home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Amiga Mag HDD Backup
/
Amiga Mag HDD Backup.zip
/
Amiga Mag HDD Backup
/
Alexander.img.bin
/
Alexander.img
/
***3⁄number 3
/
3 CES
/
CES Report -- My 3DO Experience
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-01-17
|
12KB
|
264 lines
Subject: CES Report -- My 3DO Experiences
From: mike@bend.ucsd.edu (Mike Lambert)
Date: 10 Jan 1995 17:32:04 GMT
Message-ID: <3eugak$qam@network.ucsd.edu>
Hiya. I just got back from CES, and wanted to share what I saw.
This post contains 3DO information (there is an Atari post in the
appropriate newsgroup, and I hope to make posts to the sega, nintendo
and misc groups as soon as time allows.)
To let you know where I'm coming from, I do own a 3DO and like it a lot.
My philosophy towards video games is that I don't care what system it's on
so long as it's a good game. I'm no company's advocate.
Everything from here on out is my opinion. Opinions were gathered from
watching, playing, and listening to other players and designers.
I had a very limited amount of time at CES, so on average I had only
a few moments with many of the games. This is so you take everything
with some reservation -- there's no way to measure depth of play
or lots of neato features. I think that many of my first impressions
are valid, but there are bound to be games that I mis-judge since I
didn't have lots of time to spend on any one.
Phew! Done with the disclaimers :) On to the games, generally in
order from good to bad, although not in a strict sense.
THE ALL NEW PEOPLE'S GAMESHOW
My favorite of the 3DO software, this is the sequel to Twisted, and
it really does improve on the original. The setting is still a
game show, but it is set in a country (I don't think it's Russia by name,
but it's certainly meant to be) where communism has collapsed and
capitalism has arisen. Lots of cold war humor.
The best thing about ANPG is the greater interactivity between two
players. In Twisted, to select a mini-game one person would select
row, then the other person would be handed the joypad and would select
the column. Here, both players can move the indicator window
simultaneously, with the mini-game being chosen when time runs out.
Much more strategy, as you have to guide the indicator to something
you like which stopping your opponent from putting you on something
bad.
The games themselves are geared to simultaneous play as well. The
rearrange-the-movie game is now split-screen, with *two* jumbled
movies. The winner is the person who reorganizes it first. The
concentration game takes on a new spin because any time one player
makes an error, the other player gets to take over! Trivia questions
are still there, but now the points go to the person who answers
first. This takes the concept of Twisted, and really improves it.
After awhile with Twisted, many of the challenges become too easy.
Since you're no longer being challenged by time or the computer, but
are instead up against another player, the gameplay has improved
a ton! I can't wait for this one.
The only downside I can think of would be the setting. Twisted was
immediately accessible to everyone, since just about everyone has seen
a tacky game show. While I don't think anyone will have a problem
"getting it", it may not be as accessible. ANPG is not ready yet --
I'd give it a few months. Personally, I find the setting and humor
a great idea, but I don't know if everyone will...
PO'ED
This year was the year of Doom clones. In my book, PO'ed is second only
to Descent, which is currently only on the PC. PO'ed is the best of
the Doom clones for the 3DO and it looks to be one of the fresher takes
on the 6 degrees of freedom Doom-like games. What makes PO'ed good?
Its level design actually uses and encourages those 6 degrees. Don't
laugh, but many of the games which allow you to look up and down really
never make use of those abilities! I can look up! Whee!
The level I saw of PO'ed was really neat. Rather than a twisty maze
or something I've seen on every DOOM clone in existence, it was this
weird suspended double-pyramid (small at the top and bottom, but wide
in the middle -- if you've ever seen the UCSD library, that's it :)
I liked the look of PO'ed and the originality put into a design that
all too many people are simply cloning. Looking forward to seeing
how this turns out! Plus, the guys at Any Channel were really
nice (Hi Nate!).
Release is for spring would be very optimistic, but we should see it
soon -- late spring or summer would be a safe bet.
RETURN FIRE
Okay, the graphics aren't the best thing in the world (small, but detailed,
and scrolling was a little chunky). However, this game looks to be *really*
fun. There seem to be lots of scenarios (I saw players controlling
helicopters, jeeps, and I never got the chance to actually play since
it was always busy -- a good sign!) and it is 2-player simultaneous (yeah!).
Add in a great score (Holst, Rossini, Wagner) and this looks like a
real winner! This one has my dollars!
DUNGEON (I think this was the title)
This one's for RPG fans, although I didn't get a real good feel for the
title. I played a little bit, in a battle against a character
(a nicely animated insect-thing). I don't really like turn-based RPG's
(preferring action-based games like Zelda or Landstalker), but this
looked to be a pretty good one. Lots of options, spells, weapons.
I can't recommend it seeing as I didn't see enough of it due to limited
time, but it is something to look out for!
SUPREME WARRIOR: YING HEUNG
Okay, this is out already but I was impressed :) When I first saw it,
I thought "Ick! Is *that* Supreme Warrior? It's grainy. And Jerky.
Yuck!" However, I watched some more, and then played. It's surprisingly
engaging, and the FMV is well executed. It's a hard game, but I think
I did okay given that I had no instructions :) The FMV, while not
Oscar quality, is pretty good, and there's lots of it. The gameplay
doesn't feel like your standard FMV/Dragon's Lair/One Choice or You Die
type game, and it didn't seem like the same thing over and over.
After seeing this, I'd definitely pick it up.
