E3 - THQ profiles several new games
- — 13 July, 2007 09:28
Whoever said the new E3 didn't have booth babes obviously didn't attend THQ's press conference on Thursday morning. Though not as scantily clad as in years past, the THQ girls, actually two WWE divas, engaged in a Wii cat fight while playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for Wii.
The game looked surprisingly good for a Wii title: pristine graphics, lively character models, and a very impressive and dynamic in-game crowd. THQ stressed the game's accessibility as the seemingly non-gaming attractive women had at it.
Outside of the wrestling game and a quick mention of the company's other licensed games, THQ highlighted several new games adding that they have been ramping up new original IP over the last year.
The first of several new games shown was Conan for Xbox 360 and PS3. It's an action-adventure title that looked like a lot of fun from what we saw. Given the extremely limited number of barbarian games, the backdrop was a welcome change.
Next, the company showed Frontlines: Fuel of War which is a set 20 years into the future given a world energy crisis. The FPS relies heavily on vehicles such as tanks and helicopters just to name a couple. The game's audio, in its current form, didn't sound very engaging, though it could have been the press room which usually sounds great. We'll have more impressions of the game after we get our preview-happy hands on it.
The company then showed De Blog, which is a Wii exclusive game that looks very promising, at least in terms of fresh gameplay. The game was designed by a group of students from the Netherlands and features very stylized graphics and nice lighting effects. The idea is to control a small blog of color on screen trying to paint a black and white city in the process. "It's about transforming the level environment while creating your own work of art," the presenter said with a thick Australian accent. The game will launch later this year.
Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon, Darksiders: Wrath of War -- which is an open-ended action game -- and the new UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship game were also shown for Xbox 360 and PS3.
Justified or not, THQ has the reputation of being a company that merely releases poor-playing games to fanfare only. Today, however, the company seems to be changing that perception, and we're excited with the new prospects.
