The Armchair Empire - Features: Sony's Gamers Day 2003

Omni left his heart in San Francisco.

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Sony's Gamers Day 2003

Getting to go to San Francisco immediately got my mind spinning. Being a neophyte, rookie and simpleton, I wasn’t automatically in the mindset of gaming. Yes, it was to be Sony’s Gamers Day 2003 but my mind instantly shifted to Dashiell Hammett’s detective creations, most notably Sam Spade, made famous by 1941’s The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart (although there was an earlier film back in 1931 that has garnered less attention.)

Hammett’s detectives spent most of their time being shot at, beaten up, and drunk, while trying to set things right. How does San Francisco fit in? That’s where the Maltese Falcon takes place.

I had early hopes that I’d be able to visit some of the locations mentioned in the Maltese Falcon (or The Glass Key), and drinking gin and whiskey at points in between. Since I arrived nearly a full day before the event I had some time to meet this goal.

Typically, upon leaving the hotel I got lost. Not wanting to actually admit that I was lost, I spent a couple of hours simply wandering and becoming more lost. I was no longer anywhere on my hotel-supplied mini-map, whereupon I broke down and finally asked a passer-by for directions to the cable car station – limply lifting my inadequate map as some kind of weak excuse.

Through a thick German accent and broken English the man informed me that he was from out of town.

Maybe it was just that time of year, but there were a lot of German tourists in San Francisco when I was there.

Failing to find any gin joints or speakeasies but finally getting on the right track, I hopped on the cable car at Market & Powell and rode to the end of the line: Fisherman’s Wharf. Not wanting to neglect the intellectual attractions, I headed to Ripley’s Believe it or Not.... Museum. Where else can you find the world’s biggest

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paintbrush, shrunken torsos and a self-portrait of Picasso made entirely of toast? My mind brimming over with culture, I spent the next hour touring the waterfront then caught the cable car back to Powell & Main.

I had just enough time to freshen up and give my feet a rest before heading across the street to the Thirsty Bear (which I referred to as the Thirsty Beaver to a least six people – only one

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person corrected me). It was a general mingling session featuring an open bar. I took full advantage, probably drinking more beer than I should have. And what started as friendly banter with other journalists quickly turned into a bitch session about what’s wrong with the gaming industry. Before calling it a night, we speculated on what might be shown the next day.

The conclusion was a unanimous, “Not much” – an opinion based on the fact there weren’t that many media people in attendance.

At 6:30 the next morning the phone by my bed started ringing. It took a panicked 5 seconds before I sorted out where I was and what I was doing there.

Media check-in and breakfast was scheduled for a 7:00AM start so I wasted no time getting down to the conference area. (Bad memories of the media breakfast at E3 2003.) As only the second person there, I loaded up my plate and watched people straggle in over the next two hours.

The briefing began at 9:00AM to an explosion of noise and visual cacophony from the bank of TVs on stage. After some dreaded PowerPoint presentations – in which we learned one new thing, Final Fantasy XI Online will be bundled on the PS2’s hard drive – we headed across the street to a larger presentation area where we’d actually see some games.

The large crowd was split into five smaller groups and my first stop was 989 Sports, which was 100% hockey free – at least until next year when it will be even harder to acquire marketshare. What 989 showed demonstrated a ton of promise for even better features next year. Sony is concentrating much effort making a broadband adapter virtually a necessity if you want to experience their first-party sports games to the fullest, with lots of chat features and chances to build a sporting community. Features include real world, real time score updates, player versus player, and roster updates for at least the next year. Much like EA’s Dynasty gimmick, online players will be rewarded for purchasing more than one sports title. You’ll receive “989 Points” that are a combined total of your sports prowess – great for bragging rights. The actual look and feel of the titles shown – NBA ShootOut 2004, NCAA Basketball 2004, NFL GameDay 2004 (out now) – are definitely more refined and possess more depth than last year but the voice commands (via the USB headset) still need some polish.

After a quick 15-minute break it was back to the grindstone, this time looking at Ratchet & Clank 2, Rise to Honor and the EyeToy.

EyeToy and Rise to Honor

EyeToy finally demonstrated some kind of practical gaming function other than a novelty to bring out at parties. In a couple of words: head tracking. (Granted, it was a limited tech demo.) In the demo a mock first-person 3D world loaded up and the demonstrator showed how he could move with the control pad and peek around corners by moving his head. Was the tech demo enough to convince me of its necessity? Even when he mentioned sword-tracking and showed the video/audio message capability? No, but at least they were showing us instead of just talking about it, which is what happened with the PSP (Playstation Portable) at the media briefing. I love technical specs as much as the next guy, but show us something!

Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando should arrive on store shelves Novemeber 11, but it looks ready to ship now. No doubt the QA testers are beating this title to death making sure everything is in order. They definitely have their work cut out for them as Ratchet & Clank 2 is packed with upgraded features, more weapons, and massive levels – some of them self-contained spherical worlds. The entire package is big, bright and moves at a blistering pace.

Rise to Honor also moves at a solid clip, too, thanks in no small way to martial artist Jet Li, who lent his voice, likeness and expertise to the game. At its core, Rise to Honor is a Hong Kong action movie in game format, with roughly 70% hand-to-hand combat and the remaining 30% bullet ballets with plenty of slow motion dives. I’m not completely sold on Rise of Honor’s control method. One stick controls his movement, the other his direction of attack (like Mucky Foot did with Blade 2). I played for a few minutes – not enough to sway me one way or another but the cinematic and smooth animation make it look very good. Rise to Honor doesn’t ship until January 2004 so there should be plenty of time to address any control issues.

