Developers makes the pilgrimage to Los Angeles this May 11-13 for the Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3). Gathering’s E3 line-up will be located at “The Promised
Lot,” a parking lot (located at the corner of Pico and Figueroa) across from the
LA Convention Center’s main entrance. The company will showcase 13 PC games and
three Sega Dreamcast titles. The PC line-up, demoed in individual,
air-conditioned motor homes, includes Max Payne, FLY! 2K, 4x4: Evolution, Heavy
Metal: F.A.K.K. 2, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child, Rune, Kingdom Under
Fire, Tropico, Shadowbane and all three volumes of the upcoming games based on
the Blair Witch Project property. Gathering will have a special Sega Dreamcast
Pavilion for viewing Railroad Tycoon II, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child
and 4x4 Evolution. Gathering of Developers will also have a presence within the
SMP booth (#1346, South Hall). Additional Gathering at E3 information can be
found at www.godgames.com
The Promised Lot was named Best 1999 E3 Booth by several magazines and Web sites including Entertainment Weekly and All Games Network. Celebrity visits include
B-movie star Julie Strain, star of the upcoming Heavy Metal 2000 movie and model
for Ritual Entertainment’s Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 game, Kevin Eastman, Ron
Jeremy, Heather Kozar, the 1999 Playboy Playmate of the Year (Friday, May 12,
11:00-3:00), and Duke Nukem, accompanied by some of his gal pals from Planet of
the Babes. E3 attendees can enjoy live music, and free food and drinks at The
Promised Lot. Bands playing at The Promised Lot include The Young Dubliners,
Beth Wood, Lily Wilson, champagne velvet and The Flamestick Subs featuring
Satan’s Cheerleaders. In addition to game demos in motor homes and the Sega
Dreamcast Pavilion, The Promised Lot will show Hollywood-style game trailers in
a huge trailer/movie theater, seating up to 50 per viewing. The Promised Lot is
being co-sponsored by industry partners Phantagram, AMD, Nvidia, GameWeek,
Showbiz Data and P & A. GameWeek will have a halfpipe featuring professional
rollerbladers, skateboaders and bikers.
“The Promised Lot was a tremendous success for Gathering last year plus we had a
great time,” said Mike Wilson, CEO of Gathering of Developers. “We believe The
Promised Lot is more reflective of an industry that is supposed to be having
more fun than what is going on inside the convention center. And, you can
actually sit down and have a conversation without yelling over techno music
under strobe lights.”
The Promised Lot features games in a variety of genres from simulation to RTS to
3D action/adventure.
The following games will be shown:
Ritual Entertainment’s Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 (Federation Assigned Ketogenic
Killzone) is a third-person 3D action/adventure game based on the upcoming sequel to the explosive and groundbreaking animated film, Heavy Metal 2000. Featuring artwork
and music from Kevin Eastman’s Heavy Metal 2000 movie, the game is set in the Melting Pot Universe thirty years after the movie leaves off. The player controls Julie, also known as the StarStrider, as she fights to defend her homeworld Eden2 from the marauding Gith Industries despoilers. Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 combines Tomb
Raider-esque exploration and puzzles with a unique fighting-game style combat
system. Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.2 will be available for the PC in September 2000.
KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is a 3D first-person shooter developed
by Third Law Interactive. KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child features a
demonic world of mystery and horror where the player must battle hideous
freaks-of-nature spawned by the conception an unborn evil, the Nightmare Child,
whose arrival has perverted the fabric of reality. The player begins as a mere
mortal and progressively acquires the powers of The Elder, a supernatural being.
The Elder, embodied by four alter egos – the Demon, the Starbearer, the Beast
King, and the Celestial (based on the KISS characters) – together prevent the
unraveling the universe. Each KISS-character represents a different type of
game-experience, each having unique game-locations, challenges and powers. KISS
Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is utilizing the LithTech engine. Tremor
Entertainment is developing the Sega Dreamcast version, which utilizes an
original engine designed specifically for the platform and features new gameplay
modes such as split-screen. The online, multiplayer deathmatch mode will use
the new Sega.com network. KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child will be
released in June for the PC and in July for Sega Dreamcast.
PopTop Software’s Tropico is a 3D building, strategy/simulation game with a
helping of Latin American political intrigue to create an absorbing gaming
experience. In Tropico, players take on the role of a newly instated dictator of
a remote Caribbean island and are challenged to build a path of progress for a
nation mired in poverty, civil unrest and infighting. Based on their economic
vision, gamers build hotels, mines, factories, and over 100 other structures.
Diplomacy and politics will factor heavily in Tropico, as players must pacify
various internal factions and external threats. If the island’s growth is well
planned, the player will have plenty of money to buy the peoples’ favor and
ensure prosperity. If growth is poorly planned and the economy falters, the
population may revolt, forcing the player to institute martial law. Tropico will
be released during the first quarter 2001 for the PC, Mac and Sega Dreamcast.
