There has been a lull in these reports from below the deck of the ship that will soon bring you UFO: Aftermath. Thanks for your patience, all of you who watch our journey, and again I invite you to take part in the discussions of our progress in the forums on the game's website at http://www.ufo-aftermath.com/forums.
E3, the big picture
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There was a lull, and this was entirely due to the preparation for E3, E3 itself, and the aftermath of E3. I hinted at the first in the previous installment of the diary; I am going to dwell more on the second and third now.
You have probably already read so many reports from the show that you know everything there is to know about the games on display this year. Actually, it is very likely you know much more about E3 than I do, as I spent most of my time at our booth, demonstrating UFO: Aftermath to the eager visitors. Still, I can confirm the generally upbeat atmosphere of the show. Last year, I remember going through the halls feeling as if all the screens were showing various trailers of the same game - a third-person action racing game with football in the intermissions.
This year, there was much to look at, and much of it was on the PC, which was definitely a pleasurable experience. Still, there is no denying that the room for PC games gets smaller and the consoles get better every year - some of the best-looking console games look almost as good as older PC games. But more important than the look of the games on display was their variety. I didn't see anything strikingly original - something that is going to change the gaming the way Dune 2 did. Indeed, it is very possible that all basic forms of computer games (FPS, RTS, RPG, etc.) are already known to Man and that our task is going to be improving the formula (redefining the genre, as they call it in the ads) not inventing a new one. But this year I had a distinct feeling the formula is being improved and that there are many possible directions it can be improved in and that many of these directions are being explored at the moment.
My personal favorite of the show is Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a game from Troika, running on the Half-Life 2 engine. You have perhaps seen the trailer for Half-Life 2 (if you haven't, be sure you do, this is a rare opportunity to see the future), so imagine the same level of detail, but in a much richer, more colorful world. The static screenshots do not do the game justice; in motion it looks amazingly real and solid.
UFO: Aftermath at E3
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But let's go back to Kentia Hall and Cenega's stand. It was quite handsome and spacious, with two tiny meeting rooms and a total of seven computers, two of them running UFO. (Korea: the Forgotten Conflict and Shade: the Wrath of Angels also had two each. The seventh was running Gooka). As usual, the version we brought with us (having snatched it from the hands of our programmers at 4:00 a.m. before driving directly to the airport) didn't work too well, so on the evening before the show we went to a Counter-Strike game center close to our hotel and used their Internet connection to download a patch that, as usual, miraculously made everything work. We then spent a nice night burning this new version on fifty CDs we had promised Cenega we'd bring with us.
Next day, the show started in earnest. Journalists, distributors and retailers were brought to the stand, introduced and shown the game. There was also a constant influx of passers-by, who saw the spinning globe on the screen, muttered "This must be a new X-COM," and came closer to have their hopes squashed - this is no X-COM. Still, the reaction of all these people was thoroughly positive. Obviously, this has much to do with my prowess in demonstrating the game. But besides this, I believe our visitors genuinely liked the more tangible and authentic things about UFO:A. They liked the way the game looked, admired the great variety of mission environments, enjoyed the game combat system with simultaneous action, had fun watching the collapsible machine gun turret in action, and generally welcomed the concept of the game. The game was still far from completion, but it seemed that our visitors (who could see beyond that and imagine how the game will look when it is finished) liked what they saw.
This report from E3 would not be complete without a mention of the visit by mike9o, a distinguished member of our forums, who brought with him the questions from the readers of fan page www.ufoaftermath.co.uk. We showed him the game very thoroughly, and his positive reaction and endorsement were very important to us. It is one thing to impress a journalist who greets you by saying: "I'm already running forty-five minutes late, so make it short," and another thing to make an impact on someone who knows what the game is about and where to look.
Overall, this past E3 was a pleasant experience. Lots of nice games, lots of positive feedback, lots of people who saw what we are doing and liked it. This should give us strength for the coming months, where the final crunch awaits us.
Martin Klíma
ALTAR interactive