This was originally published on the now-defunct 3DGaming.net some time in 2000.

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The fruit of the tree is always sweet. Or so we would be led to believe. Everyone covers upcoming games, it’s a fact of life. Who wants to read about upcoming games when every site has the same info just rehashed? I sure as hell don’t, and I don’t think you do either.

That’s right, you, over there with the pink plush dragon, you know what I’m talkin’ about. Come on, say it with me: “Tomorrowland Part Deux: Modland”.

What’s new this week? Real Time Strategy Games baybee. We’ve got the stuff love and it’s all for you. So without further interruption let’s get on with the show!

Middle-Earth Diablo

The first mod of the week I owe props to theonering.net for p1mping. It seems as if this mod had slipped past the attentive eyes of gaming writers around the world (we are that numerous folks): Middle-Earth Diablo.

What’s so damn special about ME: Diablo? Here’s the short and skinny of it all: New monsters, bosses, base items, linguistic changes, and new armor and weapons. Weapon speeds and damage have been added and modified. I’m sure there are rpgers out there who role play Middle Earth who are going to go absolutely nuts with this mod.

You’re also probably asking yourself why this is so freaking special. Very simply because Lord of the Rings is not only one of the most successful fantasy series ever published (at a current total of over 50 million copies sold), but there’s also a movie on the way.

Suffice to say, interest in Lord of the Rings is running rampant right now. Fantasy is finally experiencing a renaissance period, which excites me greatly. First Wheel of Time had a game (as well as a possible television movie ala Merlin) and now Lord of the Rings dances in the spotlight. The other big plus is that Diablo has a huge fan base, which means heavy publicity for the makers of this mod.

Release Date: Download at your leisure.
Developer: Varaya and Khan
Official Site: Middle Earth Diablo

WarCraft III: The Total Conversion

Next on the list is WarCraft III. Now, I know you’re thinking “Well waitaminute, isn’t Blizzard already working on a 3D version of WarCraft III?” The answer is a hearty “Yes,” but that’s never stopped anyone in the past.

Based on the StaftCraft engine, WarCraft III: The Total Conversion promises to be one of the largest total convesions for an RTS game yet seen, and with good reason. The conversion will include new units and spells for each race, converted units, new weapons of war, such as the storm riders and gnomish cannons, a new race (the burning legions), a new interface, a fully functioning campaign, and a new storyline.

All of this will also be playable on Battle.net. A playable release is currently out for download with a new build expected near the end of April. Notice the eye of Sauron on the left hand side of the screenshot. Cool stuff, eh?

So what’s so hot about this mod? Very simple. This one will challenge developers. Like Shadowed Destiny for Wheel of Time, WarCraft III is a mod that will give developers a run for their money. I can only imagine what would happen if WarCraft III: TC turns out to be more enjoyable than WarCraft 2. Let’s all try and imagine what that would be like.

Release Date: Download at your leisure.
Developer: The Infoceptor
Official Site: WarCraft III: The Total Conversion

The War of the Ring

The last mod of the week is also a modification of a Blizzard game (this is all by chance folks. None of this has been plotted out in advance against your will). This time the mod is: The War of the Ring, a total conversion of WarCraft II. Take one guess what this mod could possibly be inspired by. You betcha, Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s hot property these days, isn’t he?

So what will ‘The War of the Ring’ (otherwise known as WotR) offer players? How do new units, graphics, unit statistics, and missions all based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous trilogy sound? Spooging yet? I thought so.

Why get hot under the collar for WotR? Because it’s Lord of the Rings dammit! Whereas Middle Earth (ME) Diablo is an action version perspective on ME, WotR offers a more epic and grandios ‘battles on the plains of Middle Earth’ vision of ME during the third age. There’s also the obvious perk of getting to see some of the more famous sites of Middle Earth, which is what has me attracted.

Release Date: The conversion isn’t quite finished yet.
Developer: Sponsored by Gurthaur Entertainment
Official Site: The War of the Ring

Originally published on 3DGaming.net at…some point in 2000.

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It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Tomorrowland has drifted off the radar as 3DGN threw the goodies at you. And what goodies they have been. But like the ever-changing tides, the flow of content at 3DGN sometimes shifts, and everything old is new again.

So what is new now, you ask? Mods, my dear readers. Unlike the Tomorrowlands of the past, I’m not content with reporting the status of upcoming games. That’s been done before countless times, so I’d like to try something a little bit different this time.

I’d like to send a little love back to the mod community that has kept so many games alive and interesting. What would Quake 2 be like without Chaotic Dreams, Jailbreak, Lithium, RailArena? What would Half-Life be like without Counterstrike and TFC?

So what mods would I like most to discuss? I have a few in mind that seemed of interest, and for this week it’s first person shooter mods. Why first person shooters? Because I like them godammit! So you’re going to sit down and read about them!

Immediately upon deciding to write this article, I knew I wanted to pursue mods that would somehow stand out. Rather than discuss something such as Rocket Arena UT or LMCTF Quake 3, I wanted to discuss something new that hasn’t [to the best of my knowledge] been done before.

