Evil Avatar's E3 Wrap Up

[GameBanshee News]

The crew at Evil Avatar has put together a wrap up report of twenty-six games that were being demonstrated at the E3 Media & Business Summit. A snip on Fable II:

All the cards are on the table for Fable 2 now as Peter Molyneaux has officially unveiled the games last great feature, a unique online co-op mode that allows you to seamlessly transition into your friends games or invites friends into yours. While you are playing the game you will see floating orbs in your world representing your friends (that's anyone on your friends list) that is also currently playing at the same location. Simply walk up to an orb and invite them to play. Sweetness. During my hands on time with the game I've learned one thing, this is an open world game. It's not some linear adventure game, in fact, I dare say it's one of the most unique and in depth open world games to come around in quite some time. Not only can you buy and sell properties in the game, but you can affect the housing market and the economy of villages by doing certain things. You can also get one of many jobs in the game to earn money (bartender, woodsman, blacksmith, etc) as well as gamble in pub games (the ones coming to XBLA) to earn money. If all that wasn't enough there's an entire Sims like social interface throughout the game with every character. Besides the player character changing its appearance due to good and evil deeds, the character will also change based on his/her social status and financial status. There's simply too many small little details in this game to list in a one paragraph preview, but I will say that games combat is fairly simple, but it is satisfying, especially when you begin to combo the spells. Graphically the game looks gorgeous, and in the demo areas I played there was virtually no slowdown. According to Molyneaux the game is "done" so we can expect to see it sometime this October.

And The Witcher: Enhanced Edition:

The Witcher was a surprise hit on the PC, but it didn't come without its problems. Luckily for us the developers have decided to beef up the game and put out a special edition, and best of all, make the fixed available to previous owners for free! The game's dialogue was almost completely re-recorded with 5000 plus lines and over 200 new gestures and animations. The interface also got an overhaul with easier item management and organization, and the loading times have been drastically improved. Finally the game will come with 5 hours of additional content, 2 music cds, a map, and a short story. Expect the new version of the game to ship in September.