Just some train-of-thought about E3 this year:

- Met Mark and Tom in person, finally. And Eric Wolpaw. And Bub. Hi guys! Nice to have met ya! Saw some other folks I've met before that frequent here, which I always enjoy. I like face-to-face.

- Xbox seemed to disappoint many, but to me it was exactly as expected: it looks like first-generation stuff for a powerful system 6 months before launch. Nothing was running on final hardware. Halo looks okay, but it doesn't "demo" any better than it did in years past. Maybe because they're working on the actual gameplay more now? Who knows. Most of what they talk about in the game (like the story and varied environments and varied enemies), you couldn't really see in what they had at the show. Xbox's biggest saving grace is their online plans. I spoke with J Allard and Seamus about future stuff, and they're putting about 10 times the effort and thought into online as Sega ever did, and even the developers have no idea what the hell Sony and Nintendo are up to. The plans are good; they're smart, and the developers know exactly everything they have to do already. Online play might be Big on Xbox. I'm a bigger believer in it than I was before the show, anyway. In the meantime, LAN play for several launch titles should be fun (and good for Shoot club!). The system overall might have a struggle, though. My favorite Xbox game? Cel Damage! Played it for two minutes with Ben split-screen and had a blast. Even Steve played it and said it was fun (if you know Steve, that's saying something). Obi Wan looked craptacular if you ask me--two steps behind most of the other "big" Xbox games.

- PS2 finally looks like it should have all along. Last year, the system was already OUT for two months and it had a spectacularly crappy showing, except for a movie of MGS2. (not that it stopped people from lining up overnight to buy it - shows what marketing and the name "Playstation2" can do). Some of the games that have been in development for awhile still looked far too rough, like Drakan 2. Most of the Hot Stuff for PS2 were the things we already were anticipating, like Devil May Cry or the Baldur's Gate game. State of Emergency looks neeto. NOLF and Deus Ex on PS2 look like ass right now - not up to the competition visually (by a mile).

- Gamecube looked like it had 2nd-generation software, and in a way, it was. After all, the system was supposed to launch last year, and the hardware has been totally done since March-June of last year. They had only a few titles, but what they had looked slick and polished. They definitely showed their stuff on better screens. Most of the people were really impressed, but in my opinion, that's the whole "expectation" thing coming back around. Xbox was promising what no console can ever deliver, and of course it didn't; it just looked good (and early). Nobody expected Gamecube to be good, and it looked just as good as the other guys (and polished), so it floored 'em. I'll buy one, but hell, I buy everything.

- Gameboy advanc: just go buy one. It's $99 and out in like 3 weeks! GB Advance Wars looks like a spiritual successor to Warsong (except anime military instead of fantasy), one of my favorite Genesis games ever. I didn't see Castlevania there, and I wanted to check it out.

- PC stuff: SW Galaxies stole the show, but there wasn't a lot of gameplay in yet. They're promising everything anyone could ever want in an online RPG, which of course they can't possibly deliver. If they do half of it, they'll have one hell of a game. Stronghold looks cool. So does Age of Wonders 2. Max Payne is a Real Game now, and it even looks like a fun and polished one at that! The shooters (SoF2, Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, AvP2) all look nice, but not at all revolutionary. I got a half-hour demo of the single player Warcraft3 from Rob Pardo and now I'm looking forward to it a lot. Spoke with Ken Levine about Freedom Force, and he's right on when he said "it's finally gotten to be 'a game I want to play'." That game has REALLY polished up nicely from when I saw it several months ago. Simsville looks totally cool (it's 3D! But they do some kinda thing with the textures and stuff so that it looks 2D. The screenshots all look 2D. But it's 3D, really!).

One thing about E3 is that you can't possibly get a feel for how fun a game is when looking at a demo for 15 minutes in a crowded and noisy hall like you can when you sit down at your own PC for two hours with it. All these nifty looking games could suck, and all these ho-hum games could just totally grab you. So much happens to Make A Game Fun and/or Amazing in the last 2 or 3 months of development.

- The console battle: Xbox and Gamecube launch within 2-3 days of each other (warehouse date of Gamecube is Nov 5, Xbox on-shelf is Nov 8). Nintendo announces their price in a few days. Packed stores, indeed! They'll both sell all they can make all Christmas season, and both systems will have no trouble getting to 5 million in short order. But a console these days is viable at 20 million and successful at 50 million, and that's in years 2-5. The console battle will be won on the systems that sell and the games that are released starting fall of 2002. Whoever can move 25 million systems from fall '02 to fall '03 is gonna win it. Honestly, that could be ANY of the three. If I had to make my pick, I'd say Gamecube and Xbox are going to come out on top at the end of Year 2003 when the real big numbers happen. Sony will reasonably supported and not at all a flop, but not up in front with the other two.

"One thing about E3 is that you can't possibly get a feel for how fun a game is when looking at a demo for 15 minutes in a crowded and noisy hall like you can when you sit down at your own PC for two hours with it."

