Today’s advanced technology can be a double-edged sword. It can provide us with tools and experiences unimagined in previous generations. But it can also deprive us of some of the things we’ve come to cherish. Technology has recently claimed another victim in games journalism, and we’re all the worse for it.

This week, UK-based publisher Future announced the closing of Playstation: The Official Magazine. The recently published Holiday 2012 issue is the magazine’s last, after more than five years serving the Sony gaming community. PTOM joins a lengthening list of print publications that have felt the deadly sting of the Internet, including Computer Games, Computer Gaming World (which rebranded itself Games for Windows: The Official Magazine before ending its run a year or so later), and most recently, the venerable Nintendo Power, which shut down a month or so ago. This leaves Future with only two significant print gaming products: Official Xbox Magazine and the Energizer bunny of games mags, PC Gamer, which continues to publish monthly after more than a decade.

This is the reality of the journalism game these days, but that doesn’t soften the blow for the dozens of talented people whose jobs have disappeared in a puff of virtual smoke. PTOM featured solid coverage of Sony’s various gaming platforms, a monthly roundup of the best available games for each device, select Blu-ray movie reviews (the PS3 is, after all, also a Blu-ray player), and news and letters sections that were worth the subscription price all by themselves. When other mags started to get thinner, PTOM almost always managed to be a meaty, substantial publication, which could be one of the reasons for its downfall.

We thank Playstation: The Official Magazine editor-in-chief Roger Burchill and his accomplished writing and editorial staff for five years of games journalism excellence. We’re sure that you all will hit the ground running at another outlet, and we look forward to reading more from you in the future (no pun intended).

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2013. | Permalink | 5 comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since the relaunch of the Adrenaline Vault. Angel Munoz, who founded Avault way back in 1995, and editor-in-chief David Laprad gathered together a ragtag bunch of newbie reviewers and set us loose on the gaming world. Since then, we’ve published more than 800 reviews, plus countless blog posts, news items and forum conversations. It’s truly been a long, strange trip.

People come and go. Now, only Jason Pitruzzello and I remain on the staff from the list of new writers who joined up in the summer of 2007. My very first published review was for the PC version of Shadowrun, and it didn’t take long for you readers to welcome me to the fold. In the very first comment about my review, I was accused of “fluffing MS (Microsoft)” by someone named “chriskovo.” You guys gave no quarter, and it made all of us better writers. Some of us have moved on to host podcasts and work in other parts of the gaming industry; one of us actually gets to sit at the right hand of Gabe Newell at Valve. And we have you passionate folks to thank for it.

It’s more than 130 reviews later, and now I’m serving as both senior writer and editor of Avault, and I’m blessed every day by the opportunities I’ve had here. I’ve been to product release parties in Manhattan, I’ve attended three E3 conventions, and it’s been a blast. We’re smaller now than we were five years ago, but we’re doing our best to continue to provide you with the best opinions and information we can possibly muster. On behalf of the staff here at Avault, I’d like to thank each and every one of you for sticking with us. Thanks for the comments and the forum posts and all the things that make our site vibrant and fun. Thanks to the folks who are members of our Steam group (please visit us and join up next time you’re about to start your next Counterstrike match). Thanks to everyone who regularly visits our Facebook page. And a special thanks to all the gamers who have visited us in the past, continue to keep us honest in the present, and who will keep joining us in the future. We have a talented, motivated group of writers who promise to keep giving you honest, unbiased opinions on the entire gaming world, from the biggest AAA blockbusters to the exciting products coming from the best indie developers. If you like what you see, pass the word! The more the merrier, I say.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments

A few weeks ago I did something that I swore I’d never do.

I bought an iDevice.

This makes me a complete hypocrite. For years I’ve been telling everyone who would listen that Steve Jobs is the antichrist, and that his products are the spawn of Satan. This springs from my deep hatred towards the Mac. I’m not really sure why I hate the Mac, but I do. It’s one of those things that we do without any real provocation, such as disliking a perfect stranger without even meeting them (don’t lie; we all do it). But I’m sure that those odious Apple/PC TV commercials from a few years back have something to do with it. PC users everywhere wished that John Hodgman (PC) would grow a pair and clock Justin Long (Mac) just once, and I was no exception.

Why did I lose my faith and join the ranks of the technologically unwashed? It was a matter of necessity, actually. Last year I missed some important emails while I was on the show floor at E3, so I needed a device that I could use to check my email on the go. Yes, my cell phone would do that. But the quality of service that I get from my pay-as-you-go phone is dodgy at best (thank you, AT&T; my father spent his lifetime working for you—he’d turn over in his grave if he found out what you’ve become), and I have no desire to commit to another monthly bill. In essence, what I needed was an iPhone without the phone. Friends suggested the Zune, but it’s a good thing I passed on that idea, since the actual phones are about to go the way of the dinosaur after the meteor hit.

So, there I was, using the last of my Best Buy holiday gift cards to buy the 4th generation iPod Touch. It does what I need it to do (without a monthly fee), provided that I’m in an area with free wifi, and the App Store provides access to a seemingly endless list of cheap little programs that I can download, although the download process is so streamlined that it’s scary. Once you put your credit card info into the system, you never have to confirm that information again; just press “Buy Now” and it’s yours. Suppose someone gets their hands on my device without my knowledge? That useless unlock feature isn’t going to stop anybody, unless my iPod has stored my fingerprints or scanned my retinas without my knowledge. Amazingly horrible things could be done to my account, and perhaps even my credit. All a potential thief has to do is to hack my iTunes password and it’s all theirs. I’m careful with my passwords, but like most people, not nearly careful enough.

Of course I’d be lying if I said that the wealth of games available at the App Store wasn’t a factor in my decision-making. Sure, Zune has a marketplace with a growing collection of games. But even an Apple-hater such as myself has to admit that the selection available for the iDevices is unparalleled. Most of the stuff is total crap, thrown together by pimply 14-year-olds in their darkened bedrooms in a day or two, but if you stick to the established content providers such as Chillingo or Rovio or PopCap, you’ll usually come out ahead.

Now that I’ve had the iPod for a month or so, it’s time to see how it matches up against my other mobile gaming platform of choice, the Nintendo DSI.

Portability: iPod gets the nod here. I can put the iPod in my pocket and carry it anywhere. The DSI is just a bit too bulky to fit in anything other than a jacket pocket or a backpack. Which is fine in the winter, when we in the Northeast don’t leave our homes without a coat. Not so good in the summer, though.

Graphics: iPod is the clear winner. Or it could be that the only games that I own so far (Angry Birds, Bejeweled 2 and Painkiller: Purgatory) have better than average visuals. The DSI just doesn’t have the clarity and color palate that the iPod possesses. But who knows; maybe as my iPod game collection expands, my opinion might change.

Features: The devices have things in common. Both have cameras installed, both have available web browsers (you have to download one for the DSI, while the iPod comes with one already installed). iPod was designed to be a multifunctional device, not just a game system. It has more installed memory, it has 3G Internet connectivity, and it allows you to connect to your email client of choice. However, the DSI’s extra screen gives it a significant advantage on the iPod when only considering gaming.

Controls: Here is where the DSI puts the iPod to shame. The combination of face buttons and stylus makes it possible to play just about any kind of game with very little trouble. Until someone figures out how to create virtual thumbsticks that are responsive and conveniently placed so that your fingers don’t obscure half the screen, iPod will always trail the DSI in this category.

Games: Here it all depends on which factor is most important to you: quality or quantity. The iPod certainly offers far more available titles, but for overall quality, the DSI is far superior, since there are far fewer piles of steaming dung in the Nintendo library. You’re paying 30 or 40 times more for a DSI game, but the product is usually worth it.

Battery Life: Another big win for Nintendo. I’ve been playing Dragon Quest IX on the DSI for 15 minutes a day on my lunch break (and another hour or so at the laundromat), and I can usually go a couple of weeks before that pretty blue light turns red. But one 15-minute session of Painkiller on the iPod drained almost 25 percent of my battery bar; I’ve been recharging it at least once a week since I got it. Hopefully this problem will be addressed in future generations of the iPod, but right now the DSI takes the longevity prize.

So am I happy with my iPod purchase? Despite my ingrained instincts, I have to say that I am. It’ll get its baptism of fire at E3 in June, but for now I grudgingly admit that it gives me everything that I need from it. However, my Mac prohibition remains inviolate, mostly because anything a Mac can do, a Windows PC can do better (with the possible exception of video editing). PCs are also easier to build and upgrade, and there are far more games available for them (if it wasn’t for Intel CPUs and Boot Camp, Mac owners would still be playing Myst).

But mostly, it’s because anything with a half-eaten fruit on the case is the offal of the evil one. Which is why there’s a crucifix around my neck as I launch those birds at those pigs. You can never be too careful when it comes to your immortal soul.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 11 comments

It’s time once again to give some thought to what I’d like to see under the Christmas tree, wrapped in brightly colored paper with my name on the tags. Notice the strategic lack of mention of the fat guy in the red suit with the white beard and the captive reindeer that drag his lazy butt everywhere in the world in one night. I don’t know the demographic breakdown of Adrenaline Vault’s readership, but I think I’m safe to say that it skews old enough that I’m not gonna traumatize any kiddies with the following: Santa ain’t real (sorry, Patrick). Unless, of course, his middle name is “Best Buy Gift Card,” which makes up the bulk of my traditional holiday haul.

My wish list this year is filled with items that only a fanciful, legendary, magical holiday character could possibly get for me, which is proof all by itself that he doesn’t exist (there’s a reason why Bad Santa is both my Xbox Live and Playstation Network handles, after all). They are, in no particular order:

A winning lottery ticket. I’m not greedy; I’ll settle for a winner in the mid-to-high six figures (after taxes, of course). This would make it easier for me to afford all the new gaming gadgets being foisted onto the players this year. Rock Band 3 guitar controllers with either a forest of tiny buttons or real, honest-to-God strings on the neck. New motion controllers for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 (more about those later). And any of the other assorted doo-dads that might find their way to retailers. Honestly, it used to be that all you needed was a console or a PC, and a game. Now, you also need extra space in your living room to play them all. Which leads me to…

A bigger apartment. The lottery ticket would be a big help here as well. Apparently, you need a minimum of six feet of empty space between yourself and the Kinect sensor to make Microsoft’s new peripheral work. As it is right now, if I move my recliner flush against my living room wall (which would make it impossible to recline, making it pointless to own a recliner), I would have just enough space to frolic with Obob, the jungle cheetah, whom I would befriend in Kinectimals, only to have to humanely put him down when he wouldn’t stop arguing and posting on the Avault forums. I’d have better luck with Playstation Move, although it’s a good thing I live alone, since waving the Sony ice-cream cone around and around would make me look like one of those guys in the reflective vests sending semaphore messages to airline pilots, telling them where to park.

A time machine. Preferably smaller than a Delorean, something that could slow down time enough for me to be able to play and finish the dozens of games (on all platforms) I have stashed in my apartment. Most of them are PC games going back almost 10 years now; if I quit my day job (once again, a useful byproduct of the lottery win) and devoted myself totally to finishing all those games, I still might not be able to get to them all before I expire. Of course, many of them probably won’t even run on today’s PC operating systems, so that might cut the total playtime down a smidge.

Some serious self-discipline. If I’m to survive long enough after I win the Powerball to have a shot at finishing my back catalog, I’m gonna have to find the willpower to drop about 50 pounds, maybe more. Games such as WiiFit Plus and EA Sports Active would be a big help, but in the end I’m gonna have to make myself get out and get physical. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are for, right?

