pwebcont

Web Coverage

Prey: pulled quotes

"…of such stunning quality that pre-release fever broke out for Prey like for no other game at the show." James Flynn, PC Gamer (UK)

"…this game's distortion of time and space will knock even Dr. Who, the famed time traveler, for a loop." David Erlich, The New York Times

"Prey is 3D Realms' own special way of telling other 3D game developers to sit down and shut up." & "I really have to laugh when I think about Prey in comparison to other 3D shooters in development. Prey is, hands down, the best looking game I have ever seen." Emil Pagliarulo, Adreneline Vault

Best of Show—E3, Computer and Net Player

"To put it simply… just truly amazing!" & "Undoubtedly one of the most immersive and detailed environments ever to hit the PC. Prey looks revolutionary." Mike Davila, Computer and Net Player

"Prey is the future of 3D gaming." & "I realized that… Prey will represent a milestone in game programming excellence." Tim Soete, Gamespot

"The graphics are so convincing and so fluid that they don't beg comparison to existing games like Quake, but to reality itself. We realize that this may sound ridiculous, but it's true." Vince Broady, Gamespot

"Prey blew our minds." Doug Lombardi, Gamecenter

"Many who emerged... were incapable of speaking, and could do nothing more than shake their heads in astonishment and walk off in search of something, anything that would return them to reality." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault

"We were blown away by... easily the best-looking 3D shooter at the show."

"The portal technology in the game was noting short of breathtaking."

Paul Bannister, OGR

"I've said that I've never seen anything like it... and that's the honest truth." Jason Bergmen, Blue's News

"Nothing even comes close. Prey, when released, will surpass everything by leaps and bounds." Brady Cox, PC Gaming

"My mouth was hanging open during the entire demonstration..." Bobbi, GameGirlz

"This is one of those games that makes even jaded game editors' jaws drop." OGR

"Graphically, this thing has more bells and whistles than a Christmas Day parade." Chris Jensen, OGR

"Prey is definitely the next step in the line of first-person shooters. Nothing else has ever looked so good." Doug Radcliffe, OGR

"Trust me, the implementation is astonishing, and will leave you slack-jawed with disbelief." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault

"Those who call (portals) glorified teleporters will repent and convert." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault

"I believe Prey is ground zero for a new generation of 3D action games." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault

Awards:

One of the 25 best-E3 97 -NextGeneration

Best of Show-E3 97 OGR

Most promising first person shooter, E3 98 OGR

Most Promising Technology, Runner-up, E3-98 OGR

Best Action Game E3 98-AGN

One of the 25 best of the best-E3 98 OGR

Nominated, most promising new game & best action game, E3 98 UGO

One of the "20 best PC games of E3" E3 98 August CGW

Of of the "15 titles to watch out for" E3 98 August Next Generation (all platfroms!)