Yep. That's the problem with E3. It's more like a sales pitch aimed at us than a chance to really evaluate a game. I decided this year to try to spend some time to play a few games rather than just touch the mouse for a minute or two, so I actually spent 30 minutes, maybe more, with Dungeon Seige, and played Warcraft 3 for at least 10 minutes and Empire Earth for 10-15 minutes also. I know that's not much, but I did get a better feel for the game that way.

With Warcraft 3 I started a scenario that already had troops built, so I focused on combat and only build a few more units. Maybe I was disappointed because I didn't spend any time building my camp and units and didn't have any emotion invested in my little army. It just seemed like slower-paced combat, though, without much in the way of new tactical depth.

I played some Alien vs Predator 2. It's not much of a departure from the original, other than it looks considerably better. However, they've got some small refinements in there that I was truly drawn to... such as a TOGGLE for the alien sticking to walls. That's a godsend. The motion in multiplay is also a lot more fluid. In short, I like the new engine with the old game.

Final score: 24 dead predators, they got me twice. Aszlien wins!

Oh yeah... another game I played a decent chunk of was Spy Hunter on PS2. I've flirted with buying the actual arcade machine on several occasions, and I've probably got about $150 in quarters in that thing as it is. I didn't have real high hopes for a modern remake, but it surprised me. It's still not perfect, but hey... it's Spy Hunter dammit! I still want it.

Console wise, I hope folks keep in mind the economy's downfall, the consumer spending falling and a lot of people losing jobs. At that rate, this Xmas may not be a good Xbox/Gamecube/PS2 whatever selling time. Just to sound like Chicken Little. :)

That's all true, Geo.

On the other hand, spending is the fuel of our economy--product demand drives spending which in turn drives employment and pay scales, which in turn drives spending, etc.

In terms of our business, we'll have a newly-released GBA, Gamecube and Xbox stuff which will no doubt both be high on many Xmas lists, and nice new WindowsXP and high-end Athlon4/P4 systems pushing desktop computers. I think some of it will turn around 4th quarter.

Oh, and who else sees an obvious "Xmas / Xbox" marketing campaign?

Yeah, but if the economy stays in a downturn, buying a GBA or a $99 DC or PSOne might be the way many people go rather than spending $300 on an Xbox.

Yeah, even the relatively-cheap $199 Gamecube could be a stretch. Two hundred bucks is still a lot of money, if things are tight. Three hundred is practically out of the question. And so many parents aren't "up" on the details, it'll likely be tough to talk them into the $300 Xbox when they can get a Gamecube for $200 -- or, better still, in their minds, a DC/PSOne for $100. We'll just have to see.

Me, I'll probably buy the Gamecube first, with the possible exception of the GBA, but even that'll be a while.

"Oh, and who else sees an obvious "Xmas / Xbox" marketing campaign?"

Jason, you know I love you in a non-threatening masculine way, but I gotta be honest with you: sometimes you come off as an Xbox (or is it X-Box?) fanboy.

I'd like to start the GameCube buzz backlash as of right now.

Mario 64 was brilliant. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. However, much of that brilliance derived from the new gameplay paradigm of true 3D.. something that's rather passe at this point.

The GameCube launch library is small, and people expecting innovation even up to the standards of the N64's sparse launch library will likely be disappointed. And half the titles are kid stuff.

http://e3.nintendo.com

Someone help me out here. I don't expect the GC to be a _failure_, but on the other hand, I am just not seeing why the GameCube is poised to be such a great success where the N64 wasn't. Sure, cartridges were a dorky idea, but would the situation have been all that much different with a CD mechanism? Regardless of format, Nintendo has a kid-friendly edict and strict controls over releases. Times may have changed, but Nintendo has not.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

p.s. I didn't like Zelda 64. Bought it, played it for a few hours, got bored, quit. Mario 64, on the other hand, I couldn't STOP playing.

>sometimes you come off as an Xbox (or is it X-Box?) fanboy.

Funny, that statement wasn't intended to be pro-Xbox in any way. It was just an observation that Microsoft will probably play on the fact that the common abbreviation for Christmas, Xmas, sure does look a helluva lot like Xbox.

Anyway, I'm pro-Xbox only in that I like the idea and I like some of the things they're doing with the console, concept-wise. Also, if MS tanks with Xbox, nobody will every try to make a console again. Because if Microsoft can't do it with the most powerful hardware, lots of 3rd party support, and huge marketing, nobody will ever think they can enter that market. Personally, I don't know if it'll have the best games, and ultimately that's what I care about. I'm a console fan. I'll buy all the major systems, and play the good games. If I had to pick, I'd rather the system with the most and best support be the most powerful one with a hard drive and ethernet built in, though. So yeah, I *HOPE* they'll succeed in a big way. I don't know that they WILL. If that makes me a fanboy, then I guess I am. =)

>I am just not seeing why the GameCube is poised to be such a great success where the N64 wasn't

I agree with your GC buzz backlash somewhat, especially the part about innovation. As solid as those GC games are, I *REALLY* wish Nintendo would take a risk now and then, or make a different game. Sega was all over the map genre-wise and theme-wise, and I liked that. 3rd party companies avoided N64 because they didn't want to spend 3 times a much on cost of goods. GC doesn't have that problem.

