On the night of April 10th I was witness to a relatively new phenomenon in gaming: e-sports, as represented through Namco Bandai’s Soul Calibur V World Championship in Las Vegas. Debate has raged over e-sports actual definition, be it a simple tournament or an event worthy of coverage associated with traditional sporting events, however from the position of a person who has seen a lot of crazy stuff (both at videogame events and Las Vegas itself), the Soul Calibur V World Championship managed an intensity that was thoroughly unrivaled.
I expected the same bunch of antisocial elitists that populate local Smash Brothers and Halo tournaments, but what I found was a crowd with as much passion and patriotism as those fanatical people I see at soccer games on television. The screaming and shouting when matches got close was at a decibel level that was incredible given the small size of the room. Furthermore, being a world championship, chants of “USA! USA!” were the norm whenever a United States player took the stage. One guy was even waving around a huge American flag, a flag he promptly folded while half crying, “the dream is dead, the dream is dead” as the last American player was eliminated. In the end OmegaDR from the Dominican Republic claimed victory, but if this is the sort of atmosphere we can expect from publisher-sponsored tournaments then, well, competitive gaming as a whole stands to win.
While you can read my full previews for Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Star Trek at their respective links, here are some smaller impressions of other games I spent some time with at Gamers Day:
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, a Dark Souls PC release with bonus content, was an obvious favorite amongst the press. Personally I have never played Dark Souls (it’s a world I find relentlessly intriguing but impossibly intimidating), however I was witness to a few details in a round table interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki. There will be at least three new areas and three to four new bosses, all of which tying to an ambiguous existing point in the narrative. New NPCs will also be present, but the biggest surprise was the addition of a PvP mode, though Miyazaki was quick to stress this mode was a mere bonus and not to expect much in the way of depth. I also saw a live demo of a new cliff-side/grassy area complete with a character who looked like a chimney sweep and wielded a pitchfork, but I couldn’t accurately say whether or not those assets were part of Dark Souls-proper. Most questions asked remained unanswered. There were polite “no comments” when asked if this content would ever make its way to consoles or if the PC platform was indeed Games for Windows Live as indicated in the in-trailer box art. More information is sure to come out of E3, as Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition drops not long afterward on August 24th.
I also got to spend a bit of time with Dirt Showdown. Or, more specifically, I played around with one of the game’s Destruction modes. Dubbed Knockout, it joins Rampage (more of a traditional destruction derby) and Hard Target (survival) under the Destruction pillar. Knockout placed eight or so cars on a medium sized platform. The goal was to acquire points by either knocking the other cars off, “killing” them by wearing down their health bar, or a handful of special moves like t-boning another car. Easy gas/brake/boost controls and a last thirty seconds that doubles scoring ensured an arcade like experience. As a bonus, it was playable spilt screen with another human being, which was appreciated in a world where couch co-op is almost a thing of the past.
One of the best surprises of the show was Dragon Ball Z Kinect. The ace in its sleeve seemed to be the ability to perform a Kamehameha in real life and actually see it represented with proper context on screen. That’s personally appealing, given friends and I have suffered numerous debates over the actual motion required to perform such a move. In our demo this was represented through a series of actions the player was tasked to mimic. Repeatedly punching hands forward and backward to threw fireballs, putting your arms up blocked, and the trademark Kamehameha rounded out the actions necessary to win Dragon Ball Z’s legendary intense battles. Interestingly, while promising a total of 50+ characters, some might be tied to QR codes printed on specially marked trading cards. Namco was still exploring the means of which to get these cards in the hands of fans, but it was a cool concept nevertheless. .
I also got to spend a little bit of time with Inversion before the demo units were turned off. While walking around and seeing surreal pieces of the environment seemingly locked in gravity stasis was a neat parlor trick, the rudimentary shooting and complete lack of context in regard to the cut scenes was unsatisfying. Inversion wasn’t bad, but rather mundane and relatively unimpressive compared to its peers in the shooter space.
Lastly, while ultimately just than a fun detail, Adriann Curry made an appearance cosplaying Tekken’s Christie Monteiro. I assumed that was a paid gig on the part of Namco, however she stuck around for a bit and actually seemed to know what she was talking about in regard to Tekken Tag 2. That was surprising, to say the least.
Anyway, be sure to check back with us for more coverage of Namco’s 2012 lineup in a few months at E3.
