Welcome to this week's Gist List. Last week was an
interesting week in gaming, thanks to a flurry of April Fools jokes on just about every
major gaming site, compounded on top of the fact our first "E3 Outlook" game
(Elysium) was cancelled – Let's hope this week's game doesn't suffer the same fate.
But overall, there were a lot of new game releases last week because it's the end of the
financial quarter for public companies. So we saw titles such as Triple Play 2000, Warzone 2010, and
the new Commandos add-on game all ship.
April looks to be a quiet month for gaming, although the release of Team Fortress Classic any day now from Valve will no doubt delight
the legions of first-person shooter fans and Lands
of Lore III should excite RPG fans (We will review it
next week). But without further ado, here's the Gist of It:
Clash of the Mech Games
It has been years since games like EarthSiege
3 and Mechwarrior 3 began development – In fact I
remember almost two years ago everyone was prophesizing about which game would be the
ultimate champion of the mech wars. (For a bit of history, read my interview with the EarthSiege 3 team here). But alas, both games got
delayed and dramatically changed – EarthSiege 3 is
now StarSiege, and Mechwarrior 3
was totally re-developed by Zipper Interactive after FASA Interactive
was pulled off the project. Nevertheless, it's unfortunate that three big Mech games are
all due out within the next few weeks. StarSiege
just shipped; Heavy Gear II is weeks away from being
released; and MechWarrior 3 just put out an impressive online
demo. Although I'm not a huge robotic sim fan, it sure seems like these games are going to
step all over each other. Talk about bad timing!
Half-Life Uplink Demo
Ok, so I admit I'm a bit behind the curve on this one, but I
just recently had a chance to check out the Half-Life: Uplink
demo now that it's finally starting to appear on game magazine CD-ROMs. Well, I have to
admit that it's one of the most impressive demos I've played, in part because it is a
totally new experience above and beyond the full retail product. I've had enough of games
that spoil the first two missions in the demo, and then you have to replay them in the
full game if you chose to buy it. The bottom line is that this is one impressive demo. My
only question: Where's the add-on pack? After seeing all the intense action, speech and
story in the Half-Life demo, I want more!
Cavedog's Elysium
I should have known better. Last week our inaugural E3 Outlook game was Cavedog's Elysium, but by the middle of the day on Monday I had received a
note from someone who said their friend worked on the game yet was "removed from the
project" the week before – In other words, Elysium
was no more. Well, Cavedog confirmed what our source had told us on Friday, in an
oddly worded press release that said they were moving the team onto other projects to make
those games "even faster, more attractive, and more addictive to play."
Talk about trying to put a positive spin on things!
Nevertheless, I'm still excited to see TA: Kingdoms and their
first-person shooter/adventure Amen at E3 this year.
April Fools Jokes
Now I'm always keen for a good April Fools joke, but I have to
admit there were just a few too many this year on gaming-related websites, especially
those that are supposed to be reputable sources of information. I mean it seemed like
every gaming site out there had to at least post a couple of April Fools day stories. By
the end of the day I was just about fed-up surfing through all this fake news. A few
well-crafted April Fools day stories are fine – and they should be identified as such
at the end of the article – but enough is enough. Cavedog Entertainment had a
good paraody up on their site (minus any Elysium metnions), and you can check it out here.
X-Wing:
Alliance
Right before the rash of Star Wars:
Episode I stories hit web and print publications, LucasArts released X-Wing: Alliance, which is billed as the final chapter in the
X-Wing series. Whereas a lot of space combat games have tried to go for adding strategic
elements and intricate plots with dialogue trees and the such, X-Wing:
Alliance is just the right blend of story, strategy, and action. Although I am
slightly disappointed with the story – a soap opera like tale between two competing
families who fight for trade routes – it's nice to see another worthwhile X-Wing
title. If you were a fan of X-Wing or Tie
Fighter I urge you to pick up the game, despite the Episode I madness sweeping
across the nation. After all, it looks to be the last X-Wing game, if this letter posted by Larry Holland on the LucasArts website is any indication
– it's somewhat peculiar and reads like a goodbye letter to all the fans of X-Wing.
The $19.95 Game
Last week I had a chance to play a beta version of Microsoft's
new Baseball 2000 game, but what attracted me to it wasn't
the product per se, but rather the price -- $19.95. I've long held the view that companies
should try experimenting with lower prices for their games, especially those that aren't
epics of the scope of a Half-Life or Starcraft.
Sure, there have been $19.95 games before, but most of them are bargain bin fodder not
even worthy of being published. Baseball 2000 is the first
reasonable game I've seen that is a tremendous value for $19.95 – Some companies
could get away with charging full price for the title. As the gaming market matures I
think there is going to be a market segment forged for $20 games that are still a
lot of fun to play, just perhaps not the huge productions that really command a $50 price
tag.
After all, if we could buy some of these mindless shooter
games like Recoil or Rage's forthcoming Expendable for about $20, I think they would do fantastic at
retail. I applaud Microsoft for showing that $20 doesn't necessarily have to
equal Deer Hunter.
The E3 Outlook:
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Although I didn't get to see much of
Giants: Citizen Kabuto at E3 last year, I've been keeping my eye on this exciting new game
from Planet Moon Studios. One look at the colorful, zany screenshots are all you need to
get you interested in this game that allows players to control three different characters
– Sea Reapers, the giant Kabuto, and the airborne Meccaryns. Although I haven't had a
chance to actually sit down with the game, the developers make some exciting promises in
the materials I've read. For instance, the Sea Reapers are supposed to be able to foresee
attacks and use natives on the 30 island in the game to help collect resources. Added to
this is the recent news that X-Files composer Mark Snow
will write the score, and that just about seals the deal in my mind. We've got five
new screenshots of the game here and we will be
keeping a close eye on the game as it approaches its summer 1999 release.
And that's The Gist of It.
Your Ideas?
Do you have a suggestion about something that should be added to next week's list?
Is there a game that gist doesn't cut it or one that does it gist
right? E-mail gistlist@gameslice.com
and we'll consider your suggestion.
Thanks for reading!
Geoff
Keighley
Editor-in-Chief
GameSlice
