bapenguin
03-17-2006, 05:44 AM
So last night I got a chance to attend the Microsoft Spring Preview Event for the XBox 360. Unfortunately, it was less of a preview event for upcoming titles and more of a way to launch Microsoft's Artist of the Month (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10705) program. The first artist of the month is Miss Natasha Bedingield. Don't worry, I never heard of her either, but your wife or girlfriend probably knows who she is.
<a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/shane_kim1.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.shane_kim1.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/natasha1.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.natasha1.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a>
Her music is actually decent, and she had a small acoustic performance of 2 of her songs. It wasn't my exactly my cup of tea. On the plus side, I snapped a great pic of Shane Kim checking out Natasha's backside.
<a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/shane_kim_checkingout.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.shane_kim_checkingout.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a>
Anyway....on to the games.
Ping-Pong from Rockstar (http://www.rockstargames.com)
The first game I sat down with is the mythical Ping-Pong title from Rock Star (http://www.rockstargames.com). Expect a full preview soon.
** Update Coming at RockStar's Request **
Ninety Nine Nights by Q Entertainment (http://www.q-ent.jp/) / Phantagram (www.phantagram.com)
There was only the demo version of N3 on display but it gave me a pretty good idea what the game is about. Button mashing. The game seems VERY similar to the Dynasty Warrior franchise except this is more fantasy oriented. The graphics are very impressive, with literally hundreds or so of guys on the screen at once. There's little to no slowdown even during battle with bodies, weapons and armor flying every which way. Instead of a fog of war like in Dynasty Warriors the game uses a depth of field blur style effect. The view distance is much farther than DW, but still not far enough.
Lucky for you guys I did snap some shaky cam footage of it: Vid 1 (http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/n3_1.MOV) and Vid 2 (http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/n3_2.MOV).
(yes that's me screaming "Mash man, mash!")
Dead Rising by Capcom (http://www.capcom.com[/url)
I was very anxious to get some play time with Dead Rising. The game didn't disappoint. It's a grueling, brutal, hilarious playground style game. The rep told me there are literally hundreds if not over a thousand objects in the game to use as weapons. Most objects even have 2 attacks. The game is incredibly gory. A few times I lopped off some Zombie heads at close range and as the fountain of blood spewed up, it covered my character. As I ran around the blood continued to drip off me. I beat up, decapitated, quartered, punched, kicked, golfed, dumbelled, teddy beared, crow bard, sledge hammered, laser sword (it's only a toy), boomerang (yes it returns to you), lego headed, shotgunned, pistoled, well...you get the idea. I must have at least used 30 objects or show in my short time with it. Each one unveiled some great new effect. For instance, with the golf club you can actually set up for a shot and hit golf balls at the zombies. Or, you can hit zombies directly with the golf club. You can knock them down, and then golf swing them as well.
The graphics are fairly impressive with some really nice texture effects and 100s of zombies on the screen at a single time. Animation is smooth and frame rate was solid. The game does have actual objectives and missions, even though I was content to just kill everything that moved. It looks like this title is getting pretty close to release. The only downside I heard of the game is there is no multi player element.
I also snagged a short shaky cam vid (http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/dead_rising.MOV) of it.
Saint's Row by Volition
While I didn't get any direct hands on time with the game I got a chance to watch a few people play. The game is definitely a Grand Theft Auto clone. It's a decent looking one though with tons more interaction. The explosion effects alone on the vehicles are quite amazing. They literally break into pieces that fly everywhere. Not only can you blow up the vehicles, you can do things like shoot out the windshield and kill the driver before taking a vehicle. The game also sports a pretty nifty character creation tool.
On the downside the game was running at a slide show pace for most of it, rarely hitting 30FPS. On top of that the textures were pretty flat looking even though the model detail was high. The game needs a lot of polish but definitely shows some promise.
Tomb Raider: Legend by Eidos/Crystal Dynamics
Not much to say about the new Tomb Raider game. The graphics were solid and there were plenty of animations for Lara. The game seems to be getting back to the core of the Tomb Raider franchise with jungle style missions and running/jumping puzzles etc. Lara seemed to have quite a few new gadgets at her disposal including a headlamp, a crazy hi-tech pair of binoculars and more. The controls were tight, and there were a lot of nice little touches. Keep an eye on this one it might turn out to be a solid title.
Summary
That's about it. Honestly the whole event was kind of underwhelming, and I was disappointed we didn't' get to see Gears of War, Mass Effect or even Blue Dragon. I'm sure Microsoft is saving those titles for E3 in a few months. There were a few other titles there like Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, Battle Field: MC, Top Spin 2 and X-Men 3. But I either didn't see them or didn't have time to check them out. All in all, Dead Rising looks like the most fun title that is coming out.
