Online Games:

Madden 2003, Gameday 2003, and NFL2K3
Theres certainly some heated competition this year for king of the gridiron, so its no surprise that all three of these games feature online playability, or at least on August 27th they will be playable online. Theres not much to say about Madden and NFL2K3, other than they are superb games and deliver a great online experience. A minor gripe is that in 2K3 your opponent can zoom out and check his receivers to try and draw you offsides a cheap, but not uncommon tactic that even the testers were using against me. Theres no reason for it to affect your screen, but it does. That leaves Gameday as the big question mark among this years football games. 989 knows they screwed up during the PS2s first year, but they were very adamant that theyve learned from their mistakes, and things are looking better. This is true, Gameday is much improved in all aspects, but its also very clear that the game isnt yet on the same level as Madden and NFL2K3. However, if the game improves as much next year as it did this year, things could get rather interesting.

Tony Hawk 4:
Not much to say here. Its Tony Hawk and its online with the same sort of improvements that the title gets every year. If youre not tired of the gameplay by now, youll be pleased with THPS4, but if your interest is starting to wane, there doesnt seem to be enough new to change your mind.

Twisted Metal: Back ONLINE
Man, I had forgotten how fast and furious the gameplay is in this game. I jumped into an online game, and quickly got torched. Since it comes free in the mail with a network adapter its sure to be a popular online title, but dont get any crazy ideas its the same exact version as the original, except its online now. NBA Live 2003
Theres no doubt that the series has been eclipsed in recent years by SEGAs outstanding NBA2K series, but it looks like this is the year EA makes a serious effort to catch back up. The gameplay is much faster than previous years, the controls are more responsive, and the overall feeling is that of a more fluid game. The game plays well online, expect for when lag makes freethrow shooting near impossible something which will hopefully be ironed out. One cool feature was your ability to rattle your opponents controller by pushing the circle button as he stood at the charity stripe. Its a minor thing, but it was a blast to use against my EA Canada opponent, who I beat by nine points by the way.

New Games::

Rise To Honor
The first game unveiled was a new action game starring martial artist, Jet Li, titled Rise To Honor. The game is an homage to the great Kung Fu movies of the past, and strives to recreate the intense action and amazing fighting moves that you only see in movies. The game, not due out until Fall 2003, was still in its early stages, and wasnt playable, but the motion captured moves of Jet Li translated into some awesome action in the game. Moves like a backflip off a wall, vaulting over obstacles, and even running up a wall were just a few of the interesting abilities that Jet Li has during the game. Playing like a Bouncer that is actually good, we saw Jet take on several bad guys at once, interacting fully with his environment by throwing chairs through windows, and at one point grabbing an attacker and holding his head underwater in a kitchen sink until he passed out. Again, the games still early, but looks to be very promising. Unfortunately, the screen shots that Sony passed along have something funky going on, so theres no picture to show, but when they send out updated shots, youll see them here.

Frequency 2
Also shown for the first time, but not a very well kept secret was Frequency 2 the sequel to the very addicting Frequency. The core gameplay is still the same mix your tunes by picking a track and matching the beat, but the rest of the game has seen dramatic improvement. The graphics are a little more interesting, and instead of the tunnel used in the last game, the course has been flattened out and looks a little like a highway now. The artist list is top-secret, but this version promises a more diverse lineup of artists, including Weezer and Garbage. Also in the game this year is the online component that had to be scrapped in the original version. This aspect of the game wasnt shown, but it will definitely be there, and promises to add replay value to an already deep game. This game was playable, and despite its new look, the gameplay is unchanged and as good as ever.

Sleeper Hits:

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
For some reason at E3, Sony was pushing the ho-hum platformer Ratchet and Clank instead of this cel-shaded adventure developed by Sucker Punch. The visuals are unbelievable, the music rocks, and the gameplay is varied and challenging. There are normal platforming sections, but theres also a fair amount of stealth involved. As the game progresses, Sly learns new attacks and sneaking techniques which are all easy to perform, but are interesting enough to keep the game from getting boring. The scheduled release date is September 24th. Hopefully this early release date wont doom it to obscurity.

War of the Monsters
Developed by the same guys who created Twisted Metal Black, War of the Monsters only reaffirms Incog Inc.s fascination with destruction something to which they readily admit. War of the Monsters is a cross between Rampage and Twisted Metal: Black, combined with the destructible cities of Zone of Enders. The premise is simple enough: you control any of a number of giant creatures inspired by old science fiction films. Giant apes, robots, and flying creatures are just a few of the ten monsters from which you can choose. The main goal if the game is to fight your opponent to the death, and inflict as much carnage and terror upon the city as you possibly can. Everything in each level can be destroyed, and common items found in each area can be used as weapons. During one fight that we saw, one of the characters was slammed into a building, causing it to tip over. As he was on the ground, his opponent grabbed the radio tower that had been on top of the building and stabbed him with it. Cars can be picked up and flung across the city, and of course, you can stomp on the poor people that are fleeing the scene. The levels are huge, and one thing the developers came up with to make the two player game more fluid was a camera that splits vertically when the monsters are far apart, but merges into one screen when they are in close proximity to each other. The game is looking fantastic, but its not due out until 2003. With all this time to tweak and balance the game, theres no question that this game is going to rock when it finally hits the stores.

Not Too Impressive:

The Getaway
This game has been the cause of hundreds of fanboy arguments in message boards across the net. Heres some more fuel for the fire. The good news is that the horrible steering at E3 has been tweaked, and its now possible to actually drive down a street without hitting every car in England. The framerate seems to be a tad bit smoother, but is still on the slow side. The bad news is that for a game in development so long, there are a lot of issues. Unresponsive controls, confusing city streets, and slow-paced gameplay are just a few of them. The way you navigate through the city is to follow the direction of your turn signals. Unfortunately, the turn signals would come on when no turns were available, and even when there were turns it was very hard to find your destination. Theres still lots of time left for work to be done on the game, but this is the second time Ive spent with the game, and the second time Ive been disappointed.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs
Maybe this games not my bag, but I couldnt get into it during the short time I was able to play. Nobody seemed to be using the voice chat, and the controls were a little bit clunky. That said, I was also playing against testers that were quite adept at splattering my brains all over the place, so that didnt help much. The games a blast to watch when there are several people playing next to each other, but for me, there was something missing.

All in all, Gamers Day was a very informative event with a very surprising number of good games. I came away from this event more impressed with what Sony has on the horizon than I did at E3, which is one of the reasons for holding the event.