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...