Every year in Los Angeles, thousands of press and industry pundits descend upon the city's convention centre for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. So many announcements are made at the world's biggest gaming exposition that it can be hard to keep up.
This year showed two major hardware unveilings for Sony and Nintendo with their Playstation Vita and Wii U consoles respectively, as well as a surprise announcement for Halo 4.
The following picks represent the best of this year's festival showcases.
Dark Souls – PS3, Xbox 360
For a small but rabidly enthusiastic fanbase, the most anticipated game of E3; testament to this were lengthy queues for a sample of Dark Souls’ stoically brutal gameplay, renowned for the tremendous rewards to be reaped from the player’s struggle against adversity.
The spiritual successor (read ‘sequel’ in all but name) to the 2009 Playstation 3 sleeper hit Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls looks to offer a similar experience to its predecessor from initial viewings. The usual graphical refinements are in place, with the game showing off better lighting effects, shadows and textures while retaining its heavy atmosphere.
The main difference in gameplay from its predecessor is that now levels are not divided by a central hub but connected in one large world, utilising a checkpoint system where the character can rest at campfires placed throughout. The catch is that resting at the campfires - which also replenish health vials, another change from Demon’s Souls - cause the minor enemies within the area to respawn.
The new classes shown at E3 were intriguing, and more unique than their Demon’s Souls counterparts – pyromancers and witches sitting comfortable among the usual knights and wizards.
Melee combat has been refined with new moves available, suggesting that FROM Software have addressed the previous game’s slight imbalances in favour of magic users. Over 100 new enemy types are promised in comparison to Demon’s Souls 30, and an even longer playtime. The developer promises a more integrated online mode with proper co-operative options this time round, while Dark Souls’ lack of dedicated servers means that the sliding difficulty found in Demon’s Souls ‘world tendency’ mechanic is gone. The game’s tagline ‘Prepare to Die’ could not be more apt.
Rage – PC, PS3, Xbox 360
There has been a long gap since id software’s last game Doom 3 hit the shelves. Reviews at the time, while mostly positive, veered between praise for the game’s incredible graphics and criticism for its linear progression, leading to accusations of being a glorified tech demo.
Rage is a new IP and so doesn’t carry the burden of hype that game had, but it also looks much more involved. The game’s lengthy development cycle has harmed its attempts at standing out slightly, many comparing its burnt out American desert wastes to Fallout 3 and Borderlands, but Rage looks to usurp both in terms of graphical fidelity and fluidity of play – the new idtech 5 engine is a sight to behold.
The large open areas are traversed via high-tuned dune buggies, which can be raced or used in car combat, and unusually for a first-person shooter, this also forms the basis of Rage’s online component; it really seems the developers are focusing on providing an immersive single player campaign first and foremost.
Also of note are the intriguing distractions for players to take part in, such as gambling games and track races.
Rage also makes use of a diverse weapon set including sentry turrets, razor sharp boomerangs thrown off-hand, R/C bombs and walking spider bots (a concept which was also used in Doom 3, albeit in a scripted fashion).
Renowned programmer John Carmack's new baby stood out at E3 this year due to its inimitable id style. Bioshock Infinite may yet have some competition in the atmospheric first-person shooter/adventure stakes.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Few single-player games have proven larger time sinks than the Elder Scrolls games, and Skyrim looks set to refine all the elements that kept the series’ previous entries just short of euphoric. For all its admirable qualities it was hard to deny that Oblivion’s two major flaws, questionable animation and prosaic combat, and thankfully both have been overhauled drastically for Skyrim. Dual-wielding, archery and spell-casting have all been refined and streamlined but show off similar levels of depth to its predecessor.
A button is allocated to each hand’s action and if both buttons are pressed at the same time while casting spells newer and more powerful spells can be produced. The levelling system has been overhauled with less emphasis on starting class and greater emphasis on personal choice, a direction also taken by Dark Souls. Arrows have been made more powerful at the expense of cocking speed, and fashionable timing-based melee finishers have been added. Overall, combat has a greater sense of weight.
Developers Bethesda promise over 150 hand-crafted dungeons to explore in this icy Nordic realm, and other nice touches such as dynamic weather systems and an internal economy are also featured. Facial animations and lighting have also been overhauled without apparent expense to frame rate or map size.
With any luck, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim should represent a fine swan song to the great gaming year of 2011.
Mass Effect 3 – PC, PS3, Xbox 360
The Mass Effect series is one of the very few of this generation which can have any legitimate claim to being ‘cinematic’. There are a few others which come close; L.A. Noire is a strong contender, but uses an episodic structure more akin to a gripping TV series than an epic film saga, which is what Mass Effect evokes so well.
It seems for the final chapter in Shepard’s journey, Bioware has finally embraced this notion fully – Mass Effect 3 features a totally revamped combat system with improved melee and bigger Uncharted-style set pieces in evidence from the demo at E3.
Scant little attention has been placed on the game’s potential RPG mechanics so far, although the lengthy conversations, moral choices and character development all look as strong as before.
Bioware has promised both a smaller party than in Mass Effect 2, a decision made to better flesh out the character’s relationships, as well as same-sex relationship options for Shepard. Also, decisions made in ME1 and ME2 will carry over to ME3 in stronger ways; for example, if love interests from the first and second games’ save files are carried over, a love triangle subplot will be developed. It also has to its credit a new score courtesy of the fantastic composer Clint Mansell, famous for his work on Darren Aronofsky’s films, and completely revamped, beefier sound design courtesy of the folks at DICE (they of Battlefield fame, and some of the premier audio designers in gaming).
Mass Effect 3 looks to be the other side to Skyrim’s RPG coin – a story-led RPG with some tweaks, rather than any grand overhaul. Expect some fanboy tears to be shed over the ending when this one rolls around next March.
Ewen Hosie - I'm a Scot who takes pleasure from heavy typing sounds, and thus writing is an appropriate catalyst with which to indulge in this obscure ...
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