EA Canada swung by the VGS office today with builds of ReBoot, Diablo, and Need for Speed 3.

　　Diablo is a port of the phenomenally successful PC title. The game looks to be an excellent translation; all the standards from the PC version (three character classes, 16 levels, 300+ magic items, more than 20 spells) are there, with a few bonuses: enhanced lighting effects, a zooming feature retooled for the PlayStation, and a cooperative two-player mode.

　　The two-player mode puts both players on the same screen, rather than having a split screen; players work cooperatively, but they can still steal each other's booty after the bad guy falls. All the quests are randomly generated, characters are savable, and the game currently runs at 30+ fps in single-player mode.

　　Bad guys (namely the nefarious Megabyte) are sending "tears" (giant balls that zap players as well as destroy the world) down into the Mainframe world and it's the player's job to mend them in ReBoot, an action game based on the Canadian cartoon of the same name.

　　Players ride a futuristic skateboard through 18 futuristic levels set in the inside of a computer (hence the name Mainframe) mending the tears under the watchful eye of a time clock and, in later levels, battling bosses and bad guys. The hi-tech humor of the cartoon has been kept well intact and the original voice actors for the cartoon can be overheard during cutscenes.

　　The storyline of the game predates that of the cartoon, and fans of the TV show should get a charge out of seeing Frisco as a puppy and witnessing the grand opening of Dot's Diner.

　　Finally, Need for Speed is back and looks better than ever in this third version. Real-time lighting, reflective surfaces, weather, 8 new licensed cars, and irascible cops (voiced entertainingly and temporarily by one of the members of the development team in the pre-alpha build we saw) should add a level of fun to the Need for Speed franchise.

　　There are a number of camera angles available, but rather than players toggling through 15 views to find the one they want, there's a space in the options menu for the player to identify his four favorite views. Then those four are the ones available to the player to toggle through while playing.

　　Other cars may flash their brights to warn of impending police or trouble, all ten tracks are more realistic this time around, and the development team has sworn to have the game run at 30fps (it was running at about 24fps today).

　　All three games are scheduled to come out in March.