D'S DINNER
This is an interesting title. Combine The 7th Guest with Alone in the
Dark and you'd get something like this. Gameplay is like AITD, but
the visuals are all FMV, except for closeups of the main character
(a woman) who is all polygonish. The woman is nicely animated and
expressive. Downside is that the FMV is slow, although it seemed less
slow as the game went on. The game has lots of atmosphere, and
could be good. I hope that it speeds up a little, especially some
of the longer walking sequences and the response time to the controller.
POLICENAUTS
Color me confused. Based on what I saw, I hope that there's a lot more
to this game. All I saw were target-practice type shooting games
which displayed all the great graphics and eye-popping color of your
average Sega Genesis. I couldn't seem to access anything *but* this
target-practice mode, and some introductory FMV which seemed to have
a lot of stills. I hope this is an early version and I missed all the
good parts!
WING COMMANDER III
I've been awaiting this one since my PC does not have enough power to
run it. I was a bit underwhelmed, though. WCIII is supposed to have
3-D polygon enemies instead of the old bitmaps, but they sure look
like bitmaps when you get close (all blocky and ugly). I hope this is
only temporary. A coworker who has WCIII on his PC and can run it :)
says that the PC version never gets blocky like what I saw.
They have until March, I suppose :)
KILLING TIME (formerly TIME2DIE)
Another Doom clone, but not an exceptional one. This one looks
Just Like Doom (which may not be a bad thing, but there were all too
many games that look Just Like Doom at CES) except a little less so.
Killing Time was a bit darker, and harder to control. The game
requires precise aiming, but it oversteers, making it frustrating
to hit enemies. Either the movement needs to be more precise, or
it needs to auto-aim like Doom.
The enemies are nothing to write home about, either. I saw a
human (looked like a guy in a hunting outfit), a big red face thing,
and killer ducks. Yes, ducks. The ducks were cool (they really quacked)
and they exploded well, but the hunters were dull and they had
green blood. Hello, is this Nintendo? Green blood? The face-things
just sort of disappeared. Yawn. I realize that gore is not necessary
for a good game, but this looked dull.
DIGITAL VIDEO ADAPTER (MPEG)
Ugh. Now I know that an MPEG decoder is only as good as the disc it
is decoding. I hope that someone out there is able to tell me that
Star Trek II is a badly-encoded disc; otherwise, the MPEG decoder is
one big turd. There was artifacting *everywhere*. This is nowhere
near VHS quality, to say nothing of laser discs. I can't see why
anyone would want something of such low quality. And, if perchance,
ST II is a badly-encoded disk, *why* were they using it to demo
the MPEG adaptor? If Star Trek II is *not* a badly-encoded disc, be
*very* afraid.
READYSOFT (SPACE ACE, DRAGON'S LAIR II)
I get the feeling that these games aren't ready. The only playable version
of Space Ace I saw was on the Sega CD. There was an intro for the 3DO
version, but I didn't see a playable version anywhere. I saw neither
hide nor hair of DLII. I'm no longer holding my breath for these games --
I think it will be awhile.
PYRAMID INTRUDER and NOVASTORM
As far as I'm concerned, these two are the same game and equally as bad.
What is the excitement for these two? Both are shooters which overlay
sprites on top of FMV backgrounds. The sprites really stick out from
the FMV, making them seem tacked on and emphasizing the fact that the
actual "game" part is pretty hokey. The FMV backgrounds I saw weren't
that hot. Colorless and dull would sum it up. If you want an FMV
shooter, go for StarBlade over these dogs.
NO-SHOWS
No, that's not the title of a game :) Here's some of the stuff I wanted
to see but didn't: Mortal Kombat II (okay, so Bill Watters said it's not
coming -- I still want to know why!), Primal Rage, Doom, the M2 upgrade
(where was this -- it's supposed to be out later this year -- uh oh),
that Thayer's Quest based game, sports titles, -- oh, just about anything
really exciting. I liked what I saw, but nothing really blew me away.
OTHER STUFF
First, if you haven't heard elsewhere, 3DO was not located with
the rest of the video game companies. This seems to me to be a
very strange, even dumb, move. 3DO was as far away distance-wise from
the video-game displays as one could possibly be and still be located
in the convention center. In other words, you had to look for them
to find them, and you had to realize that they weren't with all
the other guys. 3DO needs visibility, and this isn't the way to
achieve it. Nearly every demo was of a game, and yet there were
probably many game players that never saw it since they didn't go to
that area.
3DO - listen up! Get Descent on the 3DO platform, and get it soon.
Descent was my favorite game overall at CES, and it is the best of
the Doom inspired games, taking the engine to new heights instead of
being a retread. Forget Doom, Doom II, Heretic, Quarantine, Killing
Time, and others of their cookie-cutter ilk. Bring Descent to the
3DO. It wouldn't hurt to get someone to bring a modem out for
network play, either. Descent would sell a lot of 3DOs, especially
if there was network play available.
If I had to sum it all up, I'd say it was pretty lackluster. There are
some good things on the horizon (ANPG, PO'ed, Return Fire), but there's
nothing amazing or really big. 3DO could definitely *use* something
big, what with all the competition, and it could have used a demo
(or even a Nintendo-style demo-*tape*) of the M2. Especially if
3DO want to face its comptetition head on.
Hope you found this interesting reading. I'd be glad to answer any
questions I can on any of the stuff I saw.
Michael
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Michael Lambert -- mike@bend.ucsd.edu
Pacific Communications Sciences Inc. / UCSD Linguistics Department
San Diego CA
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))