Terminal Reality’s 4x4 Evolution, a fast-paced, 4x4 off-road simulation, puts
virtual drivers behind the wheel of their favorite real-world SUV and/or light
truck. Drivers are challenged to race through a variety of detailed off-road
environments. Featuring 16 tracks, each with its own distinctive design, music
score and difficulty level, 4x4 Evolution also has a variety of obstacles such
as gates, trees, tractors in junkyards or on-coming traffic in construction
zones. Virtual drivers choose their own path as they begin with a basic truck
and compete in a series of off-road races to win cash. This money can then be
used to upgrade and customize their vehicle with a bevy of enhancements such as
heavy-duty off-road suspension, brush guards, performance exhaust, and special
off-road racing tires. 4x4 Evolution utilizes both the new Sega.com network and
GameSpy’s “peer-to-peer” technology to support Internet multi-player options
between three platformsSega Dreamcast, PC, and Mac. In a first for Sega
Dreamcast, 4x4 Evolution’s multi-player version will allow up to four Sega
Dreamcast owners to compete online. The PC and Mac versions will support up to
eight players over the Internet or a LAN. The game will be released in August
Max Payne, a third-person 3D shooter co-developed by Remedy and 3D Realms, puts
PC gamers in the shoes of Max Payne, a hardboiled, fugitive undercover cop who
is being framed for the murder of his boss. A mission to revenge his slaughtered
family is taking him on a bridge burning, rock n’ rolling rampage through the
criminal underworld of New York City. Max goes up against a horde of stone cold
murdering mobsters, drug-enhanced killers, bad cops, professional assassins,
corrupt politicians, and other diabolical masterminds lurking in the city’s
heart of darkness.
Rune is a 3D game of intense action and adventure, steeped in a blend of Norse
mythology and high-fantasy. Developed by Human Head Studios and Epic Games, Rune transports gamers into the Dark Ages, when the Vikings were the conquerors of a cold, dismal world and paganism ruled all of the northern lands. Taking on the
role of Ragnar, a rugged young Viking warrior, players are challenged to fight
off Nordic creatures and uncover an evil perpetrator who is annihilating the
Viking population. Rune combines melee combat and exploration, with a colossal
story line and an active environment, to recreate a period in history
characterized by savagery and the sword. Rune is based on the Unreal game
engine and will be available for the PC in August 2000.
Kingdom Under Fire, Phantagram’s 3D action real-time strategy (RTS) game, offers
PC gamers dynamic, real-time strategy play enhanced with role-playing (RPG)
elements and three unique play modes. Players are immersed into a world torn
apart by a series of racial wars and are challenged to re-enact past battles and
discover hidden truths about the races through seven character-specific RPG
missions and 20 race-specific RTS campaign missions. Kingdom Under Fire features
120,000 animation frames, unit level-ups, 70 unit characters, formation and
leader appointment, an intuitive interface and numerous combination key controls
for advanced attacking. Kingdom Under Fire offers three multiplayer modes:
real-time strategy, hero deathmatch and hero RPG Online Quest. Kingdom Under
Fire will be available in September 2000.
Wolfpack Studios’ Shadowbane is a massively multiplayer game, designed to allow
up to tens of thousands of gamers to gather online simultaneously. Shadowbane’s
persistent, immersive world combines role-playing and large-scale strategy
gameplay. In Shadowbane, players are challenged to carve out their destiny in a
world blanketed by political unrest and torn apart by storms, disease,
starvation and an endless war. Brutal warlords have assumed control of the land
and a dark age has descended upon mankind. Shadowbane’s design adds a
large-scale warfare system to the completely functional role-playing game,
allowing players to unite, form armies, build kingdoms and conquer virtual
territories. This twist gives rise to a new realm of gameplay - guild politics
and siege warfare.
Terminal Reality’s FLY! 2K is the enhanced version of the
technologically-advanced general aviation simulation FLY!. FLY! 2K furthers its
predecessor by providing virtual pilots with enhancements made and a host of new
features including the SKY! Environment Exciter, Roger Wilco support for online
voice chatting, and an expanded global elevation database. FLY! 2K was released
for the PC and Mac in April 2000.
Tremor Entertainment’s Railroad Tycoon II for Sega Dreamcast features all of the
engrossing and addictive gameplay of PopTop Software’s PC version of Railroad
Tycoon II Gold and combines it with a boxcar load of new enhancements including
a full 3D game engine and a streamlined interface and financial structure.
Players move more than 40 cargo types using over 60 different train engines from
around the world as they establish transportation empires and outmaneuver fellow
robber barons. Over 70 of the original scenarios are included plus new ones
designed exclusively for the Sega Dreamcast version. Gameplay spans the
industrial age from 1804 to beyond 2000, allowing for worldwide exploration and
expansion, while a stock market for Wall Street plunderers tests players'
entrepreneurial prowess. Gamers will be able to test their prowess against
other robber-barons with the online multiplayer mode, which uses the Sega.com
network. The game will be available in June 2000.
The Blair Witch Project Games each feature a unique protagonist, setting and
weapons and combine the film’s mythologies with Terminal Reality’s Nocturne
characters. Nocturne, a 3D-action horror PC game released in October 1999, was
touted for its cutting-edge technology and gameplay. The Blair Witch Project
Games utilize the Nocturne game engine that offers a full-fledged cinematic
experience. The games are being developed for the PC.
Developed by Terminal Reality, Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr is set in
1941 immediately after Rustin Parr’s conviction for murder. Parr is the old
hermit that murdered the seven kids and claimed he did it for an old female
ghost. Gamers take on the roles of Doc Holiday (a Nocturne character) from the
Spookhouse to investigate the crimes.
Blair Witch Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock, developed by Human Head
Studios, takes place in Burkittsville, MD during the fall of 1886 and involves
Robin Weaver, a young girl believed to be missing in the Black Hills Forest.
Players take on the role of Lazarus and try to uncover the mystery behind
Robin’s disappearance and discover a bit about their own character.
Ritual Entertainment’s Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale is set
in 1786 and places gamers in the role of witchhunter Jonathan Pyre. Children
are mysteriously missing and Elly Kedward is accused of and found guilty of
witchcraft. Kedward is banished to the woods.