Next generation preview

Was at an Xbox 360 press pre-release party last evening. It was mighty nice. It was in a hotel room, with about 30 people from the Danish game press, and there was four machines with two controllers each, so it wasn’t hard to get to try the games. The featured titles were PGR3, DoA4, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo. All of them were in their X05 builds, so it wasn’t final code we were playing. Here are my impressions:

PGR3: It seems like a slightly beefed up version of PGR2, The graphics were nice, but a bit unpolished, sound was really nice, but gameplay was strikingly similar to the previous iterations of the franchise. But it is hard to improve on a near perfect racing game.

DoA4: I can almost say the same about this game as PGR3. Same game, nicer visuals. As a long time DoA-fan, I must admit that I am a bit disappointed with the lack of new ideas.

PDZ: Somewhat of a letdown. It might not be the case if I sat down with the game for a few hours, but from what I saw, I was quite under whelmed. It looks like a great looking Xbox game, and certainly not next gen. The animation seemed a bit stiff, and it was the game that I lost interest with the fastest.

Kameo: This game was clearly the one that looked the most promising. As the single non-sequel game, it actually contained fresh ideas. It was also quite the looker, and contained a few actual wow-moments, where we say glimpses of what next gen gaming should be about.

The hardware: The console itself was bigger than I had thought. I sort of expected it to be smaller than the Xbox, but it was roughly the size of the original, only concave instead. The controllers were a nice surprise. Both thumb-sticks and triggers seem to have been improved in terms of accuracy and the amount of force requires to use them. The dashboard button (and the dashboard itself) felt very user friendly, and I think it is a feature that is really innovative, and something I might miss on the other next gen consoles. It was also nice to be able to instantly see if you were player one or two, when you were handed the controller.
Overall, I really liked the event. Really cosy and pleasant. And it was nice to get a chance to check out the new games for more than a few minutes, and make up your mind about the Xbox 360. And I think I have decided to hold off on a purchase, at least until something really nice software comes along. It seems like a great piece of kit, but the developers haven’t really been able to fully tab into its potential yet.