One thing that I don’t do too often is read press releases. One of our staff members, Bart Robson, helps me out by managing a lot of the emails that we get from publishers. I have to imagine that he was shocked and maybe a bit appalled when he first got access to the email account that we share and there were almost 3,000 unread emails in it. The problem is, while some of the emails probably had something substantial in them, the rest were generic press releases filled with lame industry buzzwords and no real content.
The same can be said for Activision’s press conference last night. While the majority of the games that Activision are releasing this holiday season and beyond are sure to be blockbusters, the whole event was just so painfully scripted and so full of just generic PR garbage that it was hard to sit through. When we were told that a comedian would be hosting the event at the very posh club that the conference took place at, I was kind of excited because I thought well, maybe he’ll tell some funny jokes. The only jokes that were made were the ones that the audience of heckler gamers were making at Nelson Diaz’s expense. After every game a developer talked about, he made a corny segue to the next game by trying to sound ultra-hip by mentioning how he “can’t wait to unlock the achievements” and stuff like that. It was terribly lame, to say the least.
To begin the show, the President of Activision, Mike Griffin, took the stage. His part of the show was clearly meant to appeal to the investors in the crowd. He talked at length about the strength of Acivision’s merger with Blizzard and what that does for their market share, how much Activision has grown over the years, and the direction the company looks to take in the future. To seem cool, he tucked away his DS as he took the stage, but it was clear that this guy didn’t know much about games when he repeatedly mispronounced “Wolfenstein.”
Griffin did mention a couple of games that weren’t talked about anywhere else during the show. The first was Singularity, a time-manipulation oriented FPS game developed by Raven software. The brief teaser-trailer showed some parts of the game. While it looks very pretty, that’s about all I can tell you as the cinematic trailer didn’t reveal all that much about the game. I just hope that if we can control time, it’s better than TimeShift. Next up was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, which will feature 24 characters and allow players to combine the powers of their heroes and villains to perform more powerful attacks. Again, not all that much was actually shown.
Call of Duty: World at War
We did finally get to take a closer look at some games closer to release when Mark Lamia from Trayarch took the stage to show off his team’s progress on Call of Duty: World at War. Set in the Pacific Theater using the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare engine, this game looks leagues above the disappointing Call of Duty 3. I was a bit unhappy when he mentioned that the campaign will allow you to play as both an American taking islands in the Pacific and as a Russian taking Berlin, however. Can’t Call of Duty just be done with Europe? I’ve been a taking Berlin for these people for years. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask any hard-hitting questions like this because no one was available after the show to speak. I will say, the new flamethrower looks fun, and being able to use tanks in multiplayer will probably significantly change the game’s online mode. Oh, and 24 fans will be very happy to know that good old Keifer Sutherland will be accompanying you through the game as he has signed on to voice one of the characters.
Spiderman: Web of Shadows
After Call of Duty and a painful visit from the comedian, we were then introduced to Spiderman: Web of Shadows. While the game looks very similar to the previous Spiderman games that the company has put out, the emphasis now is on flashy, comic action. Spiderman flips through the air with ease as he pummels crowds of foes. One boss battle looks to take place entirely in the air, as Spidey uses his webs to propel himself off the flying platform his enemy is standing on. I have to say, I was a little bored at the beginning of the demonstration, but during the boss battle they demonstrated, I became a lot more interested in the game.
Quantum of Solace
Using the Call of Duty 4 engine as well is Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond game set to come out with the release of the movie this November. We got to watch Bond as he infiltrated a hotel and the game looks very good. The peek-and-shoot cover system should work well with the new acrobatic style of the Bond movies. We were told that Activision has had access to the script, set and actors for nearly two-and-a-half years, so if this comes out and is received poorly, no one can say it was rushed. The game does look beautiful and the action looks fun. It seemed very natural when Bond crept down a hallway in third-person and the camera swooped into his skull for a first-person perspective and then back out to third-person when Bond did a silent hand-to-hand execution on an unsuspecting foe. It looks like this game will be very, very good.
Wolfenstein
A portion of the new Wolfenstein game was shown at this point, but really, there wasn’t much to say and I can’t think that it was even worth mentioning at the show. We basically heard “we have absolutely nothing to tell you about this game, but here’s some stuff about the old games.” It was revealed that the multiplayer that people loved with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory will be back in this game, however. It’s also apparent that the game will have beautiful graphics from the small teaser trailer we watched.
After this, it was all Guitar Hero: World Tour. I have to be honest: I don’t care about Guitar Hero and really haven’t played any of the games. Blasphemy, I know. I tried to keep up with what Brian Bright from Neversoft had to say about the game, but my lack of familiarity with the franchise definitely showed when Bright explained the features of the new guitar and I had no idea what he was saying. It appears that the new design is bigger and offers a star power button so you no longer have to jerk the guitar in the area to enter star power mode. Also shown off was the touch sensitive neck of the guitar, which should make things more challenging and the songs more elaborate.
A big emphasis was put on downloadable content. Apparently the new Metallica album will be available to download in its entirety for the game the day it is released. Bright expected some applause, but the room sat incredibly silent after the announcement. I guess the Metallica name doesn’t excite anymore. Bright gave some weak applause and moved on to discuss some of the other features of the game. Basically, though I might be wrong, it appears that they’re simply taking all of the good ideas from Rock Band and incorporating them into Guitar Hero.
Guitar Hero: World Tour
The drums were then shown off. Travis Barker, the former Blink 182 drummer, came out and talked about how realistic they were in a conversation devoid of any real information. The drums will incorporate technology in them to know how hard you hit them, which will increase their output volume. Also included is a MIDI input jack that will allow players to hook their real drums into the controller drums and use them in-game, which generated some applause from the audience. The music studio was also heavily touted, as the keyboard, drum, and guitar portions were extensively shown off. Even if you don’t have a drum set, it appears that you can awkwardly create the drum sounds by using the guitar, though it didn’t look comfortable. To close the Guitar Hero: World Tour display, members of the Neversoft Band came out and played Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher on expert mode, showing off the drums, guitars, and microphone in the process. I have to say, they were pretty good.
Our biggest problem with the conference was that Activision wasn’t talking to us like we were adult game journalists, but 12-year-old gamers. The whole show was horrendously scripted. It was clear that the developers were told what they could and could not say beforehand and that they were forced to memorize a script that they themselves didn’t write. None of them looked particularly comfortable on stage, and though the products that they were displaying looked awesome, their lack of enthusiasm combined with their general awkwardness with the scripted show made the whole thing boring to watch. While all of their games are sure to be hits, it was hard to keep interest in a such a rigid show that talked down to me the whole time.
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