>Regardless of format, Nintendo has a kid-friendly edict and strict controls over releases.

We'll see if they're really shedding that. The next Mario is supposed to be less kid-oriented, they did Conker with Rare, Metroid is a bit edgy and grungy, and isn't Eternal Darkness all swords and shotguns and zombies and blood and stuff?

Anyone see this mystical Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (Rogue Spear's heir apparent) at E3? Gamespot had a brief report but no screenies. It's an XBox game that supposedly will be on PC later too.

Gamepro had a preview a while back, but the Redstorm guys blared that it was based on old preliminary screenshots and no longer represented what it would look like.

Mark and I saw it. We'll be writing it up later. Basically, it's Rainbow Six, but outdoors in a full-blown military situation rather then indoors under a controlled hostage rescue situation.

AFAIK, they were primarily showing the PC version.

-Tom

Were they showing the Age of Wonders successor? You guys were meeting at the GOD lot anyway, right?

"Were they showing the Age of Wonders successor"

That would be Age of Wonders 2. It looks like they have shifted the emphasis a bit more towards a single character (your Wizard) and de-emphasized cities to the point that it feels a bit like Lords of Magic. Anyone who expects this to be MOM2 will be disappointed.

"You guys were meeting at the GOD lot anyway, right?"

We were always meeting at the GOD lot. Seemed to be the general rendezvous point whenever someone wanted to coordinate something. Which was a pain. I think the GOD lot is the thing I hate most about E3.

I missed my first E3 in four years. Woo hoo! I hate that damn show. The fact that Eidos has banned Tom is classic; go Carr-bot go.

By the way, I got the opposite impression from Age of Wonders 2. You can now found new cities, there's still all the city upgrading, and now cities are almost more important because you not only need to make troops there or whatever, but you need to place your wizard towers in there and have a good network of them to cast global spells.

Maybe your demo was a bit different than mine.

I came away with the impression that it's more like Master of Magic than the first game in quite a few ways.

We missed ya, Bill! (Abner)

Thanks, Tom! Be nice to Red Storm so they don't pull an EIDOS on you! :) Kidding!

I read the main change is a switch to a crosshairs only view (a la SWAT 3) and some brighter AI for the squadmates. I assume they didn't toss out press kits for a game so early in development?

Thanks for the updates. I reckon my descendants might one day be able to play a MOM2, after Microprose gets sold a few more times and someone in marketing has a boring afternoon, but I'll be long since turned to dust before THAT happens. In the meantime, AOW has been my closest fix.

I just hate it when good games get abandoned. And Microprose did it to so many good ones.

"Maybe your demo was a bit different than mine."

Maybe I was confused. Or I simply got the wrong impression. But I came away thinking that they had made the Wizard even more important than the Leader, and Heroes would be de-emphasized. Anyone else get the opposite impression?

It just goes to show you how there's no comparison between having someone give you a canned 20-minute demo of a game while you sit ten feet away on a sofa, and actually playing the game yourself.

Then there's the possibility that what happened to me was what happened to Desslock when Tom was trying to explain the rules of one of his bizarre card games to us: "Dude, can you explain that all again? I was just daydreaming and didn't hear anything you said."

Mark said: "If you've ever played Inbetween..."

Heh-- we call that game Acey-Ducey where I grew up, and believe me, I have been there. To the tune of $20 on a single hand, same deal as you! The only thing worse then losing, is seeing someone walk away with the pot shortly after you sweeten it up.

I'll bet you count cards when playing that game again. I do.

Was out of town for a few days and so I'm just in the middle of catching up, myself. All I have to say about E3 is this: someone throw me a frickin bone here people.

I mean, really, were there no flight or driving sims to note? Nothing to look forward to? Squat, as they say.

I know the genre is in a down turn (well, driving games are supposed to be chic, yes?) but surely there must have been somehthing worthwhile to see somewhere... Comeon guys, say it isn't so.

"were there no flight or driving sims to note"

Lock-On (formerly Flanker Attack) looked quite nice. Flyable A-10 and all. Thrustmaster also had the game running to demonstrate the new all-metal F-22/TQS HOTAS that will be coming out this fall for $300. This looks like the next flight sim of note. No sign of Eurofighter Typhoon, although I have to say I didn't look too hard. And of course IL-2 looks very good.

Motor City Online looked pretty good.
Activision also had Supercars Street Challenge.

I had to write an article today on "The Top 5 PC Sports Games at E3".

Here's the sad situation is sports on the PC.
1. EA was not showing Madden 2002 PC (but they did talk about it with me).
2. NHL 2002 was being shown on the PC. It seems to add only a new breakaway camera thing (which seems to hurt the pacing of the game) and... ugh, rewards for performing tricks that unlock cheats and new wacky stadiums. Gag.
3. As for PC sports... that's it guys.
4. Really, that's it.
5. Ok, for my article I shoehorned Sid Meier's Sim Golf out of sheer desperation. Add the racing titles at the top and you've got five... and a rather pathetic list.

The interesting thing is that, for the PC, it looked like Strategy games outweighed even Action games by what looked like a large margin.

