Written by Tim Stevens  on May 03, 2004

PreemptivE3 2004 Xbox Coverage: A ton of shooters and plenty of RPGs highlight MS's showings for E3 this year.

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With E3 just around the corner, it's time to take a look at what we think everyone will be talking about during and after the show. Of course, most game companies will have some sort of surprise up its sleeve, perhaps a killer title, or maybe some new piece of hardware, so we can't cover everything that will be big this year. But, with what we know now, Microsoft will have a slew of killer titles on display for their Xbox, some of which will be seen for the first time at this year's show, some that have been seen in previous shows yet still haven't materialized on store shelves.

For those who don't know, E3 is the Electronics Entertainment Expo, a yearly opportunity for game developers and publishers to bare it all to the media, putting on display their greatest wares they expect to wow gamers with in the coming months and years. 2004's E3 will be the Xbox's fourth showing, and surely it won't have many more before its replacement makes its own appearance. But, that doesn't mean we don't have plenty of good to look forward to on the big green box.

The biggest game of the show for Microsoft will be Halo 2, which should be playable at least in some limited form. We're hoping to get a chance to test-drive the game's highly anticipated online gameplay, and to also get a better feel for the offline mechanics. But, while Halo 2 will steal the show for Xbox fans, there will be plenty of other promising looking entries in the first-person shooter arena. Full Spectrum Warrior, which made its first appearance at last year's E3, is nearing release and looks like it will be a solid entry into the highly competitive tactical shooter genre. Ubi will showcase a follow-up to their Xbox Rainbow Six release called Black Arrow, as well as a console-specific port of Far Cry. We'll also be hoping to get some extra information on the Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and Perfect Dark 2 releases for the Xbox. While all three of these games are said to be coming to MS's box, we know little if anything about when.

So the FPS lineup is looking good, and surprisingly the RPG lineup isn't looking bad either. Recent rumors of an MS purchase of Bioware, the company behind last year's Knights of the Old Republic, should be addressed at the show. Even without a buyout, Bioware will have two Xbox-bound RPGs on display, a follow-up to KOTOR that promises streamlined gameplay and an even more open-ended storyline, along with another RPG called Jade Empire, which looks to borrow many of KOTOR's mechanics but deploy them in an Asian fantasy environment.

While the Bioware games may be the talk of the show for Xbox RPG fans, they won't be the only games in the genre on display. We'll likely get yet another look at Fable, which will be making its third E3 appearance (and hopefully its last). True Fantasy Online, which was in early form last year, will likely also be on display again. The game looked promising last year, a sort of blend of Final Fantasy feel with a touch of Animal Crossing mixed in with your typical online RPG gameplay.

There will also be plenty of other games in the other genres as well. Rallisport Challenge 2, which will actually release just prior to the show, will likely be on display, as will yet another Colin McRae rally game. MS has a MechAssault sequel in store for fans of giant robots, and BC should also be back in a more solidified form. The pre-historic action/adventure game looked promising last year, but the game's recent loss of creative mind Ben Cousins has put the title's future in a bit of doubt.

While there are sure to be dozens of other games on display for the Xbox, we hope to have given you a taste for the ones that will make the most noise at the show. In addition, we can expect to see the planned enhancements to Xbox Live in action, and perhaps even some other surprises that we won't be able to talk about until Microsoft holds their big pre-show bash on May 10th. But, check back here for plenty of updates from the show once things kick off on May 12th.