Quote:Metroid Prime: Hunters, in development at NST (although Retro may be involved, as their logo graces the title screen), has seen a lot of changes since both the 2004 Electronics Entertainment Expo and the release of the “First Hunt” demo. By now, most gamers know the basic idea. Samus will square off against some of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. Nintendo has stated that Hunters will focus heavily on Samus’s offensive capabilities, meaning there will probably be little to no exploration in the game.

The E3 2005 demo includes three modes. Bounty Mode is the Hunters version of capture the flag. Hunter Battle is a classic style deathmatch, and System Hack is a variation on king of the hill.

The System Hack mode, which is similar to Halo 2’s “Territories” game, sets up an arena similar to a game of king of the hill. The difference is that there are three "hills", which are really data access points that must be hacked, which takes several seconds during which you are quite vulnerable. Players must step into and control an area of the map. Once they have done this, they start accumulating points. After controlling one "hill", it’s possible to grab the other two, thus increasing the rate at which points rack up. The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the match.

The other bounty hunters all have their own special abilities, including special morph forms. First there is Noxus, who can transform into a spinning top with a blade arm attack. Spire can change into a spike covered ball capable of damaging others and climbing walls. However, unlike Samus’s spider-ball from the Metroid Prime series, Spire’s ball is more like the spider-ball from Metroid 2 in that it can climb any wall. Kanden morphs into a larva and has the ability to drop tail segments that will home in on his foes. Nintendo promises that three more bounty hunters will be revealed later. It’s pretty safe to assume that some of them will have to be unlocked in the final version of the game.

As far as looks go, Hunters has improved quite a bit since the First Hunt demo released with the Nintendo DS. The framerate has improved and there are tons of particle effects now. The team at NST has been focusing on these improvements quite a bit. A four player game will have tons of projectiles, bombs, explosions, and characters flying all over the place. Samus’s 3D model has received a makeover and looks much better now. The game’s new levels and characters are also more colorful than the First Hunt demo would lead players to believe. Regarding the interface, the touch screen now looks more like a visor, though gameplay is still displayed on the upper screen. There is also a “Headshot!” callout on screen that pops up when you pop off an opponent's head.

Hunters also adds new weapons to the Metroid universe. One of them lobs balls of magma. Another can be charged to freeze opponents, but it is different from the Ice Beam in Metroid Prime. A third weapon behaves like a shotgun. Each bounty hunter has an affinity for a certain weapons in the game, and will play better when using that weapon. Also, each bounty hunter starts with a different default weapon. The default weapon has unlimited ammunition, but universal ammo pickups are used to refill other armaments. The charge function acts like a secondary fire for each weapon. For example, missiles are homing by default, but they can be charged up to become (non-homing) super missiles. The final version of the game will include more weapons and levels. Some of these levels are designed for liberal use of the morph forms.

Currently, Metroid Prime: Hunters supports four players over a local wireless connection, and does not offer an online mode. However, the game’s AI bots are devilishly intelligent. When Hunters is finished, it will have lots of options to customize the multiplayer matches. Players will be able to set variables such as time and kill limits. There’s no word yet on whether or not the game will keep detailed statistics.

More on the single player modes will be revealed later. Unfortunately, it’s looking like the game's single player will be little more than arena battles against AI opponents, but NST may come out and surprise us with something more in the vein of Retro's Metroid Prime adventures.

Quote:Geist is making its third appearance at the Electronics Entertainment Expo this year. The very first thing you will notice about the game is the beautiful title screen, which is similar to the one seen in Metroid Prime. The graphics have seen quite a lot of improvement since last year’s show, but textures could still use improvement. The demo is also showing some slowdown in both the cut-scenes and gameplay. However, with Geist so close to release, it’s unclear how much (if any) improvement we'll see by the time it’s finished.

One of the coolest things about Geist is the game’s interface. The aiming reticule is context-sensitive, changing its look to indicate what actions can be performed. The PDA scanning device is also very cool, although it seems to be mainly used in the intro level. There are little touches all over the game that give it a wonderful presentation.

Geist starts out with the player in a human form. It’s really hard to die at this point in the game. The slowly depleting life bar and the med packs scattered about the world make sure of that. However, once in ghost form, the life bar drains constantly. It can be refilled by feeding on the life energy of plants and other life forms that can’t be possessed.

When in ghost form, at first you are trapped inside a computer simulation. This tutorial teaches you how use some of your new abilities. The whole simulation is absolutely stunning and appears very dreamlike. The simulation looks totally different compared to the rest of the game. After spending some time in the simulation, something goes wrong in the real world. The system begins to crash, and everything turns into wire-frames. The computer’s voice goes insane, instructing you to, “kill kill kill,” before it finally zaps you into the real world. If you can’t tell from the previous paragraph, Geist is heavily story based. There are tons of real-time voiced cinemas and in-mission text dialogue. The story revolves around an evil corporation and just might involve aliens or some other sort of paranormal monsters.

As a ghost, you can interact with other ghosts, including one incredibly creepy little girl named Gigi. She acts as your guide early on in the game. She’ll teach you how to possess inanimate objects such as a power dynamo, an explosive crate, and an antique arcade machine (the mechanical kind, with moving parts), which serves as a target practice mini-game. The ghost form also allows you to float upwards a bit. Everything occurs in slow-motion while in ghost form. Characters walk very slowly and explosions look like those from the Matrix movies. This slow motion effect will probably not be used in multiplayer, as it would be impossible to implement with some players being in slow-motion and others not. Speaking of multiplayer, it seems to pit human characters versus ghost characters, and each side will have different tactics.

Geist will not be at E3 next year, as it releases on June 22nd.

Yes, online.

Quote:During the pre E3 2005 press conference, Iwata revealed that Super Smash Bros. would appear online for the launch of Revolution. Currently no other details were revealed.

Theoretically, the game could support more than four players online, but due to gameplay concerns the game will likely be limited to the usual four.

The name of the title (Super Smash Bros. Online) is not official.

Looks great!





























Would have looked a lot better cel-shaded, though.

Looks great!

If there's one thing that blew away my expectations at the show, it's Zelda. This trailer in unbelievable: http://media.nintendo.com/zelda/universe...tp_480.mov

I didn't see this posted here anywhere so...

<img src="http://www.1up.com/media?id=1897381&type=lg">

<img src="http://www.1up.com/media?id=1897375&type=lg">

<img src="http://www.1up.com/media?id=1897379&type=lg">

I know Nintendo's trying to make this fit well into home entertainment shelves, but damn. It shouldn't have to look like a sleek computer CD-ROM drive.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3140623

This also looks great. MUCH better art direction than the first game.

Told ya it's coming out here! WOO!

Well at least this looks awesome. Co-op!