Pretensions attended the Games Convention Asia (GCA) 2008 at the end of last week. Only the second in the series, GCA describes itself as the first and only platform for the entire electronic game market in Asia - there were speakers and demos from all the big players, including EA, Ubisoft, Lionhead, Crytek, Nexon . In practice, the convention is divided into a business/research and a public component. P went to bits and pieces of both - she's decided that she's really blogging for 2 different audiences here and will therefore split the information down the middle.

This installment is for gamers and will look at new and upcoming games, console launches and other products that gamers might be interested in. Game Developers should read Part 2. This writeup does not even pretend to be comprehensive, it's just what caught P's fancy and attention.

New & Upcoming Games

• Tom Clancey's EndWar

P attended a talk by Ubisoft's Michael De Plater on the lessons learned by developing tactical strategy game Endwar. She'll blog more about these in the next installment of this post, but was quite impressed by the way Endwar put you squarely in the shoes of the commanding general of an apocalyptic war. For those not in the know, Endwar is based on the Tom Clancey novel of the same name and is set in the same universe as Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell. The plot melds the end of stategic Nuclear War with the energy crisis to create a new world order, with Russia, the USA and a destabilised Europe (now the European Federation) as its main factions. De Plater was asked if China might end up as another faction but hedged a lot on this (basically the game's targetted audience is Europe and the US, who presumably want to play as themselves).

There are several units available for play in this game of global warfare; including artillery, engineers, tanks, various combat aircraft etc. The game's AI is supposed to be a big step forward, as squads will automatically go to ground under enemy fire; squadmates will rescue the wounded etc.

De Platen was particularly proud of the game's voice command feature. Now arm-chair generals can actually issue voice commands to the troops through their headsets. This would obviously be really cool if it actually works as portrayed.

Multiplayer will be an important part of the game. As it is scheduled for a November 2008 release on multiple platforms (DS, PS3, Xbox), it remains to be seen how these will be handled in multiplayer. The PC version will come sometime later.

If you want to see the trailer P saw, you can view it here.

• Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

Join the Dark Side in this fabulous Star Wars game that allows you to play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice! Xbox and PSP versions of the game were available for sale at the exhibition. Sadly, P is a PC gal so will have to go on practicing her mouth-breathing 'til the PC version becomes available, if ever (PC version has not been confirmed; unfair!! LucasArts that stardestroyer is pointed at your HQ).

• Blackshot

Blackshot is a new PC first-person shooter (FPS) MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) from Korean developer Vertigo Games. It looked basically like a military mercenary shoot-'em-up in Die Hard type environments and is free to play. There are lots of these games around, but not many that add the MMO functionality. The game was launched at the GCA with the press participating in a "Capture the Flag" match.

• Rock Band

OK. P knows that this Music video game that enables you and three other pals to live out their Mat Rock fantasies is old news in most places. However, the GCA finally saw the game coming to Singapore (25th September). After all, it's only been available in the States for a year - P wonders what the holdup was. Check out the official website here.

• Soul Caliber IV

Soul Caliber IV is the fourth installment of Namco's "sword-fight to the death" games and is a lot less serious about itself than it used to be. I mean it even allows you to fight as and against Yoda, Darth Vader as well as the returning Soul Caliber cast. P was impressed by the speed and snazzy graphics of the game on the PS3.

• ELAN online

ELAN looks like a local version of the wildly popular cutesy Korean MMORPG Maple Story. Version 2 was made available at the S'pore Gamers Association booth. Unlike Maple Story, ELAN players must buy an online activation card to continue playing after their 14 day free trial. However, this is pretty cheap, about $5. Like Maple Story, there appear to be plenty of in-game items available for very real cash. Check out the website here if you are interested.

• Spore

Pretensions has already blogged a little about Spore in the post before this one. The newly-released game was on demo at the GCA public are and both the normal and collector's edition were available for sale at the standard RRPs of S$56.90 and S$79.90 respectively. The collector's or galactic edition is similar to a collector's edition DVD with a Spore poster, some "making of" videos and various handbooks. Go create your creature today!

• Mirror's Edge

This game was also on demo in the EA area. It's a very good-looking first-person free-running game, where you get to take the role of a daredevil freerunner named Faith who tries to free her sister from a totalitarian government. Faith acts as a courier for organised crime and in the process shows off her athletic skill by sliding from rooftop to rooftop on connecting pipes, taking vertical jumps off walls and doing superman frontflips from hgh buildings. P can't quite explain just how thrilling this game looks, so suggests you watch the trailer below. The game is due for release on Xbox and Playstation in November. The PC version might make X'mas.

