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I've been doing a lot of surfing recently picking up snippets of movies from the web regarding X-Box titles in development, and thought I'd just give you a quick synopsis of what's out there at the moment (and currently residing on my hard disc).
"Sega GT 2002" (Working Title)
Remember the scene in The Matrix where Neo and Trinity walked into the Agents' HQ and started wasting all the security guards downstairs? Remember that music and how it all went together so well with the action? Sega have done the same thing with their 1m 56sec long promo video for Sega GT 2002.
I'm not sure, but I think it's actually the same music. However of course the scenery has changed a little! There's some gorgeous looking cars here, and you are given a quick showroom glance of some of them. (Is that a real showroom or FMV? I can't decide, I think it's FMV though). Then the music kicks in and the cars start rolling on the track, and basically you are sitting there thinking "PS2 and GT3 eat your heart out!"
Ignore the fact that this is work in progress and all the advertising hoardings and buildings have the word MICROSOFT stamped all over them, we're here to see the action and there's plenty of that, with close contact racing on tracks VERY reminiscent of Gran Turismo, and the handling looks the same, but with little extras. When these cars burn rubber, you see genuine looking tyre smoke.
All this action combined with a nice section of frame-stop-time animation ala The Matrix makes for a thrilling video clip.
"Halo"
I've been raving about this one in FOG Prime for the last week or so, and it's worth raving about if you can get it to run on Windows Media Player when you download it, the visuals for the FPS futuristic shoot 'em up are simply stunning. The Halo E3 High Bandwidth video is a corker, the best of the bunch for sure with atmospheric music and riotous action throughout, it makes me tingle everytime I see it. 2m 35 secs of pure gameplay adrenaline here.
"Jet Set Radio Future"
There's a whopping 3m 17secs of this game footage knocking around, and it's amazing stuff, you WON'T have seen anything like it before. It's like real people are wearing skin and clothing that has been cel-shaded to give it a cartoon look, but you'd swear they were real people anyway because the motion is so realistic. There are numerous in-line skating characters here doing impossible stunts in a city environment (which is the only reason you are forgiven for thinking this IS actually computer generated footage that you are watching) as well as wonderful moments of skating down a crowded sidewalk and seeing dozens of people break out of your way.
There's tanks there too, and helicopter gunships, and soldiers, making you wonder about the overall adventure that's also been incorporated into the game by the developers.
The split screen section shows absolutely no slowdown at all, this really looks like an awesome display of X-Box raw power.
"Dead or Alive 3"
I found 1m 47sec footage of this beat 'em up, but it flashes by in what seems like seconds. The developers have gone all out to make the scenery interactive (man and girl are fighting in a room, man kicks girl, girl flies through glass window, falls 100ft towards the city street below and takes out a 4 storey neon sign on her way down, man jumps out after her and they continue the fight in the street). That's just one 'arena', there's a woodland section where they fight 'between' the trees, even using them, all the while it's autumn and the leaves are falling all around.
Most amazing of all here is the beach arena, where the scene starts out with one big fighter throwing his opponent head first into a palm tree then continuing the fight with a few neck locks and head twists, all whilst overhead there is a flock of seagulls circling about, which look eerily realistic, this will definitely have you hitting the pause button and working out how they did that...
"Gunvalkyrie"
There's a few minutes of similar footage about for this one, and I have to say all is not roses for me on this one. Yes, stunning visuals, but this kind of third person perspective shooter isn't my personal cup of tea, even though the screenshots did have me itching to have a go. Having said that, the CGI movie sequences really are the best I've ever seen on any platform, which bodes well for other games to come.
Someone else can rave over this one for me, it certainly looks the business, and looks fun to play, it just might not be in my own collection though. Not my kind of gameplay no matter how much fun it looks I'm afraid.
"MX 2002 Featuring Ricky Carmichael"
There's a few clips of this game about, and I'm glad there are. The first couple I viewed left me thinking "Great, but motocross bikes just don't HANDLE like that!!" Then came the one 30 second clip that really got me thinking about adding this one to my pending collection. There's this track, with stunt ramps on it, set in a city. "Here we go, more of the same round and round jumping over thing type clip" I thought.
But the rider had other ideas. He took off one ramp, left the course entirely, and started racing through the city itself and pulling stunts there instead.
No, I'm not just thinking about this one, I've decided I'll get it. I'll import it if I have to! That's one game that has 'fun' stamped all over it.
"Hunter: The Reckoning"
Friends, Romans, Resident Evil Fans, lend me your ears, or I'll bite them off. Interplay have got a wonderful slash 'em hack 'em shoot 'em whack 'em up here, gothic style. From the video it appears that one of the characters you play is a biker with a grudge against the undead, he certainly seems to enjoy his work from the few gory gameplay snippets that were crammed into this clip, and it looks also like you can improvise with weapons as you go along. Tongue in cheek shlock horror at it's best I would say.
