Soviet Strike

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.

Source:

Press Release - Saturn