In case you missed it, E3 was last week. And in case you missed it, some of the most impressive games at the show were on the PC platform. If you're a PC game player, or you're interested in becoming one, you have a lot to look forward to. You'll be seeing more details on the games that GameSpot thought made an exceptional showing, but here are PC game highlights that you should absolutely not miss. Get your "Track This Game" buttons ready.
Spore
I've seen this game with my own two eyes, but I still have trouble believing that Will Wright is trying to make this game. Frankly, there are very few people in the game industry I'd even consider capable of taking on this kind of project, but Wright has not only always been obsessed with modeling worlds in miniature, he also created the groundbreaking games The Sims and SimCity. Basically, in Spore, you start out as a bacterium and can eat other bacteria until you evolve into a primordial critter. Then you eat and survive until your critter becomes smart enough to build its own tribe. Then the tribe can take over the world. Then the tribe can research flying saucers and take over the galaxy. Then the tribe can take over the universe. The whole evolution of your species, from amoeba to universal ruler, is computed procedurally by the game (in plain English, that means, it's all automatically generated depending on your actions). You can still edit and customize everything to your heart's content, but it should be plenty interesting just starting off with a bacterium, tweaking one or two things, then sitting back and watching happens to it in a few million years. Spore is easily the most innovative game that was at the show. It's crazy that anyone would even attempt to create a game like this, but what's even crazier is that Will Wright is at the helm, so they might actually be able to pull it off.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
Company of Heroes
I have seen this game myself, up close, with my own two eyes. Which is why frankly, it's a bit disappointing the way ignorant people react to hearing about Company of Heroes the first time you mention it. "Oh, come on, it's a World War II real-time strategy game." The thing is, there have been hardly any other World War II real-time strategy games even released stateside (pretty much all of them have been developed and published in Germany). The fatigue everyone feels about World War II is from first-person shooters, not strategy games. However, put anyone, whether they play games or not, in front of Company of Heroes, and they'll all come away impressed. Aside from the fact that the game looks amazing (don't take my word for it, watch the video), it could also take strategy games to a whole new level. All units have "situational AI," which means they'll react to their surroundings like trained soldiers. No more having to manually tell each individual guy to hide behind cover, because once the bombs start dropping, they'll already be there. You can instead actually focus on the battles, blowing out the side of houses to sneak in through the holes or using tanks to smash right through walls. Real-time strategy has often been considered "boring" by non-strategy fans. From what I've seen, Company of Heroes will change a lot of peoples' minds.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
<< Watch Company of Heroes in action, plus the E3 live stage demo, here >>
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
There were several things missing from Age of Conan when I saw it at E3. No, I didn't get to see a polished demonstration of the real-time combat system (which will actually let you use your mouse and keyboard to manually swing your sword). No, I didn't get to see the brawling system (which will let level 1 characters fight just as well as level 50 characters in the local tavern--the only things that matter will be how well you use your fists, or a barstool or table leg, and how drunk your character is). No, I didn't get to see a siege battle. But I did get to see a town area, temple area, and a large field battle. All of it looks very promising, like how merchants will walk right up to you and try to start pushing their wares on you (instead of standing stock-still in one place their entire lives), and how you'll be able to participate in mounted combat on horses or woolly mammoths against armies of guys who are also on horses or woolly mammoths. Age of Conan already looks good. If it can actually have everything it wants to have, it will be great.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
Auto Assault
Not much else more needs to be said about Auto Assault beyond what has already been said. It's going to be a massively multiplayer real-time car combat game. If I had to sum it up quickly, I'd say it's kind of like Diablo, but massively multiplayer, in a futuristic sci-fi setting, with machinegun-mounted cars instead of amazons and barbarians, everything is fully 3D and looks great, pretty much everything can be blasted to bits, and when you destroy your enemies or the world around you, money and guns fall out.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
<< Watch Auto Assault in action here >>
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
It doesn't matter that this game is also coming to the Xbox 360 console. I've seen Elder Scrolls IV in action and it looks fantastic (and actually, only the PC version was on display at E3 anyway). The new graphics and physics are the most obvious features, but Oblivion also has some other very cool features, some minor, some major. Minor: you can now travel instantaneously, and not just from town to town (no more trudging around the wilderness if you don't feel like it), NPC characters will have their own conversations you can overhear and turn into quests. Major: a whole new AI system for NPCs that will give them needs and wants and an approximate schedule, so they'll basically act a lot more like real people going about their business (and hopefully a lot less like wandering guys who repeatedly curse you as an outlander), improved combat system, dungeon traps, forests with individually rendered trees. I enjoyed Morrowind even though I took issue with some features, but I had to admit I was impressed by what I saw.
