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AICN Games: Monki Checks Out Activision's E3 Offerings! Guitar Hero! Call Of Duty 4! Spider-Man!!
Greetings humans, Monki here taking a look at Activision's E3 line-up from 2007.
And before you wonder, "Hey, I didn't think Monki was out in beautiful Santa Monica enjoying the free booze and food??" Well, you are right. Activision was kind enough to show off their line-up prior to the full blown E3 event...and that is where I got my free food and booze.
I caught an early peek at Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Enemy Territories: Quake Wars, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Bee Movie Game and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. I'll just go ahead and go down the list going over what I saw.
Bee Movie Game
Bee Movie Game is based on the movie coming out sometime this Fall starring Jerry Seinfeld. You are Barry B. Benson, a "normal" bee that eventually makes it out into the big world as he attempts to up his role within the hive.
We got an early demo of the game live where one of the developers walked us through a couple of stages. They started off driving around in the big Hive City environment. Drive...you say? Yeah...flying to a bee is like running to a human, you could do it, but it's not really looked upon as a necessity, therefore, you get to drive. Made sense to me.
The scale of this game seems pretty good. You are as tiny as a bee in a large city area with cars/animals/humans everywhere.
This one could be fun for the child in your life, or your inner child. Oh, and no confirmation of whether or not Jerry would be voicing the main character...but it sure did sound like him during the demo.
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
This was out of left field for me. I hadn't heard anything on this game until I saw the trailer and then saw the live demo at our press event.
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe pits you (as Spider-Man) against some of the classic villains from the three movies...and as you beat them, they become a part of your team. So, you can be running around with Dock Ock and Spidey whaling on bad guys.
The team behind it says they are trying to infuse a light-hearted approach to the game...more of a comic book style Spidey with witty dialogue and what not. Oh, and at one point during the trailer we caught a glimpse of both Harry as Green Goblin and his father as the Original Goblin...the ultimate Goblin duet. Insanity!
The game plays like a cross between the Ultimate Alliance titles and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. You get the wide angle on rails view of your fighter as they run around pounding away on the baddies. I'm sure we'll be getting more info on this one as it comes closer to launch...it could be kind of neat to run around with your buddies as various Spider-Man villains. Eh?
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
I'm a big fan of the old-school Quake. I remember the first time I loaded up that truly 3d first person shooter...spending time in the opening difficulty room staring at the rotating fire columns...jumping up and down...finding the armor in the "hard" area. And then starting the game. Quake brings back warm memories for me.
Enemy Territories: Quake Wars is such a radical leap from those golden days of slip gates and giant snowman looking monsters. In Enemy Territories you play against other online players in massive battles to accomplish various tasks. Humans vs. Strogg with all kinds of different goals on every stage.
Very much like Battlefield, the fighting is on a massive scale. If you want to run and jump in a vehicle, feel free to. If you want to go all stealthy and run around behind enemy lines and disable their shit...again, feel free to.
This is cooperative gaming on an enormous level. I can imagine teams that work well together and coordinate attacks could attack weak points for massive damage whereas teams that are scattered and only out to teabag could get pwned.
I'm amped to see this thing running on a 360 as well...I'm not sure what kind of online set up they will have, if the servers will be dedicated on Activision's end or if it'll be host driven. Hopefully it will be the former as I could imagine normal player hosts could cripple these massive fights.
Count me as interested on this one.
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
I started playing Tony Hawk back on my PS1. Then when the Dreamcast version came out I totally rocked that. The graphics jump was huuuge. Then Tony 2, 3, Underground, Wasteland, Project 8...I've played them all. Yes, I know every single new Tony game has pretty much been a map update with a few graphical improvements...but the gameplay is still solid.
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (the 9th iteration of the franchise) attempts to spin the whole storyline aspect of the game on it's head...or perhaps it natas spins it? (Zing!)
There are three distinct classes in the game, the professionals, the innovators and the thrashers. You pick your style of skating by the choices you make in the world. If you want to skate with Tony, you'll follow down the path of the pro, if you want to party with Mike V, thrashing it is.
I'm not sure how this mechanic will work as I'm sure most people will play through one type of class then go through and play the other two. Personally I've never been a huge fan of the "create-a-park" type modes that the innovator skill class will thrive on. I just want to skate shit, not build shit to skate...but then again I guess that is just my style.
New tricks this go-round include the "nail the grab" mechanic, which is just an update to Project 8's "nail the trick" (insert hooker joke here). Now you can control your hands as well as your feet and even go into a manual all while in the super-focused nail the trick mode. Pretty slick stuff. The level is based around some real-life skate areas throughout the U.S. as well as the classic "fun" stages like a sweet museum that you get to trash with Bam Margera.
