Very sorry for the late update here, I have a good reason. First off, I would like to give out a hearty "Fuck You!" to DFI for making my life at work a living hell. Your motherboards are shit and you are shit. You are adopted and your parents don't love you. I've been working on this computer for days due to the poor support that their website was able to offer. But I digress. What you are really reading this for is to hear about Quakecon, not about how much DFI sucks cock (they suck a lot of it).
I arrived at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas last Wednesday for early check-in along with hundreds of other gamers eagerly awaiting the biggest LAN event in the nation. After waiting for about seven hours, I was able to set up my computer and get some sleep for the event tomorrow. The next day came, and there were people everywhere. The few of us that had come for early check-in were nothing compared to the amount of people waiting to get into the event on opening day and the more that were to come the following days. I went to my first press conference and more afterwards. What follows is the information gained from the conferences and the event in general.
Bethesda's two new games, Brink and Wet, were covered during the convention, albeit only briefly. Brink was an impressive take on a futuristic sci-fi FPS. This game's setting is the floating city called The Ark. Overpopulation has caused resources to become tight and tensions are on the rise leading the city close to civil war. The art style may be a bit off putting for some, but to see it in motion is truly something. If Splash Damage and Bethesda live up to what they presented at Quakecon, then you'll be in for a treat. Wet reminded me and many others of Mirror's Edge in the fluidity of movement. It is a game that contains crime lords, assassins, and a female heroine with an attitude. Wet is scheduled for release on September 15th and has more info on their website: http://wet.bethsoft.com/.
The real talk of the convention was id's upcoming game: Rage. The first trailer they showed reminded me a good deal of Fallout 3 and left me somewhat unimpressed. We have another scenario where you are trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world with everything gone to shit and mutants running around trying to kill things. However, there are vehicles that seem a joy to actually drive and many innovative gameplay techniques that could save this game from being a repeat. Rage is definitely another game to watch out for, despite falling into the trend of post-apocalyptica.
Mobile games made their return to Quakecon, and frankly, I couldn't care less. This is a PC gaming convention, aimed at PC gamers. I don't own an iPhone, many people do not own iPhones. We don't care about the games you are developing for the iPhone. The iPhone is a phone, not a gaming system. Regardless of the fact that it would have been nice to get more detail on any number of games, we were presented with a brief explanation of three games coming out for the iPhone. Wolfenstein RPG, Wolfenstein 3d, and Doom Ressurection are all out on the iPhone for those who care. And for the record, I have a T-Mobile G1. Even if the games were released for the G1, I wouldn't care. I would much rather them spend their time talking about PC games rather than games that look and feel like something that came out of the 90s.
In other news, a playable demo of Wolfenstein was available for those that were willing to play it. From what I could tell, the results were generally positive from many of the convention goers, noting the amount of detail in the characters. Wolfenstein doesn't really need that much of a background as it is the next game in a successful series: you're killing Nazis...with super powers obtained from black magic. The game is in stores now so you can go pick it up. It looks damn impressive so I would recommend it if you have the extra simloleans.
Global Agenda was available for a test drive as well. This futurustic third person shooter mmo went over well with the crowd. It boasts four classes and amazing gameplay. Many of my friends who were in attendence with me played the game more than ten times (which is a lot considering it's at a booth). So far, Global Agenda looks to be a grand game and the perfect excuse to ignore your friiends, family, wife and kids. Just don't blame me for your divorce. The closed beta for Global Agenda is up now. You can register to try and nab a seat for the beta at the website: http://www.globalagendagame.com/.
I also had the change to try Nvidia's 3d vision glasses. I think this is what impressed me the most out of anything in the convention. It was sexy. So very sexy. I saw Burnout Paradise being played and could see the roadsigns passing over my head. It was wicked. The only setback here is the price. You not only need the glasses which will set you back 200$, but also a 120Hz LCD monitor (or a 100+Hz CRT, but no one uses those anymore) which I found for 300$ at the cheapest. 500$ for a 3D solution is a little pricey no matter how impressive it is.
That wraps it up for my Quakecon update. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to let you guys know. All in all, this year was somewhat of a letdown from previous years. Still so much talk about Quake Live even though it's been out for what....two years? Also, Bethesda has no plans for an Elder Scrolls 5 right now. That pissed me the fuck off. They are developing another big game however, but can't release details yet. Could it be an Elder Scrolls MMO? Wishful thinking.
