ECTS Roundup
By Tim Chown
Sunflowers
ECTS regulars Sunflowers were again present, this time with a new
version of their period strategy game Anno 1604. The latest incantation,
Anno 1503, sees a heavy reworking of the previous game, but with
a number of familiar gameplay elements. There's more emphasis on
the combat side, though you can still play 1503 in the sedate, mellow
style that made 1604 such great therapy for gamers brimming over
with tension from frenzied shooters. The graphics are richer, with
more terrain types with subtle new touches like the shade of grass
indicating its fertility. In combat there are formations, experience
levels for the soldiers, the ability to capture enemy guns, damage
levels, and tactical options such as the ability to place troops
on defensive walls. There's enough new to warrant a closer look.
Anno 1503 will ship early in 2002, with Sunflowers hoping to match
the original's European sales figure of 1,500,000 units, and to
surpass the 130,000 units sold in the US.
Phantagram
In addition to the European regulars, there were a few Asian publishers
at the show,a trend continuing to grow from previous years. Leading
the pack were Phantagram, the predictable Kingdom Under Fire Gold
being one of their offerings. Shining Lore was, as last year, also
on show. Most interesting was Duality, a cyberpunk action/RPG with
a strong Far Eastern influence. The flavour isn't wholly new. The
hacker moving from the real world into cyberspace was a thrust of
the System Shock games, for example. But Duality oozes a distinct
character, with the mercenary, hacker, and virtual being offering
distinct playing styles. Also in the pipeline is Strident: The Shadow
Front, which looks like an Oni-style action shoot/beat-em-up with
Far Eastern influence.
Et al.
Other snippits to be seen or heard included the Black and White
add-on, UbiSoft'sPools of Radiance RPG, Funcom's Anarchy Online
(already out), Midgard (a forthcoming online RPG in a Norse setting),
Caprino's Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (a kid's game but with an impressive
larger-than-life racing car prop on display), the MicroRobot robot
soccer game (a fun coin-op game fromKorea), and some intruiging
hardware (including the Neckphone Revolution horseshoe-shaped necklace
with sound and vibration feedback, and Gamebox's various Dreamgun
accessories, including guns and bows).
While ECTS continued for three days, I'd seen enough well before
the end of day one (admittedly I didn't look at the console games
on offer). It's a little sad to think how past ECTSs required three
days to get in-depth looks at all the big-hitting PC games on show.
I'll remember ECTS for a handful of games that might blossom, but
there was no single, stunning, ground-breaking title to be found.
At least not in a state whereI could play it long enough to judge.
Project Nomads, Natural Resistance, Warrior Kings,Gothic, and Duality
may turn out to be very good games, but none of them grabbed me
in the way other games have in the past (I fondly remember playing
TA for a couple of hours at ECTS some four years ago). Maybe I'm
jaded. Or maybe games such as Civ 3 and Dungeon Siege carry that
much more potential; it's harder to assess what was on show in their
absence. Obviously Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft will be big
hits in due course, but that just reinforces the feeling that, in
soccer terms, I'm confined to watching Division One at ECTS when
I know thePremier League is played out at E3 each year.
Oh, and as a wargame buff did I mention any wargames? No? I think
you can guess why. Now, if you'll excuse me I'll dive back into
Arcanum for a while until Civ 3 comes out. It's about time Sid produced
something special...
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