Been a while since I added anything to the gaming watchlist, but I’m starting to look beyond World of Warcraft for gaming entertainment for the first time in ages.

God of War is an upcoming (way upcoming…a 2005 release planed) PS2 game that brings kind of a new twist to platforming. Its much darker than most platformers, for one thing, and it also lets the player choose a fighting style on the fly. You can play it as a straightfoward fighting platformer, or lean more towards being a magic user (ranged attacks) or you can take almost a puzzle-based approach to the fighting, sort of like the combat in Gladius.

Well, its still a long way off but here’re a couple of preview to whet your appetite:
God of War E3 Preview from Gamespy
God of War ‘Hands On’ E3 preview from IGN

OK OK, last post today, I promise…sorta.

Check out this Gamespy preview of Pirates!. Yup, after all these years, Sid Meier is remaking his classic game for modern systems.

Will it be as good as the original? Probably not. But if its HALF as good as the original, it’ll still be twice as good as most of the stuff coming out these days.

Rejoice, ye gamers of olde! We’ll be courtin’ the g’vners daughter agin soon enough!

So Sigil Games has fired up a website and announced their game, V a n g u a r d - Saga Of Heroes.

Lots of bold claims, but how many times have we seen bold claims scaled back as the release date grows near.

So we’ll wait and we’ll watch, eh?

This one just appeared on my radar, though its going to release this month. Its a RTS game that takes place in North Africa during WWII (you probably guessed that from the title, eh?). But it sounds like it’ll have a bit of a wargame ‘feel’ to it. No resource management, the troops and equipment you start with are what you have to complete the mission with, and it uses ‘accurate’ weapons and such. Plus it allows giving orders with the game paused, so it won’t be a twich game as so many RTS’s are.

Couple of previews for you:
at Gamespy
at Gamespot

Update 3/6: I just saw a segment on the game on the atrocious X-Play on TechTV. (The show is best watched with the sound off since the hosts act like total morons.) Anyway, the game looks amazing. Not that good graphics are everything…but they sure don’t hurt!

According to the Jan. 04 issue of Play and confirmed here at IGN, Konami is porting Y’s VI: The Ark of Napishtim to the PS2 for a worldwide release (its currently out for the PC in Japanese).

Old-school gamers will remember The Legend of Y’s being one of the ’system sellers’ for the TurboGrafx-16 CD Drive add-on gizmo (and later, for the TurboDuo). Fond memories…I’m looking forward to playing the latest Y’s title!

To whet your appetite, check out this trailer from the PC game!

Back when Ultima Online first came out, I got absolutely lost in the game. For 6 months or so, real life all but ceased to exist for me. How I didn’t get fired from my job, or dumped by my girlfriend, I still don’t know. I was blissfully, gleefully addicted.

So now, six years later, Origins is getting Ultima X: Odyssey ready for launch in (as of now) Winter 2004. This is a much different game: it uses the Unreal engine (and so is 3D rather than the top down ‘pseudo-3D of UO), and claims to have fast paced combat. No crafting or housing, at least on release. How could I not put such a game on my watchlist!?

I’m intensely curious about the combat. I mean, are we talking Diablo? Or just lots of styles, spells and special attacks? Time will tell, I suppose.

Anyway, here’s some linkage about the game:
Gamespy Preview from August 24th.
Homelan Preview from August 24th.
IGN Preview from August 25th.
Gamespy Dev Diary from Oct 22nd.
Homelan Interview from Oct 22nd.

Picked up off The Screensavers… Chris Dibona, who until recently was with OSDN, has moved full time to new company Damage Studios. They’re working on a MM game called Rekonstruction. Quite an ambitious project, it takes place on Earth in the future, and they’re using satelite imaging to ensure the maps are all accurate.

This is a seriously ambitious project…they’re hoping to support 1,000,000 concurrent users! (How they think they’re going to attract that many, I have no idea.) Here’s the gak:

“By dynamically incorporating real-world data, such as weather statistics, and modeling real-world environments, such as major urban centers and landmarks, Rekonstruction will allow players to interact and shape the world in real-time, Rekonstruction begins to blur the distinctions between the game and real life.”

Official Site
Interview at RPGDot

Gamespy got the scoop on the next big MMRPG coming to us from Microsoft. Titled Mythica, it takes place in a Norse inspired world…or afterworld, perhaps. You start the game having just died, and Odin enlists you in his army of immortal heros and… oh hell, just read the lengthy preview at Gamespy!

Official site (just placeholder stuff right now)
Gamespy preview

Got a peek at a bit of Gladius gameplay footage on this week’s G4TV.COM. Gladius is an RPG focusing on gladitorial combat in a fantasy world. Combat is turn-based, but when doing an attack, there’s a little rhythm game that seems like it determines how effective an attack you pull off. This isn’t exactly a new concept, but it seems to be taken further than it has before. There’s a meter with icons for which button to press, very similar to Parappa the Rappa or DDR. Could be interesting.

Gladius was shown at E3 last year, iirc, and is scheduled for an August release date.

Official site
Gamespy preview
IGN Hand’s on preview

From Taldren (y’know, the folks behind the Star Trek: Starfleet Command games) comes Black 9. Ready for the gak? Here ’tis:
In 2080, the world is dominated by nine squabbling Illuminati factions — the player takes on the role of a mercenary bouncing between the employ of these various interests. Aside from wits and skill, new weapons, items, and cybernetic upgrades are available to open up new capabilities as tasks grow more difficult and complex.

Why’m I watching this one? The holy words “System Shock” were invoked in one of the previews I read. The developers (profiled on G4’s Pulse) call it an action/rpg, emphasis on the action. We’ll see, but it definitely has potential.

Official site
IGN’s PS2 preview
Gamespy’s news bit

Another Capcom game (yeah, I just got through watching Pulse’s coverage of Capcom Gaming Day..does it show?). This one is a cel-shaded 2D platformer that looks freakin’ amazing. And, as an added bonus, it has bullet-time!!

Gamespy preview
IGN preview
Gamers.com Viewtiful Joe page

New title headed our way for the Gamecube (initially) from Capcom. Here’s the official marketing gak:

P.N.03 is an action game starring a female soldier named Vanessa Z.Schneider, a laser-gun wielding, mech killer with a grudge to settle. A colonial settlement turns into a killing field after a CAMS (Computer Arms Management System) goes haywire on a planet. Vanessa hires herself out as a freelance mercenary who kills robots upon her client’s request – no questions asked. But, she has a dark past: CAMS killed her family and her plan is to get even. Players must dodge and weave through the heavy barrage of firepower on the planet while trying to blast the technologicalterrors into scrap metal.

Blah blah blah. But what’s sorta interesting is the style of our protagonist. She kindof dances her way through the game, doing all kinds of slick moves as she offs robots left and right. Kind of a feminine version of Dante in a way.

Gamespot’s Hands-on preview
IGN’s page (mostly insider links)