E3 2007 - Hitman Movie, PGR4, GTAIV & STALKER

Hitman Movie Trailer

The Hitman Movie Teaser was released in June, somewhere near the release date of the Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer 2. This new HITMAN movie is based on the Hitman Video Game franchise, if you have been unaware.

It tells the story of Agent 47, “whom has been educated to become a professional assassin for hire, whose most powerful weapons are his nerve and a resolute pride in his work. 47 is both the last two digits of the barcode tattooed on the nape of his neck, and his only name. The hunter becomes the hunted when 47 gets caught up in a political takeover. Both Interpol and the Russian military chase the Hitman across Eastern Europe as he tries to find out who set him up and why they’re trying to take him out of the game. But the greatest threat to 47’s survival may be the stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a beautiful, damaged girl.”, as quoted from Wikipedia.

The movie comes out on 12th October 2007, four days before Grand Theft Auto IV comes out in North America (Unfortunately, both HITMAN and Grand Theft Auto IV have been delayed, doesn’t look so optimistic). The movie is by 20th Century Fox and Timothy Olyphant stars as Agent 47.

Grand Theft Auto IV demo

This year, Take-Two decided to hold its publisher conferences at this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit , those who showed up ahead of time to the briefing were forced to wait until the last minute to enter the event.

”The early bird gets nothing,” was the response curtly delivered by one staffer, who could easily have been mistaken for a cast member of the Golden Girls. Below shows a quote from the GameSpot report of the Take 2 Conference, where the Grand Theft Auto IV demo was shown.

[8:51] Zelnick builds up the hype by playing the first two trailers for the game. The audience visibly shifts.

[8:52] Game protagonist Niko Bellic reminds people “things will be different.”

[8:53] (Note to self: Go pick up The Boggs album.)

[8:53] Developers finally take the stage to show off the demo.

[8:54] “Unfinished code, work in progress, placeholder music, blah blah blah blah.”

[8:55] “The demo we’re giving today is purposefully short.” You’re killing us, man!

[8:55] Game menu has different font, very clean Arial.

[8:55] “Here we are, making the game we’ve always dreamed of making.”

[8:55] DEMO BEGINS

[8:56] Niko Bellic is in a replica of Times Square.

[8:56] Trademark map icon in the corner.

[8:56] He struts around for a bit, then steals a car.

[8:57] Game is not a sequel to San Andreas. “The leap from Grand Theft Auto III is as fundamental as the jump from 2D to 3D.”

[8:57] Niko tolls around in a luxury sedan to some big band music from the 1940s.

[8:58] Lighting looks fantastic, textures looking solid and rugged.

[8:58] Frame rate is a bit jumpy, but level of detail in landscape is greater than Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

[8:59] Niko pulls up to the docks under the “Broker Bridge” as the sun rises. The light plays on the water, and then starts illuminating the city behind him.

[8:59] Clouds above Liberty City light up, with planes flying through them.

[9:00] Clouds keep lighting up as Niko calls up his buddy to “get some firepower.”

[9:00] DEMO ENDS.

It isn’t really impressive as compared to the “Things will be Different” and “Looking for that Special Someone” trailers, but hey, it’s another Demo - and it clearly shows how the Grand Theft Auto series has been improved on. This is all that has been shown in the Take 2 Interactive conference. More will be revealed as time passes.

Project Gotham Racing 4

The single-event playable in the demo was a four-vehicle race in Macau. The reporters were forced to ride a motorcycle which is new to the game this time around against one other bike and two cars.

There was also heavy rain falling on the track throughout the race which made the bike more difficult to pilot around than initially anticipated.

Kudos are still a big part of PGR4 and, while riding about on the bike, it will be easy to earn kudos by doing traditional maneuvers such as taking turns quickly, or drifting around corners, as well as bike-specific moves such as endos, as well as wheelies.

The Shanghai night circuit played in the pre-E3 look at the game was more visually impressive than the circuit we played in the actual demo, however, the weather effects and trackside detail seemed entirely acceptable, even if the frame rate wasn’t always steady, especially around tight turns. The audio in the demo was also top-notch, as GameSpot explained.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky

This new game from GSC Game World will still take place in the “exclusion zone” outside of the irradiated ruins of Chernobyl. However, the prequel takes place about a year before the events in the previous game and puts you in the role of a totally different character, ala Grand Theft Auto.

In Clear Sky, it was explained that you’ll play as a mercenary who can work with any of the different factions of stalkers.

The GameSpot reporters played through a brief, prebuilt mission specifically created for E3 in which they came charging through the Ukrainian wilderness to join a stalker squad camped out in a ruined two-story building that might’ve been a bathhouse.

The new game will feature an all-new texture engine built on DirectX 10 architecture and the Clear Sky character models are far more detailed then Shadow of Chernobyl’s, with higher-resolution textures that render the rumpled cloth of the stalkers’ bodysuits much more realistically.

The mission required them to weave through the bombed-out second floor to take out enemy stalkers who were entrenched behind various cover points, pinning down our allies. They ran up flights of stairs bounded by walls of shattered bath tiles, piles of bricks, and loose wooden crates.

The game will also model different physical properties for different surfaces in the world and some objects will be fully destructible by gunfire.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is scheduled for release in the early part of 2008.

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