A favorable Supreme Court decision. I know, the justices aren’t scheduled to rule on California v. the ESA until the spring. But this case will decide once and for all if it’s OK to make it a crime to sell mature-rated games to kids, so the sooner they make their decision, the better, no matter which way they go. On one hand, I don’t really think it’s a bad idea to force retailers to be more vigilant in the sales of violent games. I was a movie theatre cashier for 15 years, and I know the kind of grief that they take when they try to prevent young Jonny from getting an unescorted ticket to see Machete. This abuse awaits GameStop clerks, whose jobs would no doubt be on the line every time they sell a copy of God of War III to someone who can barely see the top of the counter. On the other hand, contrary to popular belief, selling a ticket to an R-rated movie to a minor is not against the law (except in some very limited cases around the country), and yet theatres manage to do a fairly good job of keeping kids out of films with objectionable material. The ESRB rating system, like its counterpart in the movie business, is there to keep parents informed about the nature of the material found within a game, and the major retailers have voluntarily agreed to enforce the ratings. Making the sale of M-rated games to minors illegal starts us on the slippery slope towards government censorship in lots of other areas that we certainly don’t want regulated. I say let the ratings do what they’re designed to do, without government interference. Or, better yet, put just as much pressure on parents to take a more serious interest in what their kids are playing.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Last I looked, Thanksgiving arrives before Christmas (although you wouldn’t know it by visiting your local mall). With that in mind, I’d like to mention a few things about which I’m thankful this year. I’m thankful for the good health of my family and friends, and for my own relative well-being. I’m thankful that, unlike Los Angeles, San Francisco managed to celebrate a sporting championship without rioting or burning taxicabs. I’m thankful that a judge finally had the courage to put Lindsay Lohan in jail (or is she out again? Don’t remember). And I’m thankful that, after many years of violent conflict, combat troops are finally returning home from the Middle East.

And most personally, I’m thankful for my colleagues at the Adrenaline Vault and for the great fortune that I have to be part of this organization. From our boss, Angel Munoz, to the many tech folks at New World whose efforts keep us all in front of your eyes every day, and to the writers, a group of volunteers who have given their all to help make Avault one of the great gaming sites on the Web, I have nothing but awe and gratitude for your passion and your skill. And, of course, to our Editor in Chief, Michele White, whose tireless efforts and boundless energy are an inspiration to us all. Working together, the future for our site is indeed brighter than it’s ever been. And last, but certainly not least, to you, the readers, who dragged Avault from the brink and stayed with us as we rebuilt the site to what it is today, and to what it will become in the future. Thanks to you all, and may we all have a safe and happy holiday season!

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments

The longest week in games journalism came to an end today as this year’s edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo closed the books on another year in gaming. My last day featured new games from some big-time publishers, some promising items from some distinguished indies, and my first games of the week for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

Today’s journey began with a look at Lucha Libre, a Mexican wrestling simulation. A delay in the start of the demonstration forced me to move on before it started, but indie developer Slang gets high marks for their booth design: a full-sized wrestling ring, which was supposed to host some actual luchadores putting each other through their paces. My Avault comrades stayed for the demo, and I suspect there will be some discussion of it during their final E3 podcast. I did, however, stay long enough to score a wrestling mask that I’ll no doubt use to scare the kiddies in my neighborhood this Halloween.

My first real work time of the day was spent at the Sega booth, where I got the heads-up on three promising new games. Vanquish is set in an energy-scarce future in which the U.S. and Russia are the only remaining global powers. The Russians have commandeered the last energy-generating satellite in orbit, so the Americans send up some military force to retake it. Your character is equipped with the Augmented Reality Suit (similar to the nanosuit), which you use to help your Yankee buddies expel the Red Scourge from the satellite. Vanquish is a single-player-only sci-fi action shooter that will provide 10 to 12 hours of twitch-gaming goodness for owners of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 this October.

Next was a more-refined but still engaging fighter that incorporated both RPG and exploration elements. Yakuza 4 gives you a look at Japanese culture through an anime visual style, and adds a combat system that lets you use anything you can find in a scene as a weapon. The campaign unfolds Rashomon-style, with four characters and their viewpoints of the same events leading to each of their plot lines connecting near the end. Yakuza 4 will be released exclusively for the PS3 in the spring of 2011.

The final Sega game on my program was also my first Wii game of the week: Conduit 2. I had the chance to play the original Conduit at a Sega event in New York City (before aliens blew up the city in Crysis 2), and it was the first game that I bought for my Wii just about a month ago. Conduit 2 picks up just where the original game left off, but has shifted its setting from Washington, DC, to jungles and mountain regions. Developer High Voltage Software has paid heed to the comments made after the first game’s release and has revamped the gameplay, adding more variety, turrets and flying sequences. The new game will also include the usual selection of multiplayer modes when it debuts only for the Wii this winter.

Casual-game company D3 next gave me hands-on time with Puzzle Quest 2, the sequel to the popular 2007 match-three game. I played the original on the Nintendo DS, and I remember being frustrated for a long time by an AI system that seemed to get just the right collection of gems at just the right time to thwart me. But I was assured that there was no cheating going on behind the scenes. In fact, attempts to dumb down the random-number generator that runs the puzzle portion of the game actually made it too easy to win, which can be just as annoying as playing against an AI that seems to have all the luck in the world. The new game has more of a story component this time; it features local, online and tournament multiplayer; and is available now for the DS, with versions for the Xbox 360, PC, and Apple products coming soon.

2K Games caused something of an uproar in classic gaming circles when it announced that PC squad-based strategy legend X-COM: UFO Defense was being turned into a first-person shooter for the upcoming XCOM. Not being tainted by any of that talk (I never played the original game), I found the reimagining to be a combination of a 1950s-style art aesthetic and some engaging shooter gameplay. For the uninitiated, you are part of a secret mid-20th-century American intelligence unit tasked with investigating the unknown after a mysterious artifact is discovered and is later identified as alien in origin. Not only do you hit the road with two AI teammates to eliminate the alien threat, but you also take pictures of unusual objects and creatures so that the boffins back at HQ can devise a way to use them to defeat the invaders. PC gaming loyalists should put away their torches and pitchforks and check out this combination of fear, strategy and shooter elements when XCOM is released in 2011 for the PC and the Xbox 360.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

Another busy day at E3. Perhaps too busy, actually. I thought that I had worked out my scheduling problems for this year’s show, but apparently I still have more to learn. First, to get some unpleasantness out of the way. Activision’s Dan Amrich and I were supposed to sit down for a chat this morning before the show, but we must have gotten our signals crossed, and didn’t manage to get together.

Now to business. After a quick trip to play the multiplayer shooter APB, I had to hoof it to the other end of the building to see developer DTP’s RPG prequel Dragonsang: The River of Time. Set 23 years prior to 2009’s Dragonsang: The Dark Eye, River of Time features a character creation engine that can generate hundreds of classes and races. You control all four of your party members, each of which has their own game-opening story (shades of Dragon Age). Combat is turn-based in this story, which could run anywhere from 40 to 80 hours to complete, depending upon how many side quests you decide to tackle. The PC-only Dragonsang: The River of Time will be available at the end of 2010.

And it was off again, back to where I started the day for a two-hour visit to the massive Electronic Arts booth. It’s not so much a booth as it is a hangar; most of the major publishers have display areas that are bigger than small homes. Aside from a large common area where attendees can sample EA’s new games, a series of private enclosures is set up on the edges of the booth where closed-door demonstrations are presented to uncommonly patient convention-goers. The media badge that I was given when I checked in was supposed to give me preferred access to these demos, and sometimes it did get me to the front of the line. But, as I soon found out, there’s media and then there’s MEDIA. Guess which category I inhabit.

Anyway, I did manage to get into several EA demos, most of which contained the same material that they showed at their press conference on Monday afternoon. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit adds the ability to play as either a cop or a racer, gives the cop fun toys such as electronic jamming and air support, and features a new online connectivity system known as Autolog, which allows players to respond to challenges leveled by their Internet friends and tracks each player’s progress. The game releases on all three platforms in November. The Crysis 2 demo shows off the new version of the Cryengine, which brought most people’s PCs to their knees when the original game was released. Aliens have invaded New York City, and it’s up to you and your spiffy upgraded nanosuit to kick ET’s butt back from whence it came. Crysis 2 hits retail shelves this winter for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Also available to be seen in private were the new Medal of Honor, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and EA’s new versions of their annual sports titles, including Madden 11.

Next on the menu for the day: Paramount Interactive’s video-game adaptation of the 1990 Tom Cruise NASCAR drama Days of Thunder. Appearing in the private demo was actor Michael Rooker, who co-starred with Cruise in the film. The game presents faithful re-creations of NASCAR sprint tracks, running as many as 75 laps with up to 19 cars bearing the names of real pro drivers. There’s also an extensive car customization system, allowing you to add new paint jobs and sponsors’ logos, and a 12-player online mode. The PS3 version of the game is set to leave the starting line in September, with a road-track edition for the Xbox 360 coming later.

The highlight of my day? Rock Band 3, is stuffed to the brim with new features and technology that will have the Guitar Hero folks running back to the drawing board. The game features a much deeper set-list sorting system that allows you to organize the 83 songs on the disk and the more than 1500 other available songs to be downloaded from the Rock Band store using lots of new criteria, including song lengths, genres, definable keywords and more. Also included is a new mode called the Road Challenge, a two to four-hour abbreviated tour mode that’s perfect for parties. But the biggest news is not just the addition of three-part harmonies for all songs on the disk (previously introduced in Beatles Rock Band) or the two-octave piano keyboard that pretty much completes your set of plastic instruments. It was announced that an available MIDI controller will enable you to use the keyboard you already own as a Rock Band 3 peripheral. Also demonstrated was the Pro Guitar, which removes the big colored buttons from the guitar controller and adds six rows of small buttons meant to simulate actual guitar strings. And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also be able to play along using a real stringed guitar. I didn’t get the chance to try out the new peripherals today, but I hope to do so before the show ends tomorrow.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

It’s amazing how beneficial it is to get a good night’s sleep and a decent (if expensive) meal when covering an event such as E3. This morning I emerged from my hotel room with a renewed state of mind and made my way to the LA Convention Center for the first official day of E3 2010. A day that would include an introduction to Nintendo’s future, the return of an old PC developer friend, another entry into the resurgent racing game genre, several free-to-play MMOs, two TV series getting their very own video-game spinoffs, a new stealth-based sniper game, and the celebration of a gaming icon’s 30th birthday.

The day started out with the annual Nintendo press conference, the last one of these we would be taking in (we sadly didn’t get invited to the Sony conference, although I will be visiting their show-floor booth later on in the week). And it quickly became obvious that, of the four press gatherings we visited, Nintendo had done it best. They introduced 11 new games, mostly starring characters from gaming’s past, including Zelda (Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii), Mario (Mario Sports Mix for the Wii), James Bond (GoldenEye 2007 for the Wii), Mickey Mouse (Disney Epic Mickey for the Wii), and Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii). New DS games included Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Dragon Quest 9, and mentioned for the second year in a row, Metroid: Other M for the Wii. But perhaps the biggest reveal in the show was information concerning the Nintendo 3DS, the company’s upcoming 3D-gaming device. The 3DS sports a wider upper screen than the DSi, improvements to the graphics hardware, a motion sensor and gyroscope, and a depth slider that allows you to choose how detailed you want your 3D images to be. Most intriguing, however, is the news that the 3DS will have the capability to show full-length 3D Hollywood movies, and the two cameras embedded into the device’s lid will allow you to take 3D still pictures. More than 20 third-party game developers have been signed to provide content for the new handheld, with many of those games promised to be available the day the system is launched (no availability date was announced), in stark contrast to Microsoft’s Kinect (the hardware formerly known as Project Natal), a system for which very little of any import will be available on release day. Lots of smack is talked daily about the Wii being a system for kids and old people, but you wouldn’t know it by the enthusiastic response Nintendo’s leadership received about almost every item they described during the press conference.

