Take-Two E3 2007 Briefing details

And the E3 madness continues, with the other big players in the industry giving the public a sneak peek at the heat they’re currently packing (or about to pack). This time, it’s all about Take-Two, publisher of this and last generation’s most controversial franchises, namely Bully, Manhunt, and Grand Theft Auto. We give you the skinny on what went down in the legendary company’s E3 2007 Briefing.

The entire E3 update after the jump!

 

And the E3 madness continues, with the other big players in the industry giving the public a sneak peek at the heat they’re currently packing (or about to pack). This time, it’s all about Take-Two, publisher of this and last generation’s most controversial franchises, namely Bully, Manhunt, and Grand Theft Auto. We give you the skinny on what went down in the legendary company’s E3 2007 Briefing.

The first game to be unveiled is the era-spanning strategy title Civilization Revolution. We’re treated to a trailer we’ve already seen, before Sid Meier himself takes the helm and shows us some very tasty-looking gameplay. The game looks more simplified and vibrant. Sid explains the rationale behind this change as an effort to make the RTS title more accessible to console players who want to jump in right away and start playing instead of reading manuals and studying game mechanics. We get an eyeful of battles spanning the ages, from the pedestrian sword-and-shield clashes to the more direct, vaudevillian nuclear ICBM assault. Very awesome.

From the battlefields to the courts, as All-Pro Football 2K8 took the helm after that. 2K Sport’s Jeff Thomas got us up to speed with the fact that the football title will in fact be sporting 240 of the “best players of all time” in its roster, Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas included. After a brief montage of the game’s high customization values, the demo is played in all its glory. We get to see various celebration animations after every team’s victory, as well as Jeff emphasizing the game’s player creation and customization features.

And then we get to the meat of the presentation: BioShock and Grand Theft Auto 4. First up is the very terrifying and very cool FPS shooter. We’re set up for the kill with replays of old trailers, the heartwarming scene of a Big Daddy impaling the player with a big stick – lots of stuff we’ve seen before. After that, the demo is unleashed, and we’re blown away.

The whole thing begins with a black screen. Innocent enough, except for the soundtrack – which consisted of people being loudly slaughtered by power tools. Cue underwater sequence to freak out the hydrophobic with us, before we’re treated to the scene of the protagonist digging himself out of the burning wreckage of an airplane crash. Very Lost-ish.

More details are shown – specifically, how painstakingly beautiful the environments are. We get to see a lighthouse with a very artistic marble interior, before getting treated to a rather quaint, post-apocalyptic-ish industrial film inside a submersible. Finally, we get to Rapture, and the combat mechanics are shown off – mainly the key fact that you can pretty much use anything and everything as a weapon. Awesome.

Suddenly, the main event! The public demo of Grand Theft Auto 4. Again, more replays, specifically of the trailers. Then the demo started, with Niko Bellic standing in the middle of what looks to be a replica of Times Square. The signature map icon of the game is in the corner, just to prove to us that it’s actually the game that’s being played and not some fancy CGI cutscene. He steals a car soon after. Graphics at this point: stellar. Lighting is superb, textures are rugged and gritty (in a good way). Framerate is a bit jumpy, but everything’s in massive detail.

Later, we get to see more of the next-gen bells and whistles that add to the immersion – specifically, light reflecting off bay water, planes flying through clouds and lighting them up, the sun rising. Everything’s there, and darn if they didn’t look good. The demo ends soon after, and so does the briefing.

Certainly a very awesome lineup from Take-Two, to be sure, but whatever happened to Manhunt 2? Well, we can only wonder. That’s it for our wrap-up of Take Two’s E3 2007 briefing. Updates as we get them, so keep it locked right here!