CES report: played F.E.A.R. / Battlefield 2 / other misc.

SkyBum · Jan 9, 2005, 05:28 AM

Friday morning I woke up and decided to go downtown and see if I could manage to slip inside the Consumer Electronics Show that is going on here in Las Vegas this week. Well, sure enough, my skills managed to get me parked in an employee lot (saved me $20!!!) and into the show without the badge everone else there was wearing around their neck. Luckily I had my USB drive in my pocket and it has a black and white strap for wearing around your neck which was relatively close to the ones the show attendee's were all wearing. Anyhow, I strolled into the Microsoft booth a bit later and damn if they weren't showcasing F.E.A.R, Tribes (???something, didn't play this one....), and Battlefield 2.

I got to play F.E.A.R for 10 - 15 minutes and it was really immersive. I pretty much forgot all about the people standing around watching me play. I really liked how clean the HUD was. The monitor was a 45" plasma screen though, I'd have liked to see it on a good CRT as the plasma screen was slightly blurry. Anyhow, the gameplay was really smooth, the lighting was suitably dark for a scary mood and the AI seemed completely up to task. Looks to be an excellent game from what I saw of the level I was playing. It played like a finished product, not something with six months of development left. There was one part that nearly made me crap my pants, as I'd been shooting up mercenary type opponents and had not yet realized that there were creatures in the game as well. The kicker was a $20 coupon for the Microsoft online store.

Battlefield 2 also looked GREAT but it was somewhat boring as the map i was in had only a few other players and I never even saw an opponent in the 5 minutes I was playing it.

The other thing i saw that was pretty cool was a new technology for filming multiplayer competitions. I'll be damned if I can remember what it was called though!!! Game(something). Anyway, they had several tripods set up and instead of a camera mounted it just had a viewscreen where the camera would be. A simple bit of game code gave the cameramen invulnerability and they would set up their cameras in-game where they could capture the best action and they would film the game just as if it were an actual event. They could pan, zoom, switch to player views in real time and another person could edit on the fly to determine what the viewer saw just like in a sporting event etc. So they set the cameramen up around the players who are competing but instead of the cameramen filming people playing the game they are IN the game filming the action. This fotage could be fed live or edited later to make the best action shots. This is going to make watching clan battles very interesting and may even be enough to get some of them seen on TV as it really did a lot to make the match more accessible to viewers. Sorry I can't remember the name of the technology.......that bites.

The last thing I'll mention is that I was able to sneak into the Gibson tent after the exhibits all closed down for the night. I was able to jam on a handful of different gibson guitars (through headphones thank god...I'm a pathetic guitar player) They had live bands playing and THEY WERE POURING FREE JIM BEAM ALL NIGHT LONG. Hell they musta poured about 100 bottles and I feel today like I drank half of them myself! They had a 14 year old kid named Nick Sterling play with his band at one point and this kid is one hell of a prodigy. He was covering Van Halen tunes and I was shocked at his abilities both playing and singing, you honestly could not tell the difference he was THAT good. The owner of Gibson giutars pratically fawned over this kid. He did Smokin' by Boston and it was so close it was unreal. Also covered Engwie Malmsteen, Hendrix, Queen, among others. Watch out for this kid a few years from now......holy shiznit!

Well, thats about it, just thought I'd post a bit of this for any of you who were interested......I may go back tomorrow just to get a bit more F.E.A.R in my blood but I'm afraid my luck won't be as good about gettin in the door....

thomasabarnes · Jan 9, 2005, 10:09 AM

Hey SkyBum:

This was a well written peice. I dont like tose scary games, but your well written peice about F.E.A.R made me listen. I'll keep a look out for the advertisement of the new technology you mentioned, Game(something). LOL

It seems that that kid is gona be a Super Star one day! I really like Queen. Wish I could have heard him.

Just keep working on your guitar playing.

And thanks for the scoop.

Counterfe1t · Jan 9, 2005, 01:50 PM

i cant wait for FEAR the gameplay movies made it look promising as well a contender for doom 3. i heard bill gates received a BSOD while showcasing windows media center they seem to follow him around like the plague

KingsRevenge · Jan 9, 2005, 07:43 PM

Thanks for that review, I was hoping you could've had a few more details on BF2 the videos of it look interesting enough.

SkyBum · Jan 9, 2005, 08:25 PM

Sorry, I didn't spend much time with that game as there was no one close around to even shoot at.

What I can tell you is that the graphics seem greatly improved over the previous version.

Edit: Also got to fly an Apache for a few moments before I was obliterated into virtual dust. Forgot to mention that. Sorry I couldn't offer more on this game....

pr0digal jenius · Jan 9, 2005, 08:54 PM

very cool.....I want this F.E.A.R game mroe now then i did before reading this......damn you for making my anticipation level higher!

Lol...excellent "article" tho....good work