If
there is anything I've learned from going to preview events like
X'08, Microsoft's annual holiday season preview event for all things
Xbox 360 (X for Xbox and whatever year it is), it's that I can't
possibly see over 50 titles in the six hours the event runs for. I
couldn't even get through the specific titles I went to check out.
I'm starting to think that Microsoft needs to consider extending the
event to two days, just so everyone can get around to seeing
everything, not that I actually expect that will happen. I'm just
throwing it out there, really.
I
did manage to sit down and try out a number of the games that I've
been looking forward to for quite some time, including
Gears
of War 2
,
Mortal
Kombat vs. DC Universe
and
Rock Band 2
,
and there were so many more titles there that made my
day. I started
out by taking a seat at the new Ion Drum Rocker in Electronic Arts'
Rock
Band 2
area.
I played my heart out to The Donnas'
New
Kid In School
and
Survivor's
Eye
of the Tiger
.
I wasn't actually expecting anything particularly different in the
gameplay aside from the fact that I now had to play with the cymbals,
if I so chose. I wasn't very impressed with what I saw with the Drum
Rocker. The drum pads were nice and quiet, had great rebound, and the
pedal was superb, but the cymbals didn't appear to work very well, if
at all. It could very well be that they were not set up properly, but
if people are going to be getting their first impressions of the unit
there, you would hope that they would make sure it was in top shape.
I was quite happy to see that the background during gameplay still
looked as realistic as in the original
Rock
Band
.
I find that to be a very important aspect of
Rock
Band
,
as it is one of the major things that sets it apart from the
Guitar
Hero
franchise,
especially now that
Guitar
Hero
has
drums and a microphone.
I
found it a bit odd that Electronic Arts decided to go with the Drum
Rocker kit to demonstrate the game instead of the official
Rock
Band 2
drum kit. If they went through all the trouble to improve the kit –
you'll hear Paul Morassutti from EA talk about all of the new
improvements to the peripherals in our video interview coming later
this month – why wouldn't they have it there? One new piece of
official
Rock
Band 2
equipment
EA was showing though, was the new guitar, which features a camera
and sensor so players can auto-calibrate the game to their television
while playing. It's a very cool feature, and a rather ingenious one
at that. I can say that I am still very excited for this game's
release this fall.
Since
we're already talking about music rhythm games, I may as well
continue by

A sturdy piece of work.
|
talking about
Guitar
Hero World Tour
.
Having already invested
more
than enough
time
with
previous
titles
in the franchise, I was quite confident in the quality of the guitars
already, and that confidence was reassured, but I wasn't so sure
about the drum kit,
thinking there might be similar weaknesses seen
in the original
Rock
Band
drum
kit. Those worries were soon cast away as I sat down and played Foo
Fighters'
Everlong
and
Bon Jovi's
Livin'
On A Prayer
.
After trying that kit out, I'm quite confident that it can take a
beating. I also tried out the singing for a bit, just to see how
Neversoft went about it. The constantly scrolling style looked a bit
odd, as the vocal track is essentially a constant rising and falling
line with bold areas where your notes are. I understand that the
non-bold areas were the parts left to make sure that switching from
higher to lower notes, or vice versa, is more organic, but I think
this would have been one area where the development team should have
completely followed the rest of the crowd and simply left the areas
where there are no words completely blank, leaving the areas where
singers have to quickly switch tones to as trails which calculate the
general accuracy of that switch. Between
Rock
Band 2
and
Guitar
Hero World Tour
,
I'd still go with
Rock
Band 2
at the moment.
Guitar
Hero World Tour
still
looks like its cheesy-styled predecessors. The drum kit may sway my
opinion, but I'll have to wait and see until I can size them up, side
by side.
I
tried out
Scene
It? Box Office Smash
for
a few minutes. I was rather pleased with
Scene
It? Lights, Camera Action
,
so I was excited to get a chance to test my hand at some fresh movie
trivia.
Box
Office Smash
appears
to have considerably simpler styled graphics than
LCA
,
as it essentially looks like the developers went with very “Wii
party game-style” graphics. It's just another clear sign of
Microsoft's attempt to get mainstream and casual gamers into playing
on the 360. I'm not going to chew them out for it. Everybody wants
market share. Aside from my slight gripe with the graphics in the
game, the gameplay was just as fun as in
LCA
,
so I think it will be something to look forward to when it releases.
It's one of those types of games that is very hard not to get into,
because it appeals to almost everybody and is easy to pick up. Even
if you say you don't like movies, it's probably because you just
don't like the offerings that are out there now. Trivia is still fun,
and the excitement that can build up while playing games like this is
contagious.