I have, and will continue to be a fan of this series until we get up to the Tony Hawk's Retirement Home games.
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Any game that includes Tenacious D automatically gets a +2 in my book. Oh, and I have a promise for you...the next time I see "...goes to 11!" in an article, I will fly to that person's location and punch them in the face. I get it...Spinal Tap...awesome.
Guitar Hero 3 is the first Guitar Hero title developed by Neversoft after taking over the reigns from Red Octane (who got bought by Mtv). The formula hasn't changed...5 notes scrolling from top down, hit corresponding notes on your guitar, totally rock out.
The graphical enhancement on this one is freakin' awesome. It was shining brightly on the 360 we saw demoed. One level had your band rocking out in a strip club with two exotic dancers swinging around on poles as you played. The developers said that was a fun motion capture day. I can imagine.
Oh, and Judy Nails...well...she got some enhancements in this game. Wow. You'll have to see it once the game comes out, but she certainly seemed much more...uhm....Jessica Rabbit?
New to Guitar Hero is the heads up match play. Basically you play versus an opponent and instead of star power you receive different types of attacks. Some involved "cutting a string" where you had to pound on a fret until your note worked again, there was "amp overload" where suddenly your opponents notes would start flashing in and out, "double notes" where everything was doubled, "increase difficulty" which bumps your opponents level up, "lefty flip" which would swap your opponent to the opposite fret setup. All looked like fun and would bring plenty of chances to attack your best friend with a guitar.
To end the demo one of the lead developers came out, explained how he hates wires and proceeded to completely smash the fuck out of a Guitar Hero controller. I feared for Crecente (from Kotaku) and N'Gai Croal's (from Nesweek) lives as they were within shrapnel range. No one died though and the developer went on to say that there would be no more wires in the Guitar Hero series. YOU CAN'T STOP THE METAL.
I'm totally amped up for this one...get it.."amped" up? I slay me.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Holy shit.
Two project leads on this one walk up to the front of the room, grab the controllers, and just say "we're gunna go ahead and jump right in."
Lights go down, and Call of Duty 4 goes up. They are playing the opening level of the game where you have to find a nuke (or some other massive destructive weapon) on a big freighter in the ocean.
We're sitting in an open-door helicopter across from a guy who looks like he could be the grandson of the guy from Call of Duty 2 with the red beret. You know the one on the beach with the bottles of wine? I swear, same dude. Things are calm but chaotic as there is a lightning storm outside of the helicopter. Your teammates are all sitting around, shifty, nervous, and then you see the ship. It's big...real big.
The men zipline down and proceed to totally fuck shit up. Coordinated attacks with the AI on your team happen as you move from room to room just destroying these fools. Even the ones sleeping caught a bullet to put them down. A drunk enemy soldier has just enough time to raise a final toast before the developer put him down.
Then the alarms start going off and all hell breaks loose. We ran out on to the open deck of the ship where rain and lightning are pouring down around you and bullets are whizzing by your head. You watch your teammates return fire and proceed forward.
Eventually we make it down into the main hull of the ship to find whatever we were looking for is missing, and then it all goes to hell. The ship starts sinking. Motherfucking sinking. You have to haul ass back through the ship as the fucker starts rotating on your ass making pathways completely different from before. Make it to the top of the ship and jump the hell on to a helicopter to get out of there, just in time to turn around and watch that bastard sink.
Damn.
Call of Duty 4 blew the socks off of my feet. The game looks ridiculously good. Infinity Ward, who were behind CoD 2, are back behind the wheel of this one and all signs point to making this one of the best shooters on the 360.
They demoed some footage of you manning a large gun off of a helicopter at night, viewing the world in that black and white night vision mode. I swear to god it looks like something you'd see on CNN or Fox News. Insanity.
This game is going to rock all kinds of ways when it is released. The multiplayer has also been developed from day one at Infinity Ward. CoD 2 multiplayer was my drug of choice when I first picked up my 360 and I can only imagine that CoD 4 will only further my addiction.
This game is a must-buy in my books.
That wraps up my look at Activision's line-up at E3 this year. I'm pretty psyched but at the same time, kind of sad because it is going to cost a shitload of money to buy all the titles I want to this holiday season. Maybe Harry will start paying me for the lapdances he makes me give him to get into the special AICN events? Hmmmm? Oh well, I'm off to sell a kidney. Until next time, back up the tree I go.
-Monki
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+ Expand All
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hahahahahaha!!!!
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Jul 16, 2007 10:51:45 AM CDT
Too bad you couldn't see GHIII versus Rock Band footage
by grantchastain
To me, that's the true test of which game franchise gets my money. Put aside all the animosity these two groups obviously have for each other and tell me -- which one is going to be more fun?
