Articles: What Happens In Vegas Won’t Be On Game Consoles Till Next Year – 70

Las Vegas. Glitzy. Indulgent. Outrageous. Not to mention that everything there is big, really big. Walking from a hotel lobby to a ballroom needs hiking shoes and water bottles to avoid dehydration. But we braved the security lines and crowded airplane to fly into Sin City to see just what the heck Midway Games is up to. And all we can think of while being transported to the Red Rock Hotel (secluded miles from the Vegas strip in order to keep us from straying) is jetting journos in for this extravaganza to show off new games is déjà vu of the early ’90s, when all the vid-game companies had big bucks to spend.

Having made it to the hotel we wait for the doors of the exhibition hall to open. When they do, we slump off to the side to avoid being trampled by the dozens of journalists and press folk from the US, Germany, France and elsewhere stomping in to claim a chair. The lights finally dim and big shots from Midway start it up by calling out for big guys who beat up other big guys — what else can that be but TNA Impact (Total Non-Stop Action)? For those who don’t know, this is wrestling, which distinguishes itself with athletics over soap opera story lines, so it’s all about the moves. And as flashing lights and fog permeate the hall, bigger-than-life guys start to make the scene to give us the low-down on how much time was spent programming in their special moves. Then the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Samoa Joe, takes the stage to add even more personal details, like how you don’t just get glistening muscles but really detailed faces of each wrestler as they push the reality of trying to inflict maximum damage on one another. We’ll agree that the rendering of these guys is highly detailed and pushes the speed and precision of Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 consoles to their max (Nintendo’s Wii doesn’t have the oomph to handle any of what Midway has working today). Even if this kind of sport ain’t your thing, there’s no way you cannot be impressed by what you can see and do. And we don’t say that just because Samoa Joe looks like he could tear our head right off if he felt like it.

Now it’s time for a different kind of fighting, where it’s one-on-one violence up close and personal and the moves are deadly: Mortal Kombat. Only instead of a roster of well-known baddies going against each other, it’s Batman and other DC comic faves doing the honours against Sub-Zero and his buds. While signature moves replace ‘fatalities’, being able to fight past a single, flat playing field really toughens things up. As in smashing your opponent through a building, then pummeling him as you both crash towards the ground. The addition of dynamic, multitiered environments, Freefall Kombat and Klose Combat really make for a fighting adventure, not just two guys slugging it out against each other. And if you take the time away from being brutal you can see just how realistic it all looks.

Then Midway unveils Wheelman: think Barcelona as seen through the eyes of a guy who drives real fast, shoots even faster and has the appearance and voice of Vin Diesel. And where you can cause more damage on four wheels than you can imagine — tearing off windshields and knocking cars out of the way can make you forget there are actually missions to accomplish. We just like to send the locals scurrying out of the way. And while running around on foot has its appeal, we prefer spinning the car 360 degrees while shooting out the windshield and blasting our pursuer’s gas tank so it blows. Sure, cop cars might get in the way, but avoiding them while causing carnage is pretty sweet.

But the big guy here is This Is Vegas. For our money it combines the best of everything we’ve just seen: fighting, racing and sports (by that we mean gambling). Think Fight Club+Sim City+Leisure Suit Larry+Excess. What that all comes down to is that you get to be the coolest cat in town, once you’ve pulled off a few errands for the big shots and won a lot of bucks. One way to accomplish this is to build buzz by showing off dance moves in nightclubs — just don’t drink too much and vomit on your partner’s shoes. So maybe instead bartend so you can douse the ladies with soda water for a wet T-shirt contest. Or work as a bouncer and build cred by tossing out creeps spoiling the fun. Then hit the streets for some (illegal) drag racing or pop into the casinos to have lady luck pad your wad. This virtual world lets you do all the quaint stuff that makes Sin City worth a trip in reality — from greeting gangsters to taking out heavies with your fists or showing the lovelies some smooth moves.

So now we get to spend a few hours playing these still-in-progress games and yeah, most of that is trying to become a big man on the Vegas strip — because if that whacked billionaire gets his way it’ll all be turned into ‘family fun’ (puke city, more like it). Then we’re herded into a bus heading back to the airport. We realise we didn’t have the time to say just how good Unreal Tournament 3 looks (Xbox 360 — coming later this year), but then we’re fighting a headache from having to listen to the fanboys next to us speculating on whether Mortal Kombat characters could take on Superman. Or maybe we’re bummed that we weren’t given any special swag to take home. Just make sure we get copies of all these games when they street, Midway, and we’ll call it even.

By Marshall M Rosenthal (aka Danger Boy)

Midway Games – www.midway.com – http://vegas.midway.com

This article is from Tone issue #70.