The first evidence of this was in their booth at PAX East. Collections of indie studios sat clumped around the expo hall. Rockstar Games stood next door, showing off the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption to an endless line of salivating fans. But, towering over all of it, was the 20-foot tall structure that made up the 2K booth, and the banners for the three titles they were showing off within.

The first demonstration was for the new downloadable content in Bioshock 2. This, alas, I could not touch, because I have not finished the game yet and do not want to spoil the story for myself. The second demonstration was a hands-off showing of Civilization V, a game it seems will do wonders for the realm of turn-based strategy. Jon Huie has already published an article with his impressions on Civ V, and if you have not checked that out yet, I suggest you do.

The third demonstration is the one I got a close look at. This is the sequel to the highly acclaimed 2002 release, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. 2K has lived up to the reputation of the original title and then went far beyond. Mafia II is shaping up to be a well polished title that is fun to play, beautiful to look at, and easy to become immersed in.

The player takes on the role of Vito, an impoverished Italian-American who is looking to change his lot in life. He and his friend Joe become involved in…well…some “legitimate” business enterprises, and as one thing leads to another they get drawn deeper and deeper into the sub-world of organized crime. As time goes on, they begin to see that the glamor and prestige is really just a facade for something much uglier.

The gameplay itself runs very smoothly. When you take control of Vito, you find yourself operating a familiar 2-stick, 3rd-person control scheme. Vito moves where you want him to move, and the camera is easily adjustable. Hints appear at the bottom of the screen to help new players get used to the controls. Before you know it, the tutorial segment is over, and you find yourself in the middle of a turf war that forces you to sink or swim. You learn to fire a tommy gun, throw molotov cocktails, and work cooperatively with your brothers-in-arms to make the bad guys an offer they can’t refuse.

Mafia II boasts an excellent “cover system,” that allows the player to duck and dive behind obstacles to get quick cover during a gunfight. This system is both innovative and intuitive. Vito always jumps in the direction you want him to go, and always gets behind some kind of solid mass quickly. Aiming from behind a wall is a cinch, performed with only one button and done without sacrificing cover. This system, and the solid aiming and firing controls, makes combat a blast. It’s fun, and not too easy.

Everything in the world is interactive, too. Wooden panels are destructible, as the player learns in an early segment involving a bar and some machine gun fire. You can shoot weak materials like wood apart, and use molotov cocktails to set them on fire. Vehicles are a little tougher, but if you manage to get a spark into a gas tank, you’d better stand back.

The graphics…well, look at the trailers. All the cinematics are done using the actual game engine, so the crispness you see on any release video is exactly what you’re looking at throughout the entire game. You can see the pores and freckles on the characters’ faces. You can see splinters of wood chipping off under gunfire. I thought I saw a hangnail splitting from Vito’s trigger finger, but that was just some fuzz on the screen. Nevertheless, if he had a hangnail, I guarantee I would have seen it.

I also need to mention the sound. First off, the effects do wonders for actually immersing you in the world. You feel much more like a part of the mafia if you believe the clack of your Italian wing-tip on the cobblestone street is accurate. The sounds are realistic and the gunfire is loud. Secondly, the accents are dead on. The characters sound as though they are actually from the time period, which I raved about for Assassin’s Creed II and will continue to do for Mafia II. Taking the time to find and fund skilled voice actors is important, and they have done that here. Finally, when you hop into a car (GTA syle, mind you), the radio turns immediately to authentic music from the 1940′s. This is 100% necessary for cruising, especially since, in this game, the police are out to make sure you are actually abiding by the rules of the road. Personally I don’t mind. As long as Hank Williams stays out of my car’s stereo system, we’re good.