Not having an invite to the Sony conference gave me the time to visit the media room to write up the blog that I should’ve written the night before, had I not collapsed from exhaustion and lack of nutrition (good news for us writers: the show organizers ditched those god-awful Fata1ity keyboards from last year). A visit to the café in the convention center lobby corrected my food intake problem (notice I’ve avoided using the term “nutrition” again; you’d be hard pressed to find anything nutritious in this café), but it was costly at almost $15 for a cheeseburger, fries and a Vitamin Water. They’ve got you by the short and curlies, and they know it, so they charge you through the nose ($5.49 for a can of Monster energy drink?).

My first appointment of the show was with Bethesda Softworks to see Rage, the new apocalyptic shooter from id Software, their first new IP since their groundbreaking Doom and Quake series. In Rage, governments try to give humanity a fighting chance when it’s discovered that an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth by building subterranean pods to hold the species’ best and brightest. Those on the surface who survive the cataclysm become bloodthirsty mutants who try to feast on the unfortunate pod dwellers as they emerge from their hiding places. Action takes place in a variety of environments, including Western settings and city subways. Despite being early in development (Rage is set for a release sometime in 2011), the game ran at a solid 60 fps on the Xbox 360 in my E3 demo. This combination of Borderlands, Fallout 3, Bioshock and Metro 2033 will also be available for the PS3 and the PC.

Next was a jaunt to the other end of the convention center for a visit to the Square Enix booth. This was the first of two scheduled meetings with Square (I’m seeing Deus Ex: Human Revolution on Wednesday). Today I got a quick overview of three new games. Front Mission Evolved is a mech-based shooter about three political factions that join forces to battle terrorists who’ve destroyed a space elevator. The single-player shooter also includes three, eight-player multiplayer modes (but, sadly, no co-op), and will be available September 14 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Announced just today was Mind Jack, a shooter in which you have the ability to hack into the minds of any of the characters in the game and control them until they are killed, after which you simply find another unfortunate being to inhabit. Mind Jack is scheduled for an October 2010 release for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I was also walked through the multiplayer modes of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, the followup to the controversial 2007 shooter about mismatched heroes. Modes include Fragile Alliance, in which you team up with rival gangs to hunt down terrorists (a trend seems to emerge); Undercover Cop, a stealth mode in which one player must cap all of the other players one at a time; and Cops vs. Robbers, a 6-on-6 Team Deathmatch variant. Dog Days releases on all three platforms August 24.

Moving on to SouthPeak Games’ booth, I got hands-on with Nail’d, another entry into the growing ranks of combat driving games. In Nail’d, you drive either motocross cycles or ATVs in 12-player races (with either human or bot opponents) on off-road maps that sometimes have you doing some unusual things, such as driving on top of speeding trains. The mayhem is set to begin this winter. Also, I was reintroduced to Two Worlds 2, a 20 to 40-hour fantasy RPG that I saw for the first time at PAX East a few months ago. Apart from the single-player campaign, the game also offers eight-player multiplayer and an extensive character customization system. Two Worlds 2 was originally slated for a September 14 release date, but the presence of a little game called Halo: Reach made developer TopWare reschedule for sometime in October.

Perfect World, developer of free-to-play online MMOs, has two such games on display at this year’s convention. Battle of the Immortals takes RPG gameplay in the Diablo/Torchlight direction and gives it the MMO treatment. Weapons level up along with the characters. All monsters (including bosses) can be tamed and turned into pets, which can be mated with other players’ pets to create new generations of stronger creatures. There are 50 vehicles and rideable mounts in the game, some of which can carry as many as six teammates. And for the solo players who don’t like to group, most of Immortals can be played solo, but you need to find friends to survive dungeon exploration. The game (available to play right now) is built to perform well on PCs with low specs, new content is released weekly, and the character level cap is set at 125. In a similar vein is Forsaken World, in which it’s your task to organize the citizens of the gameworld against a malevolent god. It goes into closed beta at the end of 2010 for an eventual release in 2011.

Developer BigPoint is primarily known as a browser-based action game company. Its 55-game catalog (which they plan to boost to 100 by the end of the year) boasts an incredible 130 million total players. Not being a browser game player, I didn’t know this until they announced their new game: Battlestar Galactica Online. I’m a Battlestar geek from way back to the original series, so I had to check this one out. In BGO you can play as either a Colonial Marine or a Cylon in space-based combat scenarios that can involve as many as 1500 players at a time. Shipboard missions are also being planned. Since the game is played in a browser, it’ll be playable on practically every PC configuration. Battlestar Galactica Online will debut this winter, but will only be available for download from the SyFy Channel website for the first 30 days of release.

In more TV show adaptation news, the popular live-action combat show The Deadliest Warrior is getting its own game. Based on the Spike TV series, Warrior features gladiatorial combat between seven archetypal combatants, such as pirates, knights and ninjas. Each match consists of three rounds. You can try your luck in single-player mode, then move to either local or online multiplayer tournaments. You can also try to intimidate your opponent using voice chat. Deadliest Warrior releases July 14 for the Xbox 360 for 800 MS space bucks ($10). A PS3 version is planned, with an as-yet unspecified release date.

My last appointment of the day was with developer City Interactive to see their new stealth shooter, Sniper: Ghost Warrior. You play as either a sniper or the shooter’s spotter, who lets him know when and where it’s safe to move and where his targets are located. In single-player mode, you slowly make your way through a jungle to rebel camps to steal intelligence items and waste bad guys with extreme prejudice. Multiplayer modes include standard deathmatch and team deathmatch for up to 12 players on six maps based on the single-player campaign. No co-op mode is included, which is a shame considering two-player co-op would be a logical addition, but it might appear in an eventual sequel.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

First in line at the airport security station. Hot dogs and orange juice at 8:30 am. Stuck between runways on the tarmac in LA after a near perfect trip. A painful reminder that walking ten city blocks is not a good idea for someone who’s totally out of shape. And to top it off, a Queen singalong with thousands of game journalists and “friends.” This was the preview day of E3 2010.

All in all, much better than last year, when travel and hotel problems got us off to a really bad start. Ironically, we almost ended up at the same hotel this year, and we’re staying just five blocks up the street from there. But one positive experience remains from last year: the taco truck is still there!

Monday at E3 is press conference day for all of the major publishers, except for Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft had a separate confab on Sunday night totally devoted to Project Natal, their much-talked-about control scheme that lets you play your games from your couch without a controller in your hands. Microsoft’s primary conference was held Monday morning before we arrived, which is OK, since we didn’t receive an invite. It’s also not OK: everyone who attended the conference left the building with an Xbox Slim. Gotta find a way to get onto Redmond’s good side…

My day really started on Sunday morning. My first flight was scheduled for Monday morning at 6 am, which is much too early for the local airport shuttle buses. So, I left my apartment at 2 am without getting any sleep (I played the Blur multiplayer beta on Xbox Live to make sure I wouldn’t crash in my lounge chair and miss my flight) and drove to the economy parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport. Standing in this huge lot in the very early morning, waiting for a bus to take me to the terminal, was a surreal experience; I kept waiting for the walking dead to stumble in my direction with no help in sight, save for the poor soul driving through the lot recording license-plate numbers.

The trip started out on a high note. Delta Airlines let me do something that United failed to allow last year. I was able to print my boarding passes at home (I assume my common last name was my downfall then, but it didn’t seem to be a problem for Delta, despite their being the only airline whose customer satisfaction scores decreased in 2009). But when I reached the security checkpoint just after 3 am, it was a ghost town, nobody in sight except for a fellow traveler asleep on a bench. They finally opened up around 4, followed by the seemingly endless walk to my departure gate. This, I discovered later, was a preview of things to come.

Flight #1 ended without incident, except that they weren’t serving more than peanuts and drinks, so I was understandably peckish when I arrived at Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta. At the risk of sounding like the travel noob that I am, Atlanta’s airport is a true wonder of the world. A walk to my connecting flight’s gate that would’ve taken me an hour (at least) only took 10 minutes, thanks to the airport’s very own subway system. This was 9 am or thereabouts, so the food court vendors were all busy – except for the Oscar Mayer hotdog stand, which was looking kind of desolate (not surprisingly for that time of the day). So, there I was with what was described by someone in the departure lounge as the “breakfast of champions,” two huge hot dogs with ketchup and mustard, and a carton of orange juice (had to have something breakfasty, I rationalized).

Flight #2 also left on time, and featured video touch screens built into the seat backs. I spent most of the almost five-hour flight playing interactive trivia games with my fellow passengers, even won a game or three. But, being a cheap bastard, I wasn’t about to spring for the $8 fruit plate or mini-sandwich on the catering menu, settling instead for a free can of diet cola and a package of cookies. We landed on time at LAX, but another plane was having maintenance issues at our arrival gate, so we were stuck parked between runways for almost 20 minutes.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments

The alarm went off at 6:45 am today, and my body desperately tried to convince my mind that it was much too early and, please, could we have a couple more hours of sleep? I had had one too many Frangelicos on the rocks the night before at the 2K cocktail party, I was up until 2 am writing yesterday’s blog, and one of the clever youngsters rooming at my hotel thought it might be fun to pull the fire alarm around 10 pm, causing the local fire brigade to evacuate the hotel in 34-degree cold. My mind agreed with my body that a bit longer under the covers might be a good thing, but I couldn’t afford to miss the media-only hour available to me on the show floor at 9 am, so there I was, dragging my sorry butt into the shower to prepare for another long day at PAX East.

Remember I said yesterday that I was going to get a chance to play Rockstar’s new game, Red Dead Redemption, today in the media hour? Well, turns out that this was the runaway game demo of the show, generating lines rivaling the queues that E3 attendees formed to play God of War III last year. Even my media colleagues were obsessed with Red Dead, to the point that I would’ve had to have spent the entire media hour doing nothing but standing in line, so I skipped it. There were plenty of other things to see, and I’m not so anxious to play it that I can’t wait for the May 18 release date.

For the second day in a row, I failed to make a connection with a contact, this time with a representative of Perfect World, a free-to-play MMORPG. We had agreed to meet in the main lobby, not realizing at the time that there were several main lobbies in the building. By the time I caught up to him it was too late for any serious discussion about his game, but he promised to send me whatever information he had available. Note to self: start writing down contact phone numbers! I’m still somewhat new to the business card-swapping dance that game journalists do, but eventually I’ll work it out.

Next up: a visit to the Turbine booth to check out what’s new in the world of Dungeons and Dragons Online. Released originally in 2006, DDO changed to a free-play subscription model in September of 2009, and since then the game has added more than one million new players. Turbine is promising six free updates in 2010, the fourth of which releases on April 9. The new update is scheduled to include a new adventure pack and improvements to the guild system, including the introduction of a Guild Airship, which can be used as a home base and housing for your guild members. Also, a new race (Half Orc) will be included in another update slated for the end of the year.

