Gen Con to showcase fall's most anticipated games
With more than 27,000 gamers descending on Indianapolis for http://www.gencon.com/" target="new">Gen Con, the game companies they've become fans of are have been turning out to give them what they know and a taste of things to come.
Over the four-day convention, The Exhibition Hall was packed for eight hours straight with people shelling out cash for the newest games and game-themed clothes and gear or lining up to try games that haven't been released yet.
If you didn't take a road trip to be there yourself, here's a preview of electronic games you'll be seeing this fall, minus the hordes of fans.
"Warhammer Online"
Facts: EA Mythic, warhammeronline.com, for the PC, $49.99
At a convention where lots of attendees also have played the miniatures war game this MMORPG is based on, "Warhammer Online" is an easy crowd pleaser. Due out Sept. 18, the game allows players to take on the roles of humans, dwarves, elves, goblins and orcs, waging war in the name of honor or destruction. Player vs. player and realm vs. realm combat are essential to the game, which allows you to push back the boundaries of enemy factions through player actions and even siege opposing capital cities, looting and burning as you go.
The focus on war makes team building especially important, and "Warhammer" works to bring that point home with a variety of benefits to guild membership beyond just a shared chat channel. Guilds level up with their members, unlocking features like a guild bank or the ability of the leaders to tithe members a percentage of their loot. It eventually allows for the creation of standards which you can wear on your character, mount, carry into battle to grant advantages to your allies or just plant at the site of a victory to let the server know how awesome you and your friends are.
Individual accomplishments are also rewarded, with a total of 12,000 achievements that will grant you items, abilities or experience as you fulfill them and tease to the next step you can take.
"Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria"
Facts: Turbine, lotro.com/moria, for the PC, $39.99
The 2007 PC Game of the Year-winning "Lord of the Rings Online" is planning on releasing its first expansion this fall, which will allow players to take their humans, elves, hobbits and dwarves on a mission to conquer the Mines of Moria from the goblins and other monsters infesting it. You can expect to have more interactions with Aragorn, Gandalf and other signature characters from the "Lord of the Rings" while showing off on your own by leveling up to the new cap from 50 to 60 or trying out one of the new classes: Rune-keepers offer healing and some blasting power, while wardens are melee fighters based on ambushing single foes.
The most dramatic change may be the legendary item system. As you begin your new adventures, characters can pick up fragments of once-great weapons or armor that they must quest to forge again, naming the item which binds to you and levels with your character. You can only have one legendary item at a time, but if you find fragments later you can trade them to other characters to send them on quests of their own.
"Beyond Protocol"
Facts: Dark Sky Entertainment, beyondprotocol.com, for the PC, $50
Due out in fall, "Beyond Protocol" is a MMORTS that allows players to build inter-solar empires, crafting spacecraft to colonize or lay waste to other planets. The game offers lots of options for those who love to micromanage, with totally customizable ships you can design to be slow-moving tanks, fast shooters or nearly anything else you can think of using your resources for. Everything takes place in real, non-accelerated time, so if you send out a ship on a monthlong journey in November, don't expect to see it coming home before Christmas. That same game mechanism allows fights to go on all day, though you can log out and let the game's AI run your systems for you. If you're afraid everything will be gone when you log back in, you can always make your home planet invulnerable while you're away.
Beyond building the biggest, baddest destroyers, you can also trade technology with others or try to steal it through an espionage system that also allows your agents to sabotage systems or projects or catch and interrogate enemy agents trying to slip into your own borders. Alliance building also comes into play with a galactic senate that can pass legislation that might change the rules of the game. But since all the votes are public and proportional to the amount of territory you can control, there's always a possibility that you can try to "persuade" someone to change their vote by blowing up their colonies.
"Fable II"
Facts: Lionhead Studios, lionhead.com/fable2, for the XBOX 360, $59.99
The crew at GenCon wasn't able to provide many details on the sequel to the wildly successful role-playing game, which is due out Oct. 21, but players can expect even higher levels of customization and consequences for their characters. This time around you can play as a man or a woman, get married, have kids, cheat on your spouse and catch STDs if you're not careful.
The story is set more than 500 years after the original game, and this time you're not making your journey alone. Your character has a dog that will love you no matter what you do but may grow into a vicious Doberman or a friendly Labrador depending on your decisions. You can also invite friends or other XBOX live players to come along with you.