Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
You want to be a Jedi? Fine. You want to be a Stormtrooper?
Sure. You want to be a left-handed Wookie that plays electric
bass in a cantina? Actually, we can do that, too. Enter
Star Wars Galaxies. The first Star Wars Massive Online
Role-Playing Game. The graphics in this game are nothing
short of amazing. With the graphics levels turned all
the way up, you're in the movie. Virtually photo realistic.
With 10 complete worlds, each featuring its own unique
plants, animals and architecture. The game is made so
that everything is as seamless as possible. In fact, there's
only one action that will trigger a loading pause: leaving
the planet.
Like I said before, the sky's the limit when making your
character. In fact, you can actually pick hair stylist
as a profession. There's such a wide range of things that
your character can do, be and progress in. Whether you
pick Imperial, Rebel or stay neutral during the time of
civil war, you can have a direct impact on the history
of the galaxy. Battles will take place only on land, for
the beginning, but a space expansion pack is already in
the works. If you so choose to, you can fight or work
your way to one of the key figures in the game and try
to assassinate him or her. This game is so completely
open-ended, I wouldn't be surprised if after a few months,
there was a Couch the Hutt, in charge of the smuggling
on Tatooine.
Not only will you be able to use nearly 100 motion-captured
emotion animations, but the amount of customizability
in character creation will nearly ensure that you'll be
identifiable by your face alone. There is an incredible
amount of love, attention and detail put into this game.
It shows and you'll be able to beta test this love in
July and play it on a "live" server in time
for Christmas. If you have even the slightest interest
in MORPGs, Star Wars or adventure in general, you'd better
ask Santa for a copy now, because his sleigh is going
to be emptied fast.
Freelancer
Set to finally release early next year, this game takes
the vital parts of Privateer and makes a beautiful game,
filled with all sorts of wonderful nice touches, such
as the inside of a nebula or guns that actually track
where you're shooting at. The ships all look beautiful
and the random missions actually aren't that random. If
a group is attacking a merchant ship, you can join in
the attack for a share of the cargo, or fend them off,
or hunt them down for the bounties on their heads, after
the merchant ship gets destroyed.
Not only are those missions of chance presented to you,
but they're presented to the other pilots, human and AI,
alike. It's possible to role play a pirate and get a bounty
put out on you, with other pilots looking specifically
for YOU!
This dynamically generated universe adds to a great sense
of realism, not to mention the rich story-driven plot
of political intrigue. The game is entirely open-ended,
allowing for you to jump right in, pick something to do
and have fun at it. Freelancer's unique blend of genres
looks to make it one of the must have games when it gets
released.
Tribes: Aerial Assault
What? You thought that bringing my second favorite game
of all time to the PS2 wasn't going to make my best of
show list? Despite the PR guy getting mad at me for calling
it a port, I have to call em as I see them. It's basically
a port, though heavily, HEAVILY worked on. It's still
Tribes 2, but taken up a notch and optimized for the PS2.
Everything just seems right. The game keeps all the power
of Tribes 2, while adding its own flavor to it.
This game is precisely what the console first person shooters
needed. It's action, it's strategy and it's Tribes. Playing
through it was easy and when it hits the streets and people
start getting their PS2s online, there's going to be a
lot of people yelling out "Shazbot!" Hell yes!
Get this game.
Doom 3
The very first thing that any gamer is going to ask when
someone mentions the E3, is Doom 3. You know you want
to know about it and the video that's floating around
just doesn't give you enough. Well, I'm here to tell you,
that it's everything that you've heard and more. The game
is still about a year from release, though the game is
playable. I personally stood in line for an hour, twice,
just so that I'd have all the info needed for you.
The graphics are damn near photo-realistic. The game's
opening cinematic shows off just how well the engine can
render humans. From facial expressions, to the way people
walk and fidget, the game totally nails it. Think back
to the movie Final Fantasy. That's the quality of graphics
that you're looking at in the beginning of the game. Real-time
lighting effects and shadows. Lost souls make an appearance
in the opening, blasting out of the familiar gateway go
awry. This time, they turn an unfortunate soldier into
a zombie. Our hero steps out of an elevator and decides
that it's time for action, puts on his helmet, pulls out
his pistol and then the action begins.