Next up: Lunch and the start of my love affair with Rueben sandwiches. Let me just say this: If you’ve never had a Rueben, you’ve never had a sandwich.

Lunch provided a great opportunity to discuss what everyone had seen. It was also time for a little “star” spotting. Or “personality” spotting might be a better term to use. You know, people that are “big time” and recognizable like Tommy Tallarico, EGM Editor-in-Chief Shoe, and Zoë Flower. No time for autographs or other such nonsense – lunch was over.

Feeling a bit dozy from six Rueben sandwiches, I sat down at my group’s next station: Jak II, SOCOM II, and Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain.

SOCOM II should hit retail on November 4, 2003, with plenty more features and optimizations over the original. Maybe the biggest change is the ability to choose a difficulty level, but of more interest is the 12 new maps in multiplayer (on top of all the original maps). The USB headset will be even more important but it won’t be bundled with the title. Two of the biggest questions that were asked was about cross-compatibility between the two SOCOM titles and how long the original title would be supported. The answer to the first issue was that, “No. Even with the first game’s maps included in SOCOM II, there’s been enough optimization that the two are not compatible." The second issue was answered with, “As long as there’s interest.” With Sony’s decided effort to make online gaming on the PS2 a success this seems a predictable response. (And with the quoted numbers of players this seems to indicate support for some time.)

If the sports titles and SOCOM II isn’t enough to convince you of Sony’s desire to cement the PS2 as an online platform, you have Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, a semi-sequel to the previous Syphon Filter games.

Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain and GT4 research

Instead of a lot of deathmatching, Omega Strain concentrates on co-operation. Setting up the multiplayer missions seems to be a snap and with full support behind the USB headset should make Omega Strain appeal to team orientated players. And it’s only as a team that there can be success. For example, sometimes you’ll come across an obstacle that can’t be climbed, but if you get a boost from a buddy you can overcome it. (Up to four can play together.) Although it was a limited demo, the graphics flowed and it was especially cool to be able to see the weapons you’ve chosen arrayed on your body.

Next up was Jak II, which seems to have taken Grand Theft Auto III’s free roaming, living worlds to heart. This is a much darker game than the original in terms of content and theme. There was a decided effort to make Jak II more adult – although there was evidence of juvenile humor, which for some reason usually gets translated as “Adult”. Jak II you can commandeer practically any vehicle you can see and blast innocent bystanders to your hearts content without ever having to actually go on any missions. What struck me most besides the slick presentation is how massive the environments are. I ran around grabbing vehicles and “skating” around for almost 30 minutes and I never ran into a “Loading” screen. Can it get any bigger? That question actually came up and Jason Rubin said (paraphrasing), “Yes, but it layers on extra costs – monetary and time – for design and QA.” Just to give you an idea of how big Jak II is, Rubin stated that 5% of the game is cutscenes that stretch 90+ minutes. Like Ratchet & Clank 2, the action seems to be ramped up and moves at a great pace.

After another break it was off to take a look at Gran Turismo 4 (GT4), demonstrated by none other than Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the Gran Turismo series.

It seems that there are big changes coming to the series with GT4. Besides a goal of 500 (!) drivable cars, the development team is aiming to offer a human element to the series with convertibles (so you can actually see the driver and crowd effects. Two comments that got my mind moving was the idea of GT4 as a teaching tool for car enthusiasts and that Yamauchi feels there is still room for refinement on the PS2, which is an incredible claim when you see GT4 in motion. Although GT4 will attempt to appeal to all levels of gamer (and driver), the handling is realistic to the point of frustration – lots of wheel spinning and crashing, at least when I’m behind the wheel.

Here's a bit of trivia: Ever wonder why the cars don’t sport accurate damage? Well, it has to do with the car companies involved. If you want to license the cars, then hands-off the damage – this would explain why a game like Burnout 2: Point of Impact features no-name vehicles. GT4 has done everything imaginable to capture each car accurately – right down to the engine revs – so it’s extremely unlikely we’ll ever see damage modeling in a Gran Turismo game.

The next bit of trivia came at the next station, which featured Square’s Final Fantasy XI Online. The title, “Final Fantasy” was actually supposed to Square’s last game, but it did so well that it pulled the company out of financial problems and put them on the map for console RPGs.

Flash forward to 2003 and Final Fantasy moves to the online realm and fans shouldn’t be disappointed. It’s been running for almost a year in Japan and the North American version will be an exact copy of that game (aside from the obvious language difference). As mentioned above, FFIX Online will come bundled on the PS2’s harddrive, but the most striking statement involved its compatibility with the PC version (scheduled for release later this year). It will be interesting to see how the two versions click together, and more importantly how PC and console gamers will be able to get along in a MMORPG setting. If you’re excited about FFXI, start saving your pennies, because, not only will you have to shell out for the hard drive, you’ll also want to have the keyboard, too, otherwise text communication will be a bitch.

The layout and presentation should be instantly recognizable to fans of the series, and the trademarked high-detail CG cuts are intact.

And with that, the official Gamers Day activities wound to a close, with another open bar and various munchies to be eaten. Well, there was still the Booze Cruise around San Francisco harbor but that was largely a formality (and totally fun).

As I sat in my hotel room that night – my mind scattered with information and three big Irish coffees – I pondered my final thoughts on the entire day’s events. How would I sum it all up? My notes were of little use, mostly because I couldn’t understand what I’d written. (Although they made sense on the plane ride home.) I was disappointed that there wasn’t more revealed about the PSP (maybe at E3), but overall Sony’s doing a pretty good job positioning itself as a major online player and it’s line-up of first-party titles should do well this coming holiday season (particularly with established franchises) and into 2004.

- Omni

(September 28, 2003)


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