E3 2008: Sega
Chuck and I had a chance to sit down for some demonstrations of Sega’s upcoming titles in the near future. We were given detailed run-throughs of what to expect with these games, and here are some impressions from the developer interviews we saw.
Alpha Protocol
Obsidian Entertainment has paired up with Sega to create a present day espionage roleplaying game that is out of the mold of Mass Effect. Strangely enough, this game was in development before Obsidian had even heard about Mass Effect, even though both games are powered by the Unreal Engine 3.
The game features a highly skilled, but very green, primary character. It is your job to determine what type of agent he is going to become. So, much like similar games, in-game decisions can impact what type of person your character becomes. While this isn’t anything new, the demo we had showed a vital part of the character’s interaction that can change what the primary character has access to later in the game and who he ends up fighting in the end.
You take orders and commands from a sexy, flirtatious boss who has a tendency to talk about some things that don’t matter while in the middle of the mission. As hinted, her and the primary character seem to flirt with each other almost endlessly, although there’s absolutely no word whether or not they have a past or a current relationship outside of their professional relations.
The game will be released on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC for Windows. Look for the game to hit sometime in February 2009.
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Unleashed is the next installment of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and has taken a different route with the game altogether. A few new aspects that have been added go hand in hand with visuals, as they have been quite cleaned up. The graphics do look better in comparison to previous iterations, although there were still some framerate issues which will get ironed out in future builds.
A major aspect of gameplay that has been changed is the inclusion of “Daytime” and “Nighttime” gameplay. Eggman has managed to change Sonic’s super powers when its night time. He will no longer have superspeed, although he is now stronger and can swing around using his longer arms. This will come in handy when you miss -jump and need to grab a ledge.
2D Switches is another aspect of gameplay that Sega has focused on. The bulk of the game is played in 3D format, but there are certain parts of each level that forces you to look at it from a side scrolling game. It makes sense, considering that old Sonic games evolved from the 3D aspect of video gaming. It’s an interesting twist and a nice nod to the old school Sonic games.
