Reflections from PAX: Sony

From Sept. 4-6, I was in Seattle at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a gaming event open to the public that celebrates multiple facets of the gaming world, including video games, tabletop games using miniatures, card games and old-school role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons.

During the convention, I got my hands on a lot of new and upcoming games, and I'm sharing details about them, as well as my personal impressions, here with you.

The following are the games from Sony Computer Entertainment America that I was able to personally experience:

"Uncharted 2: Among Thieves"

(PS3; scheduled for October release)

The original "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" was one of my 2008 games of the year. Because of that, I have pretty high expectations for the sequel, ones that it could have trouble meeting. But if my experience with the single-player demo at PAX is any indication (and I did play through it several times to get a good feel for things), the developers may very well have taken what was already a great game and made it even better.

As before, the game stars Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter, crack shot and generally honest scoundrel. Quite obviously, he's hunting for treasure again, and beyond that, I don't really have any details on the story – other than that Drake is supposed to actually grow and mature as a person as the tale progresses.

However, several things are most definitely new here.

Most important, they've fixed many of the smaller issues from "Drake's Fortune." The biggest has to deal with headshots; previously, shooting an enemy in the head was pretty ineffectual, and that was extremely frustrating. Now, plug someone in the crown and they'll fold like a sack of potatoes.

Also, melee combat is no longer a fixed series of button presses (square, triangle, square in the original to unleash a "brutal" combo). Instead it's one button, and the animations are context sensitive to the positions Drake and his opponent are in. This also adds stealth moves into the mix, so you can sneak behind someone and take them out without raising alarms, a completely new feature. (Plus, if you take someone down using stealth, they'll drop an extra item for your use, such as a grenade.)

And the developers say the sequel's single-player campaign will be longer than the original's by a third or more.

In addition to that campaign, two other modes of play have been added. First is a three-person, online co-op adventure, starring Drake and his friends Sully and Elena. Its storyline is separate from the main campaign, and "task based," according to the developers. Second is the five-on-five, competitive online multiplayer, which pits heroes against villains. This mode has been in and out of beta, and the developers say they've looked at the data they gathered from those matches to adjust the game maps and tweak the weapons.

"M.A.G."

(PS3; scheduled for January release)

The title stands for massive action game, and Sony gets away with calling it that because, in this online first-person shooter, up to 256 players can take part in a single battle.

The setting is a modern one, so we're talking standard machine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, tanks and such as armaments. Players pick between one of three PMCs (private military companies) to join – Valor, Raven and S.V.E.R. – and wage war under that banner. (I forgot to ask Sony if you're stuck playing on one team, if you can switch sides or if you can/must create a separate character if you want to fight for different armies on occasion; I'll try to get an answer.)

My only experience with the game so far has been as a basic grunt, and in only one mode of several in the game: 256-player domination. This particular game puts one team on offense and the other on defense on a pretty large map. Initially, things are pretty spread out, with the attackers trying to drive forward and accomplish certain goals in order to create a foothold in enemy territory. With each success, the action draws tighter and tighter together, so that more and more players are contesting an increasingly smaller amount of space. (This effectively makes the push forward harder for the attackers.)

The action was pretty much what you expect in a first-person shooter. The weapons aimed well; people died after taking a reasonable amount of fire; explosions were suitably explode-y; and I never experienced any noticeable stuttering or lag, even though it was a full-sized match being played between several remote sites.

Players are managed in small units, so in a full-sized game, you'll be tossed into an 8-person squad, which is part of a 32-person platoon, which is part of a 128-person army. But it's possible to rise through the ranks and take on command roles if you've got the skill and desire. (In effect, you'd get to order squad mates around – though there's no guarantee they'd listen – and call in airstrikes and the like.)

I was stuck with only three weapons loadouts to choose from, but in the full game characters will be customizable in many ways, including appearance, weapons and some form of skills.

And 256 players won't be the only way to go. Smaller matches on smaller maps will be available for those who want to play that way, and, as I said, there are multiple game modes, all with different objectives.

(Technically, "M.A.G." wasn't at the expo itself, but I was able to play it for more than an hour at a party that Sony threw near the convention site.)

