conspiracy-laden story out of the CD-ROM and thrusts it directly into your life.
You play the game in monthly installments, and it comes to you in the form of
phone calls, faxes, email, etc. The result is that you’ll actually feel like a
participant in this creepy X-Files-type story. Think about it, folks: here’s a
high-profile online game that’s actually a pure adventure. In the throng
of online action and role-playing games, Majestic seems like a dream come
true for us adventurers.
I want to make something clear about the “gameplay”
in Majestic. Many people I’ve talked to about it feel they wouldn’t be
interested in playing a game that calls them at 3:00 in the morning. Good point.
But what many people may not know is that every single “intrusive” element
of the game is configurable by the player. In other words, you can elect to receive
phone calls or not. To receive emails or not. You can give them specific hours
the game can call. You can even have them insert a “trailer” at the
beginning of each phone call (“You are about to receive a message from Majestic …”).
The result is that every player can define his or her own comfort zone for the
game. Best of all, you can actually cooperate with other players online, once
you learn their Majestic “handle.” I can’t wait I can’t wait
I can’t wait. Meet me online in the secret web page of the supersecret government
organization–and trust no one!
Gaming: A January-September Romance?
Cindy
Kyser made the very interesting observation that there was a radical difference
in the average age of the convention attendees. The men tended to be very, very
young (no big surprise), and the women tended to be all over thirty. Neil Young
is one of the “old men” of the business, and he’s about 31. (I would
have attempted to pretend I had made this observation myself, but Cindy may read
this column and I’m physically afraid of her.)
We’re Not Worthy!
Highlights
of E3 included having the chance to speak to three of the game gods I admire most.
Cindy and I also had a nice chat with Greg Uhler of Presto, flush with the success
of the long-awaited Myst III: Exile. He seemed very pleased with the reception
the game is getting. Rand Miller (that’s Atrus to you and me) was on hand, and
Greg told us he was very happy indeed. We hope the success of Exile will
prompt further Myst sequels! The only problem with Greg is that he just
doesn’t seem old enough. It’s just plain unseemly. Rather than coming off as the
guy who helped create the Journeyman Project trilogy, Hidden Evil, and
Exile, he seem like your little brother that you would keep bullies from
bothering on the playground! Ah, well, I guess he can’t help it.
The only
problem with Myst at E3 was, in fact, UbiSoft. The huge game conglomerate
recently acquired the Myst license from Mattel, and it’s clear that they
don’t know what they have. This is no surprise to us E3 veterans. Last year, no
one at the UbiSoft booth knew who or where Charles Cecil was. Of course, he’s
just the man behind the Broken Sword games, not to mention UbiSoft’s In
Cold Blood. So this year it was saddening but not surprising to see Myst
III: Exile literally hidden behind a pillar in a corner of the huge UbiSoft
display. Honestly. This is the most important adventure game release in years,
a sequel to two of the most popular and honored games of any genre. You’d think
UbiSoft would want to flaunt it, get it out there, and get the title into people’s
faces. I found such cavalier treatment of an important property disgraceful, not
to mention simply foolish.
We had a lovely chat with Charles Cecil, who
created the Broken Sword games and last year’s In Cold Blood. Mr.
Cecil is extremely interested in creating an adventure game that feels relevant
with the current state of games. That’s not to say he’s abandoned the idea of
an adventure–far from it. But he’s looking for ways to make the game appeal not
just to hardcore pure point-and-click adventure players (unfortunately, there’s
no money in that). So he’s exploring how he can create a game that’s as dynamic
and kinetic as possible, and still feel like an adventure.
Finally, I got
to meet The Man himself, Ragnar Tornquist, the mad genius behind The Longest
Journey. I actually had nothing witty or relevant to say to him. I just stood
there and sputtered some obsequious remarks about how spectacular his game was.
