This year’s edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo packed a mean punch. The big three (Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft) showcased their new hardware, services, innovations, and of course, games. ‘Motion Control’ was also the name of the game this time, with Sony and Microsoft showcasing their new motion control devices. Microsoft’s Project Natal was particularly impressive and in my opinion, will redefine the way people play games or interact with their game consoles. Natal sports voice recognition, facial recognition and motion/movement recognition. You will actually be able to use your console and play games without a controller or gamepad. Of course, the deal was made even sweeter thanks to the spectacular line-up of games which were showcased at the event.
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Sam Fisher is back, and this time, he is not bound by the rules of Third Echelon, the organisation he used to work for. If you remember, Sam’s daughter Sarah was killed in a freak car accident during Splinter Cell: Double Agent. He discovers that her death wasn’t exactly an accident, and takes it upon himself to find whoever was behind it and bring them to justice.. solo. The first thing you’ll notice about Conviction is how much faster the gameplay is. Sam now moves at an unrelenting pace, is less stealthy, effecting far more kills as a result. Other new additions include the ‘tag and kill’ system, ‘last known position’ and objectives that are displayed in the game’s environments. Very cool, indeed.
Assassins Creed 2
Dual hidden blades? No way! You better believe it. Creed 2’s protagonist Ezio Auditore di Firenze, another ancestor of ‘real’ protagonist Desmond Miles carries around a couple of the lethal blades we’ve come to know and love, and a gun! Well, it’s not exactly a Colt or Walther, but does its job nonetheless. The plot revolves around Ezio, a nobleman, who turns into an assassin to seek revenge for his murdered family. Ezio is also a contemporary of Leonardo Da Vinci, so he will have access to some of Da Vinci’s creations including the flying machine. If you’ve not figured it out by now, Assassins Creed 2 is set in Italy, and will see you travelling to/murdering in Venice, Florence, Rome and Tuscany.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The ‘Best Graphics’ award of E3 2009 has to, without doubt, go to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Developers Naughty Dog have really outdone themselves with the spectacular environments, brilliant lighting effects, awesome character models, debris, physics and animation. The game moves fluidly at a high frame-rate as well. The gameplay footage shown at E3 this year was nothing short of mind-blowing. We see Nate jumping across buildings while dodging heavy machine gun fire from a Russian Hind chopper. The destructible environments look brilliant – the Hind’s gunfire pretty much runs through everything like a knife through butter, and all the wooden houses just fall apart. Nate’s personality and sense of humour are as awesome as ever, and you’ll get a small taste of it in the video. I really can’t wait for this one.
Modern Warfare 2
What kind of expectations does Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 have to live up to? Well, for starters, there are nearly 20 million people playing this game online even now, nearly 2 years after its release. The game’s multiplayer component was/is leagues ahead of any other FPS out there, and in my opinion, the single player experience has not been topped yet by another FPS game to date. Well, it looks like Modern Warfare 2 is going to meet, and better everyone’s expectations if the gameplay footage shown and trailer shown at E3 are anything to go by. The single player story is inching closer to something the best Hollywood would have to offer and the graphical improvements are doubly evident in-game as well as in the cutscenes. The ‘snow level’ sports some really cool hardware in the form of the heartbeat sensor. There’s also the initial mountain climbing and the even more awesome snowmobile chase at the end.
God of War 3
There’s really not much to say about God of War 3, other than that it will probably be even better than God of War II. There’s not much that needs to be done by Sony Santa Monica Studios, actually – render everything in glorious full high definition, throw in some new weapons, make the enemies bigger and have as much brutality, bloodshed and as many corpses that the Playstation 3 will allow you to have at one any point of time. The result? A 90-plus Metacritic score and millions of copies sold. Unfortunately all of us will have to wait until March 2010 for said mayhem.
—videep@gmail.com
