E3 2009: Expo Bangs Out Shooting Games For All Ages
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Of two new first-person shooter video games from the Electronic Entertainment Expo, one aims to please hardcore gamers while the other is just for kids. NY1's Adam Balkin filed the following report.Just as if you were a real-world vigilante hunting down your daughter's killer, the next Tom Clancy video game "Splinter Cell: Conviction" has the gamers act like an assassin, sneaking up on enemies and killing them.
Unveiled in the big E3 video game convention, "Splinter Cell: Conviction" features so-called "dynamic stealth" which lets players hide in shadows. Another feature, called "last known position," purposely gives away the player's last position to the bad guy in the form of a white outline. As the player hides to break the line of sight, the villain follows the white outline and makes himself vulnerable to attacks from the back.
The game goes for a movie-like feel by playing with color and flashing the player's objectives and sometimes even memories up on walls, like they're opening credits.
Fans will also note that in this fifth installment of the "Splinter Cell" series, lead character Sam Fisher takes on a bit of a darker role with fewer moral constraints, since he's out on his own now and no longer employed by the government.
"Splinter Cell: Conviction" hits shelves this fall for just the Xbox 360 and PC, price and rating is not yet known.
A much tamer shooter that kids will be looking forward to is "Toy Story Mania." The Nintendo Wii game is based on the interactive ride at Disneyland, which is in turn based on the popular animated "Toy Story" feature films.
The game tries to simulate the experience of the actual ride.
"It's basically carnival gallery shooting games and you accumulate enough points and you can earn enough tickets to potentially unlock third levels we have in the game. And there are 3-D glasses that come with the game," says Gene Ransom of Disney Interactive Studios.
"Toy Story Mania," which is not yet rated, goes on sale for about $50 in September, right around the time that the movies "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" are re-released in 3-D.