E3 2002 Day 3

by Gail Helmer

Article Type: Field Report
Article Date: May 24, 2002

Click here for E3 2002 Day 3, Plus 1


Over 60,000 gamephiles from more than 70 countries converged in Los Angeles for the eighth annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo). Today was the final day, and E3 has come to a close for another year. Jim "Twitch" Tittle is back from three busy days to debrief us all in this second of three reports of his E3 2002 coverage.

E3’s Good Stuff

by Jim "Twitch" Tittle

1C

WWII Real-Time Strategy


We don’t know what the final title will be but the working name is simply WWII Real Time Strategy. Wait before you discount this as just another RTS thing. It’s coming from Oleg Maddox at 1C who brought us IL-2 Sturmovik. Yeah, so if you know IL-2, you know about our reports of infinite accuracy that we reported during its development. The same holds true here.

In my opinion, with the few looks I had at the demo, this will be the crowning glory of RTS scenarios when it is finished some time next year. Oleg didn’t rush IL-2’s development and consumers benefited. If the final product looks this good it will be a high water mark for all others to be compared with. Yes, it looks that good. This one is going beyond the norm with breathtaking graphics detail and articulation. It uses the same engine as IL-2, which was built at double strength to handle just about anything. And handle it, it does.

Beautiful damage

Look at the water!

My strongest impression was the water. WWII RTS has water that looks frighteningly real. Most RTS titles have blue water with even some movement and flow characteristics on better titles. What they don’t have is absolutely perfect reflective qualities exactly like the real thing. It’s not blue but colored by the atmospheres it reflects. Oleg panned down for fun under the surface and even shrugged that “maybe we should put some fish in.” Certainly if they put divers in it the water for certain missions it will be magnificent.

German APC

You can control one soldier or large groups. All the armor and vehicles in perfect AI accuracy will appear on the Russian Front. Each gun’s ballistics are unique to it plus shell craters and damage will be relative to the type producing it. Even individual soldier weapons are correctly detailed as to look and function.

I have no idea how many polygons are mapped as damage hits occur but it is enough to look just excellent and make the competition look just puny. This holds for other good, new titles upcoming.

Air Strike

It is almost more than an RTS. Each vehicle is modeled well enough to be simulator quality. While some RTS games have limited articulation of vehicles this goes way beyond. Tank hatches open and crewmen emerge in vivid detail. The aircraft are from IL-2 and just as good, but aircraft are not the primary thing here. They even fly better other RTS titles do. Where some make phony circles like two toddlers playing “airplane,” this title will bring them in over target in accurate flight maneuvers. Of course they will be much slower than in a sim simply for the game play aspect.

Soldiers can capture enemy equipment and use it entering and exiting in full articulation. These soldiers will gain experience and skill if they survive so there is a role-playing element involved as they garner promotions and decorations and acquire special skill. Snipers will exist as well as special units dressed in enemy uniforms for infiltration.

There will be several hundred tanks, infantrymen, aircraft, and assorted vehicles from all the nations involved, all completed controllable with seasons and weather integrated in.

This is almost a crossover from RTS to sim in its intent. There is no class for this ambitious scale yet. It’s RTS. I saw trees and even grass being swayed in the wind!

1C will have an add-on of 10 aircraft for IL-2 installable over the sim. This will come very soon. More details on that shortly.

Microsoft

Combat Flight Simulator 3

Sure, you want to know about Combat Flight Simulator 3. This thing has the soul of the old but superb Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe of days gone by. That’s what I immediately felt as Tucker Hatfield and I discussed the title seemingly due for Fall 2002 release. I love talking to him cause he’s one of us under the corporate logo.

Tucker is responsible for a couple of your other favorite combat flight sims: Dynamix’s Aces Over The Pacific and the 1946 add-on plus Aces Over Europe so you know he’s a true simmer having gotten the flight sim bug like many of us on a Commodore 64 before PCs were invented. This guy knows what we want.

CFS3 - Gotha229

What’s so Secret Weapons about it? The planes and the strategic aspects. It is NOT a copy but takes some elemental ideas from SWOTL which Tucker states, “we’ve all played.” How long have we pined for an updated SWOTL? This is close but yet all different too.

CFS3 - Ju88

There are 34 planes to fly!!! We’ll get:
British:

• B-25 C/H/J
  
• Mosquito Mk IV/VI/XVIII
  
• Spitfire Mk Ixc/Ixe
  
• Tempest Mk V
  
• Typhoon Mk 1B
  
• Vampire Mk 1

American:

• B-26 C/F
  
• P-38 J/H
  
• P-51 B/D
  
• P-47 D/D-25
  
• P-55
  
• P-80A
  

German:

• Bf 109 G-6/G10
  
• Fw 190 A-5/A-8
  
• Ju 88 A-4/C-6/P-4
  
• Me 262 A-1a/A-1a -U1/A-1-U4/A-2a (I think that’s the right model designations)
  
• Do-335 A-1/B-2
  
• Go 229 A-1/B-2
  

Even with my feeble pleas there will be no Me 163 though third-party add-ons will probably fill the hole.

