As soon as the E3 electronics show ended, pokeni began to strike while the iron was hot.

Contracts had already been negotiated with distributors in the Omi region in April, and the game was already a hit before it was released.

For the whole of July, the streets and software stores in the United States will be filled with advertisements for Pokeni's "Border".

In fact, the advertising effect was not as strong as the exhibition and media coverage in E3.

On the E3, the world has seen the potential of pokeni, and at the same time, it has also seen the effect of NVIDIA's graphics card.

So as soon as the media released the relevant news, "Border" immediately became the focus of attention.

With the deepening of operational activities, more and more players have also learned about this game.

"Wow, is the game capable of doing this now?"

At the entrance of the software store, there is a large poster of "Frontier".

Above, a fiery, red-stained sky, and below, in the midst of a dense forest, two opposing armies were engaged in an exchange of fire.

Instead of using real people, the in-game model effect (relatively more high-poly models), but it has been done quite realistically.

At a glance, I thought it was a real soldier, and the macho man was carrying out fierce fire with a submachine gun.

If you take a closer look, you'll see that these guys are game models.

But such a poster has surpassed all the action games on the market now, and players are amazed.

"It's all fake, right? How is this possible in the game? ”

"Not necessarily, it is said that at the E3 Electronics Exhibition, the p company conducted a demonstration of the actual machine, and the effect is really similar to this, maybe the model will be a little rougher, but the scene effect is really quite good."

"Really? IS POKENI ALREADY SO POWERFUL NOW? ”

……

In fact, it is a very wise choice to choose the Omi region as the main battlefield, and Neon has no popularity for "Border" in China.

However, in the United States region, the enthusiasm of players is high, and they are full of anticipation for the game.

Before the game was released, many people were already jumping on it.

Action games, especially gun shooters, are very popular in the Omi region.

……

On August 15, 1997, "Border" was released on time.

Noel Cook is a junior living in California and doesn't have any hobbies, other than gaming.

On this day, he hurried to the software store, bought "Frontier", and hurried back to his student dormitory.

Although he is only in his 20s, Knoll has been playing for more than a decade, and he has been an avid fan of Pokeni since a long time ago.

From "Diablo" to the later "Eternal Ashes", and most recently The Witcher 2, he has bought and collected it well.

As early as a month ago, he went to the E3 electronics show in Atlanta because he liked pokeni.

P Society once again conquered his heart with an extremely excellent performance.

At the pre-exhibition press conference, Knoll saw the effect of "Border", and the whole person was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

It's really scary to be able to do this kind of game.

For this reason, he has been working hard to earn money for a while, and has just replaced his computer with the latest NVIDIA GeForce256 graphics card.

It turned out that he was planning to buy a voodoo graphics card, and it was Pokeni who saved him and allowed him to save a sum of money.

Switched straight to the state-of-the-art GeForce.

After upgrading the computer, he suddenly found that the Command & Conquer game, or Warcraft 2, which might have been a little stuttering before, was now very smooth to play.

I've never had such a good gaming experience, it's like the whole world is sped up.

……

Now Knoll lives with another classmate named Rose.

A student dormitory is similar to an apartment, with two people in one room, just like a bedroom at home, and two people can arrange it according to their preferences.

Ross is also a fan of the game.

It's just that I went to the party today, and I don't think I'll be back until tomorrow.

Rose is a tall boy with a high nose and big eyes, and he is a good basketball player, so he is very popular with girls.

In college alone, as far as Knoll knew, Rose had changed girlfriends from more than one football team.

But Knoll thought it was good, and when Rose wasn't there, the dormitory was his own.

Do whatever you want.

Playing the game will also not affect Ross sleeping.

The thought of being able to play an all-nighter tonight made Knoll feel unusually happy and happy.

That's great!

Rose, enjoy your party and don't come back tonight.

……

Back in the dormitory, Knoll Cook closed the door, then turned on the computer, unpacked the game, and took out the disc and put it in the drive.

The total size of the game is 1.2G, which is a bit scary in this era.

But when I think about the game graphics shown in Frontier, Noll is relieved.

I even vaguely felt a little happy.

If a game can't drain the performance of the computer and graphics card, then I bought NVIDIA's GeForce 256 for nothing.

Of course, Qing Zhiyuan also knows this, and making games is based on the top configuration, because only in this way can players be driven to update and buy Nvidia's graphics cards.

In a sense, "Border" and NVIDIA's GPUs exist as a match, and they are indispensable for each other's achievements.

Without the border out of the circle, Nvidia's graphics cards would not sell so well.

After the installation of the 1.2G game was completed, it almost came to about 1.5G, which almost filled the entire hard disk of Knoll.

In 97 years, the capacity of hard disks is generally about 2G, and some high-end computers can reach 4G, but more than 4G is not civilian.

It's not that there isn't, but it's not yet to the point where it can be used by ordinary people.

After the installation is complete, a new icon appears on the desktop of the computer.

The icons are split into black and white.

The white part is a side silhouette wearing a military uniform and holding a submachine gun, and if you look closely, it is not difficult to see that it is a mirror image of a gun-wielding character, but the position of the two people holding guns is different, so a strange pattern is formed in the picture.