Quotes from the net

- "…of such stunning quality that pre-release fever broke out for Prey like for no other game at the show." James Flynn, PC Gamer (UK)
- "…this game's distortion of time and space will knock even Dr. Who, the famed time traveler, for a loop." David Erlich, The New York Times
- "Prey is 3D Realms' own special way of telling other 3D game developers to sit down and shut up." & "I really have to laugh when I think about Prey in comparison to other 3D shooters in development. Prey is, hands down, the best looking game I have ever seen." Emil Pagliarulo, Adreneline Vault
- Best of Show—E3, Computer and Net Player
- "To put it simply… just truly amazing!" & "Undoubtedly one of the most immersive and detailed environments ever to hit the PC. Prey looks revolutionary." Mike Davila, Computer and Net Player
- "Prey is the future of 3D gaming." & "I realized that… Prey will represent a milestone in game programming excellence." Tim Soete, Gamespot
- "The graphics are so convincing and so fluid that they don't beg comparison to existing games like Quake, but to reality itself. We realize that this may sound ridiculous, but it's true." Vince Broady, Gamespot
- "Prey blew our minds." Doug Lombardi, Gamecenter
- "Many who emerged... were incapable of speaking, and could do nothing more than shake their heads in astonishment and walk off in search of something, anything that would return them to reality." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault
- "We were blown away by... easily the best-looking 3D shooter at the show."
- "The portal technology in the game was noting short of breathtaking."
- Paul Bannister, OGR
- "I've said that I've never seen anything like it... and that's the honest truth." Jason Bergmen, Blue's News
- "Nothing even comes close. Prey, when released, will surpass everything by leaps and bounds." Brady Cox, PC Gaming
- "My mouth was hanging open during the entire demonstration..." Bobbi, GameGirlz
- "This is one of those games that makes even jaded game editors' jaws drop." OGR
- "Graphically, this thing has more bells and whistles than a Christmas Day parade." Chris Jensen, OGR
- "Prey is definitely the next step in the line of first-person shooters. Nothing else has ever looked so good." Doug Radcliffe, OGR
- "Trust me, the implementation is astonishing, and will leave you slack-jawed with disbelief." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault
- "Those who call (portals) glorified teleporters will repent and convert." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault
- "I believe Prey is ground zero for a new generation of 3D action games." David Laprad, Adrenaline Vault

Awards:

- One of the 25 best-E3 97 -NextGeneration
- Best of Show-E3 97 OGR
- Most promising first person shooter, E3 98 OGR
- Most Promising Technology, Runner-up, E3-98 OGR
- Best Action Game E3 98-AGN
- One of the 25 best of the best-E3 98 OGR
- Nominated, most promising new game & best action game, E3 98 UGO
- One of the "20 best PC games of E3" E3 98 August CGW
- Of of the "15 titles to watch out for" E3 98 August Next Generation (all platfroms!)

Gamecenter columns

- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six

Prey E3 1998

Prey

Prey could be the most impressive 3D game in development. It features both cutting-edge technology and an interesting story with well-developed characters. In development for more than two years, the game is finally coming together and is now expected to ship by early 1999.
Players follow the adventures of Talon Brave, a modern-era Apache Indian who lives on a small reservation in northeastern Arizona. 3D Realms wanted Talon to be realistic, so the team researched Native American and Apache culture, mythology, language, and traditions to imbue Talon with appropriate attributes.
Talon is abducted by extra-terrestrials and ends up on a spaceship known as the Trocaran mothership. His first goal is survival, but other motivations and situations develop throughout the course of the game. The Trocara are three diverse alien species who use the same "mothership" as their respective homeworlds. The ship is gigantic in scale and has some design similarities to Larry Niven's Ringworld. It's not nearly as large as the Ringworld (the ring isn't the size of a planetary orbit) - it's about four times the diameter of Earth.

By Computer Gaming World /gamespot

Paul told us about Portal Technology and how cool it was, which was quite obvious to all in the room. He mentioned how deathmatch would be very cool, and that the drunken missiles were there because regular missiles that fly in a straight line are too easy to dodge. Paul was, as Dieter would say, happy as a little girl. After three days of demoing this game, he wasn’t sick of it at all; he was quite excited, as anyone would be. Not everyone can say that they are the Project Leader on the coolest game in the world. Kudos to you and your team, Paul, you do awesome work. 3D Realms has a winner here. This game is so awesome that it’s not a Quake Killer, it’s not an Unreal Killer, but an industry killer.

Nothing even comes close.

Prey, when released will surpass everything by leaps and bounds. So after about 15-20 minutes Paul ended the demo, grin never leaving his face, asked us if we had any questions. I glanced around and noticed everyone else was doing the same, all with amazed looks on their faces. To anyone reading this: You will be amazed. You will be thrilled. You will be addicted. Words cannot express how happy I am for Paul and the rest of 3D Realms. Words also do a lousy job of conveying what I saw, I’m just trying to do the best I can with what I have been given. I just can’t wait to play this game.

