Latest games on show in Atlanta

By PETER ELEY

Bungie's excellent Myth 2 was a beautifully crafted strategy game, with super 3D graphics. And its upcoming title Halo, which was one of the star attractions at last month's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, has also won rave reviews.

E3, as it's known, is where the video game industry showcases its new products.

Bungie's stand had an almost permanent queue waiting to see its presentation of Halo. Apparently, the graphics are so good that more than a few people mistook a life-sized projection of a soldier from the game as the real thing.

The game is basically a space shoot-em-up, but with graphics many commentators described as the best seen in a computer game.

Myth 2 scored with its large animations, even if those did limit the game in its scope and size. Halo has gone the same way, with lots of emphasis on character detail.

Technology has moved on, and Halo makes use of faster processors and gruntier video cards, although the E3 demo ran on a relatively modest Pentium 2 450.

The reality level of your character is one of the game's strongest points, and will make interacting with other similarly detailed characters in internet games a mind-blowing experience.

* Talking of space action games, it seems the long-delayed Starship Troopers, first announced four years ago, should be released this year.

A fairly advanced version was shown at E3 and the game looks looks pretty much like the movie, which looked pretty much like a computer game anyway.

It's a standard real-time strategy game where you command a small group of soldiers who have to face 15 different spider-type bugs. Like the movie, death can be a particularly nasty affair, being decapitated by bugs or impaled upon a spiky arachnoid appendage.

On a lighter note, an expansion pack to Maxis' huge The Sims was unveiled at E3.

Livin Large ramps it up a notch, with amorous couples now going to bed together, although any further developments take place under the sheets.

Maxis are going to wait and see what the US video game censors make of this before deciding whether to run with it.

The expansion pack also features alien abductions, a bizarre new range of furniture including lamps with genies, and lots of new characters including the Grim Reaper.

E-mail: peter_eley@herald.co.nz