Later in the day I touched base with several developers whose work has been featured here on the Vault in the recent past. I played a few minutes of The Devil’s Tuning Fork, an innovative sound-based adventure game developed by a team of game-design students at DePaul University that our own Alaric Teplitsky reviewed last December. All but one of the team members is graduating this year, but they plan to continue to work on the game in anticipation of obtaining a publisher. I also got some hands-on time with Making History II: War of the World, a top-down military strategy game that lets you replay World War II without being restricted by the actual events. I had the opportunity to interview one of the developers at last fall’s GameX festival, but this was my first time at the controls. There is a beta test for the game coming soon; we plan to have some coverage of the beta and an eventual full review of the final version. And I spent a few minutes with ORIGIN PC president and founder Kevin Wasielewski (a guest on Avault podcast #61 last January), who was showing off his company’s new gaming laptop, featuring the Intel Core i7 Extreme CPU and twin graphics cards in an SLI configuration. Dell teamed with Origin at the show to raffle off Origin’s laptop and Dell’s monolithic Maingear desktop PC for charity. Sure would be nice to win one, but with both being valued at more than $5,000 each, even the taxes the winner would have to pay would be daunting.

Also in the hardware department was a strange-looking but innovative gadget from Massachusetts-based Immerz, the KORFx (Kinetic Omnidirectional Resonance Fx). The device is basically an extension of the force-feedback motors found in console controllers. You drape the KORFx over your shoulders and connect a simple breakout box to your console or the sound card in your PC. Games with soundtracks that support the unit will activate the rumble motors in the collar, making you feel the impact of explosions and combat on your torso as well as in your hands. The KORFx is tentatively scheduled to be available for purchase in the fall with a retail price of $189.99, although the price could drop as the company obtains corporate sponsors and interest from game developers. I gave the device a test drive in a Left 4 Dead 2 match, and it performed as advertised, although the unit wasn’t flexible enough to rest flat. But I was informed that the device I was testing was merely a prototype; a one-size-fits-all version will be ready come launch day. I’m concerned that the price might be a daunting barrier of entry for all but the most hardcore gamer, but I suspect that, with some clever and effective marketing, the KORFx will find it’s own audience easily enough.

The highlight of the day was my visit to the 2K booth for an introduction to Sid Meier’s Civilization V and some time at the controls of Mafia II. Developer Firaxis has taken the already successful Civ series and added some useful tweaks, upgraded the visuals with a custom-made graphics engine, and given you the ability to build a society anywhere in a space of more than 6,000 years of human history. The user interface has been streamlined, ranged combat has been solidified, naval battles have been simplified and improved, and user mods can now be upgraded directly to Firaxis’s servers, allowing the entire Civ community to easily download and play them. The version that we saw at PAX was an alpha build, but you wouldn’t know it by how it looks and plays, although it was being played on an outrageously powerful PC designed specifically for this demo. But have no fear: the developers are working hard trying to improve scalability so that those of us without godlike rigs can still get a superior gameplay experience.

Part 2 of my time at the 2K booth was spent taking Mafia II for a spin. This was one of my games of the show last year at E3, mostly because of how gorgeous the city graphics were and how amazingly cinematic the story was. In my PAX demo, I had to steal a car and meet one of my partners in organized crime as he started selling bootleg cigarettes out of an old truck. After spending a few minutes getting used to the driving controls (which were admittedly very touchy), I managed to navigate through the crowded city streets and make my rendezvous. A rival gang arrived and attempted to shut us down, leading to some profanity-laced mayhem (the writers have pulled no punches with the salty adult dialogue in Mafia II, which is just as it should be). I had to bribe my way out of being arrested several times, and the demo ended just as I had gotten comfortable with the driving controls, but I was pleased to discover that the storytelling style that I had loved in the E3 demo was still there; you really do get the impression that you’re playing a part in an interactive movie. Another important part of the game is the music soundtrack, which includes 100 licensed tunes from the 1940s and ‘50s, used in much the same way that songs from the ‘20s were used in Fallout 3. There are also 50 types of vehicles in the game, from old jalopies to muscle cars, and 12 weapons, all of which your character can carry at the same time. Look for Mafia II on store shelves on August 24.

And that’s pretty much it for me and PAX East 2010. The show runs one more day, but since I’m driving back home and clean laundry is getting scarce, I need to get back tomorrow afternoon so that normalcy can return in time for the beginning of the work week. One of my biggest regrets about the show is not being able to attend any of the panel discussions. I had a very heavy appointment schedule, and once the show floor closed, everyone started drifting to the meeting rooms, making the lines incredibly long. But if you think you might want to attend the show next year, keep these things in mind:

Wear comfortable shoes. You will find yourself standing still for long stretches at PAX, mostly in insanely long lines. Also, the carpeting used by some of the booth builders is so thick it feels like you’re standing at the beach. Well-padded shoes will make the experience much more bearable.

Come with friends. Especially if you have mates who love Rock Band. There were two separate places where you and your buds could mount the stage, pick up the plastic instruments and jam. Chances are that you’ll find a captive but enthusiastic audience of folks waiting in line for one thing or another.

Buy your badges early. An estimated 70,000 badges were sold for PAX East, and they were all gone before the first day of the show. Add the show’s official website to your browser favorites and start checking it in January if you want to be assured admittance to next year’s event.

Bring a backpack or a canvas bag. There’s shwag everywhere in the building, all waiting for you to either buy or take for free. You’ll need somewhere to put it that will leave your hands free to hold controllers.

Book your accomodations now. PAX East is a show that is absolutely possible to totally see in one day, provided you’re not intent on attending lots of panels or playing in the various console and PC tournaments. But if you don’t live within a comfortable round trip of the venue, you’ll want to stretch out the experience to at least two days, and that will require hotel reservations. There are lots of rooms available within walking distance of the convention center, but they fill up fast, so unless you want to join me on the subway next year, make those reservations as soon as possible.

And so ends my very first PAX odyssey. It was a long, tiring, bad-on-the-feet experience, but it had lots of energy, lots of great new games to see and try, and an atmosphere geared towards the gamer instead of the media, which is the exact opposite of other industry events. If you have the stamina (and a fresh pair of Dr. Scholl’s air-cushion soles), it’s an experience that no serious gamer should miss.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments

My first day at PAX East 2010 started and ended with great things, sandwiched around an unfortunate crossing of signals, a mystery meeting room, some interesting new games for the Wii and the DS, an RPG sequel with some amazing production values, and a very creepy survival horror game. All of that, plus a vast sea of game-loving humanity taking up residence in the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

The day actually began for me 28 floors above the action in a hotel around the corner from the venue. Jamie Cheng, CEO of Vancouver-based Klei Entertainment, let me get some hands-on time with Shank, a side-scrolling action game that Cheng describes as “a cinematic brawler.” “We love the movies of Robert Rodriguez, and we also love games like Double Dragon,” Cheng explained, “and we felt that we could do something really special.” And from what I saw this morning, they’ve succeeded. Shank takes visual elements from movies such as Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and the “Kill Bill” films of Quentin Tarantino, dresses them up in a comic-book graphical style, then tops it all off with a playable character who can carry four weapons at one time, including twin hand cannons and a chainsaw. One of the most interesting parts of the game is that, unlike many side-scrollers, you’re not always going from the left edge of the screen to the right. Shank makes use of both the horizontal and vertical axes, allowing the action to move in both directions. Toss in some blood-soaked finishing moves (there’s no gore toggle, so an “M” rating is almost assured) and you have a bloody good time. I am a bit worried that the game will lack replayability, but the demo that I played was ridiculously fun. Shank is being published by Electronic Arts and is scheduled for a summer release. I’ll have more about Shank at E3 in June.

As luck would have it, my next appointment was scheduled an hour later in the same hotel. The lobby was awash with geekness. Kids gathered around tables in the lobby playing board games and card games such as Magic: The Gathering. A long table in the hotel lounge had been taken over by a gaggle of games journalists. There was even a nifty version of checkers being played on a tabletop PC running Microsoft Surface technology. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to make my connection with my contact, who was to show me the iPhone version of Fallen Earth, so it was finally time to brave the crowds in the convention center.

Attendance at the show for the entire weekend is rumored to approach 70,000 people, and when I arrived in the lobby, it seemed that all of them were there at the same time. The rope pathway that I described in yesterday’s blog was full. The end of the line stretched up the stairs leading to the exit, then did a U-turn around the railing in the staircase and back down into the lobby. Another enormous line built at the bottom of the escalators leading to the second floor, where the main exhibit hall is located; a staircase set aside for media and staff allowed me to avoid that particular queue.

The exhibit hall is where most of the action happens at PAX. Most of the gaming industry’s heavy hitters have booths there (2K Games, Rockstar, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Nintendo and others). There’s a section set aside for Boston-area indie developers looking to get their games noticed by the public. Some colleges that offer game-design curricula are represented as well. And PC hardware companies are not forgotten; Dell, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Antec and EVGA are in attendance showing off the latest and greatest in laptops, CPUs, cases and graphics cards.

My next stop was the Hudson Entertainment booth, where I was introduced to the company’s new and upcoming releases for consoles and the Nintendo DS. DecaSports is a collection of 10 athletics sims for the Wii and the DS. The list of included sports is rather eclectic, featuring rugby, sky diving, cheerleading (?), arm wrestling, and a volleyball/soccer hybrid called Sepak Takraw, a team sport that is apparently popular in the far east. The package was shown to me on the DS, so there were graphics and control-scheme limitations, but it does have a handy feature: you can play wirelessly with up to five of your friends, and only one of you needs to actually have the game card installed. Calling is a survival horror game for the Wii that includes elements of point-and-click PC adventures. You work your way through a scary mystery story from the points of view of several characters. Along the way you use the Wiimote to move a cursor around the screen, revealing hot spots that conceal important facts about the story. Military Madness: Nectaris has roots in the similarly titled TurboGrafx game from the early 1990s. It’s a turn-based, hex-based RPG in which you can play as either escaped prisoners on the moon or the force tasked with stopping them before they destroy the Earth. The XBLA and PSN versions of Military Madness are already available, while the Wiiware version releases on April 12. Last on my Hudson menu was Rooms, a game for the DS and the Wii that was designed by a South Korean teenager for the Independent Games Festival. It’s a sliding tile puzzle that tasks you with trying to manipulate rooms in a mansion so that your character can escape. You start with a four-room mansion, leading eventually to buildings with as many as 20 rooms that you have to slide back and forth. Rooms is currently available on both platforms.

I stayed a bit too long at Hudson’s booth, and I paid for it. My next stop was to be in a meeting room that none of the show volunteers (clearly identified by their bright red shirts with “Enforcer” printed on the back in large, ominous letters) could correctly locate. By the time I finally got good directions, I was late for my private, hands-on look at Deep Silver’s TV show adaptation, Prison Break: Conspiracy. Most of the original show’s actors provide voices for their characters in this adventure game, in which you play Tom Paxton, an undercover agent for a shadowy organization known as The Company, who has been ordered to make sure that brooding anti-hero Lincoln Burroughs is murdered in prison. You accomplish this by making alliances in the slammer and fulfilling the requests of your new friends. The demo that I played had me stealing rat poison and adding it to a character’s food, forcing him to be sent to the sickbay. A series of well planned button presses had my Paxton avoiding armed guards, picking locks, even fighting mentally unbalanced patients, all without being caught and sent back to his cell. Fans of the first season of the show will get a kick out of meeting Burroughs; his brilliant and extravagantly tattooed brother, Michael; and the rest of the series’ rogue’s gallery of characters. Prison Break: Conspiracy releases on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on March 30.

I also was given some hands-on time with Dementium II, a disturbing horror adventure for the DS from SouthPeak Games. You play a patient in a mental hospital who drifts in and out of a bloody dream world in which he’s attacked by zombie-like inmates and other enemies while trying to escape from captivity. These dreams become so vivid that you start to question which of the situations is the actual reality. The control scheme could tie some players’ hands in knots; you move with the DS’s D-pad, pan the camera around the rooms with the stylus, and attack enemies by pressing the left shoulder button. Dementium II is a game that you’ll want to play while wearing headphones; the music is creepy, and it provides warning when an enemy is near. Release date is April 20.

