This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo might as well have been renamed the MMO Entertainment Expo (ME2?), because Massive Multiplayer Online games dominated the show. By my count, there were well over 100 titles being demonstrated in one form or another at the expo. Of course, most of these will never actually make it to production, and of those that do, some are inevitably going to fail, simply because the market just can’t possibly handle that many titles. So which ones are you going to be playing in 2004? Which ones are going to go down in a fiery ball of pitch? Which ones may just sneak in there and find a willing audience? Because E3 only shows the working parts of the games, and deliberately hides the warts, it is difficult to predict how good a game will be based upon what you see here. Nevertheless, that’s what you are reading this for, so I will give it my best shot. Because there are so many to cover, I am only going into small detail on most of the games, and am only covering what I consider to be the best of the lot and ones most likely to eventually get released. Some of these games will get individual follow-ups later this week or next. Games you may as well order right now. The Best of E3. I normally try to pick a single best of show, but in this case there were two games that really blew me away, and I hate to even try to pick between them. My guess is that you will end up playing them both, because even though they are both MMORPG’s, they look like they will have different styles and game play. So here are the two games I expect everyone to be playing next year at this time. Everquest 2. This game looks fabulous. The graphics are just gorgeous and the character customization is so detailed that they are actually considering leaving the names off of the heads under the assumption that you will be able to recognize other players by look alone. I said much the same thing about it last year, but put it in the too soon to tell category due to a lack of any information on game play. Even though this year’s demonstration again had very little of the actual game play included, I am much more encouraged that this will be the blockbuster its namesake wants it to be. This is because after a long talk with the developers, I came away with a good impression of where they were taking the game and I liked what they were telling me. Much of what makes EQ so good today should be incorporated into EQ2, with hopefully a few major improvements added on top. Expect major improvements in graphics and the game engine in general, but do not expect major switches in how the game works such as switching from a class based game to a skill based one or the elimination of special drops and quests. Hopefully, much of what you have grown to love in Everquest should find its way into the new game as well. Still there will be some major differences. I hate to make this a teaser, but I intend to do a write-up specifically on this game later this week. I have a lot of information for you. This one looks like a real winner. They say coming winter, 2003, but I would guess winter or spring, 2004 is probably more realistic. Whenever it comes out, save up your platinum and put it on your must buy list. World of Warcraft. Unlike EQ2, this game was actually being played at E3 and, judging by the hoards of players waiting to get to a machine, it looks like a smash hit. The graphics are simply stunning and the world is immense and varied. Basically, if you have played Warcraft 3, you should have a pretty good idea about how World of Warcraft will play and feel. But they have not just stopped with the Warcraft 3 interface. They have improved on it significantly and given it a smooth, easy to use UI that even a true newbie will have little difficulty figuring out. Commands, emotes, spells, abilities and more are both easy to find and easy to use, letting you concentrate more on what else is going on in front of you. The battle system is faster than EQ, but is much closer to the traditional RPG combat than to Diablo. Quests are detailed and let you know the potential reward before you choose to accept the quest. Plus, you travel from place to place on the back of a griffin. How cool is that? I get the impression that this game will be friendlier to the new and casual player than EQ2 will be, but neither game is far enough along to really say how they will compare. Both look great to me. Put this one on your 2004 shopping list as well. If you are like me, you will probably end up playing both. Games you may find too tempting to pass up: Anarchy Online – Shadowlands. Yes that Anarchy Online - the one of the disastrous launch. Over the past year, more and more buzz has developed over Anarchy Online, mostly along the lines of “hey this game doesn’t suck after all”. I think this buzz is going to suddenly broaden into a roar. Shadowlands is technically an expansion of AO, but because it will contain the original game and the Notum Wars expansion, it is really more of Anarchy Online 2 than just an expansion of an existing game. Judging from the demonstration we got, this may be the best Science Fiction MMO on the market right now and it is only getting better (and yes I am including SWG in this assessment). Shadowlands, scheduled to ship this July, is actually adding a fantasy element to the game that is equally as large as the entire original game. The combination of the original SF game and the new fantasy elements makes this a truly unique offering. With two years to polish it up and a strong, growing community already playing, Anarchy Online is looking like a game worth checking out. Dark Age of Camelot – Trials of Atlantis/Foundations. This is an actual expansion, but is worth mentioning. Actually it is two expansions, one of which is free. The Foundations one will add player and guild housing, and is looking really nice. Players can add merchants, banks, portals, trade skill vendors and more to their house and customize it in a whole slew of ways - and this is the free expansion. The expansion you have to buy addresses the major complaint players have had about DAoC – the lack of high end content. This whole expansion is basically geared towards the level 50 players who want a set of PVE zones which really challenge them. It adds 3 new races, new ways to build up a level 50 character, a new set of zones, quests and items for high level players and significantly improved graphics not only to the new zones but to the old zones as well. For the Camelot player, this is a must have expansion. Others who have skipped past this excellent game, may decide that this is now the time to try it out. Mythica. Microsoft’s next foray into the MMORPG world is a different take on the genre, and has the potential to be really cool, or really bad. Right now, it is just too hard to tell, but what they were showing at E3 was pretty impressive. The two things single player RPG’s have always had over multi-player games is the ability to force the player into a story line enhanced by cinematic cut scenes and the ability to permanently change the landscape based upon the actions of a single party. Microsoft is trying to bring that into the