Game for more
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| The Sony Play Station Portable. |
By Billy Teo
June 9, 2004
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) held last month in Los Angeles proved to be a trend-spotting exercise. Computer Times sniffed out the major trends of the show
Long queues of eager fans queued up to try the new generation of portable gaming devices like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP).
These were the stars of E3, the world's largest trade show for the electronic gaming and game development industry.
This is where game developers meet the hardware guys to 'marry' their games and game devices.
The big boys were there, including new hardware vendors like Nokia whose N-Gage game player-cum-cellphone has been repackaged into a new device and replenished with a bigger games library.
But some excitement was created by little-known devices such as the Gizmondo (www.gizmondo.com), a Windows CE-based gaming device-cum-mobile phone with multimedia and communication features including Bluetooth.
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| Clockwise from top left: The Apextreme; the Phantom console; Fans wait for their turn at the Xbox Doom III booth; the Nintendo DS.
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The Pocket PC-like device has an ARM9 400 MHz processor and a 64-bit graphics processor.
So far, the three games that have been announced for it are Stuntcar Extreme, FireHammer and Super Drop Mania.
Then there is the Tapwave Zodiac (www.tapwave.com). Think of a Palm OS-based PDA (personal digital assistant) beefed up for gaming and multimedia.
It has a tiny joystick and several games designed specifically for it, and a port for Doom III.
Prices for the Zodiac start from US$299 (S$509). It is powered by a Motorola i.MX1 ARM9 200 MHz processor and an ATI Imageon W4200 graphics accelerator.
Tapwave will release up to 10 unique game titles including a port for id Software's Doom II, along with several other Palm-compatible titles.
Meanwhile, mobile games also look set to get more sophisticated. Developers like Jamdat Mobile and GameLoft, for example, are developing a mix of Java and Symbian-based games for PDAs, smartphones and the Nokia N-Gage.
The other consoles
In the game console arena, competition is heating up. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, who are looking over each other's shoulders now, should investigate other manufacturers who are quietly aiming to get a slice of the market.
The Infinium Phantom will be launched in November. Unlike Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PS2, it will not come with any DVD drive. Its developer Infinium Labs will sell the content and the gaming service, not the set-top box.
So, games have to be downloaded to the console, which will be offered free in a cable-TV like subscription package, costing US$29.95 (S$51) a month for two years. The device and accessories can be purchased for US$199 without a package.
The Phantom is powered by an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor and will come with 256MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. Graphics prowess is provided by Nvidia's GeForce FX 5700 Ultra chip.
Several hybrid game consoles from consumer electronics manufacturers like Apex Digital, Onkyo and even PC manufacturer Alienware will also provide competition.
Basically, these use the DISCover technology that lets PCs automatically install and launch PC games without any prompting.
The Apextreme (US $499) from Apex Digital looks - and works - like a DVD player- cum-game console but runs on a Windows XP embedded operating system.
It is powered by an AMD Athlon XP processor 2000+ with 256MB DDR-RAM and a 40GB hard drive and has a ready library of thousands of PC game titles.
Microsoft scores big
The Microsoft Xbox managed to retain a huge presence in the publicity stakes. One key development was Electronic Arts' public support for the Xbox Live service - the next wave of EA games for the Xbox will support online gaming on the Xbox Live service.
So, Xbox gamers will be battling each other for soccer supremacy in Fifa Football 2005 or global domination in Battlefield: Modern Combat by the year-end.
EA's Xbox Live support should increase the number of Xbox Live gamers worldwide to beyond Microsoft's current estimate of one million.
On the software front, hotly anticipated titles like Halo 2, Fable, Jade Empire and Doom III were demonstrated.
Another attraction was the playable demo version of Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, the sequel to the acclaimed role-playing game last year.
Other initiatives include the launch of an Xbox Live arcade game download service that will offer puzzle games and even Mahjong for older gamers.
What takes the cake is a video-call feature to be implemented on the Xbox Live service in future, using a web-camera attached to the Xbox.
WAR IS BIG... AND SO IS ROLE-PLAYING
A general tour of E3 revealed war inspired games from several eras. Some upcoming war-themed titles, covering a variety of genres, include:
America's Army: Special Forces Battlefield 2 Battlefield: Modern Combat (game consoles) Brothers in Arms Call of Duty: United Offensive (expansion pack for PC) Call of Duty: United Front (for consoles) Full Spectrum Warrior Pathway to Glory (for Nokia N-Gage) Star Wars: Republic Commando (game consoles) Star Wars: Battlefront (game consoles)
It is no fantasy: there are several new and upcoming MMORPGs (massively multi-player role-playing games) that will tempt you to spend a lot of time and splurge on monthly subscriptions. Among them are:
City of Heroes and City of Villains EverQuest II Guild Wars Lineage II Pocket Kingdom: Own the World (for Nokia N-Gage) Tabula Rasa Vanguard: Saga of Heroes World of Warcraft
WATCH THE GAME, PLAY THE MOVIE
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| Play the game based on Vin Diesel's movie The Chronicles of Riddick (top) or Shrek 2. |
Fancy being Van Helsing the monster killer - and look like movie star Hugh Jackman in your very own movie? Well, here's the next best thing - play the video game inspired directly by the movie.
This year, any major summer blockbuster release worth its salt has a game tie-in for movie-goers who are also avid gamers.
Even the Vin Diesel movie, The Chronicles of Riddick, will have a prequel of sorts in the form of a console game subtitled Escape from Butcher Bay.
Older movie buffs will also enjoy seeing the return of old James Bond villains like Goldfinger in the upcoing EA shooter, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.
Movie buffs who want to relive their favourite movie moments can now do more than just rent the DVD release.
Question: Which of the following movie releases have a tie-in game?
Catwoman Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Shrek 2 Spiderman 2 The Chronicles of Riddick The Incredibles Van Helsing
Answer: All of the above! In 2005, you can look forward to more lightsaber antics in games based on Star Wars Episode 3!
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