Speaking of authentic though, I got to talking with 2K’s PR department about some of the goodies in this game (children, cover your eyes). It seems 2K struck a deal with Playboy, a well-known adult magazine that was very popular and influential in the 1940′s. They struck a deal that allowed them to publish some classic Playboy covers in game, as they appeared on the original magazines. These covers can be found throughout the game as easter eggs, and naturally you’ll want to keep an eye out for them as you play through. I asked if the classic Marilyn Monroe cover would be present, but the 2K reps were not sure. Considering Monroe did the magazine in 1953, a little on the tail end of the Mafia II time period, I’d wager not. I’ve included it here, though, just in case. Don’t want to disappoint!

Overall, Mafia II is shaping up to be a smash hit for 2010. It will not have many of the console problems that its predecessor faced, it will provide diverse and entertaining gameplay, and a deep story that will have you chipping away at it until the very end. On top of all this, 2K is working at this in tandem with Civilization V, and Spec Ops: The Line, both of which are tantalizing as well. This is a good year for 2K Studios, and let’s hope for more of them to come. A good year for 2K means a very good year for us.

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The first thing you can see is that the grid is composed of what Firaxis likes to refer to as “Hexes”. These give the world a more natural feel than the square grids of old.

The time spent developing the console version, Civilization Revolution, was apparently time well spent. Not only did it sell very well, but it also led Firaxis to learn a few things about simplifying the game a bit and making things more streamlined. Not to say that the newest PC Civ is going to be a “baby game”, as it actually still seems complex. One of the things they did was bring the advisors back. They were missing from Civ IV, but the positive feedback from having them in Civ Rev made it possible for them to return.

A few new changes were shown as well. Notifications that pop up on the right side of the screen make an appearance once something that needs your attention happens. Rather than stop the gameplay and have you choose an item from a menu after you’ve researched or built units, these notifications make it possible to make these choices when you’re ready to, keeping the pacing of the game quite nicely. Another thing these notifications do is bring you straight to some action that’s going on off screen when you click on them, such as a ship sinking across the world.

In previous Civilization games, the leader of other nations was represented by half of their body that either smiled or glared at you in anger, not really saying much. Now once you open up dialogue with a leader, you’re taken to a different screen with a full-bodied representation of the leader, with a background that shows what kind of personality they have, like Tokugawa standing in an open, peaceful looking field or Napolean negotiating with you from a battlefield.

Not only is their presentation different, the way the leader’s AI adjusts to you as well. The example given was if you’re successful at thwarting Elizabeth’s attack at sea, she’ll change her strategy and try to go after you elsewhere.

Religion was taken out of this version of Civilization. In it’s place is a new City-State system that allows you to come across a small settlement of about a single city, which you can either choose to help or conquer. If you help these city-states, you’ll receive benefits based on what they specialize in, like a steady stream of gold coming in each turn or military units.

When you place settlers in an area, you can apparently buy up land around the unit. If you end up buying too much land near the territory of another nation, the leader will call you out on the problem.

Combat has received a nice overhaul as well. Before the outcome of a war between nations depended on how many units each side has stacked into one square. Now each tile is limited to one unit, which are now represented by a bunch of the same type instead of a single person. When these units are damaged, the number of people in the group goes down.  Where each battle use to last until one side’s Hit Points are depleted, now each fight seems to last longer and can end with a unit being injured instead of just dead.

Since each tile can only hold one unit now, city defense now relies on them being surrounded by protectors. The cities are also now able to fend off enemies on their own.

Archers and other ranged units can now fire over warriors or spearmen in front of them to soften up the enemy before a strike.

That’s about all we got to see during our presentation. Civilization V is set to be released in the Fall of 2010, a time when my roommate and I will once again be awake at 3 AM wondering where the time went.

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Back when I was in college, I was exposed to a little title known as Guitar Hero. I mistakenly believed that buying this game at finals time would be excellent way to unwind when I wasn’t studying my little ass off. I was sorely mistaken, as the best of us often are. Pretty soon studying wasn’t happening, but there is always a flip side. I managed to complete “Bark at the Moon” on hard mode before going home for the summer.

