ECTS
London EXCEL Part 2
em Review
Monday
So I ended up going back to ECTS, even after a disappointing first
day (except for the free 4Gamers pack of course). This time I was
going with my current employers. However, I had to offer my new
badge to a colleague, who didnt already have one, so was forced
*cough* to use my eyemachine press badge again. How unfortunate.
Now feeling more like a confident member of the press I strolled
into the arena to attend to those highest of journalistic principles
blagging
some free stuff. This was far from the case though. Maybe it was
because there were more people attending this time, maybe it was
because there were more business people who were only coming to
get away from work and the ones that came on Sunday were the people
who really mattered? I dont know, but there werent many
stands offering goodies today.
Disappointment
Ok, so know I knew the general layout of the floor and which ones
deserved a second visit. My mental list of priorities was to go
see the Erotica Island stand, which I cant believe I missed
on Sunday, talk to Peter Noble and try and get another free bag
at the 4Gamers stand. This is how things went:
So I started off by going to see the hot babes (as it
said in the guide) at the Erotica Island stand. And it pains me
to say that I was severely disappointed. They had one girl at the
stand that just worked there, and was nowhere near as good looking
as the Digimask or Logitech girls, but Im sure she had a wonderful
personality. So I walked away; narrow-minded maybe, but they advertised
porn and failed to deliver.
"It
was a ridiculous thought on my behalf to offer you money in
exchange for goods." |
Backtrack
So I thought Id head over to the far end of the hall again and
look at some of the smaller stands for a second time, and once again,
my attention was grabbed by the evil Telegames stand tempting me with
the wall mounted Atari Jaguar and Lynx. However, something I missed
on Sunday was the GBA with a review copy of the new Doom-esque
game Backtrack running, whch is to be published by Telegames.
It gave a good insight into what the game would be like and how Doom
could turn out.
I didnt notice any immediate plot to the game, but then again
I skipped the intro that undoubtedly explained the whole thing. The
game seemed fairly fast with good playability and surprisingly easy
to control with the shoulder buttons controlling strafing, D-pad turning
and walking and the a and b buttons firing and changing weapons respectively.
However the weapons were fairly weak and obscure and didnt seem
to respond too well. The graphics also looked quite blocky, which
may be a limitation of the system. Well see when Doom comes
out if that is the case. However, it looks like itll be a good
prelude to Doom and great fun, especially in four-player mode. Hopefully
we can get a review copy soon. (Er, we didn't - david)
Return Of The Sea Monkeys
So, next on my agenda was to try and find Peter Noble again, however
he either hadnt turned up to the Just Play stand yet, or he
was elsewhere. So while waiting around I gave the Interactive Sea
Monkeys game a quick go.
Youre given control of a large tank (or a small ocean, I couldnt
discern between the two) and there you can add Sea Monkey eggs, growth
food and plasma. But you werent just limited to the brine shrimp,
you could also add all sorts of aquatic life and also some entertainment
including an underwater jukebox. The game looks great fun for kids
and could be a good method for learning how to care for your real
Sea Monkeys, not that theyre difficult to keep. Although saying
that Ive managed to kill off both batches Ive had.
No More Freebies
For genuine reasons I did wander over to the 4Gamers stand again.
Even though they gave me the free goodie bag the previous day I still
wanted a price for the cool looking GBA carry case on show. The guy
I spoke to this time was a little more austere and didnt seem
to have much time for speaking to me, even though the stand was devoid
of visitors and the staff had to keep themselves occupied with Tekken.
Yeah, sorry for intruding your hard work people, it was a ridiculous
thought on my behalf to offer you money in exchange for goods.
Anyway, the carry cases for the GBA and Gamecube wont be out
until November and they dont have any prices available as yet.
They do look good though, but no matter how much I hinted and told
him how good they looked and that I wanted one, he was reluctant to
offer one for review.
So that was all on my agenda really, and with still about 40 minutes
to kill until I met the rest of my team for lunch I found myself wondering
just what to do next. So after wandering past the Digimask stand just
one more time I ended up at ANP who had an interesting handheld joystick
on show, demonstrated with Star Wars Racer. The stick handled well
and worked by moving I left and right for turning etc. This may sound
obvious for a joystick, but it wasnt attached to a base and
presumably worked with a motion sensor inside, much like the Kirby
cartridge on the GBC.
Listless and Desperate
So by this time I was just aimlessly wandering, trying to find any
freebies at all. All I managed was a highly annoying clicker thing
from the Criterion software stand and a free pen from some other people.
Pickings were slim. But then I bumped into some old Gameplay buddies,
so that was cool.
"I
went back for a second look at this lemon of a game
what
was I thinking?!" |
Just before lunch I came across a row of four GBAs at some accessory
manufacturer stand, which were fitted with some awkward, chunky peripherals.
I didnt really care for these add-ons, but they were running
some forthcoming games, one of which was Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure.
The game was in use to demonstrate the awkwardly clunky rumble pack
that was attached to the GBA. The pack worked well, but did it need
to vibrate whenever I took a step or jumped? The game seemed pretty
good fun though, decent animation and pace and a good update on the
original formula. Although I think this is just a port from the SNES
version of the game so theres nothing new there apart from this
rumble feature, which was fairly effective but clunky. And rumbled
too much. Oh, sod it, it was bloody awful.
Return To G-Surfers
For a laugh I wandered back over to the Midas software stand for another
look at G-Surfers. As before they were desperately giving everyone
and anyone who looked at the game for longer than five seconds the
whole background and technical accomplishments of the game speech.
This time I decided to give it a go, and I found out that it played
just as badly as it looked. And they clearly know that because they
mention nothing of the gameplay but everything about the technicalities
behind it. Spiel youd expect to hear about a PC game, but not
so much a console game. But this sums up just how poor the show was
this year. I mean, I went back for a second look at this lemon of
a game
what was I thinking?! I should have just gone past the
Digimask stand a few more times.
I ended up wandering back to the Just Play stand where I eventually
found Peter Noble, and as busy as the man was he still found time
for a quick chat and took me to a personal sneak peak and demo of
the still in early development game of The Hitchhikers Guide To The
Galaxy.
Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
The game is based more on Douglas Adams books
rather than the adapted TV show and comes in the form of a 3D third
person action/adventure. Apparently, keeping in tune with the nature
of the novels and general good nature, there will be no death or killing
as such, but you will be able to delay your enemies by various means,
including flicking them with a towel.
"Anything
else I saw just wasnt worth mentioning" |
The game will be single player only and sees the cartoon-like character
of Arthur Dent running round all the different environments in his
classic dressing gown and slippers. Phase 3 Studios (the developers)
have also taken great care and pride in their character development,
drawing inspiration from the TV show and their own interpretations
from the books. Marvin the android for example looks vastly different
from the TV show, but the characteristics incorporated in this severely
depressed robot did raise a smile.
The game seemed similar to Alice and should be initially released
on the PC and Mac formats around about Easter 2002. Seeing as this
was the only in-game contact information I got Ill try and keep
you posted on development.
Public
Displays Of Piracy and Hormones
Just a quick note
about one stand in particular: Microboards Technologies, who had one
of the largest displays of piracy seen with their 50-100 capacity
DVD recorders.
And that was about
it really, anything else I saw just wasnt worth mentioning.
You can tell how desperate and bored I got by the final note in my
notebook, which says:
Fittest Girls seen were at the Digimask and Logitech stands.
The Cyber Goth girl handing out the OPM Recruitment application flyers
was strangely alluring too.
Lets hope
the show attracts more of the large publishers and much more attention
next time, or Europe could quickly find itself showless in the future.
david
twomey
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