E3 2004: Eidos Booth

Written by Matt Swider  on June 07, 2004

Specials: The company that Tomb Raider built is gearing up for an extreme future with backyard wrestlers, 25 to lifers and people who crash and burn, among other things.

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25 to Life (PS2, Xbox)
The easiest way to describe the idea behind 25 to Life is to echo the explanation that I received: It's basically SOCOM in the hood. However, instead of having 16 SEALs and terrorist battling it out online, it'll be a game of cops and robbers with a SWAT team and gangsters. When these two sides clash in mode likes deathmatch, escape and capture the flag, there'll be different styles of taking down their enemies as they attempt to earn respect by either tagging territory or moving up in rank. Since the game will support full voice chat during the gameplay and music from artists such as 2-Pac and DMX, it'll seems like SOCOM has gone ghetto, and that's a good thing in this case. However, it won't be out until 2005, which is more ghetto than anything.

Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood (PS2, Xbox)
Fans of Backyard Wrestling will be pleased to know that there's a sequel to the Eidos wrestling game. People who were disappointed in the first one will be happy to hear that There Goes the Neighborhood features significant improvements. The first touch it a greatly needed grapple system. There are also a great deal of enhancements in the graphics and objectives to be picked up from the environment. The biggest plus for the game is that it'll feature head-to-head online play and support the headsets in the process. This fit the name "There Goes the Neighborhood" quite well, but we'll have to see if everyone wants to move in on this game as its pending September release approaches.

Crash СN' Burn (PS2, Xbox)
I can't imagine any automobile maker licensing a car for use in a game like Crash СN' Burn because it's all about damage and destruction. However, the game does deal a lot with custom options for its four basic vehicle models including a total of some 300 components. There's also a paint job for sections of the car, but whatever pretty picture you paint won't last long in modes that include normal race, team race, hot potato and kamikaze. This is especially true in the kamikaze mode, which was demoed to me at E3. It's an eight-on-eight head-on conclusion waiting to happen as eight cars start at one end of a course and eight on another. As cars are cruise, they collide, clip, smash, bump and spill oil on the track. The oil is potentially a fire hazard as passing cars emit sparks. Light it up for a fiery display as well as another hazard that'll doom cars that crash into it. With online play for up to 16-players, it looks like Crash СN' Burn will do the destruction genre some justice in October.

Shell Shock: Nam '67 (PS2, Xbox
Vietnam, the most controversial war America has seen, is also one of the fewest explored in video game fare. Gamers know World War II by now a little TOO much. Vietnam is where companies are starting to take up space in next: one of those companies being Eidos. In this summer's action game from newcomers Guerilla Games, ShellShock: Nam '67 will not put you on a team directly. You are just a rookie soldier in the jungles of Nam, just doing what you can to survive and live by the fear and shock that increasingly amounted during Nam's horrific periods of battle. Different from other war-related titles, ShellShock will try to consume players in the war itself: to make it seem as if you were actually fighting in Nam at the time. Especially with blinding environments that deviate yours or the computer's gunplay tactics (that result in friendly fire), being able to launch napalm attacks, and using every possible bush or tree as your only cover in wide-open levels, this game will really be like the war. Mission objectives will consist of eliminating armies of foes and then defending strongholds, to determining who is the enemy and who isn't inside rural Vietnamese villages, to teaming up with the North Vietnamese Army, and even sneaking your way up to where a Viet Cong General rests in order to terminate his command. For all you gamers who can't get enough of a good war outing: prepare for your enlistment in Nam next month.