 Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers Zoinks! The fabulous hand-held gem of the Classic Creep Capersgame is released on 20 October for Game Boy Color in the UK, just in time for Hallowe'en.
Forget apple bobbing and prepare to put your thumbs to the test by solving a host of bone-chillingly, scary mysteries with Scooby-Doo!
Try this great Scooby website: Go |
Culture Vultures
In the tradition of successful resource-management sims, now comes a compelling and critically acclaimed, addictive game, inhabited by a burgeoning colony of colourful Viking tribes - Cultures.
Jump to Cultures Datafile: Go
Date Confirmed For Alien Release
Weak-hearted PlayStation gamers should avoid venturing down to their games emporium on 10 November, 2000, as that's when Fox Interactive's much-anticipated Alien Resurrection hits UK shelves. The astounding first-person survival horror game, which has spooked the specialist press senseless, will be backed by Fox Interactive's biggest marketing campaign to date, including extensive advertising across the major national newspapers and men's lifestyle magazines; a national washroom advertising campaign hitting over 500 sites (will this meanaliens in the u-bend?); and a high-profile promotional campaign within Warner Cinemas.
Alien Resurrection has already been declared the "scariest game of all time" by many that have played it, and has picked up a host of top marks from the specialist magazines. Its delayed release is as a result of some consumer feedback declaring it a little too tough. Argonaut, the developer, has tweaked the code to make it slightly easier in places -- but nonetheless it remains an all-out fear-fest designed to test the mettle of all PlayStation gamers.
"Those that have seen Alien Resurrection cannot believe it is running on the original PlayStation," says James Scalpello, Category Manager, Fox Interactive. "It is a truly stunning piece of software, and easily the scariest game many will ever play. We've been frustrated by the delays as all gamers have been -- but, trust me, it will be well worth the wait."
External Link: http://www.foxinteractive.com/games/alien/
Voodoo storms Europe!
3dfx Interactive have announced the immediate European availability of its new Voodoo5 5500 PCI 64Mb graphics board, which offers users application-independent, 3D API compatible, hardware full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA), all of which greatly enhances computer game playing. Anti-aliasing is a leading edge 3D-graphics rendering breakthrough which eliminates visual artefacts such as jagged edges, moire patterns and pixel popping, rendering problems commonly seen on competitive products. The result of utilising the Voodoo5 FSAA technology is a much more realistic 3D rendered image.
The Voodoo5 5500 PCI is available now from retailers including Dixons, EB, Game, Jungle.com, MicroWarehouse, PC World, and Simply Computers.
External Links: 3dfx Telewest: Major Interactive Deal Announced
Telewest Communications plc (Telewest), the UK's leading broadband cable communications operator, and VIS entertainment plc (VIS), a private company in entertainment property development, are forming a 50/50 joint venture company to design, develop and commission entertainment property (content) for the broadband and Interactive Digital Television (iDTV) markets.
The joint venture, which will be called VIS iTV, will commission games for iDTV and broadband use, both from VIS studios and third party games developers. The entertainment property developed will be offered to Telewest channels and, after a period of exclusivity, to other technology, media and telecommunications companies. VIS expects to be commissioned to develop the joint venture's first product, which is currently at an early stage of production.
Telewest and VIS are investing up to £2 million each, £4m in total, to fund the joint venture and the first product for broadband and iDTV distribution channels. The iDTV market is predicted to see a 50 per centpenetration in Europe of iDTV services by 2005, with on-line gamers in US and Europe to increase from 8m to 73m by 2004. Telewest and VIS aim to capitalise on this growth and the current trend of convergence in the TMT and broadband sectors by developing and distributing entertainment property and exploiting the respective skill sets of both businesses. David Docherty, Telewest's Managing Director of Broadband Content, said: "This joint venture is a terrific example of our determination to work in partnership with other innovative content providers to create fresh and engaging broadband products for exploitation on our network and across other platforms."
Telewest Communications is one of Britain's leading digital communications groups andthe UK's second-largest cable operator, currently provideing multi-channel television, telephone and Internet services to more than 1.6 million UK households, and voice and data telecommunications services to over 60,000 business customers. Its content division, Flextech, is the biggest provider of basic channels to the UK pay-TV market and is the BBC's partner in UKTV, which owns a portfolio of pay-TV channels, such as UK Gold, based on the corporation's programming. VIS currently acts as a developer working directly for publishers and indirectly for platform manufacturers and is currently developing four games with several other game concepts at various stages of preliminary development. VIS has developed a studio network with over 110 staff in four locations throughout the UK.