Next
came
Gears
of War 2
and
a short interview with Epic Games' Project Director, Cliff “CliffyB”
Bleszinski. Having never really played
Gears
of War
for
more than just a few minutes, I wasn't really sure what the
experience would be. We weren't allowed to play the solo campaign and
Cliff was so busy being interviewed that he wasn't able to run
through the solo demonstration with me. All that was available to be
played was a five-on-five COG vs. Horde battle where the objective
was to wipe out the other teams leader and then take out the rest of
the enemy team. I've never had so much in multiplayer combat before.
The game can only be called gruesome, but it's so much taking your
opponents down with a rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle or, better yet,
ripping them apart with a chainsaw.
After
a few minutes with
Gears
2
,
I
took some time to talk to Jerret West from Xbox about
Fable
II
.
Most of that time was spent with him running through the different
features of the gameplay, so I'm going to highly suggest you check
out the interview and gameplay demonstration videos once they are
online.
Fable
II
looks
like it's going
to be every
Fable
fan's
dream game. It's still got the classic “every action has a
reaction” gameplay, but now players can live through an entire
lifetime in game, from childhood to adulthood and on. Players don't
even have to go on quests if they don't want to. They could grow up,
raise a family and become average working folk. The possibilities
almost seem endless.
I
went on to Midway's area later on, to check out
Mortal
Kombat vs. DC Universe
.
I know this is likely a game that a lot of comic book enthusiastic
gamers have been wondering about and I will say one particular thing
about it. It really does feel like a
Mortal
Kombat
game.
The difference is that they have now added in some DC Comics
characters and some interesting new power moves and a close kombat
mode. I was, however, a bit surprised to find that Superman's close
combat move was a cheap shot knee to the groin. It didn't quite seem
right. It was pretty fun, though I'm sure if I actually knew how to
pull off some of the cooler moves, I would have enjoyed it a lot
more. If you're into fighting games, this will definitely be
something to check out. At the very least, it looks like it should be
a popular rental. If you're not a fan of fighters, I don't really see
this changing your preferences, unless you're into DC Comics.

Sonya Blade tries to put the beat down on Superman.
|
The
Midway rep also walked me through an Ultimate X match in
TNA
iMPACT!
,
a
match where two wrestlers have to climb up a cross section of ropes
to grab an X, or possibly a championship belt, from the middle of the
cross section. I've got to say, I'm not into wrestling or wrestling
video games myself, but it did look pretty cool. If you
watch TNA,
then I'm guessing you're going to enjoy this. The game features a lot
of motion capture,
so all of the moves, including the wrestler
entrances, are realistic. There will also be multiplayer for up to
three players, including play over Xbox Live.
Closer
to the end of the day, I headed over to the Ubisoft area to check
out
Shaun White Snowboarding
.
I ended up speaking to one of the developers from the
Naruto:
The Broken Bond
team,
and he did a quick run through of the game's demo. I must say this. I
don't watch
Naruto
on
television, I don't read the comics, and I don't play the card game,
but Wow, that game looked beautiful. It's got the perfect fusion of
cel shaded graphics on the characters and various other elements,
while still having regular 3D world design. It is visually stunning.
One of the cooler aspects of the gameplay in
The
Broken Bond
is
the team puzzles. Players will have to learn each of their team
members' strengths and weaknesses, and each of their powers to learn
the best way to solve each puzzle. It's not just an adventure game,
but a fighting game as well, and some of the moves players will be
able to pull off are just insane. Picture copying yourself 40 times
and having each copy attack one after the other, or in teams. Of
course, I don't know the characters' powers, but since they had to
stay true to the creators' original design, I can only assume that
these are the kind of moves the characters pull off in the show as
well.
I
finally got to check out
Shaun
White Snowboarding
and
was thoroughly impressed with what I saw. It did appear that there
were still some glitches, but it was clear that the game is coming
along nicely. It is visually impressive and the move set is pretty
large. The styles and number of events players will be able to
challenge themselves don't appear to be the big draw for this game
though. It seems online play will be stealing the show, because
Ubisoft is guaranteeing up to 16 players riding down the mountain
simultaneously, online, and the team is apparently shooting for even
more. Ubisoft actually consulted with Shaun White for the the game's
development, so they're going for the most realistic feel possible,
and it looks like they are really going to pull it off.
As
far as preview events go, X'08 had more than enough to offer. As I
said, I didn't even get to check out some of the games I came to see,
like
Fallout
3
,
Tiger
Woods PGA TOUR 09
,
Tomb
Raider: Underworld, Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts
,
Star
Wars: The Force Unleashed
,
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
and more. With everything I've seen so far, it looks like the Xbox
360 is going to have a very happy holiday season.