Origin Press Release - Fall 1996 - P2 November Release
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TRIPS WORTH TAKING
'PRIVATEER 2: THE DARKENING' HEADS FOR A NOVEMBER RELEASE
Electronic Arts and Origin Systems Inc. - an Electronic Arts company - are pleased to announce the imminent release of 'Privateer 2: The Darkening' - a state-of-the-art space combat game for the PC CD-Rom.
Privateer 2: The Darkening is set in a futuristic universe comprising eight planets. The Player takes control of the main character, Lev Arris (played by Clive Owen) who awakens from a cryogenic storage - a coldsleep that might have lasted for as long as ten years. He was allegedly suffering from a disease for which (ten years ago) there was no cure. His pod has been pulled from the wreckage of a star-freighter called 'Canera' which was mysteriously attacked by ships of an unknown origin. He has lost his memory and is now faced with rediscovering his identity by interacting with dangerously devious and sinister characters, some of whom are out to kill him. Lev Arris must endure a roller-coaster journey of bribery, corruption, deception and violence. However, the decisions he makes will decide his plight.
Privateer 2 offers three main areas of gameplay; space combat, trading, and interaction through full motion video. The gameplay features some of the most sophisticated technology ever seen in a game of this genre. The player is able to explore 8 uniquely styled planets from a selection of 18 and ther e are over 20 space stations all set in a fully working universe. Further exceptional features include full commodity trading allowing the player to exploit natural and man made disasters occuring throughout the three solar systems. The player can buy, equip and fly any of the 18 player ships from a reserviour of 40 additional ships. There is a multitude of unique missions from which to choose and it is possible to have no less than 100 ships engage in a singel battle.
There are three hours of non-linear interactive film footage sewn into Privateer 2: The Darkening, which was filmed in May of last year during a 6 week shoot at the world famous Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, with a further 8 months of post production work. Directed by Steve Hilliker of London based Nelson Films, this state of the art project stars Clive Owen (Close My Eyes, The Turnaround, Chancer), Jurgen Prochnow (The Keep, Das Boot, Judge Dred) and Christopher Walken (The Deerhunter, Pulp Fiction, The Dogs of War). The internationally acclaimed cast also includes John Hurt, Amanda Pays, Brian Blessed, David Warner, David McCallum and Mathilda May. The development team chose to use TGV (an inhouse cuting edge compression programme), which maintains a high quality of picture for the fmv sequences whilst allowing complete freedom of camera movement for the feature film footage. This is also complimented with 16 bit stereo sound.
Privateer 2 has been fully optimised and is probably the most pentium optimised game to be released to date. Gamers can expect to see multiple realistic light sources thrown from suns, explosions, and missiles etc. Real physics have been used to create realistic collisions, interactive music, real-time lens flair with eclipsing, revolutionary AI and mission systems allowing a complete model universe to operate around the player as he or she progresses throughout the main game plot and subplots. Privateer 2 also supports Thrustmaster joysticks.
There are 60 radically different locations for the gameplayer to explore. An enormous amount of time and energy has been expended to ensure that these locations are as authentic as possible including 145,000 hours of rendering and scenes which contain some 8 million faces rendered in 24 bit.
Privateer 2: The Darkening will be released for PC CD-ROM by Origin Systems Inc. and will be distributed by Electronic Arts in November 1996. Price tba.
Privateer 2: The Darkening is being developed by Origin Systems who develop and publish state-of-the-art entertainment software. To date, the company has released more than 45 titles, including Ultima and Commander series of games. ORIGIN is based in Austin, Texas, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS).
ORIGIN, We create worlds, Privateer 2: The Darkening and Ultima are registered trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Origin Interactive Movie and Heart of the Tiger are trademarks of ORIGIN Systems Inc. Electronic Arts is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts. All other products and trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Electronic Arts, headquartered in San Mateo, California, is a leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, EA posted revenues of over $530 million for fiscal 1996. The company develops, publishes and distributes software worldwide for personal computers and advanced entertainment systems such as the PlayStation 1/4 and Sega Saturn 1/4. Electronic Arts markets its products worldwide under five brand names: Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Origin Systems Inc., Bullfrog Productions Ltd. and Jane's Combat Simulations. EA has subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Austin, Texas, and Seattle, Washington. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the internet at http://www.ea.com
