By Ronald Diemicke

On April 8 through the 10 was Stony Brook University’s “I-Con” Gaming/Anime/Sci-fi convention, and it there was plenty to see and do if your into those sort of things. Among the many new board games and tabletop role-playing games being shown were also some video games from publisher, Vivendi Universal.

Chances are that if your into gaming that this name is one of the big ones that registers in your mind. They have deals with Starcraft’s Developer – Blizzard Entertainment, Half-life’s Developer – Valve, and Homeworld’s Developer – Relic. They are also known for publishing hits like “Chronicles of Riddick – Escape from Butcher’s bay,” “Dark Ages of Camalot,” and “Empire Earth.” If you couldn’t tell from the titles, they are one of the goliaths in the game industry. Going to I-con is always a treat to see what they’ve got in store for us for the next six months or so. Well, to at least tide us over till E3…

At their booth in the “Dealer’s room” at the convention they showed off two new games, F.E.A.R. and Predator: Concrete Jungle. F.E.A.R. (which stands for First Encounter Assault Recon) is a First Person Shooter that will be on the PC using monolith technology to power it. It’s a combination action adventure sci-fi horror game. In an attempt to one up Doom 3 it seems, they’ve chosen to try and make really interactive environments that start out in a research lab type setting.

You’re sent in when a paramilitary force has stormed a aerospace compound taking hostages and all attempts to regain the facility fail as US forces are destroyed on sight in an impressive display of firepower that comes from the facility. Left with no options, you’re called in to use experimental weaponry and your skills to take care of this situation by any means necessary.

You are the government’s best weapon. And that supposedly has more then one meaning. Honestly, beyond that, not much is known about the game except that it looks killer and scary as hell too. Blood on the wall, scary children who walk through walls, and unspeakable monsters… Maybe this was the game that Doom 3 wanted to be? We’ll find out summer 2005 when it’s released.

Predator: Concrete Jungle is the other game that was showed and I got to spend sometime playing it as opposed to the video that they played of F.E.A.R. The storyline behind Predator: Concrete Jungle is this: You, a predator trying to prove himself through the thrill of the hunt on earth, are assigned to kill a mobster on Earth to prove your worth. Unfortunately, you fail in some capacity still unknown and are left behind. Fast forward to 2030 when your given a second chance to prove your worth. Will you succeed ?

Honestly, the one level demo I played left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t intelligent, and it wasn’t using the license effectively. Much of the world seemed muddy and bland.

The demo was set during the 1930s portion of the game and it seemed like the predator greatly outmatched any of the enemies you encountered – it didn’t prove much of a challenge. At the same time, it shouldn’t have for a predator.

They’re unbelievably strong and intelligent and have the firepower to back it up. If a gangster can take you out – there is definitely something wrong. I got the distinct feeling that the developers didn’t really know the franchise too well. Predator’s also follow a code of honor (many other predator games represent this, such as the Aliens Vs Predator Series) and that’s completely left out here. It seemed like a fairly straight forward action game with nothing but a license to carry what would otherwise be a completely unremarkable game.

Now, these are my impressions of a pre-release build of a game that could be months old and much could have changed, but I’d seriously recommend renting this game or at least looking at reviews before buying. It is supposed to be out on the PS2 and X-box by the end of April.

When I got to the computer science building on the Stony Brook campus, I was happy to see they’d received advanced copies of the full version of both Swat 4 by Irrational Games and Empire Earth 2 by Mad Doc games.

Swat 4 follows in the footsteps of Swat 3 and Rainbow 6 in the first person shooter tactical strategy genera, but takes it a step beyond. The game’s 13 levels put you in command of a Swat team element of 5 men.

You’ll lead the charge into dangerous situations and help save hostages and arrest suspects that are disturbing the peace. You’re presented with many options, some lethal, some non-lethal. However, the game rewards with extra points for taking your role to protect and serve very seriously and wants you to take down bad guys non-lethally if possible.

It controls like most FPSes, but also you get some neat additional features too. You can open a view port from which you can look at what any of your men sees in the upper right hand corner of your screen which is helpful incase you decide to split up your team. Also, the game features a nice interface for ordering around the other four members of your element. They are extremely useful and using them effectively often is the key to victory. You also get all sorts of cool gadgets and guns, many such as the beanbag shotgun, the tazer, and flash bangs are designed to be non-lethal, but you’ll also get a wide array of guns ranging from colt carbines to a colt python to help you take out those suspects who just don’t want to be taken alive.

The game looks beautiful with high resolution textures and models, not to mention that it takes advantage of the latest in video technology and shaders. The entire game is normal mapped and bump mapped to give it a realistic quality on par with Doom 3 and Half-life 2. It’s just beautiful in everyway. The interface is clean and easy to use and the hit and various stun effects for the non-lethal weapons are well done and appropriate. My only gripe is the distinct lack of daytime missions, I think they’d make the game really shine.

Multiplayer also really shines too. It can be either played co-op against the AI in the missions from the single player game with 4 of your friends or in a team deathmatch objective based mode with 16 people. Either way the game is a blast.

Unfortunately, it was time to call it a night before I got to take Empire Earth 2 for a spin, but I herd good things from many people. There is a demo available for free on many major internet gaming websites; I definitely suggest giving it and Swat 4 a shot. Both games are gold and will be released very soon.

For the most part, it seems like Vivendi’s got a good lineup on deck and I’m looking forward to their bright future to see what comes next from them and their various developer partners.