-Andrew

I just read an interesting interview with Factor 5 at IGN's Cube site.

http://cube.ign.com/news/34556.html

Granted, they've got a big launch game and are close with Nintendo, so obviously everything is "grain of salt." (I often find comments from developers about things they're not actually using themselves to make a game be sorta misleading) Still very interesting and encouraging stuff about their first-hand experiences with Gamecube.

I found it particularly interesting that they've been using final hardware for 9 months and emulators for a long while before that. This puts them only a few months behind when most developers got final PS2 dev kits, and of course 9 months ahead of the Xbox people who are only getting final hardware this and next month.

If other Cube developers have similar access to hardware, they're certainly going to have very polished first-gen titles, similar to what we normally see with second-gen stuff on other machines.

I mean hell, if I had a dime for every Xbox developer who said "this is only four months work! and we don't have final hardware yet!" Factor5 has had final hardware longer than most Xbox guys have even been working on non-final dev kits. Put a better way, Factor5 is at a point in development right now where Xbox games will be in November when they launch.

I think Xbox is going to suffer the fate of many other consoles, particularly PS2--launch stuff is going to be pretty rough, and everything will all of a sudden clean up a whole lot six months later. Cube probably won't have that problem.

Thanks, Bruce.

Good to hear they had Lock On showing. It sounds like it's going to be the spiritual sucessor to Jane's line of survey sims now that Jane's is no more. Speaking of Janes, weren't you the one who did the piece on the death of their A-10 sim? I liked that article. Nice work.

Did you (or anyone for that matter) go past the Empire booth to check in on the state of WSC? What about the folks from MS--is there a CFS3 in the works and is Tucker still on the team?

Tom you spoke in your thoughts about E3 of Etherlords... how did that game look? I like the idea of Homm gameplay meets magic the gathering! BTW, did I tell you all i love those east european games? i just love em. especially OPERATION FLASHPOINT and what have you... and i loved Evil Islands. The voice acting was superb in an endearing way.

and based on the hoobola of all the e3 stuff i read... warcraft 3 actually looks real cool. come to think of it, Blizzard is the only company that seems to want to stick to its pc roots unlike SOME OTHER companies (eidos, 3d0, Interplay).

and no mention of Might and Magic 9... what craziness my people.

etc

Ghost Recon is pretty far along, it seems, and should make Christmas. It's almost nothing like Rogue Spear, though--more like Delta Force with better graphics and squad mates with actual AI. There is no strategic planning phase, no complex system of codes to control your team--you basically set waypoints in-game on the map and assign your guys arcs of fire and rules of engagement. They seem smart enough to handle themselves pretty well. The enemy is pretty sharp too, hitting the deck when you lob a grenade at them, hunting for cover, that sort of thing.

The missions are military in nature rather than the counter-terrorist/police style of Rainbow Six/Rogue Spear. You have to rescure downed pilots, kidnap rebel leaders, blow stuff up, that sort of thing. It's set about 7 years in the future, so you get all the Land Warrior stuff to play with, and you get anti-tank weapons as well--one thing they demoed pretty often was a mission where you take out an armored convoy with AT-4 rockets--pretty impressive.

Night vision is handled very well, you get the now-standard enlarging/moving cursor for simulating firing on the run, etc.

All in all it looked very impressive and pretty much like the game Delta Force should have been.

mtkwhatever said this: come to think of it, Blizzard is the only company that seems to want to stick to its pc roots unlike SOME OTHER companies (eidos, 3d0, Interplay).

Actually (just to be contrary), Blizzard's "roots" are as a console company.

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Actually (just to be contrary), Blizzard's "roots" are as a console company.

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Blizzard did RPM Racing, Lost Vikings, Rock & Roll Racing, and Blackthorne before Warcraft.

Lost Vikings was a PC game, though. I believe console ports followed.

"and no mention of Might and Magic 9... what craziness my people."

3DO didn't have a booth and may not have been at the show. I didn't see them anywhere. I know they planned on skipping the show, but someone said they might have changed their mind at the last minute. Basically, they're close to being dead I'm guessing. They've lost a lot of money.

Mtkafka, Etherlords looked really interesting. Instead of armies you have heroes running around with decks of spells. When they go into battle they start summoning creatures and casting offensive and defensive spells. The game will live or die with the spell balancing and AI.

Tim, Motor City Online interested me more than I thought it would. You start out with a beater and drag race or race on a track and try to win money to upgrade your car or buy a new one. There's even going to be an eBay-like in-game auction system where you buy and sell parts and cars from other players. EA claimed it was the most realistic racing sim they've made so far, also.

I'm not a flight-simmer, but I didn't really see any. As for space sims, I-War 2 was a no-show as far as I could tell.

So, Mark, is it safe to assume that your PC is up and running? Haven't seen an update like this in awhile!

"3. As for PC sports... that's it guys."

You're forgetting about Salt Lake 2002, Bub. Actually, maybe that's for the best.

Speaking of driving sims, did anyone see JoWood's Rally Trophy? Seemed like a cool concept (a retro-early 70's-rally racer)but I didn't have much time to look at it.

I'm still waiting on a motherboard. I wrote the news from the library and emailed it to Tom, who posted it.

