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The Week Ending November 8, 1999

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Star Trek: Engage!
Frequent readers of this column will know I've been critical of how poorly the Star Trek franchise has been adapted to the interactive medium in the past. Well, my hat is off to Activision this week because it looks like they are finally putting together Star Trek games that are worthy of the franchise. First, at E3 we got a glimpse at Raven's brilliant Quake 3 engine title, Elite Force, due out in 2000. But the real surprise came last week when I sat down with Presto Studios' Star Trek: Hidden Evil game, due out in just a few short weeks. Priced at only $29.95 and featuring the voices of both Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner, I wasn't expecting much, but I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by the game.   Featuring rich backgrounds and very high quality 3D accelerated graphics, the game is best billed as a light adventure interspersed with action elements. It's visually polished, easy to learn to play, and segmented into enjoyable little mini-adventure levels. Although I was worried whether Presto was going successfully manage the transition from FMV games (The Journeyman Project) to 3D-rendered titles, Star Trek: Hidden Evil is proof Presto Studios is back in style! My only concern? It seems like no one knows this game is coming out!
Half-Life: OpFor Demo
If the press demo of Half Life: Opposing Force is any indication of what we can expect in the full retail version of the game, I've got five words for you: Expansion Pack of the Year.   I've long been excited by the brilliant concept of telling the Half-Life story from the opposing perspective, but like many pessimistic journalists, I wondered if Valve and developer Gearbox Software would be able to re-create the Half-Life magic in an expansion pack.    Well, for starters, you can tell they didn't cut many corners with the expansion pack: The game opens with a platoon of soldiers chatting in an Osprey chopper about their latest mission…and you are one of those soldiers. It's an instant attention grabber. Despite what seemed to be an excessive amount of cussing in the opening, I thoroughly enjoyed it, not the mention the ensuing action sequences.   Although I didn't run into Gordon Freeman in the press demo, I'm really looking forward to are the promised sequences where you can cross paths with the original game's hero.   Although it's too early to give the full expansion pack a qualified stamp of approval, keep your eyes out for Opposing Force, which should hit store shelves in time for Thanksgiving.
and Blair Witch Games
Last week the Gathering of Developers announced that the team behind The Blair Witch Project has agreed to work with the Gathering and developer Terminal Reality's to build a number of games based on the summer's surprise $140 Million dollar hit movie, using the Nocturne game engine.   First off, I must tip my hat to Mike Wilson and Co. for securing what was surely a hotly contested license.   But still, I can't help but see the irony in the fact that such a low-tech movie, shot on 16MM film, is now being adapted to the PC game market to run on a game engine which has insane system requirements, including the need for 96 megs of RAM to run Nocturne with 3D acceleration.   Now, I'm all for an advanced gaming engine – and no doubt its system requirements will seem less obtuse come next year – but does it really make sense to have a mass-market property like Blair Witch only run on the top 5% of PC gaming rigs out there? I thought the whole appeal of Blair Witch was the fact it didn't need technology and all the latest special effects to be successful? Nevertheless, I'm definitely interested to see what the Gathering has planned!
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