| eGames Expo further Impressions |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Saturday, 17 November 2007 | |
  
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The popular titles on show this time around at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre include Assassins Creed, the sneaker-action game from Ubisoft. Set during the Third Crusade era, Assassins Creed can be seen and tried all over the Expo. Microsoft and Biowares "Oblivion in space" game Mass Effect is also on show at eGames, albeit in a much more subdued presentation than competitors. Whilst the crash of swords and chatter of machine guns surround the Microsoft booth, players go through the motions of this in depth game in relative peace. Gamers can try out Halo 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, Crysis, Haze and Fury, all in a competitive nature with the various LAN's set up on the show room floor. Over on the Nintendo stand, have a go at Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Link's Crossbow training and Metroid Prime 3:Corruption all on the Wii. During Friday's mainly media day, attendees were able to listen to some big gaming names up on the main stage. There was a performance by Eminence Symphony Orchestra founder Hiroaki Yura that gave a shivery spine. Brian Allegier, creative Director and Design Director behind the newly released Ratchet and Clank:Tools of Destruction (also playable at the Sony stand) gave a personal recall of his own twelve year career and beyond, citing creative inspiration for his current work at Insomniac. These ranged from the seminal Adventure on Atari 2600 and somewhat obscure text adventure PlanetFall, through Grand Theft Auto, The Sims and Mario 64. Allegier provided a refreshingly simple approach to the construction of video games, surprising for a company such as Insomniac, whose own success had led to a dramatic increase in size over the last few years. Insomniac, it seems, is aware of the pitfalls of big-company mentalities, Allegier touched on the main aspects of game creation and the need to encapsulate, challenges, experimentation, exploration and a sense of progression within each title Insomniac works upon. Allegier also touched on the increase in emotional attachment to game characters, and used this in answer to an audience question regarding the lack of Multiplayer in Rachet & Clank:Tools of Destruction. For him, the aim of the game was to create the best single player experience they could, to achieve this vision, things had to be cut, multiplayer being the biggest. There was also a less well-attended forum of industry veterans from the media, development and government angles of local video game business. The discussion centred on the lack of R rating for games in Australia. Effectively games rated on par with an 18+ cinema release are banned in this country, leading to a general outcry from industry pundits for the need to legitimise the industry in a manner that will allow the continued creativity and expenditure to flow with more certainty. The discussion was pointed and logical, but the lack of bums-on-seats in the audience perhaps enforces the exasperation of the arguments by the gaming public. An R rating makes sense to us; it is the politicians that need the convincing. The eGames and Entertainment Expo continues today and tomorrow at the Melbourne Exhibition centre. |
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