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Although ECTS is one of Europe's major trade shows, recently publisher support for the event hasn't been particularly inspiring. Last year, neither Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo turned up, sparking rumours that the show would not be returning in 2002. However, in a bid to return the exhibition to its former glory, this year the show's managers have signed a deal with Sony to hold a PlayStation-based consumer event alongside the trade-only hall, and while this has caused both Microsoft and Nintendo to shy away, it certainly didn't discourage crowds of both public and press who turned up for the show in force.
Inside the trade-only hall many publishers had set up stands to show off their latest titles to the ever-skeptical gaming press, however there was the distinct feeling that the majority of cash had been diverted into the consumer side of the event. Even so, Ubi Soft had a particularly impressive display, showing off their Xbox stealth-'em-up, Splinter Cell, with a large crowd of people gathering close by to stare at its great realtime shadow effects and cool atmospherics. Konami was also present, showing off a range of 'less usual' titles such as Dancing Stage 2 (with mandatory dancing mat) and Disney Sports Soccer.
However, while Sony's event may have caused console publishers to tone down their trade stands, there were no such distractions for the PC community, with both ATI and nVidia having particularly impressive offerings. ATI's stand was busy showing off their latest Radeon graphics cards, with all manner of impressive technology demos displaying a range of neat effects, from reflected light glows to motion blurs, proving that yet again PC is starting to overtake the graphical abilities of the current range of consoles. nVidia were using their stand to show off some of the latest games on their range of cards, with Unreal Tournament 2003 looking particularly impressive (and allowing for great four-player LAN deathmatches) and CDV's Breed showing off some great, expansive environments without any hint of slowdown or draw-in.
However, there's no doubt that the star of day one was Acclaim's Burnout 2: Point of Impact. With only two PlayStation 2 pods set up to run it in the trade hall, waiting times were quite large, but the final glimpse of this title was well worth it. Not only does this game sport near-GT3 quality graphics that move at an incredible pace, but the gameplay has also been improved upon over the prequel, providing one of the most entertaining titles at the show.
We'll be back tomorrow with more coverage from ECTS, as well as the first of our in-depth previews of upcoming titles like Burnout, Splinter Cell, XIII, Unreal Tournament 2003, Breed and many more...
Marc Hull
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