written on Monday, June 8, 2009
It's not very glamorous, but much of what we see at PAX is simply the E3 demo, only a few months later. I don't mind. I'd rather developers worked on the games than cranking out a bunch of demos. Plus I can now look at the E3 coverage and pick what I want to see.
Bayonetta is a must. It's the creator of the original Devil May Cry making a new action game with a transforming protagonist, who happens to be female. The concept and early trailers seemed exploitative enough that I might pass on the whole thing. But subsequent gameplay trailers and enthusiast press comments make it seem not any worse than God Hand. We'll see.
What I've seen of God of War 3 is pushing different boundaries. There's disemboweling and slowly ripping a man's head from his shoulders. I've heard the combat's improved to the point where the game may finally step out of the shadow of DMC, but when I was watching the head ripping my impulse was to stop pushing the button and fail the event. Kratos, you've got huge knives chained to your wrists. If you need his head for something, just cut it off and be done with it. It used to be cartoon violence. Now it looks like real violence, and I suddenly find myself looking at Kratos with disgust.
That may sound weird considering I was recently enjoying the gore in Killing Floor, but those are monsters, and they don't suffer. The guy getting his head slowly ripped off suffers. Maybe he was really bad. Maybe I'll find out first hand.
Other games I'm interested in getting a look at:
Red Steel 2 - It's the only Wii Motion Plus game I'm interested in playing.
Lost Planet 2 - The original was a fun, if slightly cumbersome, action game. The sequel apparently features co-op giant monster hunting. Monster Hunter is a super huge franchise in Japan. If Capcom makes this a more action based take on that concept, (No grinding please.) it could be fun.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - It's a very different Wii take on the original Silent Hill, which was the only Silent Hill game I really enjoyed. They're trying a lot of changes to the formula. There is no combat, which on paper is great because Silent Hill combat sucks. But I'm not sure they can make a game out of running away. Also, the way the player answers some questions at the start determines what their monsters look like. I'm curious.
Scribblenauts - It's a game where you type in the name of an object, and it appears. Then you use the object to solve puzzles. I'm actually a little leery of the concept, but people have been going nuts about it at E3.
Finally, there are some games that may not make it to PAX that I would love to see.
Borderlands - It wasn't playable at E3, and it's supposed to be out in October. Gearbox is a small developer. I don't think they'll have time to polish a demo and still ship a good game when they're supposed to.
Brütal Legend - It's been playable, but it is also due in October, is from a fairly small dev, and is being tied up in court by Activision. I'll wait to hear more details about the legal battle before making a final judgment, but my gut says Activision is evil and must be destroyed... possibly by Kratos.
Heavy Rain - I don't know why, but I don't think Heavy Rain will be at PAX. But a lot of gamers are skeptical that an entire game based around Quick Time Events can work, so the game definitely has something to prove.
Just Cause 2 - You remember that video I posted of Just Cause 2? Well it's good that you don't because this one is so much better. It's ten minutes long, and it's worth watching the whole thing. But it's not out until 2010, so it won't be at PAX. I just wanted an excuse to post a link to that video. It makes it look like you get to be Spider-Man with a rocket launcher. Now it just needs co-op. :)
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