Rob said, of Ghost Recon:

"There is no strategic planning phase, no complex system of codes to control your team--you basically set waypoints in-game on the map and assign your guys arcs of fire and rules of engagement. They seem smart enough to handle themselves pretty well. The enemy is pretty sharp too, hitting the deck when you lob a grenade at them, hunting for cover, that sort of thing."


Thanks for the report...that reminds me of the old Seal Team game. A few years back, rumors circulated that EA was thinking of doing a Seal Team sequel, but I don't know what happened to it. Talk about dropping the ball on a good idea.

Sierra, and then Codemasters, had a SEAL game in the works. Sierra dropped it when they shut down their Yosemite offices and Codemasters grabbed it, and I'm pretty sure now they've dropped it too.

"You're forgetting about Salt Lake 2002, Bub. Actually, maybe that's for the best.
Speaking of driving sims, did anyone see JoWood's Rally Trophy?"

Well hello there Mr. Price.
Wtf is Salt Lake 2002? Is it a mormon sim? ;)
I saw some stuff at JoWood but I was told to stick to mainstream non-budget fare for that article.

-Andrew

Let's talk about that A-10, shall we?

Yeah, I flew it. Wagner was kind enough to roll me a quick mission (while showing me how to create a dynamic land battle in the editor) and let me take the A-10 "downtown". I found it pretty convincing as a simulation of a huge cannon with wings that flies like a rocket propelled bathtub.

Basically, you get one good, tight 180 degree turn and your E state is baked. I could rephrase that as "I stalled the hell out of it, often" which is a good thing. Now I understand why the hogs my Apaches flew JAAT with at Hood weren't the most turning and burning of folks.

The F-15 was rather pleasant as well, I might add. Didn't fly it, but just watched Matt roll it all over the sky. The new terrain certainly looks a LOT nicer than the old stuff, which is quite important considering how much time I'm going to spend dusting treetops in that hog.

Now, as for IL2... I talked with Oleg for about 45 minutes, had a smoke with him, and looked at it some more the next day. I'm wholeheartedly convinced that this is going to be the next "big sim" here. The demo I did the preview from was pretty old, and I was amazed at the changes that have taken place. I think the coolest things I saw were the screaming stukkas bombing some tanks, and then the IL2's that torpedoed that battleship in the rolling demo. Oleg is a man TRULY proud of his work... he stood there trying to keep from grinning ear to ear every time I pointed out something about the sim that I liked.

Thanks for the Ghost Recon info guys, it sounds like something I'd be keen on. Truth is, I prefer SWAT 3 over Rogue Spear in single player since you can give specific commands to fellow officers and the cross-hair based pointing system is pretty easy to use. It sounds like GR will be at least a little more like that. To this day, I've never been able to "plan" an R6?RS mission worth a darn though I know the planning phase has its fans.

But I'm not real big on stealth, so a game where I can use some big guns and blow the bad guys tanks' up, etc. sounds fun.

If Operation Flashpoint does well, I'd look for some SEALS type mod to happen. There are already folks working on WWII total conversions for Flashpoint, so it would seem a good bet to see other interesting things in thar.

"Motor City Online interested me"

Thanks, Mark. Truth be told, I know nothing about this title. It might be interesting if it has a decent off-line ability. I hope it's not on-line only thing.

"Let's talk about that A-10, shall we?"

Yeah, man. Thanks Aszurom! Sounds like there's an appropriate difference between the flight model for the A-10 and F-15. I assume there's going to be some realism consecions made because it's a survey sim, but it sounds like there's going to be some meat there, too. Not sure what you mean by terrain... Are we talking about how buildings seem to pop up as you go along? Wouldn't hurt to do something about that.

"Oleg is a man TRULY proud of his work"

He sounds like a character! I agree that this is the next Big One. Hopefully it will enjoy some commercial success, too, depsite the risky (read: non-mainstream) subject matter.

Did you get a look at the new TM gear? Is it really worth 3 c-notes? I would hate to spend money like that for something I have to constantly tweak or take apart. That would suck.

"Basically, they're close to being dead I'm guessing. They've lost a lot of money. "

Really? I thought they did okay, with the M&M and HOMM stuff. I read that big rant (I know, which one) that Specter did about how game designers get paid, but didn't think too much about it, given the source. Now, though, I'm wondering how viable it really is to try being a game designer these days. It seems like a really big industry that is always struggling to survive. How and why is that?

"Speaking of Janes, weren't you the one who did the piece on the death of their A-10 sim? I liked that article. Nice work."

Thanks. It was a very interesting article to write.

Btw, I forgot to mention the Falcon 5 thing (which was announced at the show) but as Gordon Berg said at E3, I'm not sure what the Falcon 5 team can do that hasn't already been done by the Falcon community.

Bruce...

Ship the game, STABLE, with all that nasty "what patch do I put on in what order?" stuff out of the way. Also, now that they have access to the *legit* source code they can do quite a bit with that I'd assume. Rather than peeking and poking with a hex editor, they can get in there and fix the problems right in the code itself.