Creeping out into the darkened regions of the station,
he can hear groaning and then former humans, now mindless
zombies begin lumbering into view. Expect to recapture
the same feeling that you got when you loaded up your
very first first person shooter and the horror as you
feel as if you're truly inside the game.
The demo they were playing was actually about 4-5 clips
strung together. A large amount of possessed humans that
resemble zombies will start you off into the action as
they gang up on your, coming from all the shadows and
bludgeoning you with their fists. From the looks of things,
the possessed humans of the original Doom have been done
away with, while the minigun soldier is back. As with
most games, the minigun isn't done right, but having gotten
my hands on the real thing, I'm a hard person to please
with gun accuracy. Another possessed soldier features
an arm sliced off at mid-bicep and then replaced with
a retractable whip-like appendage.
Then, we have the supernatural enemies. Again, lost souls
are present and look just as we'd all envisioned them:
screaming, flaming skulls, speeding through the air. The
pink demons make a return appearance, completely redone.
They're now giant 4-legged creatures with cybernetics
replacing their back half. The behavior that they showed
off shows them as being completely animal, even eating
the dead. Then they have the imps. These have been taken
from their original form and taken beyond the next level.
They crawl on all fours, like the aliens from the series
Aliens. They'll leap at you and maul you to pieces, hammering
you with razor claws as they knock you around, throwing
your viewpoint all over. They'll hurl balls of flame at
you. The flames themselves look incredible. The final
creature that the demo has is a gigantic demon. It's reminiscent
of the rancor from Return of the Jedi, but more real.
It sniffs the air, it looks around for you, and it will
tear your head off and eat it, if you're not careful.
Doom 3 looks like a game that you experience, not play.
This looks like it's going to be an action/horror movie
that you control. Without much more to tell you, I'll
simply say that the graphics will blow you away and that
when this is released next year, id will re-establish
themselves as the kings of the first person shooter genre.
Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
That's right. It's coming. And it looks gorgeous. Azeroth
is beset by plagues and echoing back to the story lines
handled in the rest of the series, the plot is unfolded,
one race a time. This time, the undead Scourge and the
Night Elves invade and while the Humans and Orcs may hate
each other, they may not always be enemies. Resource gathering
will still be part of the game, but the emphasis is placed
squarely on combat. You'll have your own personal hero,
this time around. He or she can gain levels, spells, special
weapons and other items. If he or she ever dies, you will
certainly feel the loss. Also added to game play, is optional
quests that will give you powerful incentives to risk
your troops, such as powerful items for your hero.
Featuring full 3D graphics, you can move the camera around
to where it does you the most good. The graphics are enhanced
with beautiful particle effects and it just doesn't get
much prettier than this. Not only is it nice to look at,
but the littlest detail is fleshed out, such as the undead
peons eating the their fallen enemies. Flanking the graphics
is an incredible array of sounds that breathe life to
Azeroth. Combining a plot that ties into Worlds of Warcraft
and a fully featured world editor, this game manages to
revolutionize the revolutionary Warcraft series. If you
want some of the best real time strategy around, this
is what you're looking for.
Neverwinter Nights
This remake of the first official online D&D role
playing game brings everything to the players and their
Dungeon Master. With this game, the power of the DM is
limited only by his patience and his imagination. It's
possible for a DM to make an entire campaign, complete
with branching dialogue. He can create unique characters,
magical items, each with their own look and then tweak
everything on the fly, while the players are playing.
Have enough players that there is more than one party?
No problem. The game's host can make as many Dungeon Masters
as needed, to keep an eye on them. With up to 64 total
players and DMs allowed on a single host, this game can
make your gaming group bigger than ever before. This game
promises to do everything that you could do in classic
pencil and paper D&D.
Afraid that your connection will keep you from being able
to have as much fun as you should? The network code has
been worked and rework and the developers promise that
56k modem users will have no problems on servers with
around 6-7 players, which is really plenty, if you've
got a good DM. On top of fantastic game play, the graphics
and sounds are top notch. Real time shadows and light
sourcing underscore the game's 3D engine's power. If you
love Role Playing Games, this is your new addiction.