Of course there are mission builders, historical and single missions plus a campaign. Everything we saw on CFS2 will be there but more and better features will exist. There is a strategy segment not similarly done before that will need to be mastered to excel. Its doesn’t seem too complicated but should offer a nice touch apart from only flying with both aspects using a good, zoom-able map much better than CFS2’s.

CFS3 - Me262 Cockpit

Certainly we will be able to set the scalable flight models to the infinite degree we had in CFS2 and all the controls will be re-map-able. Mission editors, of course, will be included. Time compression is key-able.

CFS3 - P55

Cockpits and planes look superb. You can erase the cockpit frame and place the main instruments at will at the bottom of the screen, if desired. The toggle-able threat map inset and directional cone has returned to help locate bad guys along with the labels. All can be toggled off. There will be a completely modify-able paint scheme and squadron markings feature. Custom markings can be imported to make you own distinctively visible plane. This will be important for multi-play, which, of course, will be a big segment for some flyers. Planes can be manufactured with the Microsoft tools available in FS2002 and there will be a world of aircraft built by modders, no doubt—like the Me 163. It’s not backwards compatible to CFS2.

The best part is that system requirements will not be heavy. A 1 gig CPU with a 32-64 MB video card should run it. MS has most of the intensive stuff routed to the video card. CPU power is said not to be the critical factor. I’d want 256 MB RAM but 128 might make it. Like all things software they look and run even better on high-end machines though I’m assured that CFS3 will run smoothly on medium hardware. We’ll let you know when we receive preview copies.

Crimson Skies


High Road to Revenge is the sequel to the original, but it will only be offered in X-Box format with no joystick support allegedly due to the fact that more graphics detail and certain features could be incorporated with out compromise. The weather I saw was superb with rain directional modeled and beads on the windscreen!

Crimson Skies

Crimson Skies

There are even tornadoes. All the familiar enemies and friend will be there with some new ones in 10 aircraft. Modification of aircraft will exist to a lesser extent of the original. And, alas, no rate of fire and ballistic changes are evident as the player flies over five geographic distinct locales during 20 missions with multi-player capability. There is no in-the-cockpit view just 6 o’clock chase arcade style.

Ubi Soft

HARPOON 4



Ubi Soft is working on 3-D Harpoon 4. It’s still in the primary stages but should done for Christmas. All the stuff that fans of earlier Harpoon’s had will generally be there but updated to 2002 specs. That’s not to say it’s a re-hash, simply that you’ll be familiar with it.

Harpoon 4

Harpoon 4

The campaign and multi-player will exist and is improved through better maps with selectable icons and thumbnail insets that “see” all the instant events selected. It makes no pretense of being a graphics rich “almost sim,” but continues the legacy with good RTS game play.

Every piece of modern ordnance is modeled and specific according to performance and looks. There can’t be any complaints that some vehicle doesn’t have a certain piece of accurate weaponry. They’re sweating all those details now along with a huge numbers of vehicles to command.

Yes, you can jump to tactical view but that’s not the main feature. Managing resources and dealing with threats on a strategic basis is. There are times when jumping around to see individual target hits will not be good management of your time as things heat up. Damage can be seen as color changes to profile and top-down vehicle views, which can be selected at any time. Sure, multi-player will be available but remember, this project is far from done so further detail will come as we are informed.

Lock On: Modern Air Combat


Ok jet sim fans, this is for you! Fall 2002 is the probable release time so save your pennies cause this looks good. There are 8 fly-able planes. While the WWII simmers say that ain’t many, in jet combat, with the complexities of individual aircraft, it’s plenty. The Allies get the F-15C and the A-10A to fly. Yeah, you’ve been waiting to fly an updated A-10, we know. There are about 12 allied NATO countries vs. a couple of Russian and Ukrainian factions that you can fly for in the Su-27, Su-23, 2 MiG 29 models, Su-25 and the Su-34.

MiG 29

Su-27

The flight models are scalable as they should be for beginners through to those experienced. This is the best-looking jet sim around. Graphic detail is beyond reproach and the planes look great close up from any angle. There is a full range of weather that appears in the campaign and should be selectable in single missions that get your feet wet. You can compress time so you can close and move faster. The fully zoomable map looks like it’s right out of a briefing room with even a realistic satellite version.

F15 Cockpit

Ground Vehicles

The neat part is that the aircraft are mission specific. You can’t load “bombs” on the F-15C and move mud. You have to fly the A-10 for that. Same is true with the Russian aircraft and that keeps the realism going farther. Yes, the scenario is fictitious in that it is a mythical confrontation in the general Balkan geography, but who would say what could occur after September 11th? You’re going to want to fly these planes in their great graphic realism no matter what.

