Xbox 360 Multiplayer Preview - 'Gears of War'
by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006
Genre: Action
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Epic Games
Release Date: TBA
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After our single-player demo with CliffyB, it's time to go hands-on with Gears of War. Deep behind closed doors at Microsoft's E3 booth, we walked into a large room that had two groups of eight Xbox 360s decked out with the limited-edition GoW faceplate and networked together for some four-on-four team-based deathmatch action. We first got an overview of the game controls and some basic tactics from the Epic Games team, and then we were off on our own for some intense multiplayer action.
The default button
Fuller Auto
It's been long enough that quite a few gamers have never heard of the System Shock games, two benchmark PC games that set the bar for challenging FPSes and, in their own way, for survival horror. When you hear older gamers talking about SHODAN or crawling through hallways with only a wrench to defend themselves, they're referring to the arguably classic System Shock 2.
This year's E3 featured an astounding number of PSP titles that were just plain fun to play, which is something that the handheld console has been lacking until now. Tekken: Dark Resurrection was among those titles, and it was perhaps the single game I put in the most time with during E3. While it is largely a straight port of the limited arcade release by the same name, T:DR is certainly more portable than an arcade machine.
We live in perilous times, my friends. These days, the game industry is either all about the single-player experience, or the dynamics of (God help us, sometimes massive) multiplayer. Remember back in the day, when it was only about two people? In games like Streets of Rage, Contra and Final Fight, you had to help out your partner every step of the way, or face mutual destruction. These days, we're lucky to get a "cooperative mode" in the games of our choice.
Nintendo has been pimping Red Steel unusually hard for it to be a third-party title, especially a third-party FPS with a Western developer. It's because Red Steel embodies Nintendo's promise that the Wii's games are going to cater to every possible type of gamer, including the aggressive, predominantly male demographic of FPS fans that felt distinctly ignored by the GameCube. Red Steel is not just an FPS, either, but almost a tech demo that shows third-party developers just what kind of an experience they can create
With companies like Konami and Harmonix making rhythm/music games popular in the 'States, we've begun to see lots more than the latest Dance Dance crazes coming our way. We've had taiko drums, regular drums, virtual karaoke bars, guitars, and now ... well, now we've got touch-tapping.
Brothers in Arms is one of the great things to come out of the military game boom, and certainly one of the franchises that keeps driving massive demand for World War II shooters. This spring, the latest entry in the franchise, Hell's Highway, hits the XBox 360, PS3, and PC in full 720p high-resolution. This is the kind of game that will move 360s, make you think twice about the PS3, and send you shopping for a new top-of-the-line graphics card. Ubisoft displayed the
Come On, What Was Wrong with [eM] -eNCHANT arM-?
When you look at the first-person shooter genre as a whole, they can largely be broken up into gameplay that is either based on strict linearity (heavy use of hallways, such as Half-Life or Doom 3) or the somewhat less linear collection of larger, more open areas (e.g., Ghost Recon series, Half-Life 2). The original Operation Flashpoint came out on the PC a few years ago and was critically successful for two reasons. Firstly, the title absolutely oozed atmosphere, from the well-written yet totally
If you're a SOCOM fan, then you've probably played the original SOCOM Fireteam Bravo for the PSP. Because of the title's success, the team at Zipper Interactive has decided to bring out a new release with tons of fixed features and additions, such as increased visual quality.
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Kart racing is one of the original quirky party games that tends to be fun for all ages and for any number of players. With Pac-Man World Rally, Namco has created the latest iteration of the kart racer based on their lovable characters, and from what I was able to see at this year's E3, it is a blast to play.
When Dark Age of Camelot launched back in 2001, I felt it was EverQuest, only without the parts that I didn't like. By the same token, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning might be World of WarCraft: PVP Done Better.
At one of my final stops at E3, I was able to spend some time at the Playlogic booth checking out World Forge's new historical RTS, Sparta: Ancient Wars. This game, as the title indicates, is set in the ancient world where Sparta was the biggest, baddest military power around. What sets this title apart from the rest of the pack is the focus on realism. In the modern era of RTS offerings, it would seem that conventional military combat is actually an unconventional way)
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