E3 2010 PC Preview

IGN has slapped up a bunch of quick previews for some of the most promising PC games being shown at this year’s E3, including Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas, BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Vigil’s Warhammer 40,000 Online.

You only need to play Fallout 3 to know why we’re excited for Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian has taken what made Bethesda’s title so fun and are attempting to improve on it. Some of the more interesting features include simplified companion commands, a reputation system, and hardcore mode. Hardcore mode requires players to eat and drink at regular intervals to survive, weighted ammunition so you can’t carry an unreasonable amount of explosives, and if you break a limb, you need a high medical skill and a doctor’s kit to fix it. Sounds pretty freakin’ hardcore to us, but we’ll wait and see if it makes Fallout more fun.

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Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning tried to add some innovation to the genre, but the innovation came at the price of other gameplay aspects. 40K has always been exciting. We loved the Dawn of War series, and a sci-fi MMO based on the 40k license tantalizes us in ways we are embarrassed to admit. Details about the game are sketchy, which is the main reason we want to see it at the show. So far we know that it doesn’t aim to compete with WoW (smart!), and it will have a flexible, geography-based pricing scheme (also smart!). Is the game itself solid? We’ll see.

Civilization V and XCOM both deserve special mentions too. I’ll definitely be checking out both if I have time between appointments this year.