<a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/outside.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.outside.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/layout.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.layout.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/texas.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.texas.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/shane_kim1.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.shane_kim1.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/natasha1.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.natasha1.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a>
Her music is actually decent, and she had a small acoustic performance of 2 of her songs. It wasn't my exactly my cup of tea. On the plus side, I snapped a great pic of Shane Kim checking out Natasha's backside.
<a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/shane_kim_checkingout.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.shane_kim_checkingout.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a>
Anyway....on to the games.
Ping-Pong from Rockstar (http://www.rockstargames.com)
The first game I sat down with is the mythical Ping-Pong title from Rock Star (http://www.rockstargames.com). Expect a full preview soon.
** Update Coming at RockStar's Request **
Ninety Nine Nights by Q Entertainment (http://www.q-ent.jp/) / Phantagram (www.phantagram.com)
There was only the demo version of N3 on display but it gave me a pretty good idea what the game is about. Button mashing. The game seems VERY similar to the Dynasty Warrior franchise except this is more fantasy oriented. The graphics are very impressive, with literally hundreds or so of guys on the screen at once. There's little to no slowdown even during battle with bodies, weapons and armor flying every which way. Instead of a fog of war like in Dynasty Warriors the game uses a depth of field blur style effect. The view distance is much farther than DW, but still not far enough.
Lucky for you guys I did snap some shaky cam footage of it: Vid 1 (http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/n3_1.MOV) and Vid 2 (http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/n3_2.MOV).
(yes that's me screaming "Mash man, mash!")
Dead Rising by Capcom (http://www.capcom.com[/url)
I was very anxious to get some play time with Dead Rising. The game didn't disappoint. It's a grueling, brutal, hilarious playground style game. The rep told me there are literally hundreds if not over a thousand objects in the game to use as weapons. Most objects even have 2 attacks. The game is incredibly gory. A few times I lopped off some Zombie heads at close range and as the fountain of blood spewed up, it covered my character. As I ran around the blood continued to drip off me. I beat up, decapitated, quartered, punched, kicked, golfed, dumbelled, teddy beared, crow bard, sledge hammered, laser sword (it's only a toy), boomerang (yes it returns to you), lego headed, shotgunned, pistoled, well...you get the idea. I must have at least used 30 objects or show in my short time with it. Each one unveiled some great new effect. For instance, with the golf club you can actually set up for a shot and hit golf balls at the zombies. Or, you can hit zombies directly with the golf club. You can knock them down, and then golf swing them as well.
The graphics are fairly impressive with some really nice texture effects and 100s of zombies on the screen at a single time. Animation is smooth and frame rate was solid. The game does have actual objectives and missions, even though I was content to just kill everything that moved. It looks like this title is getting pretty close to release. The only downside I heard of the game is there is no multi player element.
I also snagged a short shaky cam vid (http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/dead_rising.MOV) of it.
Saint's Row by Volition
While I didn't get any direct hands on time with the game I got a chance to watch a few people play. The game is definitely a Grand Theft Auto clone. It's a decent looking one though with tons more interaction. The explosion effects alone on the vehicles are quite amazing. They literally break into pieces that fly everywhere. Not only can you blow up the vehicles, you can do things like shoot out the windshield and kill the driver before taking a vehicle. The game also sports a pretty nifty character creation tool.
On the downside the game was running at a slide show pace for most of it, rarely hitting 30FPS. On top of that the textures were pretty flat looking even though the model detail was high. The game needs a lot of polish but definitely shows some promise.
Tomb Raider: Legend by Eidos/Crystal Dynamics
Not much to say about the new Tomb Raider game. The graphics were solid and there were plenty of animations for Lara. The game seems to be getting back to the core of the Tomb Raider franchise with jungle style missions and running/jumping puzzles etc. Lara seemed to have quite a few new gadgets at her disposal including a headlamp, a crazy hi-tech pair of binoculars and more. The controls were tight, and there were a lot of nice little touches. Keep an eye on this one it might turn out to be a solid title.
Summary
That's about it. Honestly the whole event was kind of underwhelming, and I was disappointed we didn't' get to see Gears of War, Mass Effect or even Blue Dragon. I'm sure Microsoft is saving those titles for E3 in a few months. There were a few other titles there like Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, Battle Field: MC, Top Spin 2 and X-Men 3. But I either didn't see them or didn't have time to check them out. All in all, Dead Rising looks like the most fun title that is coming out.
<a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/outside.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.outside.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/layout.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.layout.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a><a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/texas.jpg" target="new"><img src="http://www.evilavatar.com/images/previews/spring_xbox/thumb.texas.jpg" width="320" border="0"></a>