Half-Life: Blade Runner

The first mod comes our way from the wonderful lads at Terminus Studio, who are fervently working on a project that I personally am quite interested in: Half Life: BladeRunner. I’d like to believe that is the sort of path Westwood Studios would have pursued had they chosen to make BladeRunner a first person shooter style game, rather than the excellent adventure game they produced.

So what does Half Life: BladeRunner have to offer? Quite a bit actually, such as multiple modes of gameplay. Deathmatch is all fine and good, but who really cares anymore? It’s been done. BladeRunner means to offer something a bit more diverse, such as:

THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED. The Hunters and the Hunted will feature a group of Replicants on the run from special police units called BladeRunners, who track and execute them. Add a dash of ‘last man standing’ from Unreal Tournament and throw in a timer. The Reps have to wipe out the RepDetec within a certain amount of time and vice versa.

OFFWORLD. This mode could be called ‘Assault and Conquer.’ The premise of this mod is that BladeRunner units are holding a Replicant doctor hostage. Other Replicants have to rescue him as a first priority, with a second priority of killing all the BladeRunners. And the setting is on Mars rather than Los Angeles.

POLICE HQ. BladeRunners protect Police Chief Bryant from a Replicant assault.

HIDEOUT. Replicants must protect several doctors from BladeRunner units. If the BladeRunner units kill all the doctors and/or Replicants, they win. This could turn out to be a bit like TFC’s ‘The Hunted’ in design, which I personally wouldn’t mind, since The Hunted is an awesome game.

STREET CHASE. This mode of gameplay is somewhat akin to ‘one on one assault’ with npcs. BladeRunner units hunt Replicants who are trying to reach a certain point on a map.

TYRELL CORPORATION. BladeRunners must protect Tyrell, the head of the Tyrell Corporation, from a Replicant assault.

At the moment ideas are still being tossed about amongst the design team, so nothing is for certain. Nonetheless, the ideas already in consideration could make for an incredibly fun mod. This is an extremely interesting project that has had my attention since its inception.

Release Date: TBA
Developer: Terminus Studios
Official Site: N/A

Wheel of Time: Shadowed Destiny

The next mod is a project that can be described in one word: ambitious. Shadowed Destiny has officially earned its place in my mind as a mod that is truly by the fans and for the fans. I’m surprised to see a mod of such scope in development, due to the lack of interest in fantasy games in recent times.

Games such as Hexen II and Heretic II all but disappeared from the radar within months of release. I feared the same fate for Wheel of Time until I discovered that Game Knight Software had begun development on Shadowed Destiny, a mod that has acended to the position of expansion pack, rather than a simple mod.

So what’s Shadowed Destiny about? It’s a single player mod involving a newly raised Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah who is sent to investigate the whereabouts of a man who purportedly can channel. I don’t expect a brief five level expansion pack, for several reasons, one of which is the inclusion of fifteen new cutscenes. When was the last time a single player mission pack (free, no less) shipped with its own pre-rendered cut scenes?

Could cutscenes using the engine be done? Yes, but having videos to contribute to the story adds a great deal of narrative to the game. As well as the new cutscenes, the mod will include new levels, music, skins, and most likely new ter’angreals. We might even be allowed to channel more than ‘a trickle’ (that got kinda annoying in the single player game, didn’t it?).

In addition, the mod takes place in 248 AB (After Breaking), a scant amount of time after the Time of Madness. Why is this a significant detail? During the breaking [of the world], the physical shape of the planet was wildly altered by insane male channelers, and civilization was destroyed. Hopefully Game Knight will realize the significance of this and include famous sights of the period.

Release Date: TBA
Developer: Game Knight Software
Official Site: Shadowed Destiny

Half-Life: Goldeneye

The final mod of the evening is none other than 007 himself, James Bond, staring in Half-Life GoldenEye. Originally the project began as a series of deathmatch maps for Half-Life that were recreations of Rare’s GoldenEye, which shipped on the Nintendo 64. Due to the unwillingness of developers to develop a PC port, a group of talented individuals took it upon themselves to begin work on a multiplayer partial conversion, which will include most of the weapons from the original game, as well as skins for Bond, M, Q, Moonraker (dear god why?) and a variety of options.

One such option is randomly spawning weapons (which is guaranteed to piss off my camping whore of an editor), bot support and a new twist on making deathmatch more strategic: life is as important as death. Every time you die, you lose a kill, which makes staying alive imperative. This isn’t Die Hard, John McClane run-and-gun blitzkrieg attacks are no longer encouraged. Your new mission is to stay alive as long as possible and kill everyone else.

If there was ever a mod deserving of attention, this is it. Developers, pay attention to this mod, it might just own you. You too Carmack. You want the way of the future? I have three words for you: “Bond. James Bond.”

Release Date: TBA
Developer: Sponsored by HalfLife.net
Official Site: Goldeneye

That’s all for this week folks. Next week the sheep humpers at 3DGN shall bring more goodness to the table. Or something like that. Just like Bond, Tomorrowland shall return…

This was originally published…sometime in 1999, on 3DGaming.net

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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.