D2 Rocks Japan, and Dreamcast

TOKYO, May 22 - Two days had passed since the official announcement of Sega's Dreamcast console and the question on everybody's mind was: Where are the games? Kenji Eno of Warp finally answered the question today in Tokyo.

Eno-san proudly confirmed late on Saturday that Warp's upcoming title D2 will be released for Dreamcast. This makes D2 the very first game to be officially announced for Sega's new console.

There were literally thousands and thousands of people surrounding Tokyo's Kokusai Forum where the D2 World Premium Show was held. In a move far different from the usual rollout event, this presentation was open not only to the press, but to the public as well.

The crowd was filled with hardcore gamers, hundreds of both Junior High and High School students, and even parents who had brought their small children along for the event. All totaled, there were over 8,000 people at the hall. As the facility could seat only 5,000, Warp decided to give the public what they wanted and presented two complete presentations so all interested parties could catch a glance at the new game

The first show was started on around 4:30 pm. As one might expect for such a popular event, the presentation was a bit delayed. As the lights were dimmed, the crowd suddenly started chanting "Warp! Warp! Warp!" The scene was more like a rock concert than a business presentation.

After a certain amount of theatrical teasing and a brief address from Warp's Eno, those in the audience were finally able to see the opening movie sequence of D2.

Here's what this reporter saw:

The setting was a snowy mountain area. There is one figure in the snow. And that figure is walking toward some unknown goal. The figure is hunched over as if injured. Soon, it becomes obvious that drops of blood are being left in the trail as the person walks. But oddly enough, the red blood soon turns to green...

Suddenly, we see an interior to a wooden cabin. The cabin is being warmed by a fireplace. The setting looks like a lodge. There is a rocking chair in the room. There is a female sitting in the chair (Kimberly). She is looking at blonde woman in a bed. The blond in the bed is the story's protagonist, Laura.

Laura is sleeping, but she is obviously tormented by a nightmare.

Then the audience found themselves looking into a star-studded galaxy. In the middle of the galaxy a small light is seen moving toward to us. It turns out that the light is a huge meteor. And it is moving straight toward the earth. And at the same time the meteor hits the atmosphere, some strange glow rises from the earth and surrounds the meteor. The meteor is consumed by the glow and begins to disintegrate. A single small piece of the meteor manages to break free and enter earth's atmosphere.

Then we see a computer screen. It turns out to be Laura's laptop we are looking at She is on an airplane and she is typing into a journal. It says:

Date: December 25th, 1998Location: Over the New Zealanddddddddddddddd

She has fallen asleep. Suddenly, the computer generates a beeping sound that wakes Laura. As she was a bit surprised by the sound, she drops various items from her tray table. She is irritated and begins to wipe up spilled orange juice from her skirt. A little girl named Jannie smiles and looks at Laura. A man named David, sitting across the aisle from Laura, picks up her powder compact. We see an inscription that reads: To LAURA from your mother.

At the same time, we notice a man wearing a hooded garment on the same airplane. He is reciting some sort of charm: Old Wise Man Shadow, Old Wise Man Shadow.

A crystal ball on his knee glows red.

And then two male passengers stand up and open fire with guns. They shout, "Shut up, you people! Soon the Old Wise Man Shadow will show up." The airplane's passengers are struck with terror.

And several gunshots and fatalities, Laura's compact starts to glow in an unnatural way. David opens it and sees the small piece of meteor coming towards the airplane in the mirror.

David stands up, quickly takes Laura's hand and runs. Then, the airplane is struck by a meteor. It crashes in a snowy mountain.

Back to Laura - waking up in the bed in the lodge. We know now she is driven by a nightmare of the crash. Kimberly stands up and walks toward Laura. At that moment, someone breaks into the lodge. It is one of the men who opened fire in the airplane.

Kimberly picks up a shotgun and aims for him. But the man suddenly produces some sort of weird material from within his body. It looks like vines and leaves. It was as if a plant had burst out from his body. Kimberly shoots at the material several times, but it doesn't die.

The movie ends here.

After the movie was shown, we all had a chance to hear the main musical theme of the game (written by Kenji Eno) performed by a trio that included Eno on piano.

And we also saw an actual game segment controlled by Eno.

He first showed the D2 logo with the texture mapping on it. The logo was moved, rotated and spun. It spins at a really high speed with a blurry effect. Yes, it was a little silly, but actually the spinning and the image was amazingly smooth looking. One can surely be impressed by the power of Dreamcast.

Then we saw actual gameplay. Again, Eno was at the controls.

The game was running at 60 frames per second. You can go anywhere in the environment - as far as you can see. Every leaf on the tree is made by polygons. This is not cardboard art. You can explore the fields, and enter the houses.

Facial expressions are emphasized. Laura can express her feelings with detailed 3D animation.

Looking at Laura walking on the snowy ground with a gun in her hand will remind everyone of Lara Croft. But when Laura encounters an enemy, the game's look completely changes. The point of view will be first-person. And it is a shooting game. A red sight appears in the middle of the screen. Eno referred to D2 as playing a bit like Virtua Cop.

There are three movie sequences in the game (at the opening, in the middle, and at the end). Movies are all MPEG cut scenes, so the look is VHS quality footage.

There's a plan for using Dreamcast's networking capability. But there is no plan for multiplayer game play. There will be various downloads - including music, which apparently will be available.

After Eno-san's demonstration, he introduced his personal friend and business partner, Sega Enterprises president Shoichirou Irimajiri. Irimajiri-san explained just how excited he is about D2. He explained that he was the one who asked Eno to develop D2 for Dreamcast and not the M2. Irimajiri said he is expecting that D2 will be ready when Dreamcast is launched. He then asked Eno if this was possible. Eno answered "Maybe..."

If all goes according to plan, Dreamcast and D2 will both be ready for release later this year.