E3 2006 Preview May 05, 2006 John JCal Callaham

Overview

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Before the madness hits, FiringSquad decided to post up an article about just some of the games we are most interested in seeing at E3 this year. Keep in mind that this list is not complete by any means and that some product announcements are literally kept under wraps until the expo officially starts up on Wednesday. Throughout this article we will also post up a few responses from industry professionals about what games they will be showing at E3 and what games and products they are most looking forward to seeing at the show.

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PC Games

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Crysis – Developers Crytek have a brand new graphics engine, a brand new publisher in Electronic Arts and a brand new game in Crysis which from previous descriptions looks like a cross between Crytek’s last game Far Cry and War of the Worlds. Rich jungle settings, aliens and lots of stuff to blow up; that’s the kind of game any PC fan would be interested in.

Spore – Will Wright’s latest original game has generated much speculation since its surprise announcement back at GDC in 2005. Now Wright and publisher EA finally plan to reveal this unique looking mix of sim, RTS and space strategy title to an awaiting public. Will it truly be the revolutionary game that so many other people believe it should be? We will finally get some answers to that in a few days.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars – id Software may be busy with their own unnamed and original game at the moment but the first person shooter creators will still have a presence at E3 this year with this sci-fi multiplayer title that’s primarily being developed at Splash Damage. You get to battle the Strogg in massive outdoor levels with lots of weaponry and vehicles on both sides. Sounds like a plan to us.

Battlefield 2142 – EA and developer Digital Illusions break out the fourth game in this ground breaking multiplayer shooter series at E3 and this time it looks to the future with cool weapons and even mech battles. But is this just a souped up Battlefield 2 total conversion? At E3 we hope to get some answers for you.

BioShock – Developer Irrational Games plans to show off this “spiritual successor” to their acclaimed System Shock 2 at E3 this year. You are in an underwater base, you have upgradeable weapons and abilities and people are coming to get you. Hopefully the lessons learned from System Shock 2 will make this game just as memorable.

Unreal Tournament 2007 – It’s Epic Games, it’s the Unreal Engine 3, it’s the latest game in their huge selling multiplayer shooter series and it may be the game that’s the “killer app” for the AGEIA physics processor. What more do you want?

Supreme Commander – Gas Powered Games has been working on the Dungeon Siege games for some time but now the developer and publisher THQ plan to head to the sci-fi RTS route with this highly anticipated title. Considering that Gas Powered is being headed up by Chris Taylor, the mind behind the classic title Total Annihilation, this is especially one to watch.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – So you have this MMORPG that has been on the best selling PC game lists for well over a year. Now you are working on an expansion for the game. You don’t think this Blizzard product will be one of the big games at E3? You are clearly not a gamer?

Command and Conquer 3 – After working on two back to back Lord of the Rings RTS games, the folks at EA LA are finally bringing back one of the game franchises that helped to start the RTS craze in the first place. The big question? Will this title in the sci-fi themed series bring in new fans as well as please long time fans of the franchise?

Neverwinter Nights 2 – Atari may be having some financial problems but that is not stopping them from releasing this follow-up to the acclaimed D&D RPG series. At E3 we hope to get some idea if developer Obsidian Entertainment can follow up on the shoulders of BioWare’s original title.

Lord of the Rings Online – Turbine Entertainment is set to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world to the MMORPG space later this year via publisher Midway. Will the massive army of Tolkien fans old and new gravitate to this game? At E3 we should get an inkling to that answer.

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Console Games

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Last year the Xbox 360 debuted at E3 but only a few playable titles were shown. This year there should be a ton of Xbox 360 games and we hope (pray even) that there will also be playable Playstation 3 and Wii games at the show as well (we will try not to snicker too much at the Wii name at Nintendo’s booth..honest)

Killzone - Remember that cool E3 movie last year of this PS3 exclusive sci-fi shooter? Remember how it was quickly exposed as pre-rendered? Well we are hoping that at Sony’s pre-E3 press conference on Monday we will get to see some actual in-game footage..fingers crossed.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – Technically this long awaited game in Nintendo’s fantasy franchise is a Gamecube title, but we hope that at E3 we get the word that this will not only be playable on the Wii but that it will have some “revolutionary” gameplay to go along with Nintendo’s new console.

Red Steel – UbiSoft plans to release this Nintendo Wii exclusive first person shooter for the launch of the console. Having a wireless controller control the gun’s movements on screen is certainly nifty sounding but will it be a good game or simply a fancy version of a light gun title? Stay tuned.

Dead Rising – Brains at the mall. Capcom’s Xbox 360 title already has us excited about going through literally hundreds of flesh eating monsters with anything we can pick up and the game will make you look good doing it as well.

Turok – Buena Vista Games takes over from the former Acclaim on this fan favorite console first person shooter series. It will use the Unreal Engine 3 and we hope that the super violent themes of the original games stay intact here (two words: cerebral bore).

Gears of War – Epic Games’ brand new game franchise is still one of the most highly anticipated games of the year and we hope to get some true hands-on time on this title at E3 this year. After all no one wants to just watch people shoot impossibly huge monsters alone.

Mass Effect – Yet another Xbox 360 exclusive title is this sci-fi action RPG from developers BioWare, who created the hit game Star Wars: Nights of the Old Republic. Will this all new original games keep up the BioWare standard.

God of War II – Why are we pumped up about a PS2 game being shown at E3? Because it’s the sequel to only one of the most over the top violent action adventure games of all time, that’s why. Oh and there may be sex involved (in the game that is).

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