sum more stuff abt e3

Finally got over to see Mass Effect (Xbox 360) after missing a demo on Tuesday. Bioware is really pulling it out for this one. Gigantic galactic intrigue adds to a real-time combat engine, seamless squad control and a much improved visual sense. (Though anyone who's played another BioWare game would immediately ped ME as their product.)

We weren't shown much of the character customization, but did get to see a lot of the new interaction engine. Bioware is designing the game's dialogue trees so that they're tied to emotional responses. So the camera is closer to faces than in most games, and the characters look almost like film actors as they clearly emote their lines. I'd like to see even more emoting as the game nears completion -- a little exaggeration wouldn't hurt -- but the only game I've seen that comes close to Mass Effect's human modeling is the Heavy Rain tech demo, and this is much further along. Add the flexibilty of BioWare's trademark RPG structure and this comes out ahead.

The combat also looks excellent, especially since you can easily pause the action to issue placement and action orders to your pair of squadmates, who execute those orders with an AI that seems sharp.

The total package looks a lot like the game we've wanted from BioWare since the first KOTOR -- better combat with deeper character interaction and vastly updated graphics. It's a contender for best game of the show; hopefully we won't have to wait too long for it to hit the 360.

I know I'm supposed to be focusing on next-gen, but how could I resist the chance to spend an hour on the Guitar Hero 2 Gibson bus? Does the game rock? Stupid question. Does it rock harder? Absolutely. All my time was spent in the co-op mode, sometimes playing lead, sometimes laying down the bass and rhythm parts. Loved the option for each player to set their own difficuly, so I could jump in on hard while the guy I was playing with ran on medium.

So, the song list. Among the songs in the E3 build were You Really Got Me (Van Halen), Strutter (Kiss), War Pigs (Black Sabbath), YYZ (Rush), John the Fisherman (Primus), Psychobilly Freakout (The Reverand Horton Heat) and Who Was in My Room Last Night (The Butthole Surfers). Once again most were excellent re-recordings, but the Primus track is the real thing; there will be a handful of tracks licensed directly from the artist, which is an awesome step forward.

I slid through the YYZ bass part on hard but got absolutely shredded by Psychobilly Freakout's lead on hard. Functionally the game is the same, though the visual effects are more dense. It's not reinventing the game, just making it better, and there may not be another title I want to get my hands on more.

While I was at Midway's booth for Stranglehold I also jumped into UT 2007, and it looks amazing. I remember being at the store to by the first UT back in the day and being totally addicted. This one might catch me all over again. In part it's the increased reliance on vehicles. Purists might be irritated by the greater emphasis on vehicles this time, but footsoldiers can still do damage and cripple the largest tank if well placed. The Necrid walkers are impressive and when the massive Leviathan fires it's cannon, there's not much left standing.

I'd sorta put off seeing Stranglehold, as I wasn't that impressed by what I'd seen in the past. But after a couple people talked about how fluid the controls are, I ran over. And they're right. Controlling Tequila is really smooth -- loads of moves are contextual, like the table slide -- run into the side of a table and Tequila will slide right over it as long as there's a path on the other side. Running up bannisters and swinging from light fixtures takes barely more effort; just hit the interact button near almost any object and something cool happens.

I thought at first that the simplified controls and context sensitive moves would be robbing the player of experience, but they seem to enhance it instead, as you can navigate the environments so easily while mowing down dozens of men.

It looks great, too. There are some unpolished animations in this build, but the moves link together well and the destructible environments are fantastic. Shoot a darkened window and a shaft of light shines through; blow out a chandelier, then swing across the room using the still flaming chain. At the end of the level there's a flyover to show how much damage was done. I suggested adding a dollar tally to each bullet hit as an unlockable bonus, like in Burnout's crash mode. Don't expect that to be in the game, but it would make me so happy.

Hey umran,

If u want, ill make an entertainment forum, for movies, games etc. tell me, so tat u can post all this there.

Varun