The Event
ECTS kicks off for its 14th year, this year being sponsored by Japanese computer giant, Konami. Big-names return to the scene this year such as EA, Nokia, UbiSoft, Vivendi Universal (publishers of Valve’s soon to be release Half-Life 2 sequel), Vodafone, Logic3, NVIDIA and ATI. One of the biggest assets of this year’s ECTS was foreseen as being Valve’s debut of Half-Life 2 to the European market.
Unfortunately, this year’s ECTS has been deemed not to be as big as last year, due to the absence of certain major players such as ID and 3D Realms. Indeed, we would have been interested in viewing forthcoming titles such as Doom III and Max Payne 2. This year NVIDIA made more of an impression than ATI, with the chipset manufacturer’s stand being reduced to a cupboard! This is slightly different from last year when ATI had full sponsorship from AlienWare to utilise their latest in mobile graphics technology. Perhaps ATI did not feel compelled to make as big as impression as last year, since the latest products from ATI have been well-received by the consumer market. Nintendo made a vague effort to attend, however refusing to socialise with the rest of the industry, by moving into a converted bus, outside!
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Featured Products:
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 was unquestionably the biggest title to make a potential debut at ECTS 2003, which was the first time that the game would make its appearance to the European market. Of course, first impressions are always important, and indeed many of us were expecting something new and fresh from the pioneering software developer. Unfortunately most of us were left unimpressed after waiting in a ridiculous two and a half hour queue to see no more than an identical 20 minute presentation to what has already been seen in E3, Germany and the rest of the world. Perhaps Valve should have been informed of the existence of internet technology. To further add, the more we watched the presentation, the more sequences in the game appeared to be scripted. Surely with the release not too far away, Valve would have come up with a playable version of the game instead of reducing us to view an outdated presentation in what would be identified as an enlarged airline black box data recorder!
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament 2004 is the next game from Atari’s "Unreal" franchise of first-person shooter titles. UT2004 will incorporate vehicles and new team play options into multiplayer gaming environments. However this has all been seen before in games such as Tribes 2. Many of the other game features aside from the noticeable elements of the game appear to be the same as UT2003. This is particularly the case for weapon models, and we feel that the title would not be best-received as a stand-alone product but rather an add-on for UT2003.
Unreal Tournament 2004 Gameplay Video
Unreal Tournament 2004 Gameplay Video #2
Unreal Tournament 2004 Gameplay Video #3
Far Cry
Far Cry is a new first person shooter game that looks set to be another great title from the leading software developer UbiSoft who have had a succession of award-winning and highly acclaimed titles over the last year, including that of Splinter Cell and Raven Shield, which the manufacturers’ collected awards for at this year’s ECTS. Far Cry incorporates some of the most stunning visuals to date with superb 3D models and effects. Certainly a game to look out for! Far Cry is expected for release later this year.
Far Cry Gameplay Video
Far Cry Gameplay Video 2
Far Cry Gameplay Video 3
Nokia N-Gage
Nokia attended this year’s ECTS with their latest N-Gage product which is intended to provide gamers, audio enthusiasts and cellphone users with a complete mobile entertainment package. Providing Playstation stylistic graphics, MP3 audio playback and a communication interface, the phone aims to breach new areas of mobile phone technology. However, we felt that the product would primarily be well-received by the gaming community rather than corporate users of communications products. However, we will just have to wait and see! The N-Gage will be released later this year and will retail at around €350, i.e. £230.
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