In short, yeah, I think they can go miles and miles. The graphics could get a boost, and perhaps a new battlefield could be integral to the shipping version as well. They're already talking about making "fly any plane" a standard feature, and adding additional cockpits for them.

"Also, now that they have access to the *legit* source code"

Heh-- one wonders if there will be a time hit associated with the team learning their way around the latest legit source code, as opposed to the familiar leaked source code.

cough, cough, cough!

er, but of course, we know that no one actually *looked* at the leaked source code...

Tim, Motor City Online is online only.

Kazz, 3DO does ok with the Army Men and HOMM games, but they banked on the PS2 last year and lost money when Sony had problems getting units to the stores. Anyway, they've lost a lot of money and the situation's a bit dire, from what I've read. If they don't rebound this year with good holiday sales, they might not be around long.

"Motor City Online is online only"

heh--now that you mention it, it is a good name for an online game.

"Yeah, even the relatively-cheap $199 Gamecube could be a stretch. Two hundred bucks is still a lot of money, if things are tight. Three hundred is practically out of the question. And so many parents aren't "up" on the details, it'll likely be tough to talk them into the $300 Xbox when they can get a Gamecube for $200 -- or, better still, in their minds, a DC/PSOne for $100. We'll just have to see."

Especially since the unitiated don't realize that the $199 price tag is an illusion. $199 has nothing to do with what they'll actually pay, once they pony up for controllers, memory cards, starter games, and whatever else. I have to wonder how many of these parents turn away once the true sticker shock of the console starts to hit them.

Disclaimer: This comment comes from a console-challenged lad who is considering buying a Dreamcast.

Amanpour

"Disclaimer: This comment comes from a console-challenged lad who is considering buying a Dreamcast. "

I'm thinking of getting one too.On the 28th Sega is releasing a Dreamcast Sonic bundle.You get the console,Sonic adventures,Sonic Shuffle,a demo of Sonic Adv. 2 and a VMU for $119.Sounds like a good deal.

On the newer consoles(GC,PS2 and Xbox),I'm waiting a year to see how things goes before I even think of getting one.

-Monkeybutt

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Disclaimer: This comment comes from a console-challenged lad who is considering buying a Dreamcast.

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"For the cost of a PS2 and one or two games, you can buy a cartload of great DC loot."

Yeah, it really is a great deal, and Sega at least will continue to support it with new games for the next year or so.

Speaking of consoles - EA Sports had Madden 2002 running on the GC, PS2, and Xbox, with the screens side by side. The PS2 version looked much nicer than the other two, the GC version was next, and the Xbox version was a poor third. If I had been Microsoft, I wouldn't have been happy with that display.

I thought the PS2 had a very nice showing. I saw a lot of games that looked quite nice, and a lot of variety. Yeah, I know they've got the jump, but I wonder how many folks will go ahead and purchase PS2 today, and then feel no compelling reason to purchase another console in the next few years.

If there are people singing the praises of the Dreamcast, I wanna be there. I love lists of good console games. Let's look at Lee's list.

"Crazy Taxi"

Yeah, fun, but I'm unbelievably *awful* at it. Can anyone actually do the Crazy Dash, Crazy Slide, Crazy Brake, and Crazy Bootlegger's Reverse?

"Jet Grind Radio"

I can't wait to get back to playing this one. Hey, game designers, do more unique stuff like this!

"Shenmue"

Ugh. Good god, what a horrible, horrible title. A game in which you have to wait around for appointments and then near the end, you actually have to go out and get a job. Your job? Moving crates!

"Virtua Tennis"

Woo-hoo!

"Sonic Adventure"

It's no Rayman 2, which belongs on any DC list.

"VOOT"

Whoa, what's that?

Let's not forget Soul Calibur, the star of a recent thread. Powerstone is a great twist on fighters and I've actually spent some time with the unit alchemy. I love Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 with the DC's graphics (is there a better PS2 version?).

What are some of the upcoming Dreamcast games?

-Tom, DC evangelist

Hey, DC evangelist, the NFL2K series is also quite good.

The one thing that's missing from the DC are any kind of strategy games, like a Final Fantasy Tactics. Are there any games like this for the DC?

"Hey, DC evangelist, the NFL2K series is also quite good."

What is that, some kind of spreadsheet?

"The one thing that's missing from the DC are any kind of strategy games, like a Final Fantasy Tactics. Are there any games like this for the DC?"

Leave it to Asher to splash cold water on the party...

-Tom

"What is that, some kind of spreadsheet?"

LOL.

Amanpour

"Leave it to Asher to splash cold water on the party..."

Yeah, this place is filled with Mencken wannabees -- contrarians, sad sacks, the whole lot of you, Mark, wumpus! Can't we install some Eudora-ish curmudgeon-meter to mark up their messages in advance? ("hey, a perfect TEN FROWNS on wumpus's last screed on gamecube's homoeroticism!")

So -- when can we expect Mario Tennis or (please, please, please) Virtua Tennis for Gamecube? I need this info.

"Did you (or anyone for that matter) go past the Empire booth to check in on the state of WSC? What about the folks from MS--is there a CFS3 in the works and is Tucker still on the team?"