multiplayer game. Thus, the big concept for this game is the ability to spawn off a whole dungeon for your party that will be a linear dungeon with cut scenes and changing scenery. Whether this concept will succeed and more importantly add enough content to keep people playing is still to be seen, but what was shown at E3 was impressive enough to keep an eye on. City of Heroes. This looks like it could be a huge sleeper hit. What was being shown at E3 still was missing enough of the actual game play elements to make me cautious about this. I am not really sure how you can categorize superheroes. Nevertheless, for those who love comic books, the concept of a world where you can play a true comic superhero is hard to pass up. I liked the look of this. It had a dark feel about it, very much like you were truly entering into the pages of the comics. As this game proceeds into beta, it is definitely one that you will want to keep an eye on. Everquest Online Adventures - Frontiers. As with the AO expansion, this is more like EQOA 2 than just an EQOA expansion, since the original game will be included in the disk you buy. The biggest thing going for this is an upgrade of the graphics engine. The new look of the game is great. It also features new zones, a new race (Ogres), new quests and items and musical themes for both the new and existing zones. The level cap is going from 50 to 60 and other content is getting added to improve on the high end game. For those of you who have not yet checked out this excellent MMORPG for the PS2, this is definitely something you will want to look at. Current players will want to get this as well. Games with potential: Horizons. It seems like this game has been in development forever, and the game shows some of the ravages of the long development period. Still, this is the only game where you can actually play a dragon, which is definitely cool. They also have created a world that will be completely developed by the players over time and seem to have some unique ideas on how to run this type of game. It may be that the game play may overcome some of the other shortcomings and this could turn out to be a major sleeper hit. Beta is supposed to start within the next few months. Wait for it to start and then ask your friends if it is worth buying. Or tune in here and we will tell you once we get a chance to actually play it. Lineage 2. The original Lineage is supposedly the most popular MMORPG ever released, with millions of players logging in from all over Asia. Given that type of track record, it is hard to criticize this version. What was being shown at E3 was not really enough to judge the game one way or another. It seems like it is still a ways from being complete, so this is a game to remember and to possibly check on next E3. Warhammer Online. Similar to Lineage 2, this game was in the very early stages of development and thus it was difficult to get more than a cursory idea of what the game will eventually be like. Still, as a single player game, Warhammer was one of the best, so it will be interesting to follow this MMO as it develops. Priest. This is a very unusual game, which already makes it stand out from the mass of MMORPG’s being developed. Priest is a PvP oriented MMO shooter game set in a kind of demonic version of the wild west with a primary focus on head to head and guild to guild combat. It looks pretty cool and may well find a market out there. We really want to like these, but… Star Wars Galaxies. Yes this is supposedly going to be released next month, and yes there are something like 400,000 copies already pre-ordered. So why do I have it listed all the way down here? Why isn’t this a best of show blockbuster? Well, for a game so widely anticipated and so close to release, SWG had almost no presence at E3. What does it say about the fact that they didn’t want to show this game to the public at the world’s largest gaming showcase? What does it mean that the little access they did have was on a machine hidden away in the nvidea booth and not even marked as showing SWG? Why was that hidden machine limited to just letting you stand back and watch small portions of the game being shown by a Lucas employee? Why didn’t they let anyone actually get on the machine and play the game? Even World of Warcraft, which is not even scheduled to start beta until several months after SWG is supposed to be released had a playable game out on the floor. Why indeed? I think I will just let you ponder those questions and come to your own conclusion. Final Fantasy XI. Yes this is probably the most famous RPG series of all time, but I have to say I wasn’t massively impressed with what they were showing at E3. There are eventually going to be PS2 and PC versions of this game. The graphics seemed kind of tired to me and while there was not really enough going on to judge the rest, even the game play seemed kind of drab to me, with what seemed like a very limited set of things you could actually do and kill. Still, this game has been out a while in Japan and is pretty popular there, and if nothing else, the name alone should drive some significant sales. So right now my opinion on this is kind of a wash. This is one I will definitely want to play again once it is in beta just to see where it is going. Too soon to tell: Guild Wars. The MMO world can definitely use a couple more true PvP games, so this one has promise simply on that premise. This game looked nice, but it is early in the development stage, so we can only wait to see if they can pull off the rest of the concept. Shining Lore. I am personally not a fan of the cartoon style graphics used in the game, but there are many who like it. The main concept of this game was that you can create literally hundreds of thousands of different character types within the world. Dark and Light. As far as I know, this does not yet have a publisher, but it wasn’t a bad looking game. Their big concept was that they claimed they could handle an infinite number of players on a single server. Sigil’s Mystery Game. This is worth mentioning just because Sigil Games happens to consist of a large number of the original Everquest design staff. They did not have anything to show at E3, but Brad McQuaid, Jeff Butler and several others were often seen wandering the floor looking at what the competition had to offer, and when asked about their plans, they just smiled and said to keep tuned into their website. I personally can’t help but be intrigued at what this group will manage to come up with once they are far enough along to actually show something. As I said at the beginning of this, there were dozens more MMO games being shown at E3 that are not even on this list. I think I have covered the biggest ones, but I am bound to have missed at least one. I am also giving my opinion of the games based upon what is usually at best a half hour showing from a developer and limited actual hands on playing time I also need to repeat that what you get at E3 is almost certainly not what you will actually get when the game is released. This show is all about sales and putting up your best front, so keep that in mind when reading any review coming out of E3, including this one.