Vivendi announces line-up

StarCraft: Ghost, Chronicles of Riddick, Half-Life 2. Yep. We'll have some of that.

News by Tom Bramwell Former Editor-in-Chief

Updated on 9 May 2004

Although we're still waiting for confirmation of a couple of big publishers' E3 line-ups (come on Capcom! Eidos!), this week's official confirmation of Vivendi-Universal Games' line-up more or less completes the ensemble of major publishers, even if it doesn't harbour any surprises.

From our perspective, the most interesting games Vivendi plans to show are probably The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, StarCraft: Ghost and Half-Life 2. Obviously it'll be nice to see the rest of the firm's titles, but Riddick is looking absolutely gorgeous (and reportedly plays very well), while StarCraft: Ghost is still something of an unknown quantity and Half-Life 2 remains the sequel to one of the best first-person shooters ever made, even if it will only be on show in video form.

There is plenty to get excited about besides those three titles, of course - strategy pairing Ground Control 2 and Empire Earth 2 ought to raise a few heart rates, while Evil Genius could prove something of a breakout hit if it lives up to the premise of a game where you play a Bond villain-style bad guy and coax an evil empire into something to rival SPECTRE.

Then of course there's Predator: Concrete Jungle, which you can read more about here, and who could ignore the charms of World of WarCraft? Tribes: Vengeance will also be on display (and, remember, you can download both previous Tribes games for free at the moment), and there's also a chance to get a look at Men of Valor (another Vietnam title), and the new Crash and Spyro games.

Expect to see impressions of a number of the key Vivendi titles right here when the show kicks off next Wednesday.