News from E3

[Glockstar]

Greatest Hits line announced! (requirements = 250 thousand copies sold and 9 months of availibility)
Five initial games: Ape Escape On The Loose, ATV Offroad Fury Blazin Trails, Hot Shots Golf Open Tee, Twisted Metal Head On, WipeOut Pure.
They didn't say what the price was... but you have to assume that they will be $19.99.


Tons of upcoming games announced and/or shown! For starters:
Ape Academy 2
Arthur and the Minimoys (movie based and multi-plat game)
B-Boy (Hip-Hop dancing)
Battlezone
Bomberman
Brooktown High: Senior Year (dating sim)
Coded Arms Contagion
Dead Head Fred (3rd person action/adventure)
Death, Jr. 2: The Root of Evil
Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics
Gangs of London
Gradius Collection
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Guilty Gear: Judgment
Hellboy
Hot PXL (mini/micro games)
Justice League Heroes
Killzone: Liberation
LocoRoco
Marvel Universe Trading Card Game
Metal Gear Solid digital graphic novel
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
Online Chess Kingdoms
Rengoku 2
Silent Hill Origins
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2
Sonic Rivals
Steel Horizon (Navy WWII simulation)
Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Talkman (Japanese and European language translator app/game)
Test Drive Unlimited
Thrillville (theme/fun park sim)
Traxion (hard to describe interactive music game)
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007
Winx Club: Join the Club
World Pool Championship 2007
World Tour Soccer 2
Xiaolin Showdown
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Planet PSP (Interactive travel guide; non-game)

[Gadfly2317]

So no good tactical strategy game that's not a movie tie-in (LotR) or Advance Wars rip-off? I wasn't surprised about the DS, but I'm surprised that there is not yet any Nippon Ichi support for the PsP, nor a Culdcept. :(

OK, edit. . . not to be negative entirely, gotta say I'm stoked about the Gradius Collection.

[Glockstar]

Culdcept!

No, it's funny you say that, because of all the games on that list I'm interested in (among them: Marvel Universe Trading Card Game; Online Chess Kingdoms (if only because it once had the words "battle chess" in the title); Talkman; Thrillville; Traxion; and Planet PSP), D&D Tactics definitely tops the cake. It's weird, because I've never gotten into the real pen&paper/dice game... but any D&D based vg immediately perks my interest. Ever since The Bard's Tale...

[Glockstar]

Wow, there's a bunch more titles I missed (and even with these I'm sure I'm still missing some):

Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light (3D RPG)
Gitaroo Man Lives!
Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony
Rush (yes, the racing series)
Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
Capcom Puzzle World
Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins
Metal Slug Anthology
Mortal Kombat: Deception Unchained
Every Extend Extra (music-based shooter by Q Entertainment)
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Earthworm Jim
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (action-RPG; part of the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" project - a series of games stretching across multiple platforms and media)


Off the first list, many begged for furthur elaboration... for the most part, E3 didn't dissapoint:

Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics
Dungeons & Dragons Tactics works on PSP so well because, although its "Tactics" name may strike gamers as a FF: Tactics or Metal Gear AC!D type game, the gameplay is essentially the same turn-based multiplayer gaming that pen-and-paper board game players have been rolling their way through since the '80s. Only here, it's presented in 3D. The game strictly follows all of the AD&D 3.5 ruleset guides, including weapon strike chances, encumbrance, etc. You can have up to six characters in you party (which in 6-player multiplayer can be individually assigned to each gamer), and tactical rules of turn dictate the initiative of who can move or strike when across the game field (you can also use delay of turn moves to help mitigate overuse of a turn). The battle map looks like any other large 3D role-playing game, complete with dynamic lighting, 3D rotation and zooming of the camera, fog of war disguise of unseen areas (especially in dark dungeons, where torches and light spells individually light sets of space) and detailed character models. However, when you choose a turn, the level floor draws out a grid of movement possibilities, thus the "Tactics" of the title. A menu pops up allowing you to choose attacks or actions or items, and inside each choice are further modifiers such as attack or full attack, magic, set to ready, etc.

http://pspmedia.ign.com/psp/image/article/707/707138/dungeons-dragons-tactics-20060510004234006.jpg

--IGN (05/12/06) http://psp.ign.com/articles/708/708322p1.html



Online Chess Kingdoms

E3 Trailer: http://media.psp.ign.com/media/801/801056/vids_1.html



Traxion
Hey, we've seen a game that plays along with your music in some way!! At the booth of Lucasarts (of all companies to do a rhythm-action game), an unassuming title called Traxion caught our fancy despite being very early. Developed by Kuju Entertainment, the game features 24 different ways of interacting with music, both tracks off of the game disc (a bunch of licensed and composed tracks will be on the UMD, with everything from rock to techno to jazz to whatever included as well as some famous names and upcoming artists) and tracks off of your personal ID3-tagged MP3 collection.

The variety of mini-games and interactive players is all over the place. The main one we saw in this demo was set up a little like Frequency, with a cursor flying through 3D space on a track, but instead of hitting the buttons, you weave around the line collecting baubles generated by the playing music (created from aspects such as amplitude, frequency, bass level, etc.) to create combos. Another sequence that we saw had a cartoon figure chopping musical notes assigned to any of the four gameplay buttons. There will be a drum kit to play along with. You can have your music play an interactive fireworks show. You get to play a music-based fighting game. There are music puzzlers. And on, and on, and on...

--IGN (05/11/06) http://psp.ign.com/articles/707/707999p1.html

[Gadfly2317]

Good posts Glock; I hadn't had a chance to wade through the PsP E3 coverage, and I get the idea that maybe you were highlighting my type of game. . . either that, or this is one of the occasions were our tastes overlap.

Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics sounds interesting. I haven't played the old style stuff since the eighties (not to date myself there.)

The other games that have convinced me to keep my PsP are Every Extend Extra, Gitaroo Man Lives, Metal Slug Anthology, and Traxicon.

As much as I want a new console, the handhelds fit my lifestyle better, and I'm glad I held onto the PsP. I almost got rid of it, and I'd be regretting it.