Published July 16, 2008
Though not part of the official E3 show, Activision took advantage of the presence of so many game reporters to hold a massive press conference Tuesday night, giving us small tastes of a number of upcoming games, and a huge helping of Bond and Guitar Hero.
We viewed a number of upcoming games, including Raven's time-control-based shooter, Singularity and Spider-Man™: Web of Shadows. Activision announced X-Men Origins: Wolverine is in the works, complete with Hugh Jackman's visage, as well as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
World at War is looking very intense.
Some new details about Call of Duty®: World at War include the availability of vehicles in multiplayer, co-op mission play for up to four players over Xbox LIVE® or two players split-screen, and a "competitive co-op" mode where you work together but try to get the highest stats. Also, voice talent for the game is going to include Kiefer Sutherland.
It even looks like Daniel Craig.
Next came an extensive peek at Quantum of Solace: The Game, the upcoming Call of Duty 4 engine-powered game based on the upcoming movie. The game uses a shifting first- and third-person perspective, and it seemed to work very well. For the most part, you play from a first-person view, but when you're sneaking or moving in for a takedown, the game shifts to third-person. The modeling of Daniel Craig's face is super-detailed, to the point that it looks ready to vacation in the Uncanny Valley. The designers have thrown in some innovative and cool touches, such as a split-screen view when Bond sneaks outside a bad guy's room, showing views from both the ledge and inside the room, and the iconic "007 iris" that starts to close on the screen when Bond gets injured.
A new Wolfenstein comes to Xbox 360.
Activision's publishing id Software's new Wolfenstein game, and id's Todd Hollenshead came out to tease us with some early info before the big reveal at Quakecon in a few weeks. The game will once again star B.J. Blazkowicz taking on evil Nazis bent on world conquest. This time, they're seeking to control a mysterious occult power. B.J. and the underground resistance will take them on in the single-player game, and Wolfenstein will also feature team-based, objective-driven multiplayer action over Xbox LIVE.
In the midnight hour, she cried, "More more more!"
To close out the show, we got our first detailed look at Guitar Hero® World Tour. The new guitar looks really impressive with its slide feature, and the drum kit layout looks really natural. Though the game's going to work best with GHTW instruments, in a move of musical détente, Neversoft announced that it will also work with other instruments—including actual professional drum kits. The "create your own music" section looks like it'll be accessible to non-musicians, with virtual drum, bass, lead, and keyboard machines to make generating tracks easier. Most impressive of all, though, was Neversoft's house band, which closed the show with a rocking rendition of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher." Never has a fake band played fake instruments so impressively. We were not worthy.
Article by Denny Atkin