Since college, we’ve seen massive jumps forward for music games, in difficulty and in hardware. Rock Band pushed the envelope with drum and microphone compatibility, and the industry has now made this the standard. For a few years it has held at this point, but no longer. As you look at the above picture of a couple of average guys playing Rock Band, squint and take a close look at their hands (alternatively, just look at the second image). That’s right. Those are not buttons. Those are real six string guitars, and they are wired up to be compatible with PS3 and Wii versions of all music games.

A company called Open Chord has created a little device you can attach to the guitar strings to turn any electric six string into a game controller. With the accompanying program, you can choose to play your favorite music game in three different modes. In “fret mode,” you play the proper frets to hit the proper notes, much like the current norm. In “chord mode,” you set different chords to different color combinations. You can actually practice your chord progressions and start learning skills used in real guitar while playing the game. Lastly, you can use “note mode,” where specific notes are programmed to the specific colors and you’ll be fingering up and down the neck of the guitar until your hand is sore. If you can remember which note is which, that is.

This device is going to be available through OpenChord.org and will cost $35. The program that it uses is available, and the whole thing is open source. That’s right. Players can tweak the program to their choosing, and will be able to program their own chord and note patterns in.

The whole thing seems very complicated, but worthwhile for those who are looking to get just a little bit more out of their music games.

Additionally, a newer company called Seven45 is putting out a standalone game called Power Gig: Rise of the Six String. The guitar controller that is packaged with it is actually a six string in itself, and it seems it will function much in the same way as the above device although company representatives have revealed that they are also planning to incorporate power chords into game play. They were relatively tight-lipped about the project’s details, but said that gameplay, as well as the game’s other peripherals, will be revealed this year at E3. Their website is currently online with minimal content at www.powergig.com.

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Since NCSoft picked the franchise up completely off Cryptic Studios five years back, the new Paragon Studios put out the City of Villains expansion which doubled the content of the original game, and are now working on Issue 17, the 17^th free expansion. The Paragon team is, in a word, meticulous. They are always looking for new ways to liven up the City of Heroes experience, and they are always adding content that blows away the fanbase. It certainly has continued to impress me..

Matt “Positron” Miller, the game’s lead system designer, credits these plentiful (and dare I mention again, free) upgrades as the key to the franchise’s success. From new power sets and zones, to color customization, to the Mission Architect system that allowed players to create their own missions, this constant new content always does a great job of keeping things fresh. The average video gamer is attracted to shiny things, and Paragon is constantly just rolling them in front of our faces.

So what’s still to come?

Issue 17: Dark Mirror is just over the horizon, and oh is this a treat. City of Heroes is getting a complete graphical overhaul to catch up with today’s upgraded computer systems. They game will now render shadows realistically, following the sun across the sky throughout each day. This gives Paragon City and the Rogue Isles an unimaginable visual upgrade, as the Studio’s before/after pictures illustrated. They have also done incredible work on reflective surfaces. Now, water and glass will reflect the characters and the world around them, again adding a level of detail. Other subtle changes were made in ambient occlusion. These visual enhancements together are called “Ultra Mode,” and will be available for players with the proper graphical hardware. This will not slow down players on less-than-perfect machines.

In addition, some more content is being included. Moving tails will be available as a costume part, the Positron Task Force will be divided and upgraded for a smoother and more fun game experience, and some more missions will be added. The  Issue’s biggest achievement though is in the doppelganger system.

With doppelganger, players will be able to square off with evil versions of themselves within Mission Architect. These doppelgangers will be customizable. They can be a mirror image of your hero or villain, or they can be a polar opposite. They might just be subtly different, with a different costume, or legs growing out of their heads. Either way, this means an unprecedented level of customization in Mission Architect, and additional replay value, as the same mission played with different party members will result in different doppelgangers and a different overall experience every time.