Full link at: http://www.pcgaming.com/interviews/e3prey.html

OGR

Prey. Technology of the Show?

by Paul Bannister
May 30, 1998

We were among the few and privileged invited in to see 3D Realms' upcoming everything-killer, Prey. Paul Schuytema, the project leader for the game, walked us through a small technology demo for the game, as well as some of the early levels (they claim to be about 90-95% done with the engine and about 35% done with the levels -- shooting for a Q1/Q2 '99 release).

Well, needless to say, we were blown away by what all of us were saying was easily the best-looking 3D shooter at the show. First off, we were treated to a demo of the "interactive" environments in the game. Paul shot out some free-standing objects which exploded, which has been seen before. Then he blew out an entire wall (at least 40 feet tall). But then, and most impressively, he blew out the poles that supported the ceiling, which collapsed onto the floor! Extremely impressive interactive environments. He noted that every environment will be interactive by default; the level designers just need to "turn on the switch" so to speak.

The second portion of the technology engine was the what Paul referred to as "hyper-dense" environments. Essentially incredibly detailed environments where you could zoom in on small objects (like a electrical outlet, or the words in a magazine) and get incredible resolution. They plan on using this super-realism to draw people into the game early (the first 25% of the game takes place on Earth, the other 3/4 take place on an alien spaceship), and then when people are sucked in, throwing them a lot of curveballs.

Next up from the technology point of view was the "portal" system that is being used to program the game. We watched the main character of the game, Talon Brave, from an external camera. Paul zoomed out, and all of a sudden, we were watching, from a totally exterior environment, the same scene, suspended in air. Essentially, we were watching a television point of view that was attached to a six-degrees-of-freedom device. So what came next was that Paul started to spin the device (with the scene with Talon Brave in the device) and you could see through this "portal" into the other environment. Truly impressive stuff.

The portals are obviously the main driving force behind the engine in the game. We then saw Paul lay down two devices that created these portals in midair, and basically one portal was a view through the other one, so our character could see the back of himself in the portal he was looking in. Shoot through that portal, and you can shoot yourself. Shoot in one portal and it will come out the other, and even go back out of the second portal, if you aim correctly. He also showed portals being used to model mirroring effects. A well-polished marble floor was a scene we saw, and when we looked at the ground, we could see a totally clear reflection of Talon Brave, and since this is all part of the engine, it isn't just some hack added on for mirroring effects later on. You've seen this before, like in Unreal, but the detail in the reflection was unsurpassed. You could see the ridges on the ceiling and other cool stuff.

But aside from the technology, some of the game environments we saw were incredibly impressive. We saw pools of water from above, and then went below the surface, and looked up through glass that held the pools of water, and then up to the sky. Buildings in the alien environment were dozens of stories tall, and were complete objects that you could shoot at and do damage to.

Paul said that they won't be revealing much about the game before release. Only 2 weapons were shown and even those might not make the final release. First was the "Drunk Missile Launcher", a triple missile shooter that fires three random-trajectory missiles. Paul said the launcher might be in the game, but probably with heat seeking missiles. Next up was "X5", just a code name for the particular weapon. It fired plasma gun-like bolts; it also had a secondary fire mode which fired a huge plasma bolt that shook the world when it crashed into a distant wall.

In all, Prey was an incredibly impressive title. Running through different scenes in the game, we saw some of the coolest effects ever. We saw it running on a P2-266 with a Voodoo 2 accelerator card, and it was absolutely flawless, even in the hyper-dense environments, there was absolutely no slowdown. It really had a true air of "reality" about it, and we think this will really be a game to watch in the coming year as it gets closer to release. PreyTech, what Paul called the engine, will be utilized in a series of games, including Duke 5. He also stated they would be licensing it out to other developers. We will definitely be following this game closely and may even have some more E3 coverage about it. Stay tuned!

