This was originally published…sometime in 1999, on 3DGaming.net
Welcome all! Welcome to the most unlikely show on Earth since Ted Danson’s career! That’s right, it’s time for another journey through the Ouji board playing, beer guzzling, cheap stripper whore psychic with a heart of gold world of Tomorrowland.
Prey
The first game to not see the light of day by us is Prey, being developed by Apogee and 3D Realms. To give you a good idea of how damn pretty this game is… Prey is to Unreal what Quake was to Doom. That’s right, get ready to become Apogee’s bitch (wait a sec, that’s Ion Storm). Prey will be sporting portal technology (those orange globes in Half-Life multiplied by 1 gillion), advanced kinematic character animation system (I have no idea), and something called full radiosity lighting (sounds damn cool to me).
Simply put, Prey is going to smoke Unreal, you got all that? S-M-O-K-E. And with the promise of being able to blow just about everything up, Prey looks to be a damn cool game. Throw in the high-speed multiplayer promised by 3D Realms, an ultra 16-bit palette, and an actual character with an actual name that has a history and purpose, and Prey makes itself stand out in a crowd of competing shooters.
Release Date: Unknown
Developer: 3D Realms
Official Site: Prey
Seed
The next 3D shooter is second oldest to Prey and has seen almost no hype in its many months of development. If you would kindly follow me, our first stop will be at the ‘We Got the Goods’ display. Here we have real-time shadows, dynamically handled worlds, realistic physics (a touchy phrase in the wake of Trespasser), an unlimited number of lightsources in 16 and 32 bit color, and OpenGL and Glide compatibility (yeah yeah, I’m wondering where the hell D3D is too).
With the addition of platform gameplay via the first and third person point of views, Seed will attempt to balance the gameplay elements just right, similar to Jedi Knight. While not the behemoth that is Prey, Seed intends to stand out through its humor and ‘morbid game elements.’ Basically, you better laugh your ass off while playing this game.
And with a lack of hype, this could become ‘the little game that could’ and may surprise everyone when it’s released. Remember, Half-Life had very little publicity when compared to the likes of Quake II or Daikatana…
Release Date: Unknown
Developer: Human Soft
Official Site: Seed
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – The Heart of Gaia
For the final part of our journey, we arrive at Werewolf, whose title is simply too long. Utilizing the Unreal engine, Werewolf may just turn out to be the most fascinating of all the Sons of Unreal games. Alongside The Wheel of Time, Werewolf is utilizing the Unreal engine to bring gamers a fascinating single player experience, and Werewolf will not settle for anything less than spectacular. One of the things that makes this baby tick are the transformations that will be produced via the engine.
That’s right, imagine a man transforming into a werewolf right in front of you. All thanks to the Unreal engine. No avi, no tricks of the eye, polygons will shift form right there in front of you. Yep, Werewolf dares to do it, and the end results could be mind blowing. Also, be on the lookout for the option to play the game from a third person perspective.
And if that’s not enough, ASC has promised that Werewolf will have just the right blend of action and story to satisfy gamers of both story driven games and shooters. If DreamForge can blend the two elements together properly, this game could turn out to have a very high drool factor.
Release Date: October 1999
Developer: DreamForge
Official Site: Werewolf: The Apocalypse
That’s it for this week… stop by again as we’ll be spotlighting many more future ‘hits to be’ here at Tomorrowland, where the tax price is always cheaper. Now go call Miss Kitty, and she’ll get you a good hamster to love.
