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The Wargamer Best Of E3 Awards 2003 |
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 The Wargamer Best Of E3 Awards 2003
Thursday, June 0505, 2003
The Wargamer has picked a group of games which rise above the rest - these are The Wargamer's E3 Best of Show Winners. These are certainly NOT judgment calls on what are rarely finished products, but rather a list of games we think the readers of this publication would find intriguing.
So without further qualifications, we proudly present The Wargamer's E3 2003 Best of Show winners.
Categories
We select and organize our Best of Show winners by genre, combining both console and PC games. Here are the various genres represented in this year's list, followed by the games listed alphabetically:
Historical Strategy
Fantasy or Sci-Fi Strategy
Tactical
Wargame
RPG
Massively Multiplayer
Simulation and Management
First or Third-Person Shooter
Hardware
Historical Strategy
Codename Panzers: The game is on par with this year's Blitzkrieg, and still has a year of development left to improve it even more. Not that it needs it.
Cossacks II - The Napoleonic Wars: The long-awaited sequel to GSC Game World's impressive historical strategy series was finally shown, and it looks to live up to every expectation.
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World: Stainless Studios is back, this time with a grand, sweeping RTS set in the second eon A.D.
Rome: Total War: The sequel to Shogun and Medieval stood out as quite possibly the best game shown at E3.
Fantasy or Sci-Fi Strategy
Ground Control II: The sci-fi strategy title is back after a few years, this time with ever-more stunning graphics.
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: EA's Lord of the Rings action strategy title is shaping up to be the best use of Lord of the Rings license this year.
Homeworld 2: The franchise that defined space real-time strategy games is finally back, and showed graphics would could have been the very best we've seen any strategy game to date.
Space Colony: Strategy? Check. Resource management? Check. Unique characters with a mind of their own? Check. Humor? Yep, check that too.
Starcraft: Ghost: Blizzard is using a slightly new formula to remix its amazing Starcraft franchise and we did not fail to be impressed with this latest creation.
Tactical
Full Spectrum Warrior: Pandemic's adaptation of a military-grade tactical title came out of left field at this year's E3: consider us shocked but at attention.
Korea: Forgotten Conflict: Commandos meets the Korean War in this real-time tactical squad-based title.
Out Front: Russian developer 1C's unique hybird tactical game offers a mix of known formulas with the addition of destroyable terrain.
Silent Storm: Jagged Alliance fans rejoice, your ship is about to come in and it looks magnificent.
UFO Aftermath: Attempting to pick up where the X-COM series left off, ALTAR Interactive is preparing to field its own version of the highly acclaimed title.
Wargame
Supreme Ruler 2010: The lone wargame at this year's E3 should make a big impression with grognards everywhere.
RPG
Deus Ex 2: Warren Specter is at it again. This hybrid creation is one part action/adventure game, one part shooter, and two parts RPG. Mixed in some great sci-fi storytelling and gorgeous graphics and this sequel looks to be another winner.
Massively Multiplayer
World of Warcraft: For gamers who have yearned to participate in Blizzard's immensely popular Warcraft franchise other than in an RTS, its new World of Warcraft should provide the answer.
Guild Wars: The single best concept at this year's show: a MMORPG without the MMORPG fees. Plus it's being developed by a team of former Blizzard employees.
Simulation and Management
Crimson Skies: A good PC jumps to the Xbox with some great ideas for expanded Xbox Live play.
Lock On: Modern Air Combat: There weren't many flight-sims at this year's E3, but this one continues to impress us through every revision.
Railroad Tycoon III: Two words, one acronym: 3D.
First or Third-Person Shooter
Half-Life 2: The three-hour wait around the E3 booth was our first clue this was something special. The 25-minute tech demo was our first hint as to the game's mind-bending potential. September 30 will tell us if it's all really possible.
Halo 2: Every bit as good-looking and charming as Half-Life 2, but with only half the hype.
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs II: A ex-NAVY SEAL's mouth dropped when we told him about the game on our plane ride home. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Soldner: Secret Wars: The team behind the best tank sim of modern computing (Steel Beasts) is working on a sleeper game with similarities to our 2001 Game of the Year, Operation Flashpoint.
Hardware
Western Digital Raptor: A mainstream hard drive with commercial SCSI speeds.
Full E3 Coverage Here http://e3.wargamer.com/
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