OGR's E3 Expo '98 Awards
E3 Expo '98
The 25 Best of the Best

Most Promising First Person Shooter - Prey

With amazingly detailed 3D graphics, cool special effects, and fantastically interactive environments, Prey is sure to change the FPS landscape. To make a huge splash in the 3D action genre, you need a hot engine and quality design, and Prey looks like it's shaping up to have both in spades. This is one of those games that makes even jaded game editors' jaws drop. (runner-up: Half-Life)

Prey
E3 Expo '98
The 25 Best of the Best

Chris Jensen: Easily the most impressive first-person shooter I saw at E3. Graphically, this thing has more bells and whistles than a Christmas Day parade, especially the destructible environments and amazing portal technology that left those witnessing the demonstration stunned. Unfortunately, the Prey team is keeping tight wraps on the bulk of weapon details and various level designs, so, like you, we're all going to have to wait. From what little we saw, it's going to be more than worth it.

Paul Bannister: Where to start? When someone comes along and claims to be making the most revolutionary game engine of all time, you roll your eyes almost automatically. 50 companies at E3 were probably all claiming the same thing. Prey was the only game engine that truly delivered on this promise. The portal technology in the game was nothing short of breathtaking, and the room full of journalists that we saw it with were all pretty much awestruck the entire way through, and we're pretty jaded individuals usually. Read our preview for the full scoop on the game, but the fact is that we saw things in this 20 minute demo that basically blew every other gaming engine out of the water, take our word for it.

Doug Radcliffe: Another game that is too hard to describe, Prey had the OGR team with jaws on the floor -- and if you know us, you know that we aren't exactly easy to impress. When I saw Unreal, I thought I had seen the pinnacle of detailed environments -- not so. Prey's world is even more detailed and colorful. We were shown a room that looked exactly like a living room, complete with furniture and a newspaper resting on the coffee table. The world was so detailed you could actaully read the newspaper. An empty soda can was resting in the corner; we peered at the top and the texture was almost real enough to touch. Prey will also feature an involving storyline, complete with in-game cut-scenes that are extremely cinematic and will add a lot to the game.. and the genre. Prey is definitely the next step in the line of first-person shooters. Nothing else has ever looked so good.

Blues news

First-Person Games

> Prey
> Prey's engine looks ready for prime-time: running fast and smooth with insane levels of texture detail and amazing flexibility to create interactive environments. The game is not going to be released until 1999, and technology advantages have a way of disappearing as time passes, but the passion for making a great gaming experience that oozes from project leader Paul Schuytema's every pore is infectious (he showed an example of the kind of awesome firepower that will be at your disposal, showing great promise for fun gameplay), and I think I caught the fever. The portal stuff is cool too, but it's almost over-focused on, like that's all there is to Prey (though besides some bizarre five dimensional level creation opportunities, it also allows a nice seamless transitions between levels-to the point where the term level becomes moot). If I've got you a little antsy to see Prey knowing it is so far off, then you are in the same boat as I am, because now I can't wait for Prey.

Voodoo extreme

Prey was THE game of E3. Without a doubt, the best looking game that I had a chance to see. Although we still have a while until this guy ships (Q1 or Q2 of '99) is is looking FAB! Something else that was impressive: This game was running on a Pentium2 266MHz w/ 64MB of ram and a single Voodoo2...and it ran DAMN GOOD!!!!! I'm not talking Epic's Unreal playability here and frame rate (which honestly blows goats on high end Pentiums and sucks unless you have a P2) but a very nice frame rate and absolutely gorgeous visuals to boot! This is the one to watch out for!

Jason Bergmen, Blues News:

I've said that I've never seen anything like it...and that's the honest truth. The Prey group at 3D Realms have seriously been doing their best to break new ground with this engine...and it looks to be paying off big time.

PC Gaming: Brady Cox

Prey: E3 Preview
Brady Cox
News Director

You have just joined a deathmatch and lookout, the wall is coming down on you… strafe right, whew just made it. You see the guy who did it across the room under a chandelier, and he’s taking pot shots at you with drunken missiles. All you have is a pistol you picked up next to your spawn point, so you shoot the cable holding the chandelier up and laugh as he is crushed underneath it.