"God of War III"

(PS3; scheduled for March release)

Kratos of Sparta, technically the Greek god of war, continues his quest to bring down Zeus and the other gods of Olympus.

Because the demo I played at PAX is the same demo that has been shown over and over this year, I don't have any big new revelations to share. The action is still deliciously violent, with accurate, responsive controls. The character and monster models, as well as background scenery, are fantastically detailed and grand.

And, if the fact that Kratos still possesses the wings of Icarus in the demo is any sign, I expect that a standard video game convention – stripping away an established character's powers at the start of each sequel – won't be followed to the usual letter; that makes me optimistically happy.

"LittleBigPlanet" for PSP

(PSP; unscheduled)

I just walked up and started playing this on the show floor, so I don't have much in the way of development details.

I can say, however, that although the fantastic console game has somehow been ported to a handheld, it looks pretty much the same as the original, and handles much the same too, despite the PSP's more limited control scheme.

I did have a little bit of trouble popping back and forth between the front and rear portions of the levels, but I frankly have that problem on the full-sized game, too.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to play with the in-game development tools, so I don't know if those will be as easy to play with or expansive as in the PS3 game.

And another big unknown remains: I've only played the PSP game in single-player, and I've only seen single-player screenshots and video, so while my hunch remains that this game will still end up with some form of multiplayer, I can't guarantee it. And if it doesn't, that will be a huge disappointment.

[UPDATE: After doing some digging, I found out that LittleBigPlanet for PSP will not have any multiplayer. It was sacrified so that level creation could remain.]

"EyePet"

(PS3; scheduled for November)

"Cute" is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about this virtual pet game, which is intended for younger audiences.

Using Sony's EyeToy, a special camera that attaches to the PlayStation 3, players can directly interact with a playful, customizable (and somewhat lemur-like) fantasy creature – well, as directly as anyone can interact with an imaginary creature that they can only pretend to touch.

Basically, you aim the camera at an empty surface, such as a tabletop, and reach your hand into its view to interact with the virtual world displayed on your TV screen. The pet will react to your pantomimed efforts to touch it and pick it up.

And the game also comes with a special camera card, which the EyeToy will "see" and transform into virtual in-game objects, such as a trampoline for your pet to jump on or a wide variety of items with which you can entertain and interact with the virtual critter. For instance, it could become a shower head, so you can groom your pet, keeping it clean and happy. Or it can represent a bubble blower, and your pet will pounce on the bubbles produced. And another role it plays is as a scanner, so you tell how your pet is developing physically and emotionally, which allows you to tailor the games you play to help it grow.

You can also use the camera to insert drawings into the game, and your pet can learn to copy your drawing, with the emphasis on "learn." Somehow they've programmed this thing so that the drawings won't be perfect at first, but will get better as the pet gets more experienced. And certain types of drawings can come to life. The example I was shown involved a drawing of airplane parts; once the pet sketched out the same image, the parts popped off the page, merged together, and turned into an actual toy airplane, which the pet then rode around in.

Speaking as an adult, I know that "EyePet" couldn't begin to hold my attention for very long. But I can imagine children becoming fascinated with it. I mean, do you remember the Tamagotchi craze of many years back? It would be like that.

But if I were Sony, I would still have one real concern with this game: This is aimed at a very young, casual audience, and it uses a piece of hardware – the camera – that most of that audience doesn't currently possess. I foresee a slightly uphill battle in convincing children's parents to buy that sort of tool. But that's Sony's problem, not mine.

Joel Leizer is The News-Gazette's assistant news editor and video game columnist. Contact him at jleizer@news-gazette.com.

Also on this date

• Swine flu widespread in Illinois, officials say
• Unit 4 panel on sales-tax money has first meeting
• Report: Health premiums skyrocketed over last decade
• Iroquois County clerk convicted on corruption charges
• Low numbers a problem for county nursing home
• Interstate 57 patching work set to start Monday
• Parkland trustees approve student facility fee
• UI professor auctioning work to benefit food bank
• Danville High's Viking Invitational set for Saturday
• Obituaries

» More