Back To The Noughties
Can you remember the exciting things that happened in July 2003? Nick can
The UK’S games press has delivered its verdict on E3, and it was not an overwhelmingly enthusiastic one. Console market leader Sony delivered a major announcement in the form of a new handheld, the Playstation Portable – something described by Ken Kutaragi as “the Walkman of the 21st century”. Edge noted that, “Given the absence of anything other than a specs list for the actual machine, cynical minds are quick to point out that this is Sony’s way of bolstering […] an otherwise lacklustre pre-e3 conference.” Edge wasn’t alone in that assessment as games™ also felt that Sony’s offering “smacked of complacency or lack of planning”, as the PS2 manufacturer’s “software line-up and broadband service seemed somewhat underdeveloped”. Gran Turismo 4 was the key first-party exclusive, with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and an untitled future Grand Theft Auto game confirmed as third-party exclusives for 2004.
Nintendo didn’t come across much better. In what Games™ described as “a fairly muted showing”, the company presented statistics that Edge felt were “carefully selected – even by stats standards – around the US release of The Wind Waker to paint a rather unrealistic picture of the actual situation Nintendo faces”. Though Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, F-zero GX, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike were considered exciting, games™ felt “the Japanese giant floundered somewhat with its over-reliance on ‘connectivity’”, involving the Gamecube’s ability to connect to the handheld Game Boy Advance, while “cautious publishers were ditching the Gamecube (in a way reminiscent of the dark days of the Dreamcast)”.
With the N-gage presentation failing to generate any notable excitement – especially after announcing a $299 price point Edge considered “the absolute most Nokia could have charged” – Microsoft didn’t face much competition for the best E3 showing. “While there were few surprises, what it did show was generally of the highest calibre, with the early preview of Halo 2 being one of the highlights of the show,” reported games™. Apart from that, True Fantasy Live Online, Ninja Gaiden, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Rare’s debut Xbox title Grabbed
By The Ghoulies were the highlights of what Edge described as a “confident, polished, short and sharp presentation”.
PC players also had plenty to look forward to, with Half-life 2 unsurprisingly receiving effusive praise from all who managed to spend some time with it. Elsewhere, sequels were the order of the day, too. Deus Ex: Invisible War was set to follow up
Ion Storm’s groundbreaking original, EA was hoping that The Sims 2 would replicate the colossal success of the original, and Thief III was set to continue the stealth legacy of its predecessors. Original ideas were on show too, as The Matrix Online tried to simulate a world that was a simulation of our world, while the visually stunning STALKER: Oblivion Lost offered players a first-person jaunt around Chernobyl.
Third-party publishers had plenty to show off, too. Among the major titles on show were EA’S Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun and Need For
Speed Underground; Activision’s True Crime: Streets Of LA and Tony Hawk’s Underground; Capcom’s Monster
Hunter and Resident Evil: Outbreak; Konami’s Castlevania: Lament Of Innocence and Boktai; Sega’s Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg and Sonic
Heroes; Ubisoft’s Beyond Good And
Evil and Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time; Square Enix’s Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Sword Of Mana; Namco’s Breakdown and R: Racing Evolution; Lucasarts’ Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic and Armed & Dangerous, and Eidos’ Legacy Of Kain: Defiance. The imminent Eidos game Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness was also on show, but review copies weren’t supplied in a particularly timely fashion, meaning that many players will have bought it blind.
Of course, those games that had made it to review before selling well were hardly stellar in the first place. Gamecube number one Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut scored 5/10 in Games™. Although the reviewer felt that “on the gameplay side, there’s more than enough here to keep any Sonic fan happy”, the quality of the port was criticised as “the levels judder along and go from ‘quite smooth’ to ‘all over the place’”. The game also earned 6.1/10 in Cube, with the reviewer complaining that it was “not how you bring a game from a dead console into the next generation”, and concluding that for the £40 asking price “you could get a second-hand Dreamcast and a whole load of games”.
Brute Force was a key Xbox
Live offering but Edge was unimpressed with the game, which Microsoft had been “touting as the next Halo”. It was considered “occasionally entertaining, albeit in a predictable way” and “certainly not the groundbreaking squad-based Halo-beater we were promised”, earning a score of 5/10. Similarly underwhelmed was Games™ ’s reviewer, who complained that “fighting enemies requires little more than strafing from side to side while placing the gunsight over your target and firing repeatedly, because anyone firing at you stands perfectly still and becomes a sitting duck” in the magazine’s 4/10 review.
Join us again next month, when E3 will be over but the summer slump will probably still continue. Isn’t that exciting?