War, space, music wow crowd at E3

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA: Whether you want to blow away enemy soldiers, wail on drums in a rock band, or firm up your sagging muscles, the star attractions at the video game industry's annual show had something to offer.

Highly anticipated titles like Microsoft Corp.'s "Halo 3" and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s "Grand Theft Auto IV" have been on radar screens for months, so games that impress the most at E3 tend to be ones that surprise with unusually crisp graphics or cool gameplay.

"Call of Duty 4", a war-themed shooter from Activision Inc., drew gasps and applause from audiences that were wowed by its ultra-realistic depiction of modern combat.

For those looking to get lost in a deep story, Microsoft's "Mass Effect" for its Xbox 360 console offers a galaxy-spanning plot with some 16,000 lines of dialogue. Oh, and it boasted some of the best visuals at the show, to boot.

"'Mass Effect' is the most impressive game I've seen so far," said Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief of gaming magazine EGM.

"It's just crazy how much back-story is built into the game. It's just really epic, something gamers can be lost in for weeks."

There was lots of love for "Rock Band", an ambitious music game that lets players, drum, strum or sing along to dozens of modern and class rock songs. Promising weekly downloadable songs, the game's luster was dulled only by a price that is widely expected to be at least $200 for all the peripherals.

Rhythm and adventures

To be published by Viacom's MTV and distributed by Electronic Arts Inc., "Rock Band" is set to give the third installment of Activision's popular "Guitar Hero" series a run for its money. "Guitar Hero" lets people play along on a guitar-shaped controller to a list of rock tunes.

"'Rock Band' is making lots of smart moves with its signing of Metallica and the announcement of downloadable content every week," said Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief of gaming magazine EGM.

"It's everything 'Guitar Hero' is, plus drums, plus vocals plus bass."

Sony Corp., whose PlayStation 3 has struggled to sell in part because of a lackluster lineup of games, won mostly positive marks for its futuristic shooter "Killzone 2".

Many attendees said the game, to their surprise, mostly lived up to a controversial sneak peek two years ago that was billed as showing the actual game but whose stunning images turned out to be completely computer-generated.

Other Sony highlights included car-racing simulator "Gran Tourismo 5", "Uncharted", a new action-adventure title set in a lushly detailed tropical environment and "Metal Gear Solid 4", the final chapter of Konami Corp.'s stealth-action franchise.

Nintendo continued its outreach to casual gamers with a game for its Wii console called "WiiFit" that will come with a pressure-sensitive pad for playing games aimed at improving balance, coordination and strength.

It also tantalized its traditional fanbase by saying the long-awaited "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", which pitting Nintendo icons like Mario, Link and Seamus against each other in frenetic fights, will go on sale in early December. Other big upcoming Wii titles shown were "Metroid Prime 3" and "Super Mario Galaxy", and "Super Mario Kart".