We had a busy day so far today.

It all started with Funcom's upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan (check out the screenshots here).

I really wanted to like this game, I really did.

Now just to set the record straight, this one is not *particularly* about magic, as the developers don't see the world of Hyboria like that. The world of Conan is about melee combat, evisceration and the completely excessive flexing of muscles as the buffed up hero is swinging his sword.

Funcom are a bunch of talented guys from Norway and they obviously mean well. They do have a few ambitious ideas. In the demo I got to see stuff like city erection, where a guild of about 20 people could essentially gather enough resources to raise their own city, which would then become a part of the game world. Sure enough, add some trebuchets into the mix and an aggressive opposing guild, and you'll get a city siege right there on the spot. So the massive combat system did seem sort of appealing.

Visually, the landscapes look beautiful and the characters, technically, are quite sound, in terms of the poly count, the soft shadows, normal mapping, etc. In fact, Age of Conan is one of the rare titles currently being pimped by Microsoft as a "game for Vista", which essentially means it'll be using DirectX 10 features.

Where Age of Conan goes wrong at this point in the development (the game is in pre beta stage) is, sadly, the combat itself. While the idea behind the melee combat is fundamentally cool, in practice it doesn't work so well. Fair enough, you are allowed to execute key combinations for various powerful combo finishing moves, and fight on mounts (like mammoths, horses, camels and donkeys of all animals). Still, the synchronization of the animation of the characters engaged in the combat is way off, to say the least. It just looks like the hits are lagging behind the blood and the reaction of your enemies. The two characters stay way too close to each other as they swing their weapons, making the entire scene look completely unnatural. On top of that, the armor and the weapons appear too fucking plain. Look, I'm just being honest here. MMORPG players crave badass flaming skulls and pools of blood streaming down the character's arms. They want cool and flashy stuff, not the sort of basic medieval attire worn by warriors from that particular era. To cut a long story short, we did get to check out a character beyond level 20, which is sort of the limit for the single-player content that'll be included in the full version. After level sixty, you will be required to pay monthly subscription like in any other MMOG.

Moving on, we headed over to the EIDOS booth, where we got to check out two rather interesting titles. First off, we saw a pretty obscure game that I've never heard about before, called Just Cause (check out the screenshots here), which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. You play this Latino super-agent performing various stunts and liberating a banana republic from the mad dictator. The great news about this game is that it sort of works like GTA, but on an even bigger scale, offering vast open-ended environments with 3D backgrounds similar to the ones we saw in Oblivion. The gameplay seems nicely streamlined though, the art direction is great (really nice looking environments and special effects [minus the death animation]), the stunts that the main character pulls, like jumping out of a plane and parachuting down onto a roof of a car by using a sort of grappling hook, look smooth and just fun. The main thing about this one is that it's incredibly vast and open-ended, plus the storyline seems in place, so it could turn out pretty good. I believe they are targeting end of 2006 at the moment for the PC and Xbox 360.

The next game I got to see at the EIDOS booth was the third installment in the Hitman series (check out the screenshots here). My overall impression was positive on this one, I have to say. Hey, it's a Hitman game, the missions work like in any Hitman game, but they did add some cool new features to it. For example, you can have literally thousands of people on the street in a single scene. They showed us a mission where good ole' No. 47 had to eliminate potential assassins of a certain politician, at a carnival no less. The mass of people did add a new twist to these types of missions as you are usually used to seeing like one or two NPCs mingling about. You can now also customize Hitman's weapons to suit your playing style. You're welcome to add scopes and laser sites if you want to take the stealthy approach, or you can go all out on the fire power if you feel like Rambo. All in all, I wasn't exactly blown away by the presentation, but, overall, Hitman 3 looked nice and more polished than the previous games. Fans of the series are in for a nice gaming experience it seems.

Later on, Smaps and I hit the BioWare booth. Mass Effect, oh man. Probably the best game I've seen at the show so far, but he'll tell you more about it.

The booth babes still look skanky.

Twolions signing off...