- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
To follow up that rather trite comment from Amber Spartan:
Last gasp of Zanzibar build at PAX my BLAM! Yay I get to correct Frankie on something.
I went to GameStars Live in London today too - it was a standard trade show setup - 10 players at a time, 5v5 1 flag CTF Zanzibar E3, 1 round before letting someone else play. But with two important differences:
We played 25-kill Slayer, not CTF.
The map we played was the special demo map used at the Microsoft press conference to show off stuff.
This meant that 10 players spawned on the beach, within 5 metres of each other, with every weapon and vehicle in the level at their feet.
The ensuing chaos of the one allowed round lasted about a minute. I managed to pull off a 3-person sword kebab, what with all the close-up spawning, but then got melee'd in the wake of my lunge by someone spawning right behind me. Not worth the 4-hour queue. Baaad organising.
But the game looked stunning - I guess Amber Spartan's gripes were because there were framerate issues, due to there being 10 people on the beach at once, all in fierce combat, with about 30 corpses, dropped guns and charred vehicles lying around. Plus it's hard to admire the scenery when surrounded by 9 angry dual-smg, sword and rocket-wielding spartans.
Nightmare-clad guys guarded the exit, and I triad (and narrowly failed) to get one of the booth guy's Halo 2 shirts in return from my rare, much-admired Doom 3 shirt, but it turned out the Halo 2 shirts were also used as identity for booth workers, and they couldn't give them to random punters.
Lets hope days 2-5 go better.