Going beyond Issue 17, the team talked a bit about Going Rogue, the only paid expansion the game has seen since City of Villains in 2005. In Going Rogue, your hero or villain will be able to change sides, falling into a kind of “gray” area and then progressing to the other faction altogether. Obviously this does a lot for characters’ personal stories, and the relationships between heroes and supergroups as a whole. Most of the information on the expansion is already publicly viewable, but I’ve got a few things here you have not yet seen…

Four new power sets will be coming with Going Rogue. Dual Pistols is already available for those who preorder the expansion. Demon-Summoning will be available at pre-order soon as well. NCSoft will be putting up a video for that on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled. The other two sets were only just revealed at PAX, and here they are. Kinetic Melee will be available for scrappers, tankers, brutes and stalkers. This is a punching-based class that will focus on gathered energy. The final class is one that has been clamored for forever: Electric Control for controllers and dominators.

Even beyond Going Rogue, the team decided to spill a little information on Issue 19, and revealed that City of Heroes will be getting some end-game content very soon (look out, Blizzard). This content comes in the form of the “Incarnate system,” which will add additional and different levels, again more classes, new abilities, new rewards, and new zone events. They were very tight-lipped on what exactly these would be, but we can anticipate ten new levels and plenty to do for those stagnant level 50’s who have lingered at the top for too long.

It never ends with Paragon Studios, but, like a smooth chocolate milkshake, you never want it to. Going Rogue, and everything else to come, will continue adding new depth into a franchise that has shown innovation at every turn. Watch NCSoft’s website for upcoming screenshots and videos of the new content, which they have promised will be available soon.

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Yesterday marked when Blizzard finally let people in to the highly anticipated sequel to what appears to be South Korea’s national sport, Starcraft.  I got my invite and as soon as everything was done downloading and installing, I dove right in.

One of the things that Blizzard has been talking about releasing along side of Starcraft II Is the new Steam/Xbox Live-like Battle.net system. It’s definitely a nice set-up and I can’t wait to see how well this integrates into the other games this will connect with, World of Warcraft and Diablo 3.

After spending a considerable amount of hours in the past few days playing Starcraft I, the way the sequel looked struck me more than it would have otherwise. Everything is how one would expect an 11 year old game who’s graphics have been updated to fit today’s standards would look. If anything, it seems to have a bit of future proofing.  My PC is a pretty powerful one and it is not able to handle the High settings without a considerable amount of lag.

The gameplay remains to be something I’ll have to comment more on later since I haven’t had a chance to play more than two matches so far. But before I get back to playing, here are a few screenshots.

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When it comes time to hold your own against rampaging creatures, it always seems to be bugs. The biggest titles to come to mind just now are, of course, Starcraft and Starship Troopers. Endless masses of flowing chitin meet a barrage of projectile lead for one massively good time. Now, we’ve got a brand new chance to relive this golden experience in the upcoming title, Battleswarm.

Battleswarm offers the same basic formula as the aforementioned titles, but with one interesting twist. Not only can you play as both sides, but the game is completely different depending on the side you play. As a human, Battleswarm functions as a 3rd person shooter. You take control of a marine, and set out into a multiplayer map to complete an objective. These objectives range from killing a certain number of bugs, to defending your own base, to planting bombs in a bug hive. Naturally, you’ll be required to rely on your heavy artillery and teamwork to get the job done against the inevitable swarms of bugs.

Now, what’s interesting is that if you play as a bug, the game is no longer a shooter. On the bug side, we are dealing with real-time strategy. That’s right. The camera shifts into a top-down view and, like in Starcraft, you manage a couple of different facilities that are pumping out bugs until you reach the map’s limit. Then, you direct your swarms en masse against the few pathetic human strewn about. As a bug, you also have the added advantage of seeing an entire level map, complete with player positions, so the game becomes much more about strategy than survival. There is no resource collection or construction, but you do get one “hero” unit that is capable of casting spells, and the ability to buy armor and upgrades is there on both sides.