Additionally there are about 50 planes, 15 helicopters, 20 ships, and 150 ground vehicles present with which you can use 100 weapons on!

I’d have to speculate that to get the most out of this one you’ll want a more than medium system though it should do OK on today’s mid-range 1-1.3 GB CPU with 256 RAM and a minimum equivalent of a GeForce2.

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2002

Here are scenes from the show we thought you might enjoy.

E3 2002

Click here for E3 screenshots.

The Movies of E3 2002

Prisoner of War Movie
Download

IGI 2: Covert Strike Movie
Download

Rainbow Six: Raven Shield
Download

Gamespot has the GI Combat Movies 1 & 2
From the designers of Close Combat, comes this 3D Real-Time Strategy set in....yes, World War II. GI Combat features, American and German troops---command a small squad or play a single steadfast GI. Includes weapons such as the MP-40 or the Thompson, tank and artillery including the Jumbo Sherman, the Mark V Panther, and the German 88. The combat system includes, armor model, psychological model, craft a soldier's mindset, capable of heroism in combat or even disobeying orders. Mulitplayer support via LAN or Internet. Battle and Scenario Editor included. Download

Logitech

Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick

Logitech has unveiled the Logitech Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick and is slated to ship early this fall. Logitech's Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick combines precision and quick response with the freedom of cordless. The Freedom features 2.4GHz cordless radio frequency technology, Freedom 2.4 allows gamers to comfortably sit more than 20 feet away. The three AA batteries provide more than 50 hours of gameplay, with ten programmable buttons, an eight-way hat switch, and a twist handle. The joystick also includes a pager-sized receiver with a Status Indicator and a USB connector.

Logitech's Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick

Logitech gave the Freedom 2.4 an entirely new and substantially improved design, with a sleek handle, designed for comfort and excellent access to the buttons and hat, that comes mounted on a stable rubber base. There are a number of premium touches as well, from the rubberized hat to the aluminum trigger, throttle, faceplate, and collar. Like other Logitech PC gaming products, Freedom 2.4 includes Logitech Profiler software for total programmability. MSRP $69.95 (US).

Infogrames

Deadly Dozen - Pacific Theater

Infogrames' Deadly Dozen - Pacific Theater

A sequel to last year's Deadly Dozen, Pacific Theatre consists of 12 new missions encompassing the entire Pacific campaign. Players choose from soldiers with unique skills and specialties to defend themselves against the Japanese in World War II. The game features 12 different missions in a variety of WWII Pacific War locations such as Rabul, New Guinea, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, 24 different enemy variations, ability to import maps from the original Deadly Dozen for multiplayer use, co-op multiplayer via the LAN or Internet, first or third person camera views, and drivable vehicles like a military jeep and truck, armored vehicle transport and misc. passenger vehicles. Release Date: October 2002

Click here for E3 screenshots.

Take Two Interactive

Conflict: Desert Storm

Take-Two Interactive announced Conflict: Desert Storm, a new squad-based action game, to be available this Fall 2002. Based on the 1991 Gulf War, Conflict: Desert Storm is a squad-based action game, where the player takes control of an elite Special Forces SAS or Delta Force Unit, ordered behind enemy lines to infiltrate enemy territory and neutralize key targets. Cameron Spence, an ex-member of 22 Special Air Service (SAS) is advising SCi on the logistics and realism of the game. Release Date: Fall 2002.

Take Two's Conflict: Desert Storm

Click here for E3 screenshots.

Electronic Arts

Battlefield 1942

Electronic Arts' Battlefield 1942

Features:

• Machines of War. Pilot a heavy bomber over the drop zone or engage in a dogfight in a swift fighter. Fire the guns of a mighty battleship or prowl the sea-lanes in a silent submarine. Charge across the desert in a powerful tank or transport troops into the heat of battle in an armored APC.



• Battle Online. Go online with up to 64 players to take part in a raging battle that requires teamwork and cooperation from each member in order to achieve victory.



• Choose Your Side. Enter the war as a soldier in one of five different armies - US, German, British, Russian, or Japanese.



• Specialized Character Kits. Enter the battle as one of five specialized character classes - assault, medic, scout, anti-tank, engineer - each with unique strengths and weaknesses.



• Arm Yourself for Action! Choose from 19 authentic WWII handheld weapons to take into battle, including 2 stationary machine guns.



• A Global Conflict. Wage war across 16 huge, highly detailed maps from 4 WWII theaters - North Africa, South Asia Pacific, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.



• Unlimited Action. 3 multiplayer modes - Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Conquest -- as well as a robust single player experience.

Click here for E3 screenshots.






Click here for E3 2002 Day 3, Plus 1




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