External Links: • Telewest • Visentertainment
Superman comes to the Virtual World
Superman, the legendary super hero, will soon be fighting for truth and justice once again in the video game arena thanks to an unprecedented agreement among Infogrames Entertainment, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Consumer Products. The worldwide agreement, which was announced at London's European Computer Trade Show, and gives Infogrames the rights to feature the "Man of Steel" in an extensive program of games for all leading interactive gaming platforms including Sony, Sega, Nintendo and others.
This co-operative license with DC Comics and Warner Bros. Consumer Products allows Infogrames to create games based upon the best-selling Superman comic books as well as the Emmy award-winning Superman Animated series from Warner Bros. Animation.
The result will be a series of games offering a variety of stories, themes and sensibilities. The games based upon the animated series will be created specifically for children and young adults, while games created from the edgier style comic book stories will appeal to hardcore gamers and long-time Superman fans.
"Superman's appeal bridges the generations and it's exciting to be creating a line of video games for fans of all ages," said Dorothy Crouch, vice president of Licensed Publishing for DC Comics. "The scope of this license is huge and it's only fitting for the world's pre-eminent super hero."
"Infogrames, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Consumer Products will work together to make sure that every aspect of the Superman games captures the imagination of the gaming public," said Kerri Orders, vice president with Infogrames Europe. "The exciting range of Superman's powers, the richness of his supporting cast, his colourful rogues gallery and his entire universe give us incredible material to draw upon. We intend to use this material to create epic adventures for the Man of Steel that will leave gamers in awe."
"This agreement is another exciting step in what has been a very successful relationship between Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Infogrames," said Michael Harkavy, vice president of Worldwide Publishing, Kids' WB! Music and Interactive for Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
"Beginning with the success of games based on the Looney Tunes and Wacky Races properties, our partnership is taking on super hero proportions and the sky is the limit." Superman was the first super hero and remains the prototype for the genre. He is a universally recognized cultural icon, the most widely recognized fictional character in the world, and the only licensed property with more than six decades of continuous adventures in print, film, television, radio, theater, online and other media.
"Superman is an inspiration for people around the world, representing the fight for truth and justice and symbolizing the unlimited power of humanity to achieve the impossible," said Orders. "He is a timeless, classic hero for men, women, boys and girls. With his phenomenal abilities, he is the perfect video game hero."
SegaNet Launches
Sega launched its Internet service on Thursday 7 September. The service has been in devlopment for a year, since the company released the Dreamcast console player with a built-in modem, banking that online head-to-head games are the moneymakers of the future.
SegaNet will allow the users to meet online, complete with trash talk if they want it, and compete as if they were face to face around a table. Until now the only use for the modem in the machine was to download enhancements of Sega games.
Ecademy reports that The Boston Globe called it the ñbiggest game of his careerî for Sega of America president Peter Moore, who grew up in a pub in Liverpool, and parlayed a job as a salesman at Patrick USA, subsidiary of a French Athletic shoe company into the presidency. But he knows what it is like to taste defeat Ü he was VP of marketing at Reebok at a time when it was stomped on by Nike. Now Moore is looking at the growing shadow of Sony, which launches its highly anticipated PlayStation2 in the US on 26 October. In the two months that remain Sega has to prove that online gaming is what the audience wants Ü or be steamrollered by the giant in the background.
Moore, who left the UK to go to the US in 1981 to play soccer for the Cleveland Cobras, has a couple of weapons to help him: Sega is cutting the price of the DreamCast console by 25 per cent to $149, and discounting its top selling all-star gamesto coincide with the Internet site launch. Moore has also signed up for a $130 million marketing campaign, which will kick off with sponsorship of the MTV Video Music awards. But Sega has lost more than $1 billion since 1997 and according to Forbes magazine there has been talk of a salvage sale to Microsoft.
Meanwhile, over at Sony, they've been fending off criticism in Japan about PlayStation. Most fans are waiting for the next generation 128-bit console, which can play DVD movies. That means Sega may still have a chance.
So too may Eidos, the British software company that created Tomb Raider but has never been able to capitalize on the glory. For the past three months it has been in talks with various companies, seeking to be taken over but as of this week it was refusing to give the media any update on where those talks stood. French rival Infogrames has openly admitted its interest in Eidos, but analysts believe the UK company wants to attract other bidders.