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How about tomorrow morning you get up nice and early and pedal your Huffy down to the local Wal-Mart and wait there at 4am? Then you can be first there too! Won't your mom be proud? I'll be sure to ask her after we clean up the wet spot.
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Holy shit I'm first. Guitar Hero 3 looks awesome.
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I took too long to type. Call of Duty 4 looks great.
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Be interesting when it does come out how it compares to GRAW2. I personally loved GRAW but GRAW2 was better albeit too short for single player but much improved satellite control!
Loved CoD2 especially the big feel when on the beaches and attacking gun turrets it just felt big whlist CoD3 felt too restricted, better graphics but too linear and not the feeling of a vast battle field IMHO.
Look forward to this CoD4 especially with the CoD2 guys at the helm..looking sweet and if its as good as it looks then GRAW will have to raise its game for number 3 - sure looks good for us gamers!! -
Felt too fiddly, Rainbow 6 Vega was the nuts and am waiting for Crysis with baited breath. This does look like a well needed shot in the arm for the Call of Duty games with some stunning looking action sequences. Anyone know when it's out?Oh! and is GRAW2 a lot better than GRAW or just a wee bit because I'm tempted.:o)
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Does the Guitar Hero III guitar on PS3 have backwards compatability with Guitar Hero I and II??? Can anyone freakin tell me???
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What sucks is you buy GH3 and get a guitar, but then when Rockband comes out it's a different guitar with more features! The pics of the drumset look awesome though. They say that playing the drums in Rockband on Hard difficulty is basically learning how to play the drums.
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But Rock Band looks like it'll become some sort of gaming-music institution. It looks absurdly good. The druming looks cool, but apparently the guitar part alone is more advanced in gameplay (five extra fret buttons) and content than any previous GH game.Oh yeah, and there will be the ability to download entire classic albums to play on, the first of which is Who's Next, one of the greatest Rock Albums of all time. The only downside is the potential price, and the fact that singing part would probably be pretty embarassing. Still, I'm a drummer myself, and the drum part on expert should be able to teach people things actually aplicable to druming, which GH was never really able to do for guitars. As one of the developers said, if you can play the drum part on expert, you can prety much play the drums.
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"It goes up to eleven" is possibly the most overused joke ever. It achieved cliché status long ago.
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You beat (get it, beat?) me to it.
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I have all the major e3 trailers all gathered here. http://tinyurl.com/pv8do
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That's the one I'm waiting for. Out November.
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since sequels and games based on movies are so popular, why doesn't somebody get crackin on kotor3? i need something to take up 60+ consecutive hours of my life again.
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i couldnt see why you couldnt play the previous games, i mean the guitars are all the same right? same amount of buttons and all so i'd find it odd if you can't. so i'm sure PS3 owners will be able to play parts 1 and 2...and 360 owners will be able to play part 2. as for Rock Ban, it shouldnt be too expensive because one of the producers said you wont have to buy the whole band set, each instrument will be available individually. i'm sure there will also be package deals but yeah. the guy said u could just get the guitar then go online to find other people to fill the rest of the band.
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and Bee Movie Game is even worse.
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They went to big exposition to absolutely nothing. The LA convention center has dozens of unused rooms to conduct business in while the trade show is going on over at the main floor. I don't see why they felt the need to fuck with something that was a great spectacle. The problem is these game corporations are beginning to think they're great, unlike most of the games they put out every year. Seriously, how many truly great games come out in one year? Maybe one or two. Others are delegated to sequels and formulas that have become stale. The only game that anyone should look forward to this year is fucking Crysis. That game alone WILL BEAT THE SHIT out of you and your Halo sequels. Honorary mention goes out to Call of Duty 4.
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Crysis? You've got be fucking kidding me.
On topic, I am going to have no money for the rest of the year thanks to some of these titles. -
how much U have to pay your friends to play with you? =D
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*Ducks*
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...oh... Assasin's Creed looks pretty damn good too I guess.
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You do get the joke though right?
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For using "11" in an article yourself. Stupe.
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Coming on XBox 360 and PS3 ?
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I think it was rumored that Metal Gear 4 "might" get ported to the 360. My money is on that it'll get released some time well after it's out for the PS3 like they did with MGS 2.
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i liked the first guitar hero, but the second one was pretty stale. plus, the games still dont beat the fun of playing a guitar solo for real. maybe they could make a controller with like 2 or 3 rows, get some simple chord shapes in there to spice things up more. playing as famous lead guitarists is a nice touch though.
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and some of the soundalikes were pretty bad in GH2, heres hoping theyve got that down again.
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First video I've seen of Rockband. All instruments. Crap video (probably off someones phone), but it's something. http://tinyurl.com/377cgd
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