PC Preview - 'Titan Quest'
by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006
Genre: Action/RPG
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Iron Lore
Release Date: June 2006
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Your Own Private Titanomachy
It was neither difficult nor rare to catch developers using words like "accessibility" and "casual" to describe the titles on display at the THQ pre-E3 summit. Talking with Iron Lore Entertainment, co-founded by Age of Empires veteran Brian Sullivan and currently putting finishing touches on PC action-RPG Titan Quest, those words came up plenty often, too, but this time, they were frequently accompanied by the word "Diablo," which of course makes all the difference.
In the years since Diablo's arrival, no truly satisfying
Cooking Mama is poised to take over the US in a whirlwind of Japanese-influenced culinary awesomeness. This title, a hit in Japan, is quite possibly the first in a new genre of cooking games, being followed up later this year, of course, by Devil May Cook and World of Foodcraft.
The year is 1944. Thirty-three years ago, John Morris and Eric LeCarde defeated Dracula's niece, Elizabeth Bartley, and in so doing, saved the world. As usual.
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Why Do Kings Always Listen to Really Bad Advice?)
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2006 is Sonic the Hedgehog's 15th anniversary, but he doesn't get any days off. Nor would we want him to.
Field Ops is one of the first titles to successfully merge both FPS and RTS into a single coherent genre. This is not the first game to attempt this – Battlezone and Battlezone 2 in the late '90s had similar approaches – but this is one of the best attempts at combining the best aspects of both genres without compromising either. This is neither an FPS with RTS elements nor a RTS with a splash of FPS – it works equally well as
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One of the most anticipated titles at E3 was Bioware's next-gen action RPG, Mass Effect, which is coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in 2007. Mass Effect is all about size and scope, and the demo level we saw, "The Citadel," was of an expansive futuristic city that featured a massive docking bay for large spacecrafts. There was a rich use of color throughout the level and some incredibly impressive lighting effects. The lighting really stood out as looking "next-gen" and quite realistic, complete with the blending of)
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The surprise for me at last year's E3 was the original design of Tabula Rasa got thrown out with the bath water. It rather needed it, as it was suffering from too many cooks in the kitchen. It tried to be too original, had an art design that seemed influenced by too many mushrooms, and just didn't look fun. Last year, we learned that they'd decided to make the game more of a sci-fi shooter.
Conan: Hyborian Adventures is an upcoming MMORPG from Funcom, the makers of Anarchy Online. At E3, I was able to take a look at the latest build of Conan and get a detailed overview of the game's character creation and combat systems.
Normally, the most anemic demos at E3 are the demos of the games too early in their production cycle to be playable. Often, they're not demos so much as trailers, and while seeing footage of a long-anticipated game like Final Fantasy XIII, Halo 3, or Smash Brothers Brawl can be elating, the high eventually ends, and you realize that you don't really know much more about the game than you did before. One of the most depressing E3 experiences possible is to lay hands on a long-awaited title
As far as original plots go, a battle raging between good and evil with one man stuck in the middle is not terribly unique or interesting, but fortunately, Infernal is better than the plot might suggest.. Infernal has an interesting stand on the typically stark, concrete concept of good versus evil. The main character, Ryan Lennox, was once a member in the army of good, fighting for those above, until he was deemed a liability, struck from the ranks and left to roam the earth. Shortly thereafter,