Meanwhile Microsoft, at a meeting at the European Computer Trade Show in London, revealed bits and pieces of its planned entry into the console market next year. Ed Fries, the VP of games publishing said that Microsoft will spend $500 million to market its X-box console in the first 18 months of its global launch, perhaps selling the X-boxat a low price to steal market share from Sony. Microsoft has announced it has signed up 18 development studios to write for the X-box, including BritainÍs Lionhead Studios.
X-Box Deevlopment advances
Microsoft announced 1 September at the ECTS London event that it has signed first party development deals with 17 external games studios for its new X-Box. Ed Fries, Microsoft's VP of Games, revealed development deals with the following studios: Lionhead Satellites; Universal Interactive Studios; Stormfront Studios; Kodiak Interactive Software Studios, Inc. ; Totally Games; Rainbow Studios; Artificial Mind and Movement; Boss Game Studios; Climax Development, Ltd.; Digital Illusions; High Voltage Software; KnowWonder Digital Media Works; Meyer/Glass Interactive; Pipeworks Software, Inc.; Pseudo Interactive, Inc.; Tremor Entertainment; and VR*1 Entertainment (Circadence Corp.)
The deal with Lionhead will see the legendary studio develop two titles exclusive to Xbox that are earmarked as launch titles for the new console in time for Christmas 2001.
Harry Potter Game deal struck
Electronic Arts sealed the deal with Warner Bros. to give them the exclusive interactive rights to the Harry Potter book series and film franchise at the end of August 2000. No financial details were released.
Links: VZSciFi Harry Potter Film Datafile
Aiken's Artifact Due
Fox Interactive have announced Aiken's Artifact will be available on PC CD-ROM in the autumn of 2000 in the UK. Developed by Monolith Productions, Aiken's Artifact is a third person sci-fi adventure/RPG that takes place 30 years into the future, where citizens around the world have begun to display remarkable psychic abilities. Called Psionics, these tormented souls are able to generate and control energy emissions using only their minds - often with catastrophic and deadly results. Succumbing to the lure of the power they possess, these Psionics will stop at nothing to achieve control of the universe. Players assume the role of Agent Cain, voiced by by rap-star Ice T, a powerful Psionic, groomed from birth to serve the public interest in the war against rogue Psionics.
External link: Fox Interactive • The Official Ice T Web Site
Warhammer Online!
Climax, developers of over 150 hit games, has joined forces with Microsoft to develop the back-end technology required to deliver Warhammer Online, the Internet-playable version of the massively-popular Warhammer series of table-top games which was announced earlier this year.
Currently under development in Climax's recently-acquired Nottingham studios (Climax has three studios in the UK, in Fareham, Brighton and Nottingham), Warhammer Online will take the world's most successful fantasy battle gaming system to the Internet as a massively multiplayer persistent world strategy game. The game will allow gamers to play Warhammer using their personalised armies against opponents from anywhere in the world. Microsoft, through its Windows Third Party Gaming Group, will apply its considerable online expertise to the project.
Microsoft's involvement will cover a number of distinct elements, from online gameplay (through effective use of the DPlay API) through to management of the game's back-end databases and e-commerce functionality.
"The plans which Climax and the Games Workshop have unveiled for Warhammer Online are very ambitious and very exciting," says Mike Gamble, European Manager for Microsoft's Windows Third Party Gaming Group. "We are delighted to get involved and believe that Microsoft's vast expertise in online gaming and e-commerce will help this project to achieve its enormous potential."
"This is a massive vote of confidence in Climax and our joint venture with Games Workshop," says Karl Jeffrey, President of Climax. "Partners don't come any bigger or better and naturally we are very excited to have them on board. This clearly puts us at the forefront of online gaming development."
It is expected that the Warhammer Online project will have a total development time of between two and three years.
External Links: Climax | Games Workshop | Windows Third Party Gaming Group
Star Trek DS9: The Fallen pushed back
Simon & Schuster Interactive has announced that its forthcoming 3D third-person action game Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen has been pushed back to October in the US. The game was previously scheduled for a September release.
Heroes Chronicled
3DO announced the launch of Heroes Chronicles in the UK on 9 August, a series of four strategy adventure games set within the Might and Magic universe. Heroes Chronicles is an entirely new direction for 3DO's most popular franchise, and is aimed at those gamers who have never played a Heroes game before.
Each Chronicle is a self-contained episode that features a unique story and themes, and tracks Tarnum, as he wanders the lands seeking redemption for the crimes of his past. He is the Immortal Hero, a timeless protector, who is personally troubled by the doubt that he can never make up for the tremendous wrongs he performed in his youth.
