ELECTRONIC ARTS
SHIPS SOVIET STRIKE FOR THE SEGA SATURN
Top-Selling
PlayStation Title Soviet Strike Now Available on the Sega Saturn
With New Features
San Mateo, Calif., Feb. 17,
1997 -- Electronic Arts® (Nasdaq:ERTS), a leading global
interactive entertainment software company, has begun shipping
its 32-bit action strategy title, Soviet Strike’ for the
Sega Saturn’. While the title delivers the same
attention-grabbing features of its PlayStation’
counterpart, a top-ten selling holiday title, Soviet Strike for
Saturn offers new weapons, improved pyrotechnics, and player
selectable difficulty modes.
Soviet Strike for Saturn delivers
an array of advanced features including: a game engine that
supports realistic 3D terrain and vehicles, artificial
intelligence for dynamic enemy behavior, an interactive music
system and a fresh, progressive story line that's drawn from
today's headlines. This version also touts several new
features, including: two additional weapons, an anti-armor
missile capable of instantly destroying any heavily armored unit
or fortified structure, and an auto cannon with a rapid fire rate
and high damage potential; enhanced pyrotechnics which boost the
dramatic effect of explosions; player selectable easy/hard
difficulty settings; and support of three controllers, the Sega
Standard, Analog 3D control, and Analog Mission Stick.
"Soviet Strike for the
PlayStation has been a chart topper for us through the
holidays," said Producer Michael Kosaka. "We really
want to make the title just as noteworthy to our Saturn customers
so we put in the additional effort to boost the game's
appeal with extra weapons and special effects."
The Soviet Strike story focuses on
an ex-KGB general, code-named "Shadowman," who is
trying to return Soviet hardliners to power. The game player is
part of the "Strike Team" that must neutralize
Shadowman before he succeeds. As in previous Strike games, the
player pilots a Super Apache helicopter behind enemy lines to
progress through the game's five levels and, via a mix of
action and strategy, completes each of Soviet Strike's 40
missions.
Game players carry out a multitude
of daring assignments from taking on hordes of Russian tanks and
handling eleventh-hour, high-risk rescue missions, to capturing
an enemy commander or sweeping Russian President Yeltsin out of
the Kremlin with the enemy in hot pursuit. Through each mission,
the game player is aided by in-game audio and video clues,
intelligence and terrain maps. By reviewing these briefings the
player is able to understand the best tactic for each situation.
Reflecting the Strike series theme, the objective of the game is
to stop the war before it begins; the fate of Russia's
struggling democracy is in the game player's hands.
To add more realism into the game,
Electronic Arts ("EA") used several military warfare
consultants including: the air combat strategist from the Gulf
War, an arms expert, and a counter-terrorism and hostage rescue
specialist. Discussions with the Gulf War strategist led to the
creation of the game's Strike.net’ feature. Strike.net
is a steady stream of worldwide intelligence gathered by Strike
organization members and fed to the player to help him map out
his strategy.
"The consultants injected
more excitement and realism into the game," said Rod
Swanson, property director of Soviet Strike. "They helped us
understand and work into the game the emotional responses to
combat situations. Many things happen simultaneously and you have
to figure out what strategy will help you reach your objective
first without injury to you or those you're saving. The game
is an adrenaline rush, just as it is in real combat."
In the tradition of Strike, the
creators of the original series (Jungle Strike’, Urban
Strike’ and Desert Strike’) have provided Soviet
Strike players with both familiar and new features to help them
progress through the game, including:
- a Super Apache helicopter
equipped with a chaingun, Hydra rockets and Hellfire
missiles and new Sidewinder missiles, as well as the
ability to airlift hostages to safety;
- a heads-up display that
updates players on fuel, ammunition, armor resources and
compass directions;
- a new network of Strike team
members who brief the game player with mission
intelligence. Team members include: the general
(commanding officer), a computer hacker (information
officer), a foreign correspondent (communications
officer) and copilots; and
- two chopper views:
"classic" where the helicopter flies around a
scrolling 3D world and "chase" where the
chopper remains in place and the world moves around it.
Revolutionary new technology
The Soviet Strike game engine was
built from the ground up to support specific design requirements,
making for more robust gameplay in terms of graphics, action,
challenge and music. The game uses 3D technology to create
realistic vehicles, pyrotechnics and terrain textures. Soviet
Strike is set in a topographical world complete with hills,
rivers, canyons and frozen lakes.
In addition, Soviet Strike allows
players to follow any path of action they desire; photo-realistic
terrain and most combat situations in the game are not repeated.
This is achieved through streaming of data, objects and textures
for on-screen images from the CD. In comparison, more
conventional games have a set number of paths with predetermined,
repetitive terrain that a player must progress through during the
game. Soviet Strike also touts strong artificial intelligence
that gives the game a "living battlefield" and more
challenging enemy behavior. The entire world is always active,
even when the action is off screen.
This creates a living battlefield
where combat situations evolve and react dynamically to the
player. A player can either engage the enemy or move onto another
situation while his foes continue the battle in another part of
the screen. If the player doesn't take out the enemy while
confronting them, the enemy may circle back and attack the player
or overrun friendly forces later in the game.
Adding spark to Soviet Strike, EA
developed an Interactive Music System (IMS) that allows the music
to keep pace with the player's moves. As the action heats up
so does the music, as it slows the music does, too. In contrast,
music used in other games consistently repeats.
Soviet Strike for the Sega Saturn
carries a suggested retail price of $54.95. In addition to the
game, EA has a related Web site (http://www.Strike-Net.com). The site includes elements such as behind the
scenes information on the game's development, screen shots,
quicktime movies and frequently asked questions.
Electronic Arts, headquartered in
San Mateo, California, is a leading interactive entertainment
software company. Founded in 1982, EA posted revenues 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 and Sega
Saturn’. 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 international
subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan,
Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom,
and US development operations in San Mateo, Calif.; Baltimore,
Maryland; 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.
Contributed by skl (1163) on Mar 26, 2004.