Having gotten a little time in the beta, I can say that the game is certainly fun. I always wondered what getting overwhelmed by Zerglings looked like to those Marines, and now I know. Turns out, it’s horrendously painful. On the flip side, it is immensely gratifying to execute a pincer maneuver on the bug side, and run a swarm over an opponent’s back when he’s busy with something else. The downside is that the game suffers a little in two major areas. First, the menus are a bit confusing to follow. Purchasing a weapon or item does not put it immediately into your inventory. You need to navigate a cornucopia of lists and functions to do that, and it takes some getting used to. Secondly, the games themselves tend to be very one-sided. Playing for several hours, I have yet to see a close match. Whichever side clinches a map at the start, it would seem, clinches the match.

Keeping in mind that the game is still in Beta, these problems may still be addressed. Battleswarm is still a good deal of fun, and at the very least worth checking out. At the moment, beta keys are still available on their website at http://www.battleswarm.net. Sign up, log in, and join me in exploring this very innovative new title.

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Karpyshyn, who got his start writing for Wizards of the Coast, went on from KotOR to do writing for Mass Effect, a new sci-fi universe, to write several novels in both universes (as well as some original concepts), and is now hard at work on the new MMO, The Old Republic. I recently got the chance to send Drew a few questions about his past and current projects. While he (like Lucasarts) remains very tight lipped about the new project, his answers help shine some light on the insight of one of the most creative minds the sci-fi genre has seen in recent memory.

Frank Hunter: You have become a big name in not only Star Wars, but science fiction writing as a whole. What were the early influences which shaped your tone and style?

Drew Karpyshyn: I read a lot of Stephen King as a kid, along with Asimov, F. Paul Wilson, David Eddings and Terry Brooks.

FH: How long have you been a Star Wars fan?

DK: I saw the first movie when it ran originally in theaters, back when I was
seven years old. For the next 3 years I went out for Halloween as a jawa,
so I guess I was hooked.

FH: What do you like to do in your spare time, when you are not bending science-fiction universes to your whims?

DK: I golf, watch sports and play Magic the Gathering whenever I want to unwind.

FH: What does it take to come up with a good science-fiction or fantasy character name? Do you just roll a 20-sided die, or does a lot of thought go into it?

DK: I’m terrible at names. Darth Bane was a pre-existing character, and
Commander Shepard was a name created by the entire creative team at
BioWare, so I can’t even take credit for them. Basically I just jumble
letters around until I get something I like.

FH: What are you currently reading?

DK: Back issues of Golf Digest. I’m also about to start a novel called “Go Go
Girls of the Apocalypse”, but I haven’t cracked the cover yet.

FH: Were you the person who chose to set the *Knights of the Old Republic*series in the time it was set?

DK: The main creative force behind KOTOR was a man named James Ohlen – the same man behind the upcoming Star Wars MMO. The time period was mostly his idea.

FH: In writing the plot for this game, you have been pivotal in creating much early Star Wars history. How does it feel to be responsible for so much in a universe so large?

DK: I’m honored that the backstory we created has been incorporated into the
greater Star Wars universe. It’s almost like we’ve snagged our little
piece of immortality.

FH: KotOR 2 received disappointing reviews at best. What are your comments on the game, if you played it at all? If you were involved in that project, what might you have done differently?

DK: I really felt KOTOR 2 suffered from a lack of development time. It took
several years to make the original, but the sequel was demanded in only 1
year. Games are so complicated now that a 12 month development schedule
just isn’t realistic.

FH: Do you feel any deep association with Sith culture? You choose to write on main characters like Darth Revan and Darth Bane, so one can only wonder if you sympathize with the dark side.

DK: I wouldn’t say I sympathize with them, but I do like to think I’ve given
them a fresh perspective. Remember, in most good stories the villain has
to believe that he’s the hero.

