Q

Quantum (PS3)
• Publisher: Tecmo
• Developer: Tecmo
• Release Date: Early 2010
• What We Saw:

The director and producer of the game led us through a level of this fantasy-sci-fi third person shooter mash-up. The game's protagonist Syd, think any of the usual bulked up heroes of Gears, Army of Two, etc. was pretty effective in taking out the inhabitants of the living tower he was hell bent on destroying. Syd has a female companion named Filenia along for the ride and while the AI will always control Filenia, the player can use Syd to pick her up and chuck her at enemies, fastball special style as well as throw them above enemies so she can deal a little death from above. Filenia also makes an appearance in the multiplayer modes for the game, with a mode present where the player has to protect his female partner as once she's gone, it's lights out.

• What We Think:

Brandon: Yeah, I'm not particularly impressed with this one. The game looks to be a pretty generic cover shooter with a paper thin story consisting of “civilization is destroyed and Syd wants to destroy this tower”. Maybe there's more to the story or maybe I'm just all cover shooter-ed out, but this is one exclusive I won't be crying over missing out on.

Quick Hit Football (PC)
• Publisher: Quick Hit
• Developer: Quick Hit
• Release Date: 9-9-09
• What We Saw:

I got a laptop tour of the game at one of the media centers. It’s online and we had a few connection issues because the connection at E3 was crap. But I also got to actually sit and call a few plays against a live opponent. I was there about 30 minutes and I was on a longer conference call a few weeks ago so I’m pretty well up to speed on what it’s all about – basically a free to play* fictional pro football game MMO.

*It’s free but there are ways to spend money via micro transactions and such.

• What We Think:

Bill: Quick Hit is a game that you may not have heard of, but I was eager to get some hands on time with it. It’s basically a flash based football sim with fictional teams and players that allows you to customize your team through playing games, earning team XP and spending it to provide your players with various skills – much like a modern MMO.

The skills are also activated – so if you have a WR with “Sticky Fingers” you have to decide when to use it. Now, is that realistic? Maybe not. A WR with good hands …has good hands. But these are pretty powerful skills so it’s used as a balancing tool and as a way to force you to consider when you want to use a skill and you only have so many uses per game.

The interface is very clean. The idea is that you can get as detailed as you like – if you’re a football gamer who likes to call a 34 ISO that’s fine,. But you can also search for plays where you simply “run up the middle.” This is perhaps more key for defense because not everyone is going to know what a Cover-3 is and the game is trying to capture both hardcore fans and those who simply like football on a more casual “Fantasy Football” level.

Thing is, for a game like Madden that usually sends up warning flags but for Quick Hit it works because this is strictly a coaching sim, and best of all, you coach in real time head to head against your online opponent. (There is also a solo game included).

I have played countless numbers of PC text based sports sims and very few allow for real time head to head play and after actually playing Quick Hit at the show – I am hooked. I am very eager to see the finished product because matching wits against the Quick Hit rrep who was playing hundreds of miles away was a blast. The graphics are colorful and clean and it’s easy to see who is doing what on the field and you are presented with full stats and play by play.

The question will be if hard-line players who are used to games with exceedingly detailed player ratings and minutia will take to it because Quick Hit is taking a different approach – players gain levels and earn skills and aren’t rated on the commonly used 100 point scale for tons of skill areas.

I want to learn more about how leagues will work and spend more time looking over all of the interface possibilities but I can say without hesitation that I enjoyed calling the plays and watching the outcome happen in real time rather than just reading text.