My final gaming appointment of the day was to see a demo of developer TopWare’s RPG sequel Two Worlds II, which began life as Two Worlds: The Temptation, the proposed second PC expansion of 2007’s Two Worlds. TopWare has created separate engines for the game for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in an effort to take advantage of each platform’s attributes. The hero of the first game is rescued from a year’s confinement in prison by four orcs, and together they battle the forces of the series’ main villain. The most impressive feature of the demo is the amazing level of detail found in the graphics. Lightning flashes through the openings in a castle, interior light sources cast accurate shadows on moving characters, and almost all of the in-game cutscenes are rendered using the game engine, making transitions almost seamless. Two Worlds II offers up to 40 hours of single-player content as well as online co-op and multiplayer modes, and DirectX10 graphics are included in the PC version.

One more treat remained in a long and interesting day. I was invited to attend a cocktail party thrown by 2K Games at a nearby restaurant. A good time was had by all, especially me; I had to cut my visit short or I wouldn’t have been in any shape to finally get this post done. But tomorrow is another day, which will include an hour in which the show floor will be open to media only, giving us a chance to check things out before the other attendees are admitted. I’ll be getting some time with Mafia II, Civilization V, Red Dead Redemption, Making History II, student game project The Devil’s Tuning Fork and the powerful new gaming laptop being built by Origin PC. I’ll also try to attend several of the panel discussions that are being held throughout the day. And with any luck, I’ll also be running into Chris Micieli, co-host of the Avault podcast.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | One comment

This morning I saddled up the four-wheeled pony and hit the road to Boston for the very first PAX East gaming festival. This show has been happening in Seattle for years, and has been described as E3 for the fans instead of the media. Last year’s west-coast event was also notable for the swine flu outbreak that happened there; hopefully I won’t be seeing too many folks wearing surgical masks at this show.

For those who might not know, PAX stands for Penny Arcade Expo (yes, I know that Expo begins with an “E”; somehow I suspect that PAE East would’ve been tougher to market). The show gives the fans the opportunity to check out the hottest upcoming games, attend dozens of panel discussions on a myriad of subjects, and basically do what they can’t do at E3 because they can’t get in (or so we’re told). This show also includes console and PC game tournaments, a PC LAN setup and console room where you can sit down and play as long as you like for free, and a keynote address by the hero of TV geekdom, Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”). The lines will be long and strong for that one.

First of all, you might be wondering why I’m driving to Beantown instead of flying or taking Amtrak. The answer, or course, is that I’m cheap. After crunching some numbers, I discovered that it would cost less in gas to drive than it would to buy train tickets from the outskirts of Philly to Boston. Flying is right out; I could be halfway to Massachusetts in the time it would take to get to the airport and fight my way through security. Plus, I save myself the embarrassment of displaying my less-than-olympian body to the screener running the full-body scanner. I’m doing that when I go to E3 in June; once a year is more than enough. You gotta keep them wanting more.

The plan was to leave Philly around 9 am. I expected the 330-mile trip to take about six hours, adding in time to empty the bladder and stretch the legs. This would allow me to miss the rush hour traffic at home and get to my hotel before the evening rush up there. What I didn’t anticipate was the brief time that my route would take me through Manhattan and the Bronx. Whoever it was who named the Cross Bronx Expressway was obviously mistaken; there’s no express involved, especially if you’re heading south. Traffic was backed up from the beginning of the expressway all the way back to the sign that says “Welcome to the New York Thruway: New England,” and that was at noon on a Thursday. I’m coming back this way on Sunday; hopefully all of those truck drivers are visiting the house of worship of their choice and are not clogging my route home.

And on the eighth day, God made the portable GPS receiver. And He looked down upon the happy drivers who weren’t getting hopelessly lost and wasting precious gasoline, and He saw that it was good. And the drivers rejoiced! As did I when my recently purchased Magellan RoadMate 1220 got me from Point A to Point B without a single missed turn. If I had been trying to read printed directions during this trip, I might still be out here on the road instead of in my nice, comfy hotel room typing this blog. Now if only Magellan would allow us to install the nifty voice pack that lets Yoda give you your directions (“Turn left in .5 miles you will, yes…”), all would be truly right with the world.

After lapping the hotel parking garage four times before finding a spot that wasn’t right next to a big, fat pillar, I checked in, dropped my stuff in my room and made a dry run from the hotel to the site of the festival, the Hynes Convention Center. Turns out that, in my aforementioned cheapness, I booked into the only hotel on PAX’s travel site that isn’t within walking distance of the venue. Armed with directions to the subway from the very helpful folks at the Holiday Inn Boston Brookline (check them out if you’re ever up here), I took the 10-minute trip to the nearest stop to the convention center and took advantage of the very nice early spring weather to get the lay of the land, especially the location of the cocktail party that publisher 2K is hosting on Friday night (score!). As I was walking down the streets filled with college kids out on runs or shilling for their favorite charities, I started to get a “Fringe” vibe; I half expected to turn the corner and see “BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS” painted on the side of one of the buildings.

The convention center is a huge, three-floored space that will be completely utilized by PAX East. The registration desk is located in an enormous empty room, save for a seemingly endless series of rope barriers; imagine the longest line you’ve ever seen at Disney World, then double it. I should’ve had my camera with me to take a shot of it while it was empty, since at 8 am on Friday it will be filled with hundreds of nerds and nerdlings waiting to be admitted to the show. Badge in hand, I found my way back to the subway — and had to let two full trains go by before I could board one back to the hotel. Forgot about rush hour. Won’t do that again.

By the way, the city of Boston is to be commended for the condition of its subway cars and stations. They are a virtual picnic ground compared to the musty, smelly, graffiti-covered tubes in New York City and Philadelphia.

Which brings me up to this moment. I’ll skip talking about the excellent dinner I had in the hotel restaurant, except to say that you can’t come to Boston and not have at least one bowl of New England clam chowder; that’s a duty that I’ve already happily dispatched. I’m hoping to post blogs after each day of the show, provided that I’m not too beat by the end of the day; as you can see by my mugshot above, I’m not in what you’d call tip-top shape. I have a number of appointments scheduled with game developers and PC hardware vendors. Highlights include private demos of Mafia II and Sid Meier’s Civilization V, developer Muzzy Lane’s wartime RTS Making History II (which I previewed at GameX last fall), an iPhone version of MMO Fallen Earth, SouthPeak’s Dementium II and Prison Break: The Conspiracy (based on the Fox TV series), and a twisted side-scrolling cartoon-style shooter called Shank from developer Klei. I’ll also be checking out Origin PC’s new gaming hardware and a six-core CPU being demoed by AMD. And maybe some hands-on time with Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption and Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The biggest problem on the horizon: my media badge doesn’t let me skip the lines at the show. Should’ve brought my DSi…

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

Always on the lookout for game deals, yesterday I joined the flock of vultures picking on the festering carcass of my local Hollywood Video store. I was greeted by a huge sign: “Store Closing! Everything Must Go!” Knowing that they rent (or used to rent) video games, I decided to see what bits of gaming flesh might be left on the store’s bones after being picked clean by the local predators.

To my surprise, aside from the years-old stuff that nobody wanted to play (even when it was new), I found a fairly good assortment of new Xbox 360 and PS3 games that hadn’t yet been snapped up. Notable in their absence were any Wii games; either they were the first to go, the store owners are hiding them, or they’re keeping them for themselves. Two items caught my eye: Killzone 2 and The Saboteur, both for the PS3. They were displayed in the New Release section and did not have price tags attached. This puzzled me, since by almost any reasonable definition of “New Release,” Killzone 2 should’ve been off that list six months ago, having been released in February 2009. So, I went to the sales counter to inquire, and was told by the teenage goth with studs in his chin that, if there’s no price tag, they’re not for sale (perhaps the huge sign in the store window lied to me when it said “Everything Must Go”?). “Come back in five or six days,” the counterwaif told me, while not even bothering to look up from what he was doing.

This got me thinking about the ongoing controversy regarding the sale of used games. Those who buy them say that they have no problem playing games that someone else has already played, they’re willing to take the risk that their purchases might be damaged beyond use, and getting them at a discount is always a good thing. Those who don’t buy them say that to do so would be to deny the developers their fair share of the fruits of their labors.

I come down firmly on the side of the buyers, and I’ll tell you why.

Ninety-nine percent of all the games sold in a box are sold by the publishers to the GameStops and Wal-Marts of the world at wholesale dealer price. The retailers tack on the balance of the MSRP (usually $50 to $60) and claim a significant chunk of that as the price of doing business. Even at dealer price, that’s a considerable chunk of change (how many hundreds of thousands of copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 were sold at full price?). So all of you who think that buying used games is keeping cash out of the hands of the talented folks who make them can rest easy; I think it unlikely that you’ll see the Bioware doctors or Will Wright or Cliff Bleszinski or Randy Pitchford in line at some dingy LA soup kitchen looking for handouts in the near future. Hell, the original Doom was released as shareware in 1993, but nobody has seen John Carmack or John Romero trading in their Carreras for Corollas (no, I don’t know what cars they drove, but it makes a nice alliteration, right?).

I’d prefer to own virgin game disks, ones that I touch for the very first time. But I don’t have the kind of disposable income required to make those purchases with any real regularity, so I will occasionally buy a used game from a reputable retailer, provided that a mechanism is in place that will allow me to return it if it’s defective. And so far, every used game that I’ve purchased has worked perfectly (knock wood). After all, it’s in the store’s best interest to make sure that the used games they sell are not scratched or warped or otherwise unplayable. If word got around that your local GameStop sold defective games, how long would it be before they too would have the huge “Everything Must Go!” sign in their window as well? True, sometimes you don’t get the luxury of the original packaging or even an instruction manual. But who really cares about the box, as long as the game’s title is on the spine so that you can find it on your bookshelf? And if I were to ask you to raise your hands if you actually read your game manuals, I’d bet that there’d be very few raised hands in the room.

If I have any problem at all with the used-game market, it’s with the prices that are being demanded by the retailers. A few months ago I went into one of my local GameStop stores (they seem to be springing up like weeds around here; there are two in the local mall alone, one of them one floor above the other) in search of a copy of Rock Band 2; my boss’s teenage daughter talked me into it, and she’s one person with whom you don’t argue. I found a copy in the used collection for $19.99, and I was just about to pick it up and buy it when I found a brand-new copy for the exact same price, mere yards away on the same wall. Why on earth, I asked myself, would someone buy a used copy of a game when you could have a factory-sealed copy for the same price? I’m sure there’s some kind of top-secret depreciation schedule that applies to things like this, and the naïve part of me says that the used-game market gives the store the financial flexibility to buy more copies of the new games, which then become part of the used collection, thus completing the retail circle of life.

But in the end, it boils down to one thing: Greed. Gordon Gekko was right; greed is good. As long as there are people out there who would consider buying a used game for a new-game price, there will be store owners getting rich at our expense. The anti-used games loyalists have the right idea, but they’re targeting the wrong bad guys. Instead of railing against the people who buy them, they should be sharpening their pitchforks and marching on the corporate headquarters of the companies that try to take advantage of the consumer to line their own pockets.

