NCsoft's E3 line-up hands-on preview, with less noise violations

Any visit to Korean publisher NCsoft's E3 media office is a pleasant one. The team from the Austin office sets up a quiet space away from the floor where the people are nice, the danishes are good and they have those little bottles of orange juice that make everything seem all right at 9 a.m. after a long first day on the show floor.

Oh, and they have games as well, which they presented in a round-robin format, giving members of the media a brief glimpse into each of their newest products.

Tabula Rasa
The star of this year's visit was Tabula Rasa, the new game under development by Destination Games and overseen by Richard Garriott, the brain behind the Ultima series. Garriott wasn't at my particular appointment, but right-hand man Starr Long, another OG from the streets of Ultima Online and now a producer for NCsoft, gave visitors a closer look.

For the uninitiated, Tabula Rasa is an action-oriented massively multiplayer online roleplaying game set far in the future where a "a cosmic war threatens all sentient beings with enslavement or extinction." Players are members of the last free sentient races making a final stand against the alien Bane forces.

The game combines third-person shooter style action with a vast, persistent game world and ongoing storyline of an MMORPG. There's not much downtime and the action is fast and furious, putting players directly on the front lines of an intergalactic conflict on a number of alien worlds.

After the hour-long round-robin presentation, I took some time on the main show floor to get a hands-on demonstration, led by an NCsoft developer using the game's built-in voice chat system. The game's user interface is easy to pick up and the action is never far away. In just a short time, I was busy blasting aliens and completing tasks using a wide range of weapons as well as special alien-granted powers.

By far the most interesting aspect of Tabula Rasa is the clone system, which allows a player to explore different character paths without starting from scratch. Players can save a template of their characters before a key choice and use it later to create a new one to use in exploring other options. Visually, Tabula Rasa boasts top-notch visuals combined with distinct looks for each planet. Put simply, it's pretty, but not so pretty players can forget there's a war on.

Tabula Rasa is still in development and the release date is pending.

Guild Wars Factions
Also on the menu during NCsoft's round-robin was Guild Wars Factions, the newest chapter in NCsoft's free-to-play player-vs.-player franchise.

Developed by Seattle-based studio ArenaNet, Guild Wars Factions takes place on the Asian-inspired continent of Cantha, where new and existing Guild Wars players join an epic quest to defeat an ancient evil and save a war-torn empire.

Factions makes an excellent addition to the existing Guild Wars experience, with new scored challenge missions and strategic competitive missions that allow players to test their skills and take control of cities, towns and outposts. Large-scale battles pit teams from opposing factions against each other to conquer new territory and new elite missions allow the most skilled players exclusive access to areas designed to be the ultimate cooperative challenge.

In addition, players are presented with two new professions, the Assassin and Ritualist and 300 new skills, including 90 elite skills for the eight professions. Also on the table are hundreds of new creatures and pets, and hundreds of new weapons, armor and new character faces and hairstyles. As a fan of of the original Guild Wars, Factions stands alone as an excellent entry point, or a welcome addition to to the franchise.

Factions is currently available and players are already starting their quest to become the new world champion, with the finals set for August 24-26 in Leipzig, Germany.

Exteel
With the success of the Guild Wars model, in which players purchase the game, then play for free with the option to purchase each new campaign as it becomes available, NCsoft is exploring another innovative model in which players will be allowed to download certain games for free, play them for free and purchase additional items and content at a later date.

The first of these on the list is Exteel, which, basically, is sort of like third-person Counterstrike but with giant Jedi robots, jetpacks and big guns. NCsoft's Team Beam puts players in command of a next generation mech - called an NxG - a humanoid, walking weapon complete with blasters, chain guns, shields, laser swords or whatever else a player decides to add.

Players create a mercenary pilot who grows in experience and rank through PvP battles. Each pilot can customize his or her personal mech using a robust character creation tool. Ultimately, pilots can store several different mechs in a "hangar" and choose which one to take into combat.

Exteel uses a modified Unreal 2 engine to provide spectacular graphics and, like most online PvP games, features rankings that allow players to compare scores and decide who's the best. I got a chance to play Exteel at last year's E3, and was duly impressed. There's not a lot of substance to it, but if PvP is your thing and giant robots get you all excited, there's nothing better.

Exteel is currently live in Korea and is expected to be released in North America later this year.

Soccer Fury
Also on NCsoft's "the first hit is free" menu is another favorite of mine, Soccer Fury.

Ever see that movie, Shaolin Soccer? This is the game. Digital Legends' Soccer Fury is an arcade-style action game combining street soccer with spectacular martial arts fighting techniques in three-man online contests on the streets and rooftops of urban locations across the world.

NCsoft's tagline for the game reads "No rules. No limits. No mercy." A fair assessment, just based on the trailer shown during the presentation. There are no referees and the action doesn't stop until someone scores. While it's not a soccer sim by any stretch of the imagination, Soccer Fury is still a team-based game. Players can form squads and compete in tournaments as well as play pickup games.

Players can customize all aspects of their characters, including hairstyles and tattoos, from head to toe, while teams can also be customized with changes to their home pitch, logo and graffiti tags.

Soccer Fury is expected to be released sometime in 2007.

Dungeon Runners
What can I say about Dungeon Runners? It's like Diablo, but hopped up like a baseball player with a handful of muscle cream.

NCsoft's Dungeon Runners is another action-oriented MMORPG in the vein of Guild Wars, but with more of a focus on dungeon crawling than PvP. Downtime is minimized and shorter, faster play sessions are intended to appeal to a broader range of players. At its base level, the game is much like any other fantasy-themed MMO. Players create a character, choose a class and then go out and find adventure.

Unlike other MMOs, players can take their characters to any available server and jump right in. Also, every dungeon is randomized every time a player enters, providing a unique experience each time, and the difficulty is scaled according to group size and level. Dungeon Runners is an excellent fix for any dungeon-crawling withdrawal, but be forewarned ... additional content will cost.

Dungeon Runners is in closed beta and is expected to be released later this year.

SmashStar
Finally, we come to the giggly schoolgirl of NCsoft's free-to-download, free-to-play cast. SmashStar is the new wave Saturday morning cartoon of the bunch, featuring a "whimsical" setting and play style designed to appeal to the younger, more feminine set.

Based around a tennis game, SmashStar will allow players to customize their competitors, from clothes to hairstyles to racquets (a term I use loosely, since at least one player in the demo appeared to be using a frying pan)and to play on various fantastical courts. The sugar content here is high, but it might be fun for the kiddies, especially the tea party set.

Designed to broaden NCsoft's appeal, SmashStar is in beta in Korea and may sport a different name at release.

Wrapping it up
In the end, NCsoft's whirlwind round-robin review took just a little over an hour to complete and offered glimpses at both the exciting and the sugary sweet. I didn't really see anything I didn't like (well, except for SmashStar, but that's not meant for my demographic) and I saw a lot that got me really excited.

The next year should be an exciting one, especially if they keep the orange juice flowing.