The four Chronicles are: Warlords of the Wasteland; Conquest of the Underworld; Clash of the Dragons and Masters of the Elements. The Chronicles are not chronological and can be played in any order. Each has its own theme and will differ from the rest with its distinct landscapes, towns, creatures and objects.
The Chronicles will be released in pairs, with Warlords of the Wasteland and Conquest of the Underworld releasing in September 2000, and Clash of the Dragons and Masters of the Elements releasing in November 2000. Future Chronicles may follow in 2001.
Announced separately was the UK release of Warriors of Might and Magic, which will be published for Game Boy Color on 8 December 2000, PlayStation in January 2001 and PlayStation 2 on 16 February 2001.
Links on this Site: Legends of Might and Magic Datafile
External Links: Myth and Magic Official Site
Game-Swapping Site Follows Napster Lead
Video-game makers are beginning to share the same fear of widespread piracy that has rocked the record industry. Bizreport.com reports that a new Web site, called Swapoo, created by a 17-year-old programmer, already offers unfettered access to such popular video-console games as PokÚmon, Sonic the Hedgehog, GoldenEye and Tetris so they can be downloaded and played on personal computers.
External Link: bizreport.com
Star Wars roleplay for PC on way
LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC and BioWare Corp. have announced a partnership to create the first Star Wars role playing game for PC and next generation video game systems. Expected to release in 2002, the game will be set in a time period prior to the Star Wars films.
The agreement combines Star Wars, the most successful film-based license in interactive entertainment, with BioWare's considerable development expertise in the role playing genre. BioWare created the critical and commercial hit RPG Baldur's Gate.
The Star Wars role playing game will be developed by BioWare and marketed and distributed by LucasArts.
For the game, LucasArts and BioWare are creating an entirely original storyline set some four thousand years before Star Wars: Episode I. The ancient era is dominated by an epic struggle between the Jedi and the evil Sith, a period which has already proven a rich resource for Dark Horse Comics.
"This collaboration with BioWare further represents LucasArts' long-term strategy to build relationships with the world's premier game developers," says Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts. "BioWare has consistently delivered compelling games with rich and deeply engaging stories. Together, we aim to create a milestone role playing game set within a unique and largely unexplored area of the Star Wars universe."
"The opportunity to create a richly detailed new chapter in the Star Wars universe is incredibly exciting for us," says Dr. Greg Zeschuk, joint CEO of BioWare. "We are honoured to be working with the extremely talented folks at LucasArts, developing a role playing game based upon one of the most high-profile licenses in the world," added Dr. Ray Muzyka, joint CEO of BioWare.
External Links: Lucasarts | BioWare Corp. (feature more background on the production of the game) | Baldur's Gate Official Site | Buy Baldur's Gate from Amazon.co.uk
Might and Magic
3DO Europe is set to drag the role-playing genre kicking and screaming back into the real world with the release of Legends of Might and Magic, a revolutionary RPG-based, first-person adventure, due to be published for PC CD-ROM in the UK in November 2000.
Links on this site: VZSciFi Datafile: Legends of Myth and Magic
The Sims hits the Mac at last
In a continued partnership with Electronic Arts, Aspyr Media Inc. is set to publish the award-winning and highly addictive simulation game, The Sims for the Macintosh. Designer Will Wright changed computer gaming in 1989 with the release of SimCity. This gaming classic made "mayors" out of ordinary citizens and became one of the best-selling PC games of all time by challenging a player's intellect and creativity. Now, Wright has changed computer gaming again with his people simulator, The Sims. The Sims allows players to control the lives and relationships of a neighbourhood of their own simulated people, known as "Sims." Players can give each of their Sims a unique appearance and personality, making anything possible. Keep Sims happy as swinging singles or loving parents. Choose careers, make friends, fall in love, fight with the neighbors or shoot hoops in the backyard. The fate of a Sim, for better or worse, rests in a player's hands, but be ready, Sims can fend for themselves and they won't wait around for orders. "The Sims has been a grand slam for EA. Its debut on the Mac will be thrilling," says Ted Staloch, VP of Sales for Aspyr Media Inc.
External Links: Aspyr Media
Additional links in this section of the VZSciFi Site
Game Previews: Cultures | The Never Ending Story | Legends of Might and Magic | Wireless Games (WAP)
Reviews: Tachyon: The Fringe
Archived Reports: E3 2000 Report by James Brumbaugh
Transferred reports: Kalisto Entertainment's Highlander game greenlit -- see Highlander Datafile
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