Five Big Gaming Trends You Need to Know About
It's not that we're anal retentive or anything - take a look at any Computer Gaming World editor's desk if you need proof - but when you're bombarded with 27,000 games over the course of three red-eyed days here at the show, you have to do something to maintain your sanity. So over the course of our coffee-and-Advil breakfast, we boiled the Electronic Entertainment Expo down into five easy-to-digest points.
1. Online is Back
Thank you, Ultima Online. Thank you, Starsiege Tribes. Last year at E3, game companies were loath to use the M-word. This year, spurred on by the success of several online games of varying types, multiplayer is back. Over the next 12 months, we'll be seeing and hearing more about online gameplay than the past two years combined. And, better yet, this batch of online entertainment will transcend the "run-around-and shoot" style in favor of more task-oriented gameplay. Team Fortress 2, with its varying mission types and specialized units, is a great example of where we're headed. The big sleeper, however, could be Microsoft's Allegiance. A space combat game that's a combination of Starsiege Tribes and Starcraft, this game could blow the lid off multiplayer action.
2. The Third Person
This year's show is the first ever with more third-person-perspective action games than first-person shooters. In many ways, this is a good thing. Because many game designers view the third-person as a more effective vehicle for telling a story, the high number of over-the-shoulder-perspective games represents a fundamental shift to better storytelling. Hallelujah.
3. Gorgeous Graphics
We can make this point simply and succinctly: Wow. (Assistant editor Tom Price used stronger language than this, actually.) But being word-hungry editor-types, we need to say more. This year, we've seen game graphics more realistic than we imagined they could be and intensely detailed character animations that can only result in even more suspension of disbelief. John Madden Football 2000 is a shining example - it's graphics look like a Fox Sports broadcast.
4. True Role-Playing in Role-Playing Games
The role-playing game is back. But don't call them RPGs, please; people might think of the stat-heavy, slow-moving-type games from yesteryear. Thanks in part to Diablo, a new wave of more intuitive, fast-paced games in this genre are on the way. These new RPGs hold true to the core principles of storytelling and character development without drowning the player in statistics and inventory management.
5. Up the Main Stream
As a group, we've heard the terms "more accessible," "small learning curve," and "mainstream audience" many, many times. At first, some of us blanched. Then, we realized that, although these are potentially scary terms for hard-core gamers, game designers are acutely intent on making sure that easy-to-use doesn't mean watered-down-and-weak. So we're letting them off the hook... this time.
By George Jones, Computer Gaming World
