SPOnG's just returned bleary-eyed, hungover and generally as happy as a pig in shit, after two glorious days of gaming and hobnobbing with publishers, PRs and developers at Microsoft's X06 shindig in Barcelona, and we can certainly report that the mood on the UK press bus home - even amongst the most cynical and hard-hearted hacks - was upbeat and very positive indeed.
Microsoft's well-oiled PR machine has certainly done its job, ensuring that we had our fill of great games (and some cracking cocktails too!) Indeed, it seems one young journalist was so over-awed with the entire experience, that he declared his undying love for a fine looking lady he had glimpsed going into the airplane toilet. But that's a different story. We are also glad to report that - unlike last time - no drunken journalists were missing-feared-dead-in-the-sea as we returned back to Blighty last night.
There were mutterings amongst some of the attending hacks to the effect of 'how can Sony top that?' How indeed? But that's also a different story, and one which we will be no doubt be reporting here on SPOnG if and when it happens.
At the end of the day (and other clichés - Ed) and successful PR schmooze-a-thons aside, it's all about the games, as Peter Moore constantly reiterated throughout X06. We told you about all the main announcements from
Microsoft's press briefing earlier in the week, but let's move on and look at the games, with links to all the latest assets and trailers for you too.
In the coming weeks, we'll be telling you much more about the personal favourites we managed see demos of and spent hands-on time with. Until then, what you probably want to know is this; Gears of War really is
that good. We took part in a few eight player deathmatches, and despite being crap and dying first almost every time, we were instantly and hopelessly hooked. So just remember this, if nothing else - 'Emergence Day' (otherwise known as release date) is November 17 in Europe.
We managed a quick catch-up with the game's designer, Cliffy B, the full details of which we'll bring you next week. One of Cliffy's main riffs on the game was the importance of keeping the controls as simple and intuitive as possible, which is exactly what the team at Epic has achieved. Overall though, what comes across way above the talk and the hype is Cliffy's infectious joy and love of playing and showing off his beautiful masterpiece. Soon he is going to need to buy a new house to store all the awards that this game is going to win.
After seeing and playing Gears, there was a slight concern that everything else may well just pale into insignificance in comparison, but as a little bit of respite from chainsawing aliens heads off, we then went and had a nice sit down and a cup of tea with the boffins from Rare straight afterwards, who gave us the latest look at and rundown on the sumptuous Viva Pinata - the 'broad reach' title which signifies the polar opposite to Microsoft's strategy to Gears of War.
We were beguiled, mesmerized, captivated and all other kinds of words which mean 'shocked and awed'. Children of all ages are going to want to play this game. It's Microsoft's Pokemon; Kiddycrack. The accompanying TV show is currently the number one kids show in America and it will be launching in Europe next year. Viva Pinata will undoubtedly be a massive, worldwide phenomenon. Mark our words.
Perhaps the most innovative title we saw at the show was Remedy's Alan Wake - a taut, highly original psychological action thriller coming exclusively to PC and 360, in which you take on the role of the eponymous Alan Wake, a best-selling suspense author suffering from a deep depression, who escapes to a small town to recover from the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée, Alice.
Now, whilst a mardy writer might not sound like the most gripping character for this 'cinematic action thriller', we assure you he is, and from the brief demo and intro cut-scenes of the game we were treated to, we cannot wait to find out more about Alan's frightening world, roaming around the immense 10 x 10 kilometer patch of the Pacific Northwest, stunningly recreated in the game by blow-your-socks-off technology at Remedy. alan Wake goes straight onto the must-play list.
In terms of the games from third-party publishers, the stand-out titles for SPOnG included Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft (see the X06 trailer by clicking on the links just below this paragraph); Tecmo's Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 ('a dirty, guilty pleasure'); Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition; and Eidos' Kane and Lynch: Dead Men from io Interactive, the Hitman developers, with its heart-rending story of two broken men, destroyed by drugs and tipped over the edge with crippling mental problems seemingly hitting a nerve with certain journos in the audience. We also learned that throwing grenades into packed nightclubs causes an incredible level of panic.
See the Assassin's Creed trailer here:
MPEG4 XviD (10.3MB)
Quicktime (12.6MB)
Windows Media (11.0MB)
Plus, we couldn't help have a quick play on the lovely, polished updates of old favourites, Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and Tony Hawk's Project 8. Indeed, some of the UK journalists at the show seemed to spend a lot of their time clustered around the too few consoles on which playable versions of Pro Evo 6 were available.
We also caught a quick glimpse of Guitar Hero 2, but it was being demoed on a stage, so we didn't try it out for fear of looking a bit silly (plus, we kind of know how it will play - just like Guitar Hero, but with better graphics and new music and a nice shiny new V-shaped white guitar controller - i.e., it will be amazing and also hopefully be wireless, more on which later).
