Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Geek Sunday, Part Deux

This is the topic I had initially wanted to focus more on, rather than my lengthy post about Tempus.

X06 is a gaming event organised by Microsoft to show off their upcoming gaming products, primarily the Xbox 360 console. This year, there was quite a display of PC gaming too, not surprising considering that Microsoft is looking to promote their newest OS, the Vista, which is supposed to be very gamer friendly.

The event was located at the corner of Carlton Hotel and Odeon Towers. Microsoft built an interesting structure, which resembled a series of inter-linked domes. It looked a little odd from the outside, and actually, quite underwhelming. But inside was a plethora of gaming goodness, and it was quite a sight. The curved surfaces served as screens inside the dome, similar to the Omnimax Theatre. Now imagine 10-12 concurrently running game trailers on the curved ceiling, surrounded by loads of Xbox 360 consoles, PCs, HD TVs, music, people and games. It was quite a sight.

I tried out a number of games, and I'll list some of my impressions of them.

Games that I tried:

Star Trek: Legacy
In this game, I captain the Enterprise, which should have been sufficient reason enough for me to like this game. But it didn't really click with me. I had difficulty navigating the ship, and the controls weren't particularly intuitive. Some commands were located at the touch of a button, but others required multiple levels of screens. I wasn't able to quite wrap my head around the game, but I guess that's just me. Graphics weren't spectacular either, but I can be a little forgiving when it comes to space games... I mean, how much details could one really use to depict deep black space?

Gears of War
Wow. That's all I can say. It was quite an experience to get my hands on this game. I've seen the demo before, and I wasn't so impressed. But playing it changed my mind. It felt more like playing an action movie. The animation, the details on the screen, the sound effects and the action... Everything felt fluid and flexible, and nothing felt scripted. Enemies displayed a decent amount of intelligence, and team-mates were effective. And the best part of this game? Co-op! Available either in split-screen, or over Xbox Live!

Viva Pinata
Hmm... I'm undecided about this game. I can see the appeal, and I honestly wanted to like this game much more. At the moment, I'm undecided. Technically, it's very well done. The production values are definitely top-notch: Graphics are clean and inspired, music was catchy, and the pinatas were so cute. But it terms of emotional connect, it still hasn't hit me yet. I'd still like to get a copy of it, and I'd definitely want to play it. But I'm not sure if a game such as this could capture my attention.

Vampire Rain
Rubbish. That's my one word descriptor for this game. Rain is a stealth game which almost looks like a Splinter Cell clone. Until the zombies attack. Vicious, unyielding zombies that will kill you as soon as they get their hands on you. Usually, I'd applaud these traits in a zombie, but in the game, it'll lead to frustration. My character wasn't able to stand up to even one zombie, and death was quick and painful. I think I died about 7-8 times in the 20mins I played, and each time I had to start the level again. I have to admit to one particularly cool death though: I was spotted whilst on the rooftop (there were zombies there too), and I let myself down the edge of the building and tried to slide down a drain pipe. Ordinarily, this would be sufficient to avoid danger, as game AI aren't programmed to just climb over obstacles. The zombie in this game leapt off the side of the building, grabbed me, bit me, and pulled me down a 5 storey drop to my death.

Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade
A good quality expansion to an already great game. I had to play this just so I could use the Tau.

Battlefield 2142
Not quite my cup of tea. There are quite alot of interesting mechanics to it, but none that appeal to me.

Company of Heroes
Brillant. An excellent strategy game, based on area control and effective use of combined arms. And most importantly, extremely thematic. I've always felt a RTS based in WWII is a little odd, but it works in this game. Your builder unit are Army Engineers, whose job is to set up encampments and tentages for troops. Each unit work in squads, and they can do most anything an infantry squad would do. And it's an absolute joy to send them in to attack, and see them dropping to the ground, crawling into position or running around in panic. It feels like you're commanding a real group of men. And that's the ultimate experience for a strategy game: to make you believe you are actually commanding those men.

While I was there, I took the oppurtunity to buy a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance and an extra controller, because of the available discounts. I'm sorely tempted to just play the game, but I'm waiting on Shaun and Mark to come over to have a gaming marathon. I hope it's going to happen soon!

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