Video game sequels cause excitement
Video game fans can’t wait for more of the same — as long as it’s bigger, glossier and rowdier.
Sequels to popular games caused the most white-knuckled joystick-gripping at last week’s annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, where “Halo 2,” “The Sims 2” and teases of the latest “Grand Theft Auto” and “The Legend of Zelda” installments caused cheerful uproars.
“The Sims 2” was the most visible, presented front and center in the main showroom of the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The original game from Electronic Arts Inc. was like a digital dollhouse: Characters performed tasks to earn money and buy swimming pools, pinball machines and other items that made them happy.
It became the all-time best-selling personal computer game, with more than 27 million copies sold. Demand is high for the follow-up, set to debut in stores this August.
“The Sims 2” includes a closer view of characters that look increasingly realistic and a wider breadth of options to control their destinies. Faces and physical movements change when they are happy, sad or bored.
As a husband character in the game surrenders to his desire to cheat on his wife, the digital philander walks toward his mistress with his chin held high and his chest puffed out.
Meanwhile, the wife character has an array of wants: She believes her sister should get married and her young son should spend more time with her. She also has fears, including death in the family.
Indeed, characters who survive the trials of their everyday artificial intelligence can even grow older — and eventually die. The game continues by following subsequent generations.
A less peaceful version of death is the prime focus in “Halo 2,” a sequel to the Xbox’s signature title.
Set for release in November, the follow-up game from Microsoft Corp.’s Bungie Studios picks up the story of Master Chief, the masked and armored marine who wages heavy-artillery war against the alien invaders known as The Covenant, which look like humanoid scorpions.
In the first game, the Chief destroyed a ring-shaped planet and wiped out a fleet of the alien baddies. This time, the villains have decimated most of the galaxy’s human colonies and have landed on Earth in the year 2552 to exact revenge.
The innovative first game took the genre of a first-person shooter — in which players see only a gun and crosshairs as they charge through a maze, killing monsters — and allowed the gamer to wander, sneak up on enemies and create unique battle strategies.
Most of “Halo 2” is under wraps, but the biggest change is the ability to turn alien weapons against the enemy. Lucky players who get their hands on a two-pronged alien energy sword can lunge across a field and kill enemies in a single, crushing sweep.
Even less is known about Nintendo Co.’s upcoming “Legend of Zelda” for GameCube, in which the elf character Link is an intense-looking grown-up, no longer a puckish child figure.
A preview reel of the game footage featured Link wielding a sword against fearsome monsters while riding a horse across a vast plain, demonstrating martial arts moves more commonly demonstrated by a ninja rather than a forest imp.
“We are taking you to a world in which Link has grown up,” said designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who also created classics “Donkey Kong” and “Super Mario Bros.” “He will look different and move different.”
Details also were scarce on “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” Two previous titles, “Grand Theft Auto III” and “Vice City,” helped make Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 2 the market leader, with many people buying the system just to play “GTA” and its sequel.
Kaz Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., said “San Andreas” would also be a PlayStation 2 exclusive when it debuts in October.
Conservative parents groups decry the violence in the “GTA” series, but it remains one of the most popular video game franchises in history.