The biggest highlight of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo? Getting on the plane home with some infinitesimal portion of my hearing still intact. OK, so the three-day march through the Los Angeles Convention Center isn’t exactly the Trail of Tears, but holding game demos in a running jet turbine would be about as efficient (and pleasant). That said, there was a lot to be happy about on the PC side of things, and not just with the expected titles, like the very impressive Half-Life 2 or Rome: Total War. For instance:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
With Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 dominating the first-person-shooter landscape, this musclebound little gem has been flying well below the radar. Not anymore. The visually striking S.T.A.L.K.E.R. takes place after a second Chernobyl disaster, but the devastated landscape isn’t entirely abandoned—hideous mutants now roam the wasteland. Instead of relying on scripted events, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. uses A.I. to drive the monsters, creating a living world that should never deliver the same horrifying experience twice.
Guild Wars
Free online play? What kind of lunatics would design a game like that? Lunatics with a Blizzard Battle.net pedigree, that’s who. This game features satisfying hack-n-slash gameplay à la Diablo II, only it’s much slicker and prettier. Unlike other online RPGs, Guild Wars rewards skill over time invested, granting players new abilities and talents as they finish missions. This could be the next great online addiction.
