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David: Jaws is one of my all time favourite films; it's the only film in history that actually scared me out of the theatre - I was in third grade when that came out. Other films like the earlier Star Wars films... John: The Original Trilogy? David: Yeah, they were great. (David loads a new map of Turok Evolution from an Xbox debug unit). This is the seaport map where the enemy has got some attack ships in the water there, and if you look you can see that they are firing off missiles at the seaport. There are a few finishing touches to be added like shells hitting the ground and water, we are also going to have troops running up the beach... John: Like the Normandy landings? David: Yeah, just like that. This whole map that you are seeing here is two kilometres across, so as you can see the draw distance in the game is actually huge. All right let's move on; let's talk about big guns and what you can do to the evil forces in the game - up close and personal! (David loads a new map for us to see) Ok, we are going to go to one of the sections underground where you're trying to infiltrate this base to save the Chief of one of your allied villagers, the people that found you and took care of you and healed you at the beginning of the game. Their Chief gets kidnapped by the bad guys, so you have to go and try to rescue him, and along the way you happen upon some enemy war plans that show their main assault force and its plans to move onto the city that we looked at just before. David: Alright here is our flamethrower! (David loads a city-type environment) Now you can see some guys running around here - some of them will try to get quite close to you, while others will run away. (David fires the flamethrower spreading a blanket of flame at some of the enemy soldiers, who catch fire) If you also notice when they catch on fire they almost always run towards the player. Now the flamethrower has a secondary function also - it allows you to lay down these napalm blobs and then you can ignite those, or if you leave them long enough they will burst into flame on their own. So you can set traps, or you can make much larger fires. (David aims the flamethrower at a small group of enemy grunts) If you notice the enemies take cover behind objects in the environment, they will hide around corners, they will hide behind objects that are in the rooms - anything that is large enough for them to take cover. John: Can you set fire to the environment itself? David: You can do this...(David unleashes the flamethrower at the side of the room, and the flames lick at the wall)...so you get that kind of effect going on, but it won't last forever. Ok lets have a look at another weapon; here we go - what's Turok without a mini-gun?! The first min-gun was heralded as the greatest mini-gun ever made! (David fires the great gun, bullets whizzing out as the huge weapon spins around) As you can see you can pretty much rip any bad guy to shreds with this gun, they will literally fly apart when you hit them. One thing you are not seeing with this map, with the mini-gun, is all the impact effects and the sounds of metal hitting metal. (David fires the min-gun at some more enemies, their bodies are ripped apart and their blood splatters around the room). John: Awesome! David: Rockets are actually kind of special, everybody likes rocket launchers. If you look here...(David points to a structure in the middle of the room)... you can see some of our fancier bits like the reactor in the middle there, you can see the real time lighting and reflections in the walls and floor. One of the things that everyone liked about the Turok rocket launchers was the way we had these organic wild patterns - in the way the rockets flew. Unfortunately that didn't make them very accurate, they were good up close because they would blow anything up that was near them. So this time around we have the best of both worlds - so when I fire one rocket it's going to fly perfectly to the centre point there, and then we will see three 'baby' rockets, that we call hornets, these are swarming rockets that swarm around the target. (David fires off the rocket launcher and we are treated to a spectacular explosion, but unfortunately the game freezes). Ah, I think the game's just crashed! (David to microphone) I mean no, the games performing beautifully! John: So when is Turok Evolution scheduled for release? David: September. John: And will it make that, you think? David: I think so, were about to go into beta testing. (David boots up the game from the Xbox debug unit). John: What do you think of the Xbox? David: It's great! I actually love all three of the platforms, I don't have a favourite console. Everybody asks me 'What's your favourite platform?' I don't have one - I have favourite games. If I have to get an Xbox to play a game like Halo or Dead or Alive 3, I will. If I want to play Mario games, which I must, then I will get a GameCube. John: Which of the machines are easiest to work with? David: Well the Xbox and the GameCube are pretty much a dream to work with, the PS2 - I'm not going to lie to you and say it's not a challenge! But it is a great machine - it can do so much, and our game looks great on PlayStation 2, even we were surprised with how good the maps looked. Now I'm going to show you one of the later maps in the game - this is during one of the assaults on one of the cities. (David loads a map of an intricate jungle city) So if I move through here you will notice I have a squad of buddies with me, some of them have already taken cover and attacking the enemies. They take cover just like the enemies do, they fall back when I fall back, and move forward when I advance. They will also talk to each other with thing like 'There they are!' and things like 'Good Shot!' - (David and his squad advance on a small army of enemies and rapidly remove their limbs). See that guy there he's had enough, he's out of there! You can also disarm the enemies; they will drop their weapons sometimes, and most of the time they will panic and run away if that happens. You can also destroy the cover objects that they use - if I select grenades you can actually stick them to the surfaces in the game! (David demonstrates this, and we are rewarded with an enemy soldier, and what was left of his cover, being blown into the air!). John: Excellent! David: You can even stick the grenades onto the enemies themselves... John: And does he react when it's stuck to him? David: Not just yet - but he will! Absolutely he will! It's just too much fun not too! (David wades through the city, taking out multiple enemies) If they get close enough to you they will try to hit you with a melee attack. Also here you can see enemies using a turret... John: Can the player use the turret? David: Yes you can! - You keep on ruining all my little surprises! John: Sorry - I've been playing games for over twenty-five years! David: Me too! Any turret in the game that you see an enemy using can either be destroyed or taken over by the player. Here's a weapon that you might remember from Turok 2 - this is our nuclear device...(David fires off the weapon and a huge mushroom cloud envelopes the sky, and parts of the environments are carried by the nuclear wind)...See that enemy getting blown back! 300ft mushroom cloud, a thing of beauty! We have a few other weapons that I can't show you yet, like our anti-grav gun... John: It levitates the enemies? David: It can do all kind of cool things to them, you will just have to wait and see! John: Are there any bosses in the game? David: Yeah, we have lots of different kinds of bosses; there are giant zeppelins that you have to attack, I mean giant - hundreds and hundreds of feet across. You have to destroy the turrets on them, and enemy flyers will disembark and paratroopers will get dropped out of them. We also have mini-bosses in the form of armoured dinosaurs, and we have a few more surprises... John: What will the multi-player be like in Turok Evolution? David: Multi-player on all formats will be one to four players split-screen. The Internet stuff is just a little to early in development for us to use. One of the coolest things that we have incorporated is flying death-match, which is a lot of fun and the levels are huge. All the weapons that are accessible in the main game will be available in all of the death-match maps. John: Including the Swarm Bore? David: Oh yes, defiantly the Swarm Bore! And so I left David having a well-earned cigarette after an exhausting tour through the incredible detailed world of Turok Evolution. Even at this stage the game really does look stunning, and I left with the impression that I had just seen one of the years biggest games, on all platforms. I personally can't wait to go hunting! The End...? John Grothier             Latest Images:		Related Games:  Turok Evolution for Xbox  28  Screenshots Click here for All Game Information. Turok Evolution for GameCube Click here for All Game Information. Turok Evolution for PlayStation 2 Click here for All Game Information.
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