Namco had an impressive booth at this year's E3 with a wide assortment of games that should please most gamers.
by Aceinet

The Namco booth at this year's E3 was a very colorful and impressive display of some great games.  The booth was also jammed pack with a ton of visitors all the time.  There were some big games on display, some hidden gems, some huge games not playable at the show and one surprise game.  Read ahead for a description of all of the action.  

Some of the bigger title hands-on previews can be read about here: Death by Degrees, Dead to Rights II.  And a few First Looks: SRS (Street Racing Syndicate),   Baten Kaitos, and Tales of Symphonia.

Many other games were on display that I only got a quick glimpse of.  Beginning with Ace Combat 5, which is the latest entry in the long running series.   The graphics will grab your attention right away; they look fantastic.   All of the airplanes are rendered with great textures and the environments are lavishly detailed.  A new addition to the game this year is the addition of a Wingman Command.  During the demo on display at E3 you could read the interaction between the pilots and the rest of your squadron.  You can now issue orders to your team and work together on your attacks.  The game will have over 30 missions and will feature unlockable content.  Ace Combat 5 looked great at E3 and is scheduled for release in Fall of 2004. 

Two more games on display were sequels; Smash Court Tennis 2 and Time Crisis: Crisis Zone.  Smash Court Tennis 2 features over 16 real players in the game and a pro tour mode.  The pro tour mode allows you to create your own character and work your way up the tennis ladder by competing in tournaments.  The demo at E3 looked great with the character animations being very smooth.  The graphics for the different courts looked great as well.  The game is only for PS2 and is for 1 to 4 players (there is no online mode).  The game is scheduled for release in Summer 2004.

Time Crisis: Crisis Zone is another installment in the long running shooting series.   One interesting addition to the game is the Double Gun Gameplay.  When you start the game you can select either single or double gun.  This gives you the ability to use two GunCon2 controllers at the same time while playing the game.  But you will need two GunCon2 controllers in order to use this feature.  The game will only ship with one GunCon2 controller.  The game on display at E3 looked great and veterans of the series should look for the game in September 2004.

The next two games on display are interesting because one of them might never come out in America and the other one was just announced.  The Adversary is a military action game from the developers of Kill Switch.  The game is presented in the same third person perspective as Kill Switch and you have full control over the movement of your character.  The game should be playable for both Xbox & PS2 and will feature online play as well.  The Namco representative didn’t have any additional information since the game was just announced and was not included in any of the promotional material given out by Namco.

The other game on display was a music game called Taiko Drum Master.  The game is a music game where you beat on a drum device that attaches to your PS2.  Similar to other music games you have to hit the drum to match the displays shown in the game.  Namco wanted to display the game at E3 to see what type of response it would get.  The booth was packed with players lining up to play the game and everyone appeared to be enjoying the game.  In fact this was a huge seller in Japan for Namco and it wouldn’t surprise me if the game is released in America.

Of course I saved the best for last, or least depending on how you want to look at it.  Tekken 5 and Xenosaga II were both on display but in video form only.  In fact both displays were located to the side of the press entrance at the Namco booth.  It’s possible you might have even missed both video displays.  As of right now both games are scheduled for release in 2005.  Tekken 5 is being released in Arcades this year with a console release in 2005.  Xenosaga II is currently scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2005 for PS2. 

After it’s all said and done, Namco had a quality list of titles on display at E3.  There are games for almost every gamer out there.  From sports games, action games, to RPGs - Namco has the console gamer covered.  In fact there was one more game that needs to be mentioned, Namco's first PC game.  Namco announced an agreement on April 15^th to publish the first game from Flagship Studios.  Flagship is composed of developers that used to work for Blizzard.  This is a huge deal for Namco and PC gamers.  So E3 2004 Namco proved that quality games is what gamers want and that’s what gamers will get this year and next.

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---