Or better still, just bypass the stores and buy your games from Steam or the Xbox Live Marketplace or the Playstation Network. Each one of these has some amazing bargains for you, and you don’t have to worry about scratched disks or salespeople who risk being fired if they don’t convince you to pre-order something that doesn’t release until the next decade (how many of you actually pre-paid for your copy of Duke Nukem Forever? Don’t be embarrassed; we all make mistakes). Bottom line: there’s nothing wrong with buying a used game. But, like everything else in life, caveat emptor.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

For much of the gaming industry, 2009 really sucked. Those who had proclaimed the games business to be recession-proof soon discovered how wrong they were; game and hardware sales sagged compared to the strong numbers of 2008. Several development houses were shuttered, including Ensemble, who had barely shipped Halo Wars before they closed, and Grin, who produced Terminator: Salvation, Bionic Commando and Wanted: Weapons of Fate in the space of five months before the hammer came down. The enthusiast press was similarly affected, with journalistic stalwarts IGN and GameSpot suffering major employee purges.

And there were the occasional scandals. Valve raised the hackles of the Left 4 Dead loyalists by releasing Left 4 Dead 2 as a stand-alone, full-priced product instead of a free-to-download expansion pack, despite a celebrated Internet petition calling for the contrary. Infinity Ward ticked off their PC customers by not offering dedicated-server support for the PC multiplayer component of Modern Warfare 2, and almost everybody by including a controversial (and completely skippable) scene in the same game about a terrorist massacre in a Russian airport. And not to be left behind, Bioware once again had the temerity to include adult themes other than blood-drenching violence in Dragon Age: Origins; you’d have thought the right-wing crapstorm raised by the omnisexual hookups in Mass Effect would’ve still been in their heads, right?

But, amongst all of 2009′s gloom and doom, several games rose up and gave us all something to savor. By the time 2009 folds up its tent and makes way for the promise of 2010, this year I will have reviewed more than 30 games on four platforms (I still haven’t succumbed to the siren call of the Wii, and the PSPGo is not in my future until the purchase price becomes reasonable). Of those games, four are my finalists for Game of the Year, twice as many as there are on my Coaster of the Year list (Real Deal Slots Adventure and Gobliiins 4; less said about them, the better). And where, you might ask, are games such as Modern Warfare 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum on this list? Sadly, I didn’t have time to play them. But I will. One day.

And the nominees are:

Peggle Deluxe (Xbox 360)

Easily the most addictive, most enjoyable casual game of the year. And, not coincidentally, also the simplest; all you have to do is hit one button and watch what happens (with perhaps a little interaction from time to time). But you’d have to be a stronger person than I to play a round or two and move on; the game just grabs you and refuses to let you go. And what’s even greater, you can play Peggle Deluxe on practically every platform there is. You can even play it while playing World of Warcraft, of all things. An obsessive-compulsive’s dream.

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan (PC)

The highest point of developer Telltale’s five-chapter series starring one of the most beloved characters in gaming history, Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate. Our hero and his reluctant companion (and biggest fan), the dread pirate huntress Morgan LeFlay (a brilliantly conceived new character to the venerable comedy point-and-click series), try to find a way out of the gullet of a lovelorn giant manatee while searching for a legendary sponge that can cure a pirate pox unleashed by Threepwood during his battles with the demon pirate LeChuck (phew, that’s a mouthful). The pace was perfect, the puzzles were just perplexing enough to be challenging without being infuriating, and the series’ trademark wit was there in full force. The series slipped a bit towards the end, but I look forward to the continuing adventures of Guybrush and company.

Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox 360)

This year was a banner one for the music game. Band-centric editions of Guitar Hero for supergroups Metallica and Van Halen, not to mention The Beatles: Rock Band, plus Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and Band Hero. There was LEGO Rock Band for the junior rockers in the audience, and the MCs in the house got an outlet all their own in DJ Hero. But Guitar Hero 5 was the jewel in the 2009 music-game crown, featuring an 80+ song setlist filled with great tunes in various genres, a true drop-in/drop-out party mode that lets everybody play with everyone as soon as the game boots up, and an online multiplayer suite that jettisoned the bad from previous iterations and improved on the good. You can even insert your Xbox Live avatar into the game as your playable rocker. Righteous, dude!

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

The holy grail of modern gaming is photorealism, graphics of such quality that, if you don’t see the controllers, you’re not sure if you’re watching a movie or a game. This particular grail has yet to be found, but developer Naughty Dog has made some serious strides towards it with 2007′s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and this year’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Both of these games are visual feasts of amazing detail, but they also have great stories, likeable and endearing characters voiced by excellent actors, and the perfect combination of platforming and combat. And to add even more to the menu, Uncharted 2 also includes a wide array of online multiplayer modes, something that its predecessor lacked. Now that the price of the PS3 hardware has finally come down, shooter fans who’ve been on the fence about Sony’s console can finally jump off. And when they do, Uncharted 2 should be the first thing on their shopping lists.

And the winner is:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, for its attention to detail, its addictiveness that rivals that found in the best casual games, and for the illusion it generates that makes you feel like you’re playing a movie instead of a game. There might be better shooters out there, but nowhere is there a better overall package. And these days, the more you can get for your hard-earned buck, the better off you are.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments

How much are you willing to spend for a 3D version of Duck Hunt? Developer Bioware is hoping that your answer is 400 Microsoft points (that’s $5 in real American greenbacks) with the release of Pinnacle Station, the second DLC pack for their excellent (but 2-year-old) space opera Mass Effect. Eighteen months after the launch of the first expansion, Bring Down the Sky, which added a brief but interesting 90 minutes to the original game, Bioware has given us the equivalent of a trip to the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” holodeck to keep us busy until the early 2010 release of the full-blown sequel.

After Pinnacle is installed, you start up the main game, take the bridge of the Normandy and pilot the ship to Pinnacle Station, a training facility in which you and your squadmates attempt to take first place on the leaderboards of eight simulations, programmed by a smart-aleck alien to whom you must report to begin. You choose one of four combat modes (Time Trial, Capture, Survival or Hunt), then one of two venues. You also get to take two comrades with you into the simulator. No matter which mode you choose, the object is basically the same: kill as many enemies as possible before the simulation ends.

In Time Trial, you have to seek out and eliminate all enemies as fast as possible. Capture is a timed variation on the capture-the-flag theme in which you must find a glowing post somewhere on the map, get in close proximity to it and defend it until it turns blue, then move on to the next one until you’ve captured them all. Survival mode throws waves of aliens at your squad and challenges you to stay alive as long as possible. And in Hunt, you add time to a countdown timer for every enemy you slay; your object is to kill often enough to keep the clock running.

It had been quite awhile since the last time I booted up Mass Effect, so I was afraid that I was going to have to relearn the game’s myriad controls to play the new expansion. Turns out, all I really needed was WASD and the left mouse button, since the combat-centric Pinnacle only requires you to aim and circle-strafe until your objectives are completed. Experienced shooter players will finish this add-on in less than two hours, with a good chunk of that time spent outside of the simulation having the same conversation over and over with the techie running the show. There are also a few bugs that didn’t get squashed, one of which crashes the game to your PC desktop if you have your graphics options set too high.

I’m not sure why Bioware created Pinnacle Station, other than to make a quick $5 from those of us who just can’t wait for Mass Effect 2. Pinnacle adds nothing to the experience of the original game (you might level up your character once during play, but it won’t help you much). If you haven’t bought Pinnacle Station yet, then don’t. Your time would be better spent replaying Mass Effect so that you’ll have a maxed-out character when the sequel is finally released. But if you’ve got a twitch that won’t go away and a fiver burning a hole in your pocket, then have at it. Bioware thanks you — all the way to the bank.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | No comment(s)

E3 2009 closed with our busiest day of the show, including some more private demos, a sampling of the local cuisine, and only one minor setback, for which I have myself to blame.

Any of you who have read my reviews know that, in the past year, the majority of games that I have reviewed have been point-and-click adventures. Most of these have been published by Dreamcatcher Interactive, with whose representative was our first appointment on Thursday. One of Dreamcatcher’s frequent collaborators is JoWood, with whom they were sharing an E3 meeting room, and it was their RPG sequel Arcania: A Gothic Tale that kicked off our day. The Gothic series has had most of its popularity in Europe, but JoWood is bringing its latest installment to North America for a simultaneous PC/Xbox 360/PS3 launch this winter. In Arcania, you play as a hero who has a score to settle with the hero from the previous game, a king who has burned down your village as part of his seemingly unquenchable thirst for power. The developer has attempted to make this title more accessible to the non-European gamer, adding mini maps and quest tracking to the game. You play in a three-island sandbox featuring 300 quests (approximately 180 of them story-related missions) that can make gameplay last up to 80 hours.

If you’re looking for old-school, unadulterated bloody mayhem, the next game we saw is definitely for you. Painkiller: Resurrection, the sequel to 2004′s Painkiller, in which you had to find, fight and destroy Lucifer’s generals (and later Beelzebub himself) to escape Purgatory and reunite with your true love in Heaven. No details were released concerning the plot of Resurrection, but its 15-level structure is being augmented with a co-op mode, 32-player multiplayer and Havoc physics. You won’t have to own the original to play the sequel, and with a tentative price of $19.99, you won’t have to take out a loan to enjoy what looks like a no-nonsense shooter in the classic Quake/Doom mold.

We couldn’t leave the Dreamcatcher room without a look at some adventure games, but these were created for the Nintendo DS instead of for the PC. In Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, you assume the role of Christie’s classic detective Hercule Poirot (who I’m told will have an authentic Belgian accent, so you purists can put down your poison pens now, thank you) as you find clues, question suspects and solve puzzles in pursuit of a vile evildoer. In Safecracker (a game that originally appeared for the PC and the Wii), you have to unlock the safes in a three-story mansion to find the will of the home’s deceased owner. And in The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft, you guide the sibling crime solvers in a 20-hour quest to find stolen cash and the villains who pilfered it. Finishing off our time with Dreamcatcher was a yoga workout program for the Wii that helps you turn your body into 49 different pretzel shapes. I could hear my old bones screaming in pain just watching it.

Switching gears, the powerhouse games kept on coming at the Ubisoft booth as Turks and I had private demos of Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. Creed 2 plays just like the original, only with the action set in 15th-century Italy, and your character seeking revenge on a powerful government figure. In Conviction, you play a now unencumbered-by-law Sam Fisher in a journey from Malta to Washington, D.C., to unlock the mystery of his daughter’s murder. Conviction features some interesting new variations on the Splinter Cell theme and is bound to be one of the best-selling games next fall. Unless, of course, you only own a PS3, in which case you’ll have to concentrate on Assassin’s Creed 2, which will release for Sony’s console, plus the Xbox 360 and the PC, in time for Christmas.

Children’s gaming was also well represented at E3. The Harvest Moon series of farm and commerce sims has been around for more than 10 years, featuring games for the original Gameboy all the way to the current crop of consoles and hand-helds. Many new Harvest Moon titles were on display at the booth of Japanese developer Natsume, one being My Little Shop, in which you run a neighborhood store, playing minigames to serve your customers and earning money that you can spend at other stores to stock up on supplies. It’s a cute, anime-influenced game for young Wii-players. Reel Fishing: Angler’s Dream has you attaching your Wiimote to a fishing-pole peripheral, but technology problems prevented me from trying out my casting skills. And in Sunshine Islands, you interact and cooperate with animals and magical creatures on 10 islands on your DS.

My final Sega demo was Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics, which I suppose was inevitable considering the creation of its Summer Olympics cousin. Actually, the demo was highlighted not so much by the game itself, but by the people presenting it. The first part of the demo was being shown on the DS, which was played by someone who seemed to have very little experience with the game; several times during the demo, the Japanese designer hosting the presentation stopped to laugh at what was happening on the screen, which didn’t cover our American player in glory. When the demo switched to the Wii version, we were treated to the very strange sight of Mario on figure skates, executing perfect toe loops, double axles and death spirals, accompanied by electronic Tchaikovsky. The designers refused to say how many events would be included in either version of the game, but they did acknowledge that some of the event locations in the Wii version were modeled after the real venues to be used in the 2010 Vancouver Games.