FH: Who would win in a fight: Darth Bane or MacGyver with a cortosis-laced tire iron and 2kg of sulfur?

DK: I think Richard Dean Anderson is getting up there in years, so I’ll take
Bane.

FH: The universe of Mass Effect feels very much like that of Star Wars. Was this deliberate, a result of being so involved with Star Wars projects, or unintentional?

DK: I think both Star Wars and Mass Effect evoke primal archetypes in the
sci-fi genre. It’s easy to see similarities, but on a high level you can
tell Mass Effect was influenced by movies like Blade Runner, Alien, Aliens
and Terminator more so than Star Wars.

FH: Was the project significantly more work because you created the universe, or would you compare it to KotOR?

DK: The work is different. In Star Wars, much of what we did was try to work
our own ideas into the existing universe. It required us to be flexible
and adaptable. With Mass Effect, we literally started with a blank page,
so we had to do everything from scratch.

FH: The Mass Effect universe has a number of unique species in it. Is there any race you are particularly fond of?

DK: As anyone who’s read Ascension can probably tell, I like the quarians.

FH: One of the game’s few criticisms was its underdeveloped side quests. Are you planning to address this criticism for the sequel?

DK: BioWare has a well earned reputation for both quality and listening to our fans. Rest assured: Mass Effect 2 will be better in almost every
conceivable aspect of the game.

FH: Can you talk in any detail about the work done to extend the Mass Effect universe outside the original game?

DK: I can’t say much beyond mentioning my novels, Mass Effect: Revelation and Mass Effect: Ascension. If you’re a fan of the game you should read these
novels – they really help to flesh out the universe.

FH: MMOs are notorious for not being story-driven. Plots are paper-thin and characters are rarely memorable. What are you and Bioware doing to right this for The Old Republic?

DK: BioWare has always been an industry leader when it comes to story driven games, and we’re taking all our experience and applying it to the MMO
genre. I can’t get into details (wouldn’t want to give away our secrets),
but fans are going to be blown away.

FH: What else is being done to set TOR apart from industry norms? There is a lot of hope that this game will be the something new we’ve all been waiting for.

DK: Unfortunately I’m not at liberty to discuss details of TOR. You’ll have to
wait for official press releases.

FH: The devs have recently come out about how much dialogue will be involved in this game. How much help do you get when writing dialogue for a project of this scope?

DK: The writing team for most BioWare games ranges from 4-6 people. For TOR we’re already over a dozen writers, and we’re still growing. The scope of
this game is beyond epic.

FH: How much control can you manage to keep over such a script?

DK: BioWare’s been working with large writing teams for quite a while, so
we’ve figured out how to keep everyone on the same shared vision.

FH: Have you played any MMORPG games in the past? What classes do you tend to enjoy playing? What class will you be playing in TOR?

DK: I can’t really talk about the classes in TOR. As for other MMO’s, I’ve
been so busy developing games over the past decade that I rarely get to
invest any serious time in playing them.

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Recently a group of independent developers calling themselves Nebulacore Studios have taken up the challenge of updating the Quake 3 engine that Academy was built on, revamping the entire system, and coming out with a Star Wars game that is fresh and new. The “Jedi Knight” name is unfortunately copyrighted, so there is no way to put this installment into that series. Instead, they’re calling it “Era of Darkness,” a title that brings about shadowy connotations. Though there are no hints yet to the overall story of the game, though we know it is following the Knights of the Old Republic trend and taking place millenia before the movies. If we can see half as interesting a game, we will all be in for a treat.

Of course, as independent developers, they will need all the help they can get. If you are a Star Wars fan and can do anything with a computer beyond typing and clicking, head over to their website at www.eraofdarkness.com and apply for a position on their forums. Remember everyone, we cannot count on George Lucas to bring the next great thing to Star Wars (remember Jar Jar Binks). Instead, all you fanboys can do it yourselves. Get cracking!

More on this project as it becomes available.

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