They're trying to draw you in. Now that casual gamers, thanks in large part to the Nintendo Wii, are starting to feel more comfortable with video games, developers are creating some more involved titles that'll require a bit more time and effort, like a traditional hardcore game, though with themes that'll still appeal to relative novices.
Probably the biggest, or littlest, example of this is Little Big Planet, this year's Best of Show winner, though even developers have a tough time explaining how exactly it works.
“Creativity is such a huge part of it. Everything you see in the game can be created by the end user -- create levels, create objects, create anything you want. It's really up to you and how you want to play the game,” said Eric Fong of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
They're trying to draw you in. Video game developers are creating titles that appeal to everyone. Adam Balkin has more.
Which is almost the exact same explanation when describing Spore, which is perhaps the most publicized game of the show. While Little Big Planet will be a PS3 exclusive, Spore will be everywhere, even on iPods.
“One of the things you get to do is create your own creature, then you evolve it every step of its evolution. So you go through the game, have to compete with other species to survive. You can either compete aggressively and use weapons or socially and befriend others and you play it from tidepool, creature, civilization, all the way to space faring,” said Lucy Bradshaw of Electronic Arts.
Now this one of the most talked about games here. One reason, because you actually have to talk to control it. Tom Clancy's End War. You play using just your voice.
“You play the game as if you were a real general, meaning you give your orders using your voice, so it's just unit1, unit2, unit3. Really easy to select them and then you want to give orders, which are basically move to somewhere, secure something which is to capture it, or attack,” said Michael DePlater of Ubisoft.
Speaking of attack, those one on one battle games are making a comeback. Soul Calibur IV will allow you to take on the role as two of the most powerful figures from Star Wars -- Darth Vader and Yoda. And Street Fighter IV has new, 3D-like graphics, new environments, new a whole bunch of stuff, but during our shot to corner developers, we just wanted answers to one of the oldest questions: what is it those guys have been shouting during combat for years now?
“That would be ‘haroken’ and ‘shoyouken,’ Japanese for rising dragon fist and sort of soul fist,” said Seth Killian of Capcom.