The tagline for this one is:
"Skull Dragon tattoo: $350.00
Imitation Versace leather riding outfit: $800.00
Custom battle axe (with lifetime warranty): $1200.00
Saturday night zombie blood bath? Priceless!"
Shades of 'From Dusk Till Dawn' here, looks well worth it.
=============================
So that's just 7 games out of the many forthcoming X-Box titles that I've reviewed clips for. There are many more out there, and the search will continue right up until release day.
Two things stand out.
(1) Graphics. I thought the PS2 was good. The few clips of the Gamecube games I have seen also look comparable to the PS2. And I own a Dreamcast, I know what good graphics look like on there. I'm also into PC Gaming on a smaller scale, and have a top notch graphics card and memory requirements. I thought I'd seen the best, but now I know what the X-Box can do just from these clips, I have to say that my decision to hold out for one looks truly justified, these games don't just look 'good', they look 'stunning'.
(2) Gameplay. I've been gaming for over 20 years now, and you get to 'feel' the gameplay from a videoclip after a while, and whilst it's not a perfect skill, I can usually detect fun gameplay from watching a demo or a short clip on the web. The one thing that ALL of the above clips include is a feeling for intuitive gameplay, watching them really makes you itch to get your hands on an X-Box and try them out.
These are good signs indeed that we have a new super-console on the block. But this isn't about console wars, this is about how the X-Box will affect games of the future. When Microsoft stated that the X-Box was "designed BY gamers FOR gamers" I think the press just took this as a temporary slogan, but having bore witness to the evidence presented, I won't be taking that statement with a pinch of salt next time I hear it.
This is truly a remarkable console about to enter the gaming industry arena, with some remarkable games coming with it.
Game on.
"Sega GT 2002" (Working Title)
Remember the scene in The Matrix where Neo and Trinity walked into the Agents' HQ and started wasting all the security guards downstairs? Remember that music and how it all went together so well with the action? Sega have done the same thing with their 1m 56sec long promo video for Sega GT 2002.
I'm not sure, but I think it's actually the same music. However of course the scenery has changed a little! There's some gorgeous looking cars here, and you are given a quick showroom glance of some of them. (Is that a real showroom or FMV? I can't decide, I think it's FMV though). Then the music kicks in and the cars start rolling on the track, and basically you are sitting there thinking "PS2 and GT3 eat your heart out!"
Ignore the fact that this is work in progress and all the advertising hoardings and buildings have the word MICROSOFT stamped all over them, we're here to see the action and there's plenty of that, with close contact racing on tracks VERY reminiscent of Gran Turismo, and the handling looks the same, but with little extras. When these cars burn rubber, you see genuine looking tyre smoke.
All this action combined with a nice section of frame-stop-time animation ala The Matrix makes for a thrilling video clip.
"Halo"
I've been raving about this one in FOG Prime for the last week or so, and it's worth raving about if you can get it to run on Windows Media Player when you download it, the visuals for the FPS futuristic shoot 'em up are simply stunning. The Halo E3 High Bandwidth video is a corker, the best of the bunch for sure with atmospheric music and riotous action throughout, it makes me tingle everytime I see it. 2m 35 secs of pure gameplay adrenaline here.
"Jet Set Radio Future"
There's a whopping 3m 17secs of this game footage knocking around, and it's amazing stuff, you WON'T have seen anything like it before. It's like real people are wearing skin and clothing that has been cel-shaded to give it a cartoon look, but you'd swear they were real people anyway because the motion is so realistic. There are numerous in-line skating characters here doing impossible stunts in a city environment (which is the only reason you are forgiven for thinking this IS actually computer generated footage that you are watching) as well as wonderful moments of skating down a crowded sidewalk and seeing dozens of people break out of your way.
There's tanks there too, and helicopter gunships, and soldiers, making you wonder about the overall adventure that's also been incorporated into the game by the developers.
The split screen section shows absolutely no slowdown at all, this really looks like an awesome display of X-Box raw power.
"Dead or Alive 3"
I found 1m 47sec footage of this beat 'em up, but it flashes by in what seems like seconds. The developers have gone all out to make the scenery interactive (man and girl are fighting in a room, man kicks girl, girl flies through glass window, falls 100ft towards the city street below and takes out a 4 storey neon sign on her way down, man jumps out after her and they continue the fight in the street). That's just one 'arena', there's a woodland section where they fight 'between' the trees, even using them, all the while it's autumn and the leaves are falling all around.
Most amazing of all here is the beach arena, where the scene starts out with one big fighter throwing his opponent head first into a palm tree then continuing the fight with a few neck locks and head twists, all whilst overhead there is a flock of seagulls circling about, which look eerily realistic, this will definitely have you hitting the pause button and working out how they did that...
