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Final Chapter E3


By Ray Ivey

Yo-ho, Yo-ho, a Pirate's Life for Me

Now, I'm not that into pirates in real life. Except for the fact that Treasure Island is one of my all-time favorite books. And I love Peter Pan in all its incarnations. Oh, well, maybe I like pirates better than I admit. One thing I think is easy to agree upon, and that is the idea that pirates and pirate stuff are great fodder for computer games.

Surprise, surprise, Escape from Monkey Island wasn't the only cool pirate game I saw at E3. Randy and I stumbled into Bethesda Softworks (I think we were trying to avoid Pauly Shore or Bill Shatner, two of the convention's on-hand Dingle Celebrities) and lo and behold, there was Sea Dogs.

Bethesda's Sea Dogs was originally titled Corsairs, but unfortunately it turns out Microids already had a game coming out with that name. Unlike Corsairs, which is a straight strategy title, Sea Dogs is being touted as a rich RPG-style epic.

The game begins with a small ship and a small crew in the Caribbean. You then choose whether to become pirates, to fight pirates, which country to ally with, etc. The details and depth of the game just astounded me, everything from chasing rumors that there may be some mercenaries on a small island looking for work, to customizing your ship's outfitting and weapons, to the remarkable sea battle sequences. Realism abounds, from the different lighting in different types of weather while at sea, to the height your ship sits in the water depending on the weight of your payload.

Sea Dogs is scheduled to be released for PC in Q3 2000.

The All-New Drew Revue

We had a delightful meeting with Her Interactive's President Megan Gaiser, Carolyn Bickford (VP of Sales Marketing), and Lori Stacy, PR Goddess. They showed us some gorgeous art and screenshots from the upcoming third installment in their Nancy Drew series, Message in the Haunted Mansion. The game looks atmospheric and appealing, and we had a terrific conversation about games, girls and games, marketing, and cold fusion (not really, just seeing if you were paying attention). This and our love fest at DreamCatcher were our happiest meetings at E3.

Do I smell a segue ... ?

Catch that Dream

In a 72-hour period filled with amazing things to look at, I don't think any sight filled my heart with gladness like DreamCatcher's Wall of Adventure Games. In an era where our genre is constantly being touted as dead or dying, they proudly displayed Traitor's Gate, Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy, The Sacred Amulet, Beyond Atlantis, Riddle of the Sphinx, and Dracula Resurrection. These folks love adventures every bit as much as we do.

The short demo of Riddle of the Sphinx was full of lovely images, but it was Dracula Resurrection that really got my blood percolating. Here was a game so gorgeous, so enticing, I wanted to just fall into it. The visuals reminded me of the lovely Faust from last year, and who can resist a good vampire story? Here is a game to get excited about.

Cryo Me a River

DreamCatcher's Gallic other half, is, of course, Cryo, and they too had a raft of intriguing titles.

The one I'm most eagerly anticipating is Pompeii, the first in a new series of games by the much-admired Arxel Tribe (the crazy Germans responsible for Pilgrim, Ring, and Faust). It's the story of a Scottish geologist in 1904 whose wife falls under an ancient curse of the goddess Ishtar. Her soul has been transported to Pompeii, and Blake has to go try to rescue her! Set in the four days preceding the fateful explosion of Vesuvius in AD 79, Pompeii is designed with excruciating historical accuracy. After Faust, I'm eager to play anything built by the talented Arxel Tribe, and I have high hopes for Pompeii.

The graphics will be done with full 360-degree panning.

Pompeii is due on PC CD any time now, with PlayStation, DVD, and Mac versions coming soon.

Another series from Cryo is the upcoming Legends collection. The first is The New Adventures of the Time Machine, which is a riff on the famous H.G. Wells novel. An action/adventure, it takes your character on a wild and mystical trip to the far future and beyond.

Next in the Legends series is The Odyssey, an action/adventure based on the Homeric legend. It follows the adventures of Heritias, sent by Penelope to search for the lost Ulysses.

Following Cryo's excellent Aztec in their historical series (which includes the titles Egypt, Versailles, and China), it will be releasing Egypt II: The Heliopolis Prophesy. It concerns a young priestess on an investigation into a strange plague afflicting her city.

Egypt II is due for PC in September.

Another appealing-looking action/adventure from Cryo is Casanova: The Duel of the Black Rose, a gorgeous-looking swashbuckler now in development. This game seems to have shades of RPG qualities in that you have to develop and evolve the swordsmanship and gallantry of the character as the game progresses.

Also, there's Tales of Chivalry I: The Sword of Justice, an Arthurian action/adventure, which looks promising.

I only have one question for Cryo. What's with the Satan connection? So many of their recent games--Faust, The Devil Inside, Gift, Hellboy--seem to deal with some manifestation of His Satanic Majesty. Why, if I were the Church Lady, I might be wondering ...

Conclusion

After being saturated in games for three days, here are my picks for the games I'm most looking forward to: