E3 2011: BioWare, and the others

E3, the video game industry's big annual expo, was held this week in L.A. Upcoming games were presented, new hardware was introduced, and there were tons of press conferences, interviews, Q&A's, and demos.

Some of the biggest reveals at this year's E3 are things I don't really care about. I'm always behind the times in terms of smart phones and tablets, so whatever Apple was talking about on Monday won't directly affect me in the near future. I haven't played consoles since the original PlayStation, and I don't have the need for a portable console at this point, so it's highly unlikely I'll get a Wii U or PlayStation Vita. I was mostly interested in the games. And of the games, I was mostly interested in BioWare. That's just my taste.


Star Wars: The Old Republic
I've been excited about this game since the summer of 2008, when EA announced that they were working with BioWare and LucasArts on an MMORPG sequel to the two Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. I adored KotOR and KotORII, which take place approximately 4,000 years before the rise of Darth Vader, and I was a bit disappointed that they weren't making a straight single-player sequel to finish out the series. But the more I learn about the MMO--personal ships! different companions for each class! fully voiced PC's and multiplayer conversations!--the more excited I get about it. This year at E3, they showed a kick-ass new trailer that has me squeeing.


See on the SWTOR website here.

The SWTOR team showed off Tattooine in their demo at E3, allowing people to explore the iconic planet. This video gives an idea of the gameplay, player companions, types of choices made on quests, and multiplayer conversations.

See on the SWTOR website here.
I find the speeder bike a little goofy, only because the companion disappears as it appears, making it almost seem as if the companion transforms into the bike. Oh well. More videos and info can be found on the SWTOR website, which is updated quite frequently with new reveals. The game is expected later this year, but no date has been announced.


Mass Effect 3
This is the climactic final installment of the epic Mass Effect trilogy, and it's promising to be the best of the three. Throughout Shepard's quest, the Council has dismissed her warnings about the looming Reaper attack, in which an unbelievably ancient and powerful race of machines will attempt to destroy all sentient organic life in the galaxy. Now, as the Reapers launch their attack, it falls to Shepard to rally the galaxy and lead the races to war.

For their E3 press conference, EA debuted a live action trailer for Mass Effect 3. The coolest part about it? Holly Conrad and Crabcat Industries (whom I've mentioned before on this blog), made costumes and the husks for the video! They did an awesome job.


Rumors had been flying for the past week or two that Mass Effect 3 would be Kinect compatible (for the Xbox 360 version only, of course), but this was finally explained at E3. There will not be any motion control, but the game will make use of the Kinect's voice recognition capabilities. Players will be able to select dialogue choices from the dialogue wheel with their voices as well as deliver voice commands to their companions in combat. Check out this demonstration:

Tags: GameTrailers.com, E3 2011: Microsoft Press Con Kinect Walkthrough (Stream), PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Personally, I think that the use of voice commands in the dialogue is a bit redundant. First you say one thing out loud, then Shepard in the game says a different line with similar meaning. I'd rather just hear each idea expressed once. But the voice commands in combat are pretty sweet. That's how the commands would be delivered in the battlefield (not with clicks), and the thought that your companions are responding directly to your voice increases the immersion. Chances are I won't ever get to play the Kinect version, but it's fun to see anyway.

Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release on March 6, 2012. Find more details about Mass Effect 3 and SWTOR at E3, with interviews, demos, and Q&A's, on BioWare TV:
http://www.masseffect.com/me3/game/biowaretv/


Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I played Morrowind, but skipped Oblivion. The games are beautiful, with vast continuous worlds to explore, and Skyrim looks to be more beautiful and more vast than the previous games in the series. I'm undecided whether I'll get this game or not. It's all well and good to be able to explore, but it's also nice to feel like I have a purpose. In Morrowind, I found myself doing quests for umpteen guilds because they were there, and not because I cared about them or what they stood for. That gets boring after a while. There are many merits to the Elder Scrolls style of games, I just have a preference for BioWare-style dialogue, stories, and NPCs. Still, I have little doubt Skyrim will be a great game. It has big frakking DRAGONS! See a gameplay demo here:
http://www.g4tv.com/videos/53441/The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-E3-Gameplay-Demo/
Skyrim will be released on 11-11-11.


Tomb Raider reboot
I never played any of the original Tomb Raider games, and I know very little about this newly announced reboot, other than that it's an origin story. But I'm intrigued because the trailer looks so cool.



Kinect Star Wars
Check out this trailer:


I love the idea of a Star Wars Kinect game. I want to be a Jedi, wielding my lightsaber and tossing enemies around with the Force. But while the Kinect has much to offer in terms of delivering an immersive Star Wars experience, it also has limitations. The problem is traveling. You the player can only move across the space of a few square feet in front of your TV, so how do you get your character to travel more than that? The solution in Kinect Star Wars is that the game moves your character "on rails"--as if you're on a big moving sidewalk that controls where you go--and you just control the character's combat as the game scoots you around. The game may still be fun, but this lack of control could be annoying, and may negatively affect the immersion of the game.

I don't know a good solution to this travel problem. Bend forward slightly to make the character walk forward? That's just asking for back pain. Use a small Nunchuk-like joystick in the left hand to control your walking while the rest of the body is left available to control the character's motion? The point of the Kinect is that you don't need a controller--your body is the controller. Voice commands? Tedious, unwieldy. DDR-style directional pad on the ground to direct travel? That probably would be complicated and tiring. For every idea I come up with, I can think of a reason it won't work. I guess it's up to the developers to solve this conundrum. Once they do, they can finally start making for the Kinect the types of exploration games I love to play.