"Gunvalkyrie"
There's a few minutes of similar footage about for this one, and I have to say all is not roses for me on this one. Yes, stunning visuals, but this kind of third person perspective shooter isn't my personal cup of tea, even though the screenshots did have me itching to have a go. Having said that, the CGI movie sequences really are the best I've ever seen on any platform, which bodes well for other games to come.
Someone else can rave over this one for me, it certainly looks the business, and looks fun to play, it just might not be in my own collection though. Not my kind of gameplay no matter how much fun it looks I'm afraid.
"MX 2002 Featuring Ricky Carmichael"
There's a few clips of this game about, and I'm glad there are. The first couple I viewed left me thinking "Great, but motocross bikes just don't HANDLE like that!!" Then came the one 30 second clip that really got me thinking about adding this one to my pending collection. There's this track, with stunt ramps on it, set in a city. "Here we go, more of the same round and round jumping over thing type clip" I thought.
But the rider had other ideas. He took off one ramp, left the course entirely, and started racing through the city itself and pulling stunts there instead.
No, I'm not just thinking about this one, I've decided I'll get it. I'll import it if I have to! That's one game that has 'fun' stamped all over it.
"Hunter: The Reckoning"
Friends, Romans, Resident Evil Fans, lend me your ears, or I'll bite them off. Interplay have got a wonderful slash 'em hack 'em shoot 'em whack 'em up here, gothic style. From the video it appears that one of the characters you play is a biker with a grudge against the undead, he certainly seems to enjoy his work from the few gory gameplay snippets that were crammed into this clip, and it looks also like you can improvise with weapons as you go along. Tongue in cheek shlock horror at it's best I would say.
The tagline for this one is:
"Skull Dragon tattoo: $350.00
Imitation Versace leather riding outfit: $800.00
Custom battle axe (with lifetime warranty): $1200.00
Saturday night zombie blood bath? Priceless!"
Shades of 'From Dusk Till Dawn' here, looks well worth it.
=============================
So that's just 7 games out of the many forthcoming X-Box titles that I've reviewed clips for. There are many more out there, and the search will continue right up until release day.
Two things stand out.
(1) Graphics. I thought the PS2 was good. The few clips of the Gamecube games I have seen also look comparable to the PS2. And I own a Dreamcast, I know what good graphics look like on there. I'm also into PC Gaming on a smaller scale, and have a top notch graphics card and memory requirements. I thought I'd seen the best, but now I know what the X-Box can do just from these clips, I have to say that my decision to hold out for one looks truly justified, these games don't just look 'good', they look 'stunning'.
(2) Gameplay. I've been gaming for over 20 years now, and you get to 'feel' the gameplay from a videoclip after a while, and whilst it's not a perfect skill, I can usually detect fun gameplay from watching a demo or a short clip on the web. The one thing that ALL of the above clips include is a feeling for intuitive gameplay, watching them really makes you itch to get your hands on an X-Box and try them out.
These are good signs indeed that we have a new super-console on the block. But this isn't about console wars, this is about how the X-Box will affect games of the future. When Microsoft stated that the X-Box was "designed BY gamers FOR gamers" I think the press just took this as a temporary slogan, but having bore witness to the evidence presented, I won't be taking that statement with a pinch of salt next time I hear it.
This is truly a remarkable console about to enter the gaming industry arena, with some remarkable games coming with it.
Game on.
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Any PC can do it, it just depends on your modem speed as to how long you want to spend doing it. Most of the demo files are 5-7MB in size which with a cable modem only takes 5-7 minutes to download, and about 35 mins or so with a 56kbps modem.
There's loads on the web now, but my ISP cut me off for a week due to Sircam and Code Red viruses affecting their servers, but now I'm back I'm off to get some more clips to review...
There's loads on the web now, but my ISP cut me off for a week due to Sircam and Code Red viruses affecting their servers, but now I'm back I'm off to get some more clips to review...
FM, do you need a reasonably good PC to download all the clips of Xbox footage or can any old PC do it.
I suppose you already know but there is downloadable backgrounds and screensavers of Xbox stuff at Xbox.com.
I suppose you already know but there is downloadable backgrounds and screensavers of Xbox stuff at Xbox.com.
MORE from the folder on my hard drive now labelled "Stunning".
A new technical demo has been released for the X-Box. Remember the ping pong balls in the mousetraps one? This is the same kind of idea, except it shows you snippets of 3 fighters, one who looks like a rubber suited cyberman, a good looking 'ridge racer' type girl and a fighter who looks suspiciously like Bruce Lee with either shades on or no eyes.
The point to note here is the fluidity of movement, you don't miss a thing between frames it seems. I always thought that the future of videogaming would include some form of fully interactive FMV, but it looks like the future came a lot sooner than I expected.
The clip is entitled Project K-X, is 38 seconds long, and like most of the other ones, simply looks amazing.