I went to ask about WSC and it's close, but it has been "close" for about two years now. The problem has been on the development team's end and getting their shit together. Empire is pulling their hair out over them, but I was told they are commited to working with the dev team to see WSC through. So, it will be done when it's done.

I meant to ask about Tucker, but never got a chance. I doubt I'd get an answer anyway. Regardless, only the train sim and FS 2002 was being shown. I should email Tucker to see what's up.

As for Lock On, the quote from Carl Norman was "Lock On will try to be the impossible: all things to all people." (I got dibs on that quote, so no one touch it 'til after I use it in CGW ) The defaults for Lock On will be for the beginning user, but you'll have to option to turn all that off and go as hardcore as you want. Matt Wagner a la Jane's F/A-18 fame is designing the "Dynamic Battle Generator" (a dynamic campaign would be misleading) that keeps track of persistent resources, so if Ubisoft lets them make what they want, it should a great sim.

"I went to ask about WSC and it's close, but it has been "close" for about two years now."

According to Empire PR guy Stephen Wickes, their main problem is securing licenses from car manufacturers. Apparently some suits from Honda dropped by the booth and were quite surprised - read: pissed - to see the NSX (complete with Honda logos) in the game without their permission.

It doesn't look like Empire has sufficient moola to secure the licenses (although they do have some track licenses). That's too bad, because I don't think the game will be the same if they have generic cars.

Wickes said it won't be ready until mid 2002 anyway.

I dunno... Playing Shenmue, I thought, "This is the game that Ultima IX wanted to be." They certainly squeezed more out of the hardware than U9 did. ;-) Very atmospheric, but maybe a bit too sedate for some tastes. I like it. Contrast with...

VOOT ::= "Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram". A real hyperkinetic's dream. My middle-aged reflexes are hard pressed to keep up. Apparently even better with the arcade sticks, but they didn't sell them on this side of the Pacific.

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Can anyone actually do the Crazy Dash, Crazy Slide, Crazy Brake, and Crazy Bootlegger's Reverse?

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"That's too bad, because I don't think the game will be the same if they have generic cars."

If it's as extensible as they say it's going to be, generic cars shouldn't be that big a deal. Someone will build a mod for some of the brand names. But I agree it would be nice if they had a few licenses to get the ball rolling, though.

Gordon! I was wondering when you were going to cough up some E3 comments. Good thing you didn't make me come rouse you out of Kentucky.

So did FS2k seem to have the improved framerate of CFS2? If my preview of train sim is any indication, they worked those awful pauses out of the 2d cockpits. Were you at all impressed with ATC or did you do what I would have and snub your nose to the grand daddy of civvie sims?

re: Carl Norman quote. Heh. It's bad when you post on a board where you have to call dibs on quotes. But that's really encouraging to hear! And here I was all busy lowering my expectations.

Did anyone see Microsoft's Train Simulator at E3? Haven't heard much about this.

"Were you at all impressed with ATC or did you do what I would have and snub your nose to the grand daddy of civvie sims?"

I snubbed my nose at it. I had intended to spend a least a little time with it towards the end of the show, but couldn't fit it in.

The train sim looks like it will be great for those who want to run a steam engine and try to keep it from blowing up. It even had a "Murder on the Orient Express" scenario.

"The train sim looks like it will be great for those who want to run a steam engine and try to keep it from blowing up."

I am dissapointed I can't get a decent Gomez Adams train wreck going to save my life. You can watch it derail, but it's pretty antiseptic.

The steam engine is the most challenging, sim-like piece of the game (too bad the steam engine cockpits are butt-ugly). Besides those monsters, it's surprisingly easy to drive a train.

Gordon, did you check out the new sticks from TM? Likewise, have you looked at the new CH stuff? Any opinions on either?

The new sticks from TM are solid metal and it's already been commented on how they are also ideally suited for bludgeoning. They are pretty much going to be the "must have" sticks for the high end user. Bruce Geryk crawled into that cramp mockup cockpit they had and I think he liked them. As long as they can be used with alternative rudder pedals (I hate TM's pedals), I'll probably end up using those permanently if they send me a set like they say they will. Plus, if you could have only seen the operations manual James Hollow wrote up for the thing...sheesh it was huge.

The CH Throttle will now hold three programmable banks like the competing HOTAS sets do, and it has a mini joytick that replaces one of the hats (which should double as a mouse). They are also finally coming out with a USB F16 stick (unless I'm mixing up the names -- which ever stick that was their high end stick that was strictly analog up to this point. I think they've had a Combat USB stick out for awhile now).

And finally, the Saitek USB X36 gear is getting a slight upgrade. Dubbed the "X45", it's a more user friendly version with shiny paint, pretty lights, and easier to use launch and pinky buttons. It's also going to be priced at $80 for the full set which is a huge bargain. I don't think it's enough of a change to warrant replacing my X36 gear (unless they send me some anyway), but it's an ideal set for the new user or those who can't afford the pricey CH/TM stuff.

I should post this in Usenet...

Tim, what do you mean, suprisingly easy to drive a train? It's a train, fererikssake. It goes, or it doesn't. Sometimes it can go backwards, which might double your control needs.

