Falchion's Edge

The biggest Exposition of the computer gaming industry – The Electronic Entertainment Expo has just ended today in the States. This annual event usually is where the developers and publishers gather to showcase their latest and up-coming titles, and thus is a good way to gather an overview of what computer games to look out for that is coming out in the next one or two years.

With the recent burst of growth in console gaming (caused by the release of the Xbox which shook up the whole sub-industry), E3 has been dominated by console gaming in the last two years. This year is no different what with the announcements of the next generation of hardware from Sony and Nintendo. Namely the PlayStation 3 and the Wii respectively (yeah that is the official name of the Console. No I don’t like it either).

Having never been much of a console gamer, most of the news concerning said devices don’t really interest me. As thus, it can pretty much summarized by saying that Sony has dropped the ball in terms of pricing and that the Wii actually stole the show with proper innovation as opposed to the usual rehashing and the one-upmanship that usually runs rampant in the industry.

Anyway, onwards to the real story! My personal picks of games shown at this years E3 to look out for.

Single-Player:

• Spore

And well that pretty much sums it up. No other game comes close to the pure innovation and free-form play that Spore will provide. Just the concept alone is awe inspiring.

Taking a single-cell from Ooze to Space over the areas of 5 stages where the gameplay is totally different from the others, enough for each to be game on it’s own. And yet have actions and choices that where made at each stage, effect and twist gameplay in the next stages. On top of that, it provides truly free-form editors for creatures, buildings and even flora. Truly it has to be seen to be to understood. Can find the video here.

Mutliplayer/Online games:

I’m a huge online gaming junkie. Maybe it’s because it makes me believe that I’m actually interacting with people. In any case, I already have quite alot on my plate currently in regards to this genre. But this year it seems like there is a big push for Free online games supported by micropayments. The big name moving into this is NCsoft with their re-visioning of their plaync.com portal, that will offer 4 games that will be free to play and download. Of the 4 announced, only 2 interest me: Exteel and Soccer Fury.