Welcome to Prey. When I went to go see Prey at E3, I didn’t believe the hype. Aaron "Lithium" Corcoran from http://www.preyground.com and http://www.ritualistic.com had told me that Prey was amazing, but I still couldn't understand what could be so cool about it to make it so much better than everything else. I was proven wrong. I crowded into the tiny room with nine others, and when I looked around, there was Lithium, Phoebus, and right next to me towering above was Redwood, geez that guy is tall. Anyway, in front of us were three computer monitors and Paul Schuytema with a big grin on his face. Right then I knew I was in for something cool.

Paul started the demo by loading up a normal level… nothing fancy, or so it seemed. Paul whipped out a drunken missile launcher and proceeded to shoot the far wall, a lot. After about 3 shots hit it, the wall fell down! I’m not talking it fell over, but it crumbled, just like a real wall would. Then he proceeded to shoot a support beam, which then collapsed, and then the whole ceiling came down. So far this was really cool.

Next Paul loaded a level w/ a thing in the center that looks like one of those things at spring break…. You know it has three circles and you are strapped in the center and you whip around a lot. Or you could say it looked like the thing from Event Horizon, which would probably be more accurate. In the center you could see a bathroom. Paul walked into the bathroom, turned around and the other room was gone. A one-way portal explained Paul with a big grin on his face. He loaded the same level again and then turned the machine on. The circles started whipping around and on one side, you could still look into the bathroom, it was going upside-down and left and right, but when it flipped, you couldn’t see it on the other side of the circle. In fact, Paul showed us that you could walk through the portal on the side where you couldn’t see it and you would never know it was there, but then he backed up a little, and he was in the bathroom again. You have to bear with me here, this is VERY hard to explain, it was just amazing. It has to be seen to be believed.

Next Paul showed us what he called, a super-detailed room. This super detailed room was a normal living room, with all kinds of furniture, magazines, and such. It looked like a real living room. Even down to the power outlets which were actual models.

After that we saw a different level where you were in a room underwater, and you could see up through the water. You could see past tall buildings. You could see past the sky. You could see past the clouds. Even past the sun, where you could see the other side of the giant ship that encircles a Sun where Prey takes place. This was very cool to be able to see so many things at the same time without slowdown. I can’t imagine how many polys we were able to see at one time with no slowdown what-so-ever. Paul just grinned and said it was Portal Technology.

During all of this Paul was explaining to us about Prey and the Prey Engine. He told us that he was running on a P2 266 with a VooDoo2 card. He mentioned that when you have walls that can all be blown up, the level designers have to make solid boundaries somewhere, because falling off a map always sucks. He told us about Portal Technology and how cool it was, which was quite obvious to all in the room. He mentioned how deathmatch would be very cool, and that the drunken missiles were there because regular missiles that fly in a straight line are too easy to dodge. Paul was, as Dieter would say, happy as a little girl. After three days of demoing this game, he wasn’t sick of it at all; he was quite excited, as anyone would be. Not everyone can say that they are the Project Leader on the coolest game in the world. Kudos to you and your team, Paul, you do awesome work. 3DRealms has a winner here. This game is so awesome that it’s not a Quake Killer, it’s not an Unreal Killer, but an industry killer. Nothing even comes close. Prey, when released will surpass everything by leaps and bounds.

So after about 15-20 minutes Paul ended the demo, grin never leaving his face, asked us if we had any questions. I glanced around and noticed everyone else was doing the same, all with amazed looks on their faces.

To anyone reading this: You will be amazed. You will be thrilled. You will be addicted. Words cannot express how happy I am for Paul and the rest of 3DRealms. Words also do a lousy job of conveying what I saw, I’m just trying to do the best I can with what I have been given. I just can’t wait to play this game.

