Written by Meagan Lemons
We broke away from the busy expo hall when we got a chance and actually got to sit down in a private meeting with Sony to preview some of their newest games. The relief from the loud din of convention-goers and the ability to rest our feet for a bit was nice, but what really made the trek down the street worth it was our preview of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Eyepet.
Title: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Platform: PS3
Game developer: Naughty Dog
Link: http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Games/UNCHARTED_2_Among_Thieves
Release date: 10-13-2009
Uncharted 2 was first on our agenda. This action adventure game was easily the most beautiful game we saw at PAX. The thing that struck me the most about this game was that the environments were incredibly detailed and colorful. It seemed like every object in the game, from a bullet-riddled wall to a book among many others on a shelf, was carefully drawn by hand and placed in the game. The character’s facial expressions were pretty realistic, too.
The main characters were voiced by Nolan North, Claudia Black and Emily Rose. Naughty Dog allowed them a lot of lee-way as far as the dialogue went. When we got a taste of some ad-libbed lines, I was really impressed with how natural it felt. We were also told that the game boasts over ninety minutes of cinematics, so this game has a lot to offer the story-lovers and cut-scene-watchers out there, you know, if everything else wasn’t enough for you.
Title: Eyepet
Platform: PS3
Game developer: London Studio
Link: http://www.eyepet.com/
Release date: 11-17-2009
Next was EyePet. This game uses the Playstation Eye, hence its name. Basically, the Eye films the area directly in front of the television screen and your Eyepet, the creature around which this whole game revolves, will interact with the movements on the screen that the Eye picks up. We were told that a player is presented with specific challenges each day related to the care of the Eyepet, although we didn’t get to see any of those. There were a few mini-games that looked entertaining. On in particular was the airplane activity. We were shown how drawing a picture of certain airplane parts and allowing the Eye to take a picture of it would make the Eyepet copy them and the parts “magically” come to life, put themselves together, and fly the Eyepet around.
The game also comes with a black card that is used as almost every object in the game. The Eye recognizes the card in your hand when you wave it and turns it into whatever object you need on the screen; if you want to feed your Eyepet, waving the black card in front of the Eye will turn it into a food bag that you can shake into a bowl.
Eyepet is said to be marketed toward a young crowd as a precursor to a real pet. The game looks interesting, and it certainly doesn’t seem complicated, but I can’t say whether it will hold a child’s attention longer than a couple of weeks.