Thank goodness everyone at E3 wears name tags, or I would have never figured out
which one he was. What is it about great adventure game builders that they all
seem to be so mild-mannered and soft-spoken? Jane Jensen was the same way a few
years ago. I wonder if action game designers are the same way? I have trouble
picturing American McGee as a wallflower. By the way, Ragnar’s current project
is the massively multiplayer online role playing game Anarchy Online, and
it looks fun! Most fun fact about FunCom: they have a new employee we met, a young
woman named April!
Adventurama
Back to games. DreamCatcher/Cryo
has an impressive rack of games. I was taken with the breathtaking beauty of Schizm:
Mysterious Journey. This game is going to be a serious feast for the eyes,
as I’m sure the third Atlantis game will be. Jekyll and Hyde also
looks promising. The surprise game at this particular booth, however, was a strategy/adventure
called Persian Wars. It’s sort of a “strategy lite” game reminiscent
of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, but with a stronger adventure
element. You play Sinbad and guide him through many campaigns through parched
deserts, alluring oases, and exotic cities. I was so taken with the game I found
myself returning to it over and over through the weekend.
Our friends at
Arxel Tribe look like they may have a real winner with Hitchcock. This
is a fantastic-looking game that’s being produced in partnership with Universal
Studios. The plot involves murder on a movie set and is chock-full of visual and
thematic references to classic Hitchcock films such as Vertigo, Psycho, and
The Birds. As a Hitchcock freak, I’m counting the days.
So while
there aren’t exactly tons of major new pure adventures coming out, there
are certainly a few to look forward to.
Prepare to Ascend to RPG Heaven
And
for those of you who have been bitten by the RPG bug, let me just say, fasten
your seatbelts, you’re in for an incredible year.
First of all, there are
add-ons for the two most important recent RPGs. First, there’s the upcoming Baldur’s
Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, which will complete the massive Baldur’s Gate saga
told across Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, and
Baldur’s Gate II. Then there’s the Diablo II expansion, innovatively
entitled Diablo II Expansion. Both of these look like fun.
The long-awaited
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is also soon to hit your game store
shelves. The first CRPG to use the new Third Edition D&D rules, this game
looks like a winner. Visually a knock-out, it employs a turn-based combat system
and several new character classes (can you say Half-Orc?).
Microsoft Games
continues to upgrade its game pedigree (they produced Pandora’s Box, remember?)
with the spectacular Dungeon Siege. Despite its rather mundane name, this
iconoclastic role-playing game looks like it’ll be a real barn-burner. Imagine
the excitement of Diablo with richer RPG elements. Imagine the depth of
Baldur’s Gate but with far freer game play. From star game designer (Total
Annihilation) Chris Taylor, this is another We Can’t Wait game.
Ditto
the stunning-looking Arcanum from Sierra. From the creative team that brought
us Fallout, this ambitious RPG pits a magic-based world against a mechanics-
and science-based world. You can play a character from either side. Yep, it’s
bullets and bayonets against wands and spells.
Sierra also has a very interesting
looking action RPG called Throne of Darkness. Imagine Diablo with
samurai.
I haven’t even yet mentioned the game that’s going to make all
hardcore pencil-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons freaks think they’ve died and
gone to the Forgotten Realms. It’s Neverwinter Nights from Bioware. This
multiplayer RPG allows a player to actually become the Dungeon Master. Shipped
with easy-to-use construction tools, the game allows you to build your own dungeons
and invite your friends in to play! It also will include a fully contained single-person
game.
Then there’s Morrowind, the latest game in the Elder Scrolls
series. The crazies at Bethesda Softworks are bucking an industry-wide trend and
creating a game that’s only single player! Imagine, in this day and age.
Morrowind also ships with a construction set that allows you to design
your own “modules” to customize and enrich the game.
Unfortunately,
most of these exciting-looking titles will require pretty hefty computer horsepower.
If you’re a fan, it might be time to consider upgrading your equipment.
Penetrating,
Hilarious, and Yet Poignant Conclusion
There were so many fun things
to see at E3 that I didn’t even mind missing my chance to see Colby and Jerri
from Survivor in person. Yes, I’m afraid there’s going to be a game based
on the highly addictive television series.
Oddly enough, when we walked
by the booth, the crowd voted Randy off the island.