Prey is due out "When it’s done" from 3DRealms. Don’t expect it this year though…

-Brady

GameGirlz

Prey - 3D Realms
Expected release date: Spring '99
http://www.3drealms.com/

Prey, the first Talon Brave game from 3D Realms, will offer you the most intense gameplay you have ever experienced! You (Talon Brave) begin the game as a full-blooded American Indian. You are soon sucked into a science fiction adventure of galactic proportions. Battling not one, but three major alien species, you must draw upon all of your resources--your intelligence, your physical abilities and your attitude to survive long enough to learn the truth behind this mysterious Trocara and their doubly mysterious Keepers.
Prey utilizes 3D Realms' next-generation 3D engine, based upon our own "Portal Technology" (PT), to provide you with a 6-degrees-of-freedom game environment which is far beyond anything you've see before. No more is the world static and unchanging--the world of Prey will by dynamic, vibrant and frightening. Of course you'll see wondrous architecture casting true shadows, but you'll see them in stunning 16-bit color at high resolution. It will be like nothing you have ever experienced! Of course, you can count on all the bells and whistles that make our games the most intense in the industry: killer interactivity, awesome
weaponry, rich characters and unsurpassed multiplayer support!
Bobbi's View:
The game that truly blew me away at E3, and the one I’ll be most looking forward to next year, was Prey. My mouth was hanging open during the entire demonstration, given by Paul Schuytema, producer. He started the demo by presenting us with our character we’d play, Talon Brave, standing in a room. Looking like just a plain old shooter, so Paul said. Then he proceeded to blow up the door in front of him. Pretty cool. Not enough, he asked? So he blew down the WALL. The game, by using physics, manages to create a completely interactive environment, where almost anything can be altered.

Then came the great mind-f*ck of the game. You’re looking at a room. MASSIVE detail. Wallpaper on the walls, newspaper on the table, an article hanging on the wall over the wallpaper. Wood looking like real wood. Beautifully detailed, but nothing too special, most of the games coming out within the next year will have similar graphics. You pull out of the room into what looks like another room. Until you look back, and realize you didn’t walk through a doorway per se, because you’re looking into where you just were, the ‘room,’ enclosed within a "spinny thing" (such as it was being called throughout E3 "Did you see the spinny thing??") which is moving around. Where you just were, is inside a ring spinning, which is within another ring. And what you went through, was not a door, but a portal. (I’m sure I’m failing miserably at properly explaining this, but it’s not the easiest thing to grasp, even when you’re looking at it) Never been done before. These portals exist throughout Prey. Walked through a door? Nope. Walked through a portal. Looking up through water at what’s above. A portal.

To further show what portals can do, we were shown a room with portals on every side. A nuclear bomb type thing was shot into one portal.....and hit Talon in the back, killing him. Portals are jumps, in a sense, from one space to another. They can exist next to each other, behind each other, anywhere. I won’t even try to properly explain them, but just remember this. The world of Prey is NOT as it seems. Portals can be dropped by players for use in deathmatch (imagine, you’re chasing someone, something drops in front of you, you don’t know what, but you see a guy in a room in there. Cool, shoot the guy get a frag, right? You fire....realize you just shot yourself).

And have I mentioned the detail? We were shown a cinematic from the game, where Talon is told by his dead grandfather about his history. The camera was zooming in on faces, panning the area, much as real directors do in film. Movements made by the models were not the jerky, cut movements we’re used to seeing in games, but fluid, controlled, realistic gestures and motions. The way the game only loads what you are currently looking at will allow for seamless integration of these cinematics into the game, no more ‘stop...cut scene time’ as we’re so used to.

All this will be combined with an hour’s worth of original music by KMFDM, and an editor that has to be seen to be believed. The editor is truly unique...the first truly WYSIWYG game editor. Don’t like a piece of the wall there? Looking at the wall, as it will appear in the game, just grab it and move it. Real simple, real easy...even people who don’t understand mapping should be able to use this.

So...the technology looks amazing. The cinematics, of what we saw, are great. No real gameplay put in yet, but based on this? They have one hell of a game in store here. Coming at some point 1st or 2nd quarter 1999, after Duke Forever.