(For the record, Fallout 3 was not at E3, even though, as you might have heard, the Bethesda booth actually had Fallout 3 signs on it.)
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
Titan Quest
I've seen this game myself, and it looks very impressive, at least from a visual standpoint. It's hard to get a sense of exactly how good and addictive a game like this will eventually turn out just by watching a brief demonstration, but it sounds like the developers have the right idea. Titan Quest will have an open-ended skill system you can tweak and play with, randomized loot, and some very powerful editing tools that will ship with the game that will let anyone make their own levels and other content once they're done with the game itself. Definitely a game to watch for fans of Diablo.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
<< Watch Titan Quest in action, plus the E3 live stage demo, here >>
Battlefield 2
I've seen and played this game several times now. Each time, it has looked better than the last. When I played it at E3, there were no performance issues, no frame rate problems, no technical difficulties, and the rest of the game already seems very solid. If you're just now hearing about Battlefield 2, here's an executive summary: it's an online team shooter that lets you play as a sniper, medic, engineer, assault (or other type of soldier), get in an organized squad (if you want), play as a commander who can drop supplies and artillery strikes (if you want), has dozens of drivable vehicles that are all fast and powerful, and will have an insane online stat-tracking system that will keep track of all your kills, assists, and general success with each soldier type. For the rest of you who have been keeping up with Battlefield 2, just watch the videos and mark your calendar for June.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
<< Watch Battlefield 2 in action, plus the E3 live stage demo, here >>
F.E.A.R.
This is a game you should already have been watching for after last year's E3. I've seen and played the game multiple times since then, including at this year's E3, and it looks and plays even better. Executive summary, as told to me by producers at both Monolith and VU Games: "The Matrix meets [Japanese horror film] The Ring." Now that I've played more of the single-player game, I can state that it has plenty of bizarre horror elements that are intended to mess with your mind. The ones I've seen all seem to have been very well-placed (such as seeing the "mysterious little girl" running just past the corners of your vision). More importantly, the game seems to have an excellent feel to it, even though it was pushed back to a Fall 2005 release. The guns handle great--they're modeled halfway between a realistic shooter like Counter-Strike and an arcade-style game like Serious Sam. They're also very loud and kick up lots of sparks (especially the submachine gun)...a lot like the guns in an action movie. They feel very powerful and solid. Also, the AI at this point seems very, very good. At one point in the part I played, I cornered three guys in a small corner office in an office building, offed the first two quickly, and spent several minutes playing cat-and-mouse with the third guy, who actually hopped over the barrier of the plate-glass window I blew out, yanked down a bookcase and hid behind it for cover, crawled on his belly below the line of my sight, and tried to get me again by sneaking around a corner. If nothing else, F.E.A.R. will have very smart enemy AI, but it will have much more "else" from what I've seen.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
<< Watch F.E.A.R. in action, plus the E3 live stage demo, here >>
Civilization IV
Try not to judge Civ IV by its screenshots. I've seen the game myself at E3, and it looks a lot better in motion than in still screens. Also, apparently, the game is going to fix most of what was broken and bad from the previous games (like the late-game micromanagement, which could get ridiculous) and add lots of cool new stuff. The addition of religion, which is another way you can ultimately hold sway in a specific region (you can be on better terms with native people if you share the same religion, or you can just convert them), plus social institutions like slavery and freedom of speech (which can also affect your neighbors) could add a whole lot of additional depth. Which, if you've ever stayed up until 2:00AM playing a Civ game, is probably just what you needed.
<< More details in GameSpot's E3 preview here >>
<< Watch Civilization IV in action, plus the E3 live stage demo, here >>
May add more as I remember them...but the PC made a damn fine showing at this year's E3, and those of us who play PC games (or would like to) are in for some great games ahead.
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