RPS-ish At-Ish E3: Housecleaning – Capcom,Warner

Now here’s something I managed to forget about completely until I was sitting in Phoenix Airport, lamenting my missed connecting flight. Capcom actually really quite like the PC. I spent a fair bit of time in the Capcom booth having my arse handed to me in Street Fighter IV by a team of people who apparently came to E3 already unstoppably good at the game, and I have to say – it’s absolutely superb, far far better than I thought it was going to be.

I still think it looks incredibly stupid when Ryu gets punched so hard his eyes bulge, but it’s great anyway. And while I was thinking about this, I remembered that for once PC players have a brilliant arcade stick to play it with that’s still quite easy to get a hold of – the Hori EX2. Sure, it was actually developed for use with the 360, but it works brilliantly with the PC. So SFIV on PC – made of win, as long as it’s authentic.

I have to admit though that because I spent so long playing Street Fighter IV I didn’t have time to look at any of the other games they were showing that will be reciving a PC release, including Bionic Commando and Dark Void. Ah well.

Over at Warner Bros. Entertainment I snatched a play with Lego Batman: The Videogame. After some time hands on it’s obvious that it’s just Lego Star Wars again. Which is fine, sort of, because Lego Star Wars is really fun, but I’m personally kind of tired of the same side-scrolling beat-em-up action plus light puzzle solving, collectables and the odd driving level/mini-game.

Still, it’s got Batman in it! Plus they gave me a Harley Quinn minifig (I *heart* Harley Quinn) so I shouldn’t be too mean about it. [Hivemind edit - we'll have some more Lego Batman thoughts and an interview with Traveller's Tales later this week. Possibly some gibber about The Dark Knight too, if we're feeling really self-indulgent.]

Project Origin was a little more interesting, except by the time I saw it I already had urban decay fatigue, so the level on show in the E3 build was kind of poorly chosen really. The level was from the third act and my hands-on time revealed no medkits (regenerative health, but it’s very, very slow to regenerate) great graphics and a satisfyingly destructible landscape (not really something you need a hands-on to see, but the particle effects were stunning when I shot a rocket at a sniper and it exploded the part of the building he was hiding on) and something I found especially interesting – giant robots.

Well, “powered armour -” but it looks like the normally Japanophile robosexuals will have to check out Project Origin, as you will, in certain sections of the game, have to don the power armour to fight other giant robots. Personally I think that’s really exciting news, as Monolith was the team behind the excellent Shogo: Mobile Armour Division.

Oh, and there will be multiplayer, but nothing about it was really discussed.