The last appointment that Turks and I had together was at the Warner Bros booth. After a quick peek at Lego Rock Band (featuring the week’s 1,436th performance of “The Final Countdown” and one particularly painful attempt by an adult male to sing lead vocals on the Jackson 5′s “ABC”), we shuffled off quickly to the Batman: Arkham Asylum display, where Turks served as an able demonstrator while one of the game’s designers talked me through the details. Somehow, all of the baddies whom the Caped Crusader has incarcerated in his career have escaped from their cells at Arkham Asylum and have taken over the place, led by none other than the Joker. Your job is to progress from floor to floor with nothing but your fists, your feet and your trusty batarang in an attempt to find the Joker and put an end to his reign of terror. Arkham Asylum combines third-person fighting action with a stealth element that makes each part of the game a little bit different than the one before. Combined with its dark, detailed backgrounds, the voice talents of the actors from the animated TV series and the inclusion of a large collection of classic bat-villains, it’s bound to be a successful kickoff to the fall season (release date: Aug. 25).

I had time for two other demos at the Warner booth before I had to move on. Lord of the Rings: Aragon’s Quest is a surprisingly bloodless fantasy RPG following Tolkien’s Fellowship in its quest to destroy the One Ring. It’s one of the few Wii-based adventures that’s not on rails, which is a good thing, but the graphics have that washed-out look typical of Wii games, so we’ll have to wait and see if this is addressed before the game launches (date unspecified). An impressive crop of Warner DS games at the show included Lego Battles, a top-down RTS featuring six campaigns, 90 levels and 85 characters. The single-player levels can be completed in five to 15 minutes, which is great for those who play their DS’s on the train or at the laundromat, while multiplayer matches could last as long as a half-hour. Lego Battles will be available June 9.

A happy combination of high-level meetings and my own patience netted me a one-on-one demo with one of the designers of Heroes of Telara, an ambitious new MMORPG from Trion, which has taken the traditional fantasy MMO playbook and added some intriguing wrinkles. They have made drastic changes to how their servers generate the game, keeping all of the math calculations on the servers and shifting all of the art assets to the client. This enables Telara to look much richer and more detailed without impacting the smoothness of the gameplay. They’ve also changed the boundaries of character creation, allowing your character to be aligned with all available classes at the same time. So, if you’re playing a spellcaster and a warrior is needed to complete a quest, you can change your character to a warrior with the touch of a mouse button, smite whatever foes you need to smite, and then change back to the magician or any other class for which he has attributes. Also, in most MMOs, quests reset once you’ve completed them so that other players can finish them as well, but in Telara, if you go back to the site of a finished quest, you won’t find the same scenario being played out again. The version I saw was running on a practically godlike PC, but I’m told that the final version will scale down nicely for those with less Olympian rigs. I look for exciting things from this game. It might not be the oft-sought WoW-killer, but it brings some new things to the table. Look for an open beta this fall and a 2010 release.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Finally! A day goes by here in sunny LA without a major setback. That left us with an entire day to concentrate on nothing except the interesting and exciting new games on display at E3.

Fortunately, the problem in question cropped up almost immediately. We were supposed to have a private demo of Huxley; the PC-based MMO-shooter hybrid that has been in development for it seems like forever. While I was furiously tapping away on yesterday’s blog entry in the convention center media lounge, Turks made the trek to the booth where we were supposed to be seeing the game. As I was finishing up and getting ready to join him, he found me and said that our names were not on the list for entry into the demo room. This was very disturbing, especially since the Huxley appointment was one of the first ones we accepted when appointments started rolling in. If I had had the presence of mind to print out all of those confirmation emails, we wouldn’t have had this problem, but I’ll know better next year.

Since I had a little unexpected time on my hands, I decided to upload the pictures I took yesterday to accompany the blog, then catch up on my rapidly mounting pile of unanswered email. The layout of the show has the media center at the extreme opposite end of the building from our first real appointment, so I hired a Sherpa, put on my hiking boots and headed off to meet Turks. Pepsi has a Rock Band stage set up in one of the convention center lobbies, and since I arrived there a few minutes before the show floor was to open, I decided to stop and check out the action. And what I found greatly disappointed me. In a room that’s supposed to be filled with industry professionals, I found it hard to believe that a presumably self-respecting attendee would have the courage to stand on the stage and play Rock Band songs on Easy difficulty. I personally have never played anything at a difficulty setting higher than Medium, but not even I would take the chance of embarrassing myself in front of my peers by playing on Easy.

Once the doors opened, I fought through the teeming masses to our first appointment: the Gamersfirst.com booth. What we found there was pleasantly surprising. We saw two games (once the Gamersfirst folks managed to solve a serious networking problem): the multiplayer deathmatch game Parabellum and the post-apocalyptic Formula One racing game Victory. What was most interesting about them both was not the games themselves, but their price points: totally free to play. All you have to do is download their respective clients, create your accounts and start playing. In Parabellum you can use real-world money to buy in-game upgrades for your characters, but these items aren’t necessary for you to enjoy the game. I suspect that their respective developers will end up making money through in-game advertising, although this scheme wasn’t mentioned by our hosts. It’s nice that someone is finally creating quality games for gamers on budgets.

The day also featured demos of two new games from Sega: Bayonetta and Alpha Protocol. Bayonetta is a third-person fantasy fighter starring an imposing woman in black, high-heeled boots, librarian glasses, pistols attached to both ankles and the longest hair west of Rapunzel (more details can be found in my breakdown of the Sega preview event last spring). Alpha Protocol borrows heavily from Mass Effect in its conversation and character-upgrade systems while leading players through a MMO spy story. More Sega games are on tap for tomorrow as we check out Aliens vs. Predator (postponed from Tuesday because we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the Bethesda booth soon enough to make the long journey back to the Sega meeting room) and Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics.

Not to be outdone was Capcom, which had two major sequels and a new sci-fi shooter on display. Lost Planet 2 shifts the focus from the original game’s single-player bug hunt to two-player co-op. Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles for the Wii continues the current trend of turning shooting games into on-rails shooting games for the Nintendo console. And then there was Dark Void, which looks really good but plays oddly; neither Turks nor I could figure out how to play the demo, and there wasn’t a Capcom minion in sight, which was strange considering we were standing in the middle of their modestly sized booth.

The centerpiece of our day was our three hours in Electronic Arts’ massive floor show. We had private demos of games such as FIFA 10 (a soccer sim returning to E3 after a prolonged absence), Dragon Age: Origins (a fantasy RPG that does indeed have dragons in it, despite opinions to the contrary), Dante’s Inferno (a third-person hack-and-slasher based on the first part of the ancient epic poem that had more buzz outside the convention center than it did inside, with protesters lined up on the sidewalk shouting slogans such as “Only God can send someone to Hell”) and Army of Two: The 40th Day (a co-op-only shooter that takes place during a natural disaster in the Far East). The big gun, however, was Mass Effect 2 and the revelation that no, Commander Shepherd from the first game is NOT dead, even though early trailers for the sequel suggested that he might’ve kicked the bucket in the time between games.

And, since I can’t seem to pass up any opportunity to pick up and play plastic guitars, I finished my day by playing two songs in Lego Rock Band. Unfortunately, there were only two of the dozen or so available songs that I recognized, and one of them (“The Final Countdown”) had been played so often during the day that one of the reps working in the area could be heard expressing her disdain for the song. At least I had the decency to play it at Medium difficulty…

And so ended our penultimate day at E3 2009. We’re shooting for a crisis-free day tomorrow as we visit the Warner Bros and Ubisoft booths for more game demos, and we get some hands-on time with Rock Band: Beatles.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | No comment(s)

A day filled with lots of great games and more personal disasters. It seems as if we’re cursed; practically everything short of the loss of life or limb has happened to Turks and I on this trip, but so far it’s been totally worth it.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. After Tuesday’s show, we headed back to our alternate hotel to pick up our baggage and return to our original digs. The room is much more spacious than the shoebox we lived in for one night on Monday, but there was one significant problem: the free wireless Internet connection that we were supposed to enjoy was overwhelmed with users, so neither of us could successfully connect (which is why our podcast episode didn’t get uploaded until this morning and also why I’m typing up this blog post in the Convention media center instead of last night in the room). Also, there was another bit of drama that turned out to be less trouble than I expected. There’s a complimentary shuttle service provided by the convention that transports show attendees to our hotels. To prove that we’re entitled to this service, the hotels are supposed to give us colored wrist bands that indicate which of the seven bus routes we’re supposed to use. Our alternate hotel was more than happy to provide us with the wrist bands (even though we weren’t originally supposed to be there), but the folks at our original hotel refused to give them to us (the hotels aren’t on the same bus routes) because we didn’t book our reservations through the official E3 travel site. However, she was happy to tell me that we could purchase a wrist band at the convention — for $75 apiece. Now, normally I’m all about truth and justice, law and order, etc., but so much has happened this week that I have had enough, so we got on the shuttle this morning anyway, and as I suspected, the driver made no attempt to check our wrists. In fact, he was even willing to take non-attendees along with us for free. Finally, a break…

And one quick aside: someone needs to tell pro gamer Fatality that his branded keyboard sucks!!!

Now onto happier things. The day started with the Nintendo press conference, which attracted so many people that they had to send the overflow from the original site to the Nokia Theatre (just down the street from the Convention Center). You can check out our first podcast episode for details, but here’s the Readers Digest version. Their big announcements were a new version of Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, Wii Sports Resort (featuring new Wii Sports games such as table tennis, basketball and skydiving, including Wii Motion Plus support), lots of new titles for the DS and the DSi (including a few that make creative use of the DSi’s built-in cameras), Super Mario Galaxy 2 and, perhaps most eagerly anticipated by the attendees, Metroid: Other M.

We had planned to attend the Sony press conference, but it was being held three miles up the street at the Shrine Auditorium, and we had an appointment at the Activision booth at noon, so we had to pass that one up (it was a shame; I would’ve loved to have seen the Shrine). It turns out that all of these booth appointments amount to nothing more than a trip to the head of the lines for continuous private demos of the booth host’s featured games. As I type this we’re approaching the time for one of these very appointments, so here’s a quick look at the games of which we got a close look: Ultimate Alliance 2, Singularity and Wolfenstein (Activision), Bioshock 2 and Borderlands (2K Games), Brink and Rogue Warrior (Bethesda), and Homefront (THQ). Details on these can be found on our podcast, and I’ll try to add a few thoughts in a later blog post.

And, last but not least, was the Bethesda cocktail party held at a country-western-themed restaurant last night. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard thoroughly lubricated game journalists singing karaoke.

Until next time…

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments

And so it has begun. Turks and I have finally arrived in Los Angeles for E3 2009. But so far it’s been more tragedy than triumph.

Our tribulations began early. My airport shuttle was supposed to arrive at 6 am, but didn’t finally materialize until 6:15. The driver decided to make up for lost time by averaging about 80 mph in a hotel van on one of the busiest interstate highways in my area; after leaving 15 minutes late, I arrived at the airport 15 minutes early.

One other thing that I have learned about air travel since 9/11: if you’ve got a common last name, the government assumes that you’re a terrorist. Because I am a member of the fine and ancient clan Smith, US Airways denied me the opportunity to check in on the Internet or use the airport kiosks to print my boarding pass. A very pleasant and helpful lady at the ticket counter had to enter my driver’s license number in her computer to prove that I am really me.

