Some very encouraging news regarding Perfect Dark Zero, as told by IGN in a
first impressions report.I had mixed expectations; I\'m a realist. Games in development often have low framerates and shoddy AI. They\'re not done. Of course they do. Today, I saw a demo of Perfect Dark Zero running on a Xbox alpha kit (a PC) using an old ATI graphics card, not the final GPU from the Xbox 360, and was told the game was only using about 25% to 30% of the system\'s full power. And Perfect Dark Zero looked incredible. Incredible. It looked nearly as good as Gears of War, which, in my humble opinion is the best looking 360 game of the show so far (I saw that running in realtime too). So, simply put, Perfect Dark Zero shocked me.
Shocked, because I wanted to see this at the Microsoft conference. Shocked, because they hid a game that clearly does NOT look like merde. Shocked, because this looked like a real next-generation game, completely changing my perception I had temporarily formed based on the early screenshots. For whatever reasons Microsoft didn\'t want to show it, the game I saw looked like the game I wanted to play, and have imagined playing for years.
Speaking of which, Gapespot offers it\'s first impressions of
Gears of War, which will apparently be able to integrate Live multiplayer co-op into it\'s single-player game:
However, we did learn that cooperative gameplay would be a significant feature in the title--we were told that a second player would be able to bust into the single-player game at any time, either by picking up a second controller or even via Xbox Live. When asked for specifics about the number of co-op players the game would support, Bleszinski noted that the company was considering allowing up to four players at a time.
As for the gameplay, it\'s intended to combine the best elements of tactical shooters and survival horror titles--namely, the vicious action and "weapon lethality" of the former, and the tense pacing and freaky moments of the latter. Use of cover will play an important role in the game, as you\'ll be able to duck your head behind anything in the environment that could help keep you from getting hurt, and you\'ll even be able to make your own cover by kicking over tables, toppling pillars, and so on.
Finally, Gamespy give us promising (hopefully) news of
Sega\'s 360 efforts, including Condemned: Criminal Origins, Full Auto, Chrome Hounds (Said to be something of a mix between Rainbow 6 and Mechassault) and what appear to be 360-inspired re-imaginings of some of it\'s classic franchises:
The package described how Sega was going to be taking certain game genres to the "next level." First on the list was "Fighting." Characters from Sega\'s Virtua Fighter series were shown in their next-gen incarnations performing a variety of martial arts moves over a series of cycling backgrounds. Next up was "Shooting," which featured footage of an F-14 Super Tomcat locked in a furious dogfight over the ocean and through a mountain range. For "Horror," Sega showed off what appeared to be a next-gen entry to its House of the Dead franchise. For the first time ever, House of the Dead looked genuinely frightening. The hordes of zombies looked like they were going to step out of the screen at any moment and take a bite out of my throat.
As impressive as the presentation was up to this point, the development video reached a new high with its final entry: "Hedgehog." That\'s right, Sega wrapped up its next-gen presentation with debut footage of its fleet-footed mascot, Sonic. In the footage, Sonic squared off against an army of deadly looking robot drones. After racing away from an initial have of bots, Sonic found himself in a ruined temple face-to-face with a massive sentry bot. After narrowly escaping this encounter, our hero made his way out to an open field only to be surrounded by what looked like hundreds of the enemy robots, all of whom immediate opened fire. Sonic\'s escape from this situation defies description, but like the rest of the presentation, it proved to be a visual masterpiece.