X06 Update #3

My last update from Barcelona, already at the airport. This morning, Peter Jackson didn't talk to anyone directly, I am afraid. But I have seen a number of presentations and can give you some idea of what they are like.

Viva Pinata can be compared to Animal Crossing, but only to some extent. I take it you are familiar with AC, so let's focus on a few differences. You yourself are not a character and take the view of an invisible god, much like in Black & White. You tend to the garden and, depending on your actions and subsequent changes to it, that will attract different creatures. It looks highly original and a lot of creatures are incredibly cute. There is also a television series coming out on 4kids Enterntainment. I really cannot vouch for long-term playability, though. For a start, you shouldn't get too attached to those creatures, because a worm can get eaten by a bird, for example. And to enable a bird to mate you will have to smash a worm and reveal the candy inside (only that will get a bird 'in the mood'). There are a ton of hidden features, though. So I do believe the concept will work.

Peter Molyneux did not present any Fable 2 footage, since he felt it wasn't ready. He did share a great deal of his vision for the game, though. One juicy example: you will be able to have sex in the game, both protected and unprotected. The latter will often result in children being born, who will grow up and can become as good and evil as yourself. Having dropped the 'acorn growing into an oak tree' interaction from the original game, this will be included in the sequel. Further still, there will be a fully interactive environment. Molyneux gave the example of a small gypsy camp in a place called Brightwood Forest. When you first encounter it, you have the option of killing all inhabitants. If you do, the camp will have vanished a year on If you don't, it will grow into a village and eventually a smaller town over time. Fable 2 really looks like a very promising title.

Assassin's Creed, the only non-exclusive title in this list, looked stunning in yesterday's demo. You are free to find one of many ways to approach the target and eventually get close to your victim. Though the actual act of killing seems rather short-lived, the game emphasises both the setup and the get-away. You can climb any building (though this will draw attention to yourself) and there are various methods of transort like horse-riding, which looked beautiful. This is going to be one of the hottest action titles of 2007.

Alan Wake from Remedy of Max Payne fame was everyone's favourite, I guess. Though it seems far from release, the presentation revealed awesome visuals and a compelling, frightening atmosphere. I got goosegumps within seconds of the presentation starting. Alan Wake is going to be the next Half Life 2, if these guys don't mess anything up.

Shadowrun looks okay, but it's nothing special, graphically speaking. It has some interesting gameplay features, but I have my doubts whether this can become the Xbox360's Counterstrike.

Crackdown looks very poor, in my opinion. The graphic style seems to be kind of cel-shaded, but not too obviously. If you took a screenshot from it, it would look like that GT racing game for Wii from Ubi Soft. You just don't know where the developers want to go for style-wise. And so it just ends up looking barely Xbox (or Gamecube) quality.

So a good number of titles do raise the bar significantly, most look good and a few are quite poor and gimmicky. Altogether, X06 was a very successful event for Microsoft, though, even without a major announcement. Sony, competing directly with them, will have a hard time trying to equalise in terms of their games portfolio.