| E3 Impressions: Best of Show
by Dan "Crash" Crenshaw |
||||
|
Hardware:
I am going to have to give my Best of Show vote to JANES USAF. I know you are probably stunned that "CRASH" would consider anything less than a hard-core sim for this recognition. Based on the target audience and planned features, this sim looks like it will fulfill its charter with zeal.
 F15E in USAF. The entire package is being done so well that the target audience, the some 80% or more of the sim community that fly the medium level sims, will be in for a real treat. This will benefit the hardcore community since the ease of configurability will draw more of these players up the scale in challenge when they get a taste of what these sims are like. The result? The production of our favorite games would be that much more appealing since they would be more lucrative for the software companies. Super Hornet Super Hornet by DI has been in development for quite some time (can you say, "Falcon4?"). The wait seems to be paying off. We were not shown a great deal of the game, but what we saw was truly impressive. I won't steal any of the thunder from the review Eric "SNACKO" Marlow will do on it, and the mini interview that will follow. I have had exposure to several builds of SSI's Flanker 2 and I had a pretty good idea what to expect here. The demo builds were running very smooth and looked pretty good. But as with all of the 3 hard-core aimed sims, none of them were complete enough to make a fair and honest assessment in my opinion. Flanker 2.0 did look to be the most complete product out of the 3. JANES F/A-18 has the makings of another great product. Building on what they did and learned from F-15, this sim looks to have the potential to carry the torch of hard-core offerings from JANES admirably. Realistic First Person Shooters are becoming very popular and the amount of detail being included into these games has clearly increased. The sequel to the popular REDSTORM Rainbow 6/Eagle Watch is "Rogue Spear." An all new game from the ground up with familiar features and a whole slew of new enhancements as well. |
 Rogue Spear Like what? New weapons, moves, variables, and BETTER AI. Now we can watch the terrorist run away, or limp if they are hit. Very satisfying. Terrorist skill levels are included as well. Rogue Spear looks to be an excellent package and is my favorite of the FPS at E3. ZOMBIEs SPEC OPS 2 has also made significant strides in many areas of realism. An on-line battle mode boon will be the dynamic lighting: shoot out the lights and you are in the dark. There are many other new features that make the progression of this game from its predecessor a major step forward, including stealth AI and the ability to kill silently. Campaigns will be set in Germany, the Antarctic, North Korea, Pakistan and Thailand. I will give you more detail in my review.
 DF2. Hiding in Grass. Delta Force 2 from Novalogic had major improvements as well. I do have to admit the VOXEL graphics engine really drops the overall presentation of the game for me. Based on features and realism, it was excellent and on par with Spec Ops 2. The Delta Force fans out there will not be disappointed.
 DF2. Sniping. Go to Page Three: Hardware
|
|||
|
Copyright © 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, INC. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated May 20th, 1999 |
||||