A new technical demo has been released for the X-Box. Remember the ping pong balls in the mousetraps one? This is the same kind of idea, except it shows you snippets of 3 fighters, one who looks like a rubber suited cyberman, a good looking 'ridge racer' type girl and a fighter who looks suspiciously like Bruce Lee with either shades on or no eyes.
The point to note here is the fluidity of movement, you don't miss a thing between frames it seems. I always thought that the future of videogaming would include some form of fully interactive FMV, but it looks like the future came a lot sooner than I expected.
The clip is entitled Project K-X, is 38 seconds long, and like most of the other ones, simply looks amazing.
hey fm don't you need to sleep EVER??
lol....
lol....
beanz wrote:
> this is being really picky i know...
but jet grind radio future
> isn't going onto the dc...so how did you get a vid....
or were you
> talking about jet set radio for the dc??
I was talking about JGRF for the X-Box and JSR for the DC.
(Should have made that clearer, sorry!)
:-)
> this is being really picky i know...
but jet grind radio future
> isn't going onto the dc...so how did you get a vid....
or were you
> talking about jet set radio for the dc??
I was talking about JGRF for the X-Box and JSR for the DC.
(Should have made that clearer, sorry!)
:-)
this is being really picky i know...
but jet grind radio future isn't going onto the dc...so how did you get a vid....
or were you talking about jet set radio for the dc??
but jet grind radio future isn't going onto the dc...so how did you get a vid....
or were you talking about jet set radio for the dc??
The latest addition to my hard drive is a 1 minute long clip of Onimusha for the X-Box. If you've played Sword of the Berserk or Soul Fighter, this is very reminiscent of it. There's some FMV and computer generated graphics sequences mixed in with ingame footage, but as usual with promo clips for the X-Box, it's near impossible to tell where one ends and one starts.
The short view that you are offered of the actual ingame fighting, however, only goes to strenghten the grip that the X-Box is starting to have on my future wallet contents. There is so much detail in the game. When Microsoft said 300 million polygons per second, they weren't kidding, there's at least 5 times more detail in the backgrounds and characters than you'd ever see on any Dreamcast title.
I was chatting to er-no about this the other day, and he convinced me to run two Jet Set Radio Future demos side by side on my computer using Quick Time, one demo was from the X-Box and the other was from the Dreamcast version.
Again, we're talking at least 5 times more detail in the X-Box version, little things like more moving vehicles on the roads, more creases in clothing, more people on the sidewalks with more intricate facial expressions; but LOTS of little things all going to make up a whole picture really does make a huge difference. It also reflects on the gameplay, characters have a lot more moves available to them, there is more interraction with surroundings than ever before.
When I find some more clips, I'll post the details here.
The short view that you are offered of the actual ingame fighting, however, only goes to strenghten the grip that the X-Box is starting to have on my future wallet contents. There is so much detail in the game. When Microsoft said 300 million polygons per second, they weren't kidding, there's at least 5 times more detail in the backgrounds and characters than you'd ever see on any Dreamcast title.
I was chatting to er-no about this the other day, and he convinced me to run two Jet Set Radio Future demos side by side on my computer using Quick Time, one demo was from the X-Box and the other was from the Dreamcast version.
Again, we're talking at least 5 times more detail in the X-Box version, little things like more moving vehicles on the roads, more creases in clothing, more people on the sidewalks with more intricate facial expressions; but LOTS of little things all going to make up a whole picture really does make a huge difference. It also reflects on the gameplay, characters have a lot more moves available to them, there is more interraction with surroundings than ever before.
When I find some more clips, I'll post the details here.
Xbox games that interst me most at the moment are:
Halo
GunValkyrie
Jet Set Radio Future
Malice
Nightcaster
Crazy Taxi Next
Azurik: Rise of Perathia
Morrowind
Project Gotham Racing
Halo
GunValkyrie
Jet Set Radio Future
Malice
Nightcaster
Crazy Taxi Next
Azurik: Rise of Perathia
Morrowind
Project Gotham Racing
Yes, I wish I could download these clips of fotage and I beleive you that they are stunning.
JSR Future, Project Gotham racing, DOA3, Munichs Oddessy, Halo and Medal of Honnor 3 are all games I must get my hands on. Not to menton the Shenmue series with is making its way( Its was stunning on DC, imagin it on Xbox).
If microsort make a killer TV add(not any 3rd place stuff) with all this fottage it could really boost Xboxs mainstream appeal.
JSR Future, Project Gotham racing, DOA3, Munichs Oddessy, Halo and Medal of Honnor 3 are all games I must get my hands on. Not to menton the Shenmue series with is making its way( Its was stunning on DC, imagin it on Xbox).
If microsort make a killer TV add(not any 3rd place stuff) with all this fottage it could really boost Xboxs mainstream appeal.
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