Last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Show in Los Angeles offered several exciting glimpses into the future of videogames, not all of which were fuelled by the new consoles on show. Chief among them was Spore, the latest project by Will Wright, who conceived Sim City and The Sims.
Spore, a PC game like its predecessors, is the last word in simulation games, putting you in charge of a simulated universe, which you must build from first principles. Initially, you are given a single-cell organism, which you can redesign and feed until it evolves into a more complex organism. Several stages of evolution leave you in charge of a more recognisable, sentient animal. Then you can teach it social skills, establish colonies and civilisations, and colonise other planets. The end result is a game that lets you feel as though you are playing God. Spore will arrive in autumn next year.
EA Sports’ Fight Night Round 3, a boxing game for Sony’s PlayStation 3, gave the best illustration of the abilities of the next generation of consoles. The PS3’s High Dynamic Range lighting model endowed the boxers with incredibly life-like skin, including blemishes, and amazing facial animations that appeared to correlate to events in the fight.
Microsoft’s Gears of War, the best Xbox 360 game on show, and Electronic Art’s Black, a first-person shoot-’em-up for Xbox and PlayStation 2, showed how endowing games with physics engines to interact with scenery can provide new types of gameplay.
Finally, a delightful effort for the DS handheld called Electroplankton proved Nintendo’s contention that technology isn’t everything. This music-generation programme, which you control by herding stylised, fish-like objects around the screen, was determinedly low-tech but so unlike any other game on sale that it felt fresh and original. It is set to achieve cult status.
Nintendogs, a cute and realistic dog simulator also for the DS, has become one of the biggest-selling games in Japan this year, and proves that even modern handheld gaming platforms can support approximations of artificial life. – Guardian Unlimited Â