Blizzard at E3 2005
World of Warcraft and Starcraft: Ghost. Zero surprises and yet they still rocked
Tags: e3 2005 Categories: Features, Game Cube Features, PC Features, PS2 Features, Xbox Features
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jun 8th, 2005
You’ve got to hand it to Blizzard. Here we have a company at E3 showing off only two games, the same two games that were at last year’s E3, one of which is already out. And yet, their real estate comprised about a third of Vivendi Universal’s entire booth, with every last inch jam-packed with rabid fans itching to get a look at what they had to show. Few companies in the industry demand that level of respect, and fewer still actually deserve it. As it so happens, Blizzard’s flawless track record precedes it, and their excellent upcoming titles speak for themselves.
Of course, it’s not entirely fair to call World of Warcraft “upcoming”, being that the game has not only been out for roughly a half a year, but has garnered a userbase of more than 1.5 million subscribers. To put that into perspective, the only other MMO with numbers even comparable to that is the Lineage games (they’re big in Asia), which have been out far, far longer. Everquest? City of Heroes? They’re just foothills next to the towering mountain that is World of Warcraft, and it’s about to get bigger.
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The next big thing for World of Warcraft is Battlegrounds, a new map type for player-versus-player battles where up to 80 players fight over land, and strive to earn honor points, which reward players who defeat others of equal skill by giving them the opportunity to get new rewards and skills otherwise unattainable. Many have compared the Battlegrounds maps to RTS titles, where strategy and positioning becomes key. Considering the Warcraft series’ history, such a thing would be all too fitting. Currently two battlegrounds are in the works (One 10-vs-10 and one 40-vs-40), but more will be coming later on this year.
Blizzard’s other title shown at E3 is their highly-anticipated console title Starcraft: Ghost. The game has been completely reworked since last year and is now in the extremely capable hands of former members of Swingin’ Ape, who made a name for themselves with Metal Arms: Glitch in the System back in 2003, and since starting work on Ghost they’ve been bought by Blizzard outright, which should be a good indication that the game is headed in the right direction.
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Perhaps most interesting about the game is that both the single-player campaign and multiplayer deathmatch modes seem to be getting a lot of attention. In the single-player game, as you may remember from last year, players will control the sneaky, sexy stealth expert Nova as she generally acts bad ass, infiltrating enemy strongholds, doing lots of killing, and generally making a nuisance of herself. Fans of the Starcraft series (which by now is almost everyone) will be sure to recognize familiar units from the old strategy games, from firebats and hydralisks to siege tanks and carriers. Although there was suspiciously little presence of the Protoss in what we saw at E3, we’re promised that Starcraft: Ghost will have a story that incorporates all three races (Terran, Protoss and Zerg), as well as bring familiar faces back into the fold. Kerrigan? Raynor? Zeratul? Hard to say at this point, as Blizzard is keeping pretty quiet, but if they want to please the crowds, I’d expect nothing less.
The single-player gameplay gives Nova a good amount of freedom to approach situations as she sees fit. She’s absolutely built for stealth, as her Sam Fisher-esque sneakin’ and killin’ is accentuated by her personal cloak, as well as heat vision and a wide array of other goodies. However, she has access to an arsenal of weaponry ranging from the usual machine guns, rocket launchers and sniper rifles, to special ghost-specific abilities like the Lockdown, so she can certainly bring out the big guns if need be, or even call in an attack by the artillery. In addition, she’s capable of hopping in one of any number of vehicles (Including the good ol’ Vulture bikes), and even various suits, including the marines’ gear and a firebat’s suit.
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In the multiplayer mode, players won’t be quite as versatile, but for balance reasons. Players will choose from one of multiple character types (Ghosts, marines, firebats, etc.), but only lighter character types will be able to get in vehicles. The multiplayer mode seems to fuse elements of various games, particularly Halo 2’s vehicles and hijacking, but also a good number of multiplayer game types including the “base-securing” thing that’s all the rage these days, with new elements thrown in like giant transport vessels that players struggle over as they’re moving. Both the Xbox and PS2 versions of Ghost will be online thanks to Battle.net. No word yet on online play for the GameCube version, though judging from the reaction of the Blizzard rep I spoke to, it seems the odds are a bit slim.
Regardless, Starcraft: Ghost is truly becoming a must-have game for all three platforms, combining some of the best aspects of Halo 2, Splinter Cell, and of course, Starcraft. There’s still at least another year or so of development going into it before it’s set to be released, too, so you can bet it’ll be pretty polished by the time it reaches you.
While I have to admit that I’m disappointed that Blizzard’s insisting on keeping mum on rumored sequels (Starcraft 2, Diablo III), I can’t say it’s a big surprise, and I suppose that at the very least we can console ourselves with the fact that, when they’re actually unveiled, we’ll all be absolutely floored. Of course, knowing Blizzard, by the time that happens we’ll be wondering why it’s taking them so long to release a sequel to World of Warcraft and Starcraft: Ghost…
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Tags: e3 2005
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jun 8th, 2005 and is filed under Features, Game Cube Features, PC Features, PS2 Features, Xbox Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