• Farcry 2

P is definitely not a fan of the First Person Shooter, but Far Cry made such an impact because of its graphics, that she kind of feels she has to include a para on the sequel. She is hoping that Ubisoft learned their lesson with the first game, which had hardware requirements more appropriate to a Cray supercomputer and brought most home PCs crashing to their knees. Reportedly they have, and the game looked lovely. It will be released later this month for consoles and PC. P heard rumours that the Singapore government wanted to ban the game for the amount of in-game violence (it's basically a Rambo/Die-Hard in an African setting in video-game form), but I guess they got over it, although the rating was not discussed.

You can view the trailer here.

• Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Another game spotted at the EA demo area was the latest incarnation of the Need for Speed franchise. Those familiar with the series know that it features circuit and drag races in the mythical city of Rockport, with police chases thrown in to spice up the action. P kinda preferred the Nanyang Polytechnic stand that featured the night F1 race coming up on the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore. The motion feedback looked quite impressive for a final year project.

• Saints Row 2

The Saints Row franchise was uhm, inspired, by the phenomenal success of Grand Theft Auto. It follows a somewhat similar format, being a sandbox type game with you playing a career criminal with attitude and a blazing gun. The game was on demo at the GCA and is due out in the US later this month. One big feature is the multiplayer co-op mode, where you can pair up with a "brutha" and take out rival gangs together. Recent previews have also revealed other multiplayer modes such as Gangsta Brawl (an organised or disorganised free-for-all) and StrongArm (a competitive tourney where the events include Destruction Derby, Hitman and Escort). P thinks you get the idea, but if not, please check out the game's website here.

• Battleforge

An EA game, Battleforge is a PC-only multiplayer card-based Real Time Strategy game - think "Magic: the Gathering" on the PC, but with fantasy armies and units, rather than individuals. Most fun were the monster units, like the giant horned Juggernaut. The cards give you various offensive and defensive elemental magics, eg fire, ice, shadow as well as structure cards (tower of healing etc). There is an in-game auction house that allows you to buy cards (with real money) and trade cards with other players. The game is currently in close beta and will be launched in December this year.

• Games Factory Online's Serious Games

Games Factory Online is a Dutch company that develops educational games and also games for marketing and sales purposes. They were part of the GCA Business exhibition and showed P their new slate of games, including one that aims to teach young diabetics how to deal with their disease. Hennie Van Velzen, their director, told P proudly that his company develops "serious games" or games that can bring about practical outcomes. They have also developed a portal called Climate Quest, aimed at educating young people about the environment and a entrepreneurship education game, Enterprise. That being said, P can see that the interim money-maker in their portfolio would probably be Stratego for the PC and Nintendo DS. They also have Rummikub for the DS and iphone.

• Peter Molyneaux's mystery game

Peter Molyneux of god game fame gave a keynote lecture at the GCA conference. Most of it was about the development of Fable 2, but when asked what Lionhead was working on next, he claimed that it was something very experimental and new. Your guess is as good as P's unless you work for Lionhead...

• Misc

Some other news snippets

• • Warhammer Online was launched at GCA
  • Hasbro and EA are partnering to launch console versions of their board games.
  • Spore Origins will eventually come to the Nokia Ngage (DS only at the moment)
  • Run Up Games is producing a whole lineup of MMOs including Mo Xiang Online, Kicks Online and Luna Online.

Consoles

• Wii Fit promos

Lots of Wii Fit demos at the GCA. P saw this at the ground floor of the convention centre - she thinks she prefers real hula-hooping herself. The Wii Fit has only been officially available in Singapore since August, but it has been unofficially available a lot longer than that...

New Products

• Figureprints services coming to Asia (eventually)

Created a really funky creature in Spore? Proud of your World of Warcraft alter-ego? Now you can immortalise them forever in plastic! Figureprints had a tiny offshoot of a booth at the public area of GCA showing off their 3D statues. Avid WOW players (SZ maybe?) might already have heard of them as the rep told P that they had had some kind of coupon thing going with WOW, which was very successful. The technology is based on rapid prototyping 'tho the rep told P that Figureprints process was much faster. For more info and prices etc, surf to their website here. The service is not officially available in Asia yet, but P thinks there is a potentially huge market especially with all the Anime fans out here...

ASUS World GameMaster Tournament

This was not really P's scene especially when the commentary was absolutely deafening, but there was a massive Gaming tournament being held in the middle of the public exhibition area. Games featured included Call of Duty 4 and Defense of the Ancients. P thinks the accompanying photo is of the latter.