So I don't leave you on a downer, how about a short little clip of Felicia Day playing Kinect Star Wars?
http://www.viddy.co/feliciaday/video/playing-star-wars-kinect


I didn't follow E3 that closely, since I was working all week, so I know I missed a lot. Let me know of any other awesome games I need to check out!

Neverwinter and more on Milo

These are last month's news, but still worth mentioning.

Back in June 2009 I mentioned the news that Atari's Cryptic Studios would be developing a new Neverwinter Nights MMO. Atari has now announced that "Neverwinter" will be released late 2011 (Variety - Technotainment). It is not going to be an MMO, but it is described as an online multiplayer RPG. I imagine it may be something like Guild Wars or Hellgate: London, where you can see other people in town, put together a group, and then go adventuring in a private instance of the explorable areas. The story will be based on an upcoming trilogy by popular D&D novelist R. A. Salvatore. The story will take place after the events of Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2, with poor Neverwinter (seemingly as always) in a dangerous state of disarray. Hopefully Cryptic Studios will do a good job.

I've talked about Microsoft's Kinect/Project Natal a number of times on this blog, and I've mentioned that I was particularly impressed by the Milo demo at E3 2009. In that demo, Milo was a little boy who interacted with the player in very impressive ways: He recognized the player, would comment on the color she was wearing, could recognize many words as well as detect and react to the tone in her voice, and could even be "passed" a drawing she did as she held up her real-world drawing to the Kinect camera, which copied it into Milo's virtual world. But even as E3 this year showed off the Kinect, to be released before Christmas of this year, we saw no more of Milo. Until recently (Variety's Technotainment).

The technology has come along. Apparently Milo's artificial intelligence lives in one place (rather than being copied many times to each separate location?), so that his interactions with each individual player can help refine future interactions with every player (and maybe lead to world domination). There is now a more apparent user interface, and a sort of plot: Milo has just moved from the U.K. to the U.S. and doesn't have any friends yet, so he dreams up the player as an imaginary friend. I think it's all pretty amazing. It's not clear when we might see a game based on Milo, but hopefully they're going somewhere with this technology so we all can have a try at being Milo's friend.

Peter Molyneux did a recent TED talk showing off Milo's development. Check it out:

A bit of the future...

I recently came across this TED Talk:



OMG, we're on our way to a frakking Holoband! OK, so we're a ways away still from the Holoband, but controlling a computer through thought is an important step towards virtual world-creating technology like the Holoband, the "headspa" or whatever it was in Minority Report, and similar sci-fi gismos (I'm not so sure about the holodeck, since I think the person actually walks around in a holodeck, but you get the idea). This Emotiv EPOC seems like something out of science fiction, but here it is right now.


Holoband.

Some of you may remember how excited I got about the Kinect. This seems considerably harder to use (so much concentration), and it doesn't have as many current applications as the gaming system will have once it comes out, but IT READS YOUR BRAINWAVES! It's one thing to wave your arm and have an image on screen move in front of you. That's pretty cool, but it's pretend telekinesis, since it's your arm movement and not your mind directly controlling it. But to be able to make it move with just a thought? Real telekinesis. In a virtual world, sure--unless you then have another application on the computer that will move an actual physical object. And there's something appealing and satisfying about having to concentrate and train yourself to control the program. Using the Force takes focus and practice, after all.

I definitely see there being applications for handicapped people, particularly as the technology is further improved. But I am awfully tempted to buy one just because. Just because my old-fashioned brain is having trouble believing it exists. And just because I've always wanted telekinesis.

I want a Kinect.

E3 this week has brought a flurry of exciting news, not the least of which revolves around reveals of the new Kinect. It's hard to believe that it was over a year ago when we were first introduced to Project Natal, a device for the Xbox 360 that uses motion capture as well as voice and face recognition to turn YOU into the game system's controller. I was excited then at the possibilities this technology promised, particularly with the "Milo" demo. Now, it has an official name (Kinect), a release date (November 4, 2010), and a number of games they're showing off at E3 (where lucky people get to try them!) and in promotional videos.

The stage demo for the Star Wars game was underwhelming (it was so...staged), but I have high hopes that the actual game will deliver. I don't know how it will work with lightsaber fighting if you can't feel the contact with the opposing lightsaber, but I look forward to doing some Force throws. The sports games look fun enough that I actually might be inspired to work out. I don't really see myself playing Kinectimals, and the name is pretty weak but, uh, the tiger is awfully cute.

You can find tons of promotional videos on their website; somehow, though, there still aren't enough of them. Check out the videos where such cool people as Chris Hemsworth, Zachary Levi and Josh Gomez, and Felicia Day give the Kinect a try. Felicia Day, as ever, is my hero:

"I can't wait to, like, throw a fireball like that." [Does fireball throwing motion.]


Yes! My thought exactly. This would be so perfect for a fantasy game--one could use hand movements and/or voice commands to specify which spell to cast... Just picturing it makes me squeeeee! Game developers, get on that.

The Housemate and I are already making plans to get an Xbox 360, and we've upped the size of the TV we plan to buy so we can better "get in the game". And on November 4, I'll totally be there.