By Joshua Simmons:
Day 1 Impressions From the Show Floor :
After the Nintendo and Sony press conferences, I had the chance to roam the show floor. I decided to start with the West Hall, where I was immediately greeted by the Capcom booth. Although I wasn’t able to try out the Marvel vs Capcom 3 demo today, I did get a chance to get my hands on Dead Rising 2. They were demoing the single player campaign today, which little has been seen of until now. The controls were largely unchanged from the original with the main character able to pick up and use just about anything as a weapon. Not much was divulged in terms of plot other than that once again we found the hero trapped in a shopping center, presumably in Las Vegas, full of zombies. I did notice that the graphics, on the other hand, have seen a major face lift with a much larger number of zombies appearing on screen at once. Overall, the demo felt familiar and more of the same, but that’s certainly not a bad thing given the critical success of the first Dead Rising.
Making my way out of Capcom, I found myself at the Sony booth, and in line to try the much anticipated Killzone 3. Having frequently played Killzone 2, I was able to see what kind of changes Guerilla had made to this latest iteration. So, since already possessing a general sense of traditional FPS ground combat, I decided to jump into the jetpack demo level out of the three selectable. Immediately I noticed the controls had been tightened, and were more responsive than ever while still maintaining a realisitic sense of weight that was unique to Killzone 2. Of course, weight doesn’t matter when you have a jetpack.
Although it seems like everything has to have a jetpack these days, it really felt like Guerilla had made it their own in Killzone 3. The controls took a moment to get used to, but soon I was leaping and gliding from icebergs while gunning down Helghast with my mounted gatling gun. I really enjoy the unique design they have created for their jetpacks, and the fact that they almost change the design of the game to that of a platformer. Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to playing the full game later this year.
Finally, having finished trying Killzone 3, I moved on to the Playstation Move booth. Playstation Move is Sony’s push into the motion controller market by using a combination of the Playstation eye camera and the glowing orb-adorned Move controllers. The Playstation eye tracks the glowing orb and constantly knows the location of the players arms, as well as track even the most subtle of movements.
At the booth, I was able to give the Move a try by playing the Archery level of Sony’s Sports Champions. Although initially awkward to get used to, the Move gradually became more familiar after every arrow I fired. The game works by holding one controller out like your bow then taking the other over your head, while holding the Move button down, as if to grab an arrow from a quiver on your back. I was amazed to find that the game tracked this motion fairly effortlessly. After grabbing your arrow, it’s as simple as mimicking the motion of stringing and pulling back your arrow, aiming, then releasing the Move button, as if the string itself, to fire. Needless to say, within moments I was firing volleys of arrows with ease and precision while greatly enjoying the experience. I walked away from the Move booth blown away, and salivating over the future possibilities of playing medievil action games with the Playstation Move.
The Playstation Move will be available September 19th in America, and I highly recommend picking it up to see for yourself. I didn’t have much time to see a whole lot else today, but I think I will attempt to brave the lines tomorrow and check out the new Nintendo 3DS, as well as play the new Zelda and post my impressions then.