Meanwhile in Charlotte, Turks was having troubles of his own. Although his flight to Dallas and his connecting flight to LA were considerably more plush than mine (note to self: fly American next year), the final leg of his trip departed an hour late. Once Turks arrived, we discovered that the American Airlines terminal was on the other side of the sprawling LAX complex from the US Airways terminal, and since I had the voucher that provided us with our ride to our hotel, I had to board the airport bus to the other terminal. But on an upbeat note, I did get to ride in a natural gas-fueled vehicle; who says I’m not thinking green?

Anyway, it took several laps around the airport before the SuperShuttle van was filled to capacity, and we were finally on the way to the hotel. By this point we had missed the Electronic Arts press conference, which we both agreed was fine, considering that we have three hours of appointments with EA on Wednesday on the show floor and it wasn’t likely that they’d say anything at the conference that we wouldn’t hear later on. But when we arrived at the hotel, we were told that, despite a room reservation that was made two months in advance, our room would not be available until Tuesday night. All was not lost, however; the hotel set us up at a local competitor for Monday night, telling us that we’d be welcomed with open arms on Tuesday. This, of course, means that we’re going to have to check out Tuesday morning, stash our belongings until the end of the day’s E3 festivities, retrieve our bags and move back to our original digs. Oh, and we have to do all of this in time to catch a cab to the Bethesda cocktail party on Sunset Boulevard Tuesday night.

Despite all of this sturm und drang, we actually did manage to get some work done. A brisk six-block walk though the hispanic heart of downtown LA led us to the Los Angeles Theatre, an ancient art-deco movie palace that was playing host to Ubisoft’s E3 press conference. Hosted by TV comedian Joe McHale (The Soup), the briefing featured two hours of stars, French accents and game trailers. It took McHale, various Ubisoft bigwigs and Titanic director James Cameron 35 minutes to finally show us some game footage, but not before they detailed their cooperative efforts concerning Cameron’s upcoming 3D sci-fi epic Avatar and its companion game (platform not announced). Cameron believes that “games shouldn’t be slaves to the movies, but they should have their own stories.” He backed that up with the Avatar game, which he promises will contain no movie spoilers. Cameron also described Avatar the game as the first “stereoscopic 3D game.” I assume that means that we’ll be playing while wearing 3D glasses, which must make all of gamedom’s geeks uncontrollably wet themselves in anticipation. We’ll know more later on in the week, when we’ll get some hands-on time with an early build.

The first actual game footage on display was for Red Steel 2 for the Nintendo Wii. This Wii Motion Plus-enabled first-person hack-and-slash features a red-cloaked hero with a nasty sword battling legions of black-cloaked baddies with equally nasty swords. After the obligatory trailer, we were shown a live demo in which our crimson-clad hero was dragged from the back of a motorcycle through what seemed to be the famous dry river bed known as the Los Angeles River. This was followed by a look at a boss battle featuring a character only known as “The Heavy,” who is really nothing more than a giant version of the other villains, only wielding a huge cudgel instead of a sword. It was exciting and it was colorful, but it was also strangely bloodless, considering the violent nature of the game.

Without doubt, the most embarrassing part of the evening was when legendary soccer great Pele came on stage to introduce a trailer for Academy of Champions Football, a cartoon-style soccer game featuring star players from the past versus a team of unnamed villains. Pele, whose unfamiliarity with the English language prompted the help of an interpreter, spent his time on stage talking about his work with the world’s children while practically ignoring the game he was there to discuss.

But there were also games that had the packed house all a-twitter. Superspy Sam Fisher returns in Splinter Cell:Conviction (Xbox 360, PC), in which Fisher throws out the rule book in his search for the assassin who killed his daughter. One of the most distinctive things about the demo we were shown is that game objectives are projected onto the backgrounds of the scenes, making it practically impossible for you to get lost. Ubisoft continues it’s successful line of games designed for tween girls with new installments in the Imagine&lt and Petz series, and adds a new franchise called Style Lab for the Nintendo Dsi. Style Lab allows you to use the DSi camera to take a picture of yourself, then use it in the game. In a jewelry-based Style Lab game, you design a piece of jewelry and upload your design to a website, after which you’ll be able to buy the actual piece that you’ve created. On the somewhat creepy side there’s Your Shape, a fitness game for the Wii that threatens to break the barrier between game and gamer. A camera (sold with the game) scans your body, then the game asks you what part of your physique you’d like to improve. The software then designs a workout regimen to help you fix what you think is broken, and it even keeps an eye on you to make sure you’re following its instructions.

Winding up the show was Rabbids Go Home, in which you help the manic bunnies steal everything that isn’t bolted down and toss it all in a pile that’s supposed to reach to the moon, which the Rabbids believe is their true home. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up gives you the chance to play as any of the characters in the now-25-year-old cartoon series in a one-one-one fighting game. And, last but not least, Assassins Creed 2, which moves the series from the desert sands to 15th-century Italy.

And that was just the first day. And the show doors haven’t even opened yet…

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | One comment

As I type this, I’m less than one week away from leavin’ on a jet plane to Los Angeles for my first Electronic Entertainment Expo. Podcast host Turks and I will be arriving at LAX at almost exactly the same time (if all goes well; how’s that for good planning!) and checking into our hotel, which will be E3 Central for our coverage of the biggest show in gaming. I’ll be posting my impressions of the show every night here on Avault, but here’s a look at the hoops Turks and I had to jump through just to get invited.

Flashback to early April. Registration for E3 has finally begun. Because E3 is a trade show, only industry professionals and accredited members of the media are allowed to attend. This meant that Turks and I had to submit a series of documents that not only proved that we are who we say we are, but also that we are legitimate members of the gaming press. This meant photocopying this, scanning that, then attaching them all to an official application for credentials. The E3 registration site said that it would take about a week for our documents to be scrutinized and an official approval to be sent.

Now the hard part: transportation and lodging. Once we received notification that our applications were accepted (it only took two days, thankfully), Turks and I went about the tricky task of arranging flights from our respective home bases (he in the Carolinas, me in Pennsylvania). Originally we had planned to meet up in Dallas and take the same connecting flight to LA, but by the time our show badges were confirmed, those flights became unavailable. So, on to Plan B: we’d try to find flights that would put us at LAX as close to the same time as possible. This, as it turned out, was much easier than Plan A, the difference being that, while Turks would still be boarding a connecting flight, I’d be going non-stop from Philly to LA. Ground transportation was a breeze by comparison; Priceline offered us an add-on to my plane reservations for transport by van from LAX to our hotel, and vice versa at the end of the week.

But then there was the hotel. E3′s official website had listings for a number of hotels close to the LA Convention Center. Free wireless Internet connectivity was a must, which eliminated most of the possible hotels. We also wanted to get a place as close to the venue as possible. And then there was the cost; we’re both on a budget, so frugality was the order of the day. In the end, I’m glad that, after 30 years with a driver’s license, I finally sprang for a AAA membership; it got us a nice hotel discount.

So, we’ve got our credentials confirmed, our flights and hotels booked and our ground transportation arranged. What followed was both enlightening and surprising, at least to me. I haven’t been on a plane since 1993, so I was unaware of the new regulations regarding air travel in the post-9/11 era. According to the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), I’m not allowed to wear gel-filled shoe inserts on a plane. Any liquid items such as shampoo, after shave or toothpaste must in containers holding four ounces or less, and they all have to be stored in a clear, zip-top plastic sandwich bag. There’s also the possibility that I might be asked to boot up my laptop for inspectors before I’m allowed to board my flight. It’s a good thing I found out about this in advance, or I’d end up in LA with sore feet, dirty hair and bad breath, at least until I could hit the hotel gift shop or a local convenience store.

Once all of that was arranged, next on the list was figuring out what we were going to be doing at E3 besides playing games and staring at booth babes. It wasn’t long before invitations from game developers and hardware manufacturers started coming our way. E3 runs from Tuesday, June 2 to Thursday, June 4, but there are also events scheduled for Monday, June 1. One of them, the annual Microsoft press conference, occurs on Monday morning, meaning that we’re not going to be able to attend. But EA has a conference that afternoon, followed by Ubisoft that night, so we’re going to be hitting the ground running. Tuesday starts with the Nintendo and Sony conferences, after which the show floor and meeting rooms open up for business. Invitations started coming our way in late April, and as of this writing Turks and I are almost totally booked for the entire three days (we have stubbornly resisted the urge to accept all of them, since we want to reserve the last two hours of every day to wander the show floor, where by all accounts the real E3 action is). We kick it off on Tuesday with a visit to the Activision booth, followed by demos of 2K Games’ Bioshock 2 and Borderlands. Our Wednesday is highlighted by two hours of private demos of EA’s new games, while Thursday features visits to the Ubisoft and Warner Bros booths and a chance to be among the first to play the Beatles Rock Band expansion in the Harmonix/MTV booth. Sprinkled in amongst all of that are demos of games by Sega, Capcom and Bethesda, which is also hosting a cocktail party in a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.

So, as you can see, E3′s not going to be all fun and games, although much of it hopefully will be. There’ll be lots of walking (I’ll be getting my much-needed cardio for the week), lots of discussions with top industry players and, yes, lots of playing games. Turks and I are looking forward to the opportunity to give you all a first-hand look at E3, the gaming industry’s biggest, loudest, most exciting showcase. Stay tuned…

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | One comment

What a long, strange trip it’s been…

In the spring of 2007, I was bored. Things were very slow at my daily office grind. I had a pile of games at home for which I didn’t have walkthroughs (yes, they’re a crutch, but I was gaming crippled at the time and needed them to get around), so I started scanning my favorite sites for the info that I needed.

And it was this which brought me to Avault.

I had been visiting the Adrenaline Vault for years for all kinds of gaming info, but mostly for the reviews. No other site that I frequented had the depth of information about games that Avault had. I hadn’t been back for awhile, so I was somewhat shocked to discover that the site had been dark. But I was equally delighted to discover that one of my all-time favorite gaming sites was looking for writers for the relaunch.

I was late jumping into the blogging pool, but I did have a few posts on other sites, and since they were my only game-related writing samples (I’d been writing capsule descriptions of movies for many years), I linked them to an email and sent it off, not really expecting to get chosen. After all, what hardcore gamer doesn’t dream of the chance to be part of the industry? To have their opinions broadcast to the world in something more substantial than a blog post? And perhaps to meet some of the industry’s movers and shakers and talk games with them? I was a music major with no journalism background (freelancing for the local newspaper’s sports department as a teen doesn’t count), so I figured my chances of being selected as being rather short…

…until June 22, 2007, when my first Avault review was published (Shadowrun for the PC; I gave it a 3-star review and was accused of being in the back pocket of Microsoft by my first commenter—how’s that for the start of a new career?). I’ve contributed 30 more reviews since then, and I remember bits and pieces of all of them, but what I remember most is that my experiences so far have allowed me to become a much more well-rounded gamer. Of the games I’ve reviewed, I probably wouldn’t have even considered buying a number of them for myself, and it’s even less likely that I would’ve branched out into the world of console gaming, being a dedicated PC gamer for most of my adult life. And I certainly wouldn’t have spent $400 on a PS3, but I’m glad I did (launch title Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the most entertaining game I’ve ever played; those of you with PS3s should run out immediately and buy it, and the rest of you should find someone who has it and make them your best friend).

As of this writing, Avault is on the verge of publishing its 200th review since the relaunch. We’ve covered two industry events. Avault podcast host Turks and I are making plans to attend this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles in June, from which we will be providing you with first-hand impressions of the biggest circus in gaming. And we’ve completely redesigned the site. I’d say Avault is back. Perhaps not quite as it was, but in some ways better than ever.

Here’s hoping that strange trip never ends…

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments