Activision - Press News - Coming Soon Magazine

DARK REIGN BETA TEST REGISTRATION BEGINS FRIDAY, MARCH 21st

Activision's Action Strategy Game to be Publicly Tested. Space is Limited, Register Soon

Los Angeles, CA, March 10, 1997 - Gamers will soon have an opportunity to play Dark Reign: The Future of War for the first time ever. Beginning Friday, March 21st at 5:00pm (PST), Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) will start registering beta testers for this highly anticipated real- time, action/ strategy game. Go to Dark Reign's World Wide Web site, and click on the BETA TEST REGISTRATION PAGE. The first 100 applications submitted will receive a limited-edition mini-poster signed by the Dark Reign production team. A limited number of beta tester spaces are available.

Testers will be asked to critique Dark Reign's gameplay features, systems compatibility, multi-player capabilities and overall entertainment value. Testers will be working closely with Activision's creative affairs department to help the Dark Reign team polish the game to perfection.

The system requirements needed to participate in the beta testing are: Microsoft Windows 95 operating system with a double-speed CD-ROM drive; Pentium 90 MHz processor; 16 MB RAM; 16-bit color SVGA (640 x 480); VESA Local Bus or PCI video card with 1 MB of video RAM; at least 20 MB of uncompressed hard disk space; 14.4 modem for multiplayer option; 100% Sound Blaster-compatible sound card; 100% Microsoft- compatible mouse and driver.

Dark Reign will deliver an unprecedented gaming experience, featuring some of the most advanced options and highly evolved player-controllable artificial intelligence found in any action-strategy game to date. Players can assign unique behaviors to their units, including "harassment," "hit & run," "sentry" and "hunter/killer." Additionally, players can adjust each unit's "autonomy" (the degree to which a unit needs player input to function) and "tenacity" (the threshold at which a unit will retreat).

Sophisticated artificial intelligence makes every mission different (although the goal stays the same) by allowing for dynamic force matching. For example, dynamic force matching could have the enemy adjust resources, units and strategy to match, counter-strike and first-strike the player's every move.

Players can battle as either the powerful Imperium army or the renegade Freedom Guard forces in futuristic battles across jungles, volcanoes, urban moons and ice plains. True line-of-sight and elevated terrain allow players to use the topography to maximal strategic advantage by hiding out in ditches, atop mountains and under trees, out of enemy view. Moreover, the game's sophisticated engine realistically simulates battle conditions by speeding and slowing units as they descend or climb hills and cross different terrain types. By designating "waypoints" for their units to travel, players are able to coordinate multiple attacks on enemy positions.

Set in an uncharted region of space, a long-forgotten society is ravaged by a devastating war that rages across the heavens. The player must journey into the heart of the Imperium empire at war, where the Imperium and Freedom Guard struggle for control of a thousand worlds.

Dark Reign is being jointly developed by Activision, Inc. and Australian- based Auran (formerly Australis Microprogramming). The game will be published by Activision, Inc.

# # # Activision, Inc. is a publicly held developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS-compatible, Macintosh and other computers, as well as Nintendo, Sega, and Sony PlayStation game systems. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in London, Tokyo and Sydney, the company sells and markets products under the Activision and Infocom trade names.

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