This came up at a design meeting the other day. Some wag suggested that trains should mount a cool-looking steering wheel--linked to an intruder alarm the second it was touched.

KP

Lee wrote:

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Can anyone actually do the Crazy Dash, Crazy Slide, Crazy Brake, and Crazy Bootlegger's Reverse?


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Ask Dave, when he gets back from vacation next week. I think he actually finished all of the Crazy Box challenges, which is a lot better than I've been able to manage.

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"It's a train, fererikssake"

Heh. Yep, that's for sure. There are three keys in easy mode. In hard there are twice as many, but that's still only six.

It's actually a brilliant idea. It's simplicity makes it ready for mainstream, but at the same time it has the steam engines and extensibility of world modeling for grognards.

It is weird not using a controller in a sim, though. Granted, even if there were support for a joystick, it would make little sense. But it just seems odd using the keyboard for everything.

"I am dissapointed I can't get a decent Gomez Adams train wreck going to save my life. You can watch it derail, but it's pretty antiseptic."

So much for me buying, then. Sure, there are train geeks that get plenty of jollies by watching the trains move around and pull safely into a station, but I'm not one of them. I wanted to have some bad switching accidents, see a gasoline tanker truck stall on the tracks, and tie Nell to the tracks. How about making Combat Train Simulator next?

"It's actually a brilliant idea. It's simplicity makes it ready for mainstream, but at the same time it has the steam engines and extensibility of world modeling for grognards."

Are you fucking nuts? This is TRAINS. Jesus Christ and his Virgin Mother, why not make a kitty litter sim? It's unbelievable. Gamers will play anything. Here's an idea: VIRTUAL DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR TRANSPORT. In Bolivia. General Banzer, please answer the white courtesy phone.

Kill me.

"I am dissapointed I can't get a decent Gomez Adams train wreck going to save my life. You can watch it derail, but it's pretty antiseptic."

That's one complaint I had with Microsoft Flight Simulator. The game's kinda fun (if not tedious) but I'd go up as high as I could and take a nosedive at Earth in a fat passenger plane... and all I get is a little "boom." I wanna see the carnage that ensues--news crews rush to the scene, getting live shots depicting bloodied, mangled bodies being pulled from the wreckage. That's the shit I wanna see.

"That's one complaint I had with Microsoft Flight Simulator. The game's kinda fun (if not tedious) but I'd go up as high as I could and take a nosedive at Earth in a fat passenger plane... and all I get is a little "boom." I wanna see the carnage that ensues--news crews rush to the scene, getting live shots depicting bloodied, mangled bodies being pulled from the wreckage. That's the shit I wanna see."

Which begs the question, why not just play Carmageddon instead?

Carmageddon, by the way, is a textbook example of a franchise being killed by sequelitis. It's a damn shame.

Carmageddon 1 -- genius. The most fun I've had with a driving game in ages.
Carmageddon 2 -- the same thing, but in 3D, with a lot of changes that end up making the game _less_ fun. Decent, but doesn't quite measure up to the first game.
Carmageddon 3 -- complete and utter ass.

At this point, Carmageddon 4 will probably rape my mother and kill my dog. How much worse can it get?

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

Why are you people talking about games and simulated vehicular destruction?

Really, the most important thing I learned at E3 is that Bruce Geryk is a seething ball of sheer human hatred. Just use alcohol to lower his hatred inhibitors. Then, watch him go!

-Thierry

"Carmageddon 3 -- complete and utter ass."

Carmageddon 3 wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't made every other mission a frustrating find-the-key adventure deal. They should have just stuck to racing and running people over. The damage modeling for the cars and the cars themselves are really cool in 3.

I just picked up C3. I got to mission 2, the first key hunt and tried it once before taking a break... I'm sure I'll get back to it, but I was rather disappointed they'd hit me with that so soon.

In other news...

what sort of crack are the gamespy guys on?
http://www.gamespy.com/e3/awards/e3simulation.shtm

I just can't believe THAT. IL2 and LockOn don't even rate a MENTION in the article? What!?

"Really, the most important thing I learned at E3 is that Bruce Geryk is a seething ball of sheer human hatred."

Yes. The scariest summer night I ever spent was a winter night at Bruce Geryk's house... But beneath it all Bruce is really a very nice guy. (Then beneath that he's a freaking psycho again).

-Andrew

"Really, the most important thing I learned at E3 is that Bruce Geryk is a seething ball of sheer human hatred."

And he does a really funny Eric Wolpaw impersonation when he's drunk.

See, Andew already knew, and now the rest of you know why I'm afraid to drink with him.

The most important thing I learned at E3 is that I don't look like I type. Or write. Or something.

Everyone was like, "You don't look anything like I expected." I shudder to think what, or who, people expected me to look like.

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Can anyone actually do the Crazy Dash, Crazy Slide, Crazy Brake, and Crazy Bootlegger's Reverse?


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Ask Dave, when he gets back from vacation next week. I think he actually finished all of the Crazy Box challenges, which is a lot better than I've been able to manage.

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The sick part is that you came here to read when you got back, instead of heading directly to bed! ;-)