Pokeni's icon design is really interesting.

Knoll looked at it for a while, and always felt that such an icon design had a certain meaning, but he still hadn't been able to read it.

"Good, now it's time for me to enjoy the game."

For a child who grew up in the United States, especially in California, guns or something are simply a common thing in life.

California's certification requirement is to be at least 21 years old, and Knoll only got a gun license last year, and now he can legally carry a gun.

What it's like to experience shooting in a game, Noll hasn't had a particularly satisfying experience yet.

I HOPE POKENI DOESN'T LET ME DOWN.

Noll holds the mouse in his right hand,

Double-click on the game icon to enter the game.

The first thing that appears on the computer screen is the logo of the game production company:

POKENI

[Game is life]

[In the game, start a new journey in life]

After that comes the name of the studio:

Gravitation Studio

Gravity Studios

This is also the new studio built by Breivik among the Pokeni Mi Guo companies, which is mainly responsible for the development of this shooting game, and will also undertake the development of other shooter action games in the future, such as "The Matrix", which will also be handed over to this studio later.

Noel Cook was a little trance-stricken.

Because he seems to have gotten used to the logo of POKENI, or the logo of most big game companies in China, he has seen it a lot, and suddenly a relatively unfamiliar studio logo appeared, which made him a little unaccustomed.

Truth be told, the Gravity Studios icon is really ugly, a twisted-looking blackened metal mask pattern.

It was also the first game developed by the studio.

Knoll had never heard the name of the studio before.

He was more looking forward to being produced by the neon headquarters, Shinji Mikami or Hidetaka Miyazaki, who has been very popular recently, and it seems that the United States has no experience in developing action games, and the only thing that can be done before is "Eternal Ashes"

However, Forever Ashes is a turn-based game that throws dice, and it has little to do with action games, so it's hard to see how well Pokeni Mikoku develops action games.

But it doesn't matter, although it is not a game made by Pokeni's neon headquarters, but Noll, who has already known the general appearance before, is still full of confidence in the game.

It doesn't really matter which studio made it, it's the content that matters.

The screen went black at first, then quickly lit up.

came to the main interface of the game.

The background image of the main screen is an island, and you can see the clear blue sky and blue sea in the distance.

In the distance, soldiers from two different countries are standing on the beach and exchanging fire, the flames spraying out of the muzzles of their guns, and the trajectory of the bullets is stretched in the frame.

Just seeing this main interface picture, I can't help but make people's blood boil.

On the right is a row of menu bar options:

【Campaign Mode】

【LAN】

【WAN】

【Settings】

【Development List】

【CG】

Hey?

When he saw the LAN and WAN, Noll Cook was stunned for a moment.

He suddenly remembered that indeed in the demonstration session of the E3 Electronics Show, Qing Zhiyuan had clearly said that the game "Border" could be played online by multiple people at the same time.

How many people can be supported at the same time?

20 people?

Thinking about it, Knoll stuck out his tongue.

It's kind of awesome.,Border this game.。

But...... He can't find so many people to play multiplayer with him.

LAN is definitely smoother, and WAN, I don't know if I can guarantee the gaming experience.

After some careful research, Knorr finally decided to play the campaign directly.

The campaign is single-player, but it can also be played in two, but you'll need to build a console room and connect via a local area network.

At this moment, Knoll couldn't help but complain a little about Rose.

This guy usually spends a little bit of fun, but he's a good hand at playing games, so if only he hadn't fooled around with the girls tonight.

How nice would it be if two people could play the game together?

Noll Cook shook his head, sighed, and clicked [Start New Game]

The screen went black, and a combat minimap appeared.

In the 2D flat mini-map, the terrain of the entire world is drawn.

The camera pans into the middle, and then the screen frames to the largest continent in the middle, which straddles two oceans.

Although the overall world map is somewhat similar to the real earth, it still makes very obvious changes and distinctions.

It's a world that has been elevated.

[This is a real and illusory world]

[On this continent called Noster, there have been two opposing countries since ancient times, one is called the Republic of Balk and the other is called the Republic of Corion.

Because these two countries are bordering each other and are close to each other, the war is continuous.

After entering the new century, with the development of human industry, thermal weapons have been used in the battlefield.

Firearms, artillery fire, bombs, resulting in more casualties.

War is no longer a time when individual size and strength are different, and even a short, thin guy can still kill a man much taller than himself by using a firearm.

In such a situation, war becomes simple and brutal.

And this time, Balk and Corion are organizing armies and fighting for the border. 】

The whole animation, which is extremely simple, but gives people a particularly intense feeling, is demonstrated on the minimap throughout:

When it comes to Balk, a piece of land is circled in white on the map on the left, and when it comes to Corrien, its territory and territory are depicted in red lines.

And finally—

The camera advances to the intersection of the two countries.

A small narrow border in the middle, with forests, valleys, and a coastline near the sea to the south.

Small blue arrows were pulled out of the Balk Republic on the left, and then converged into a large blue arrow, pointing at the border in the middle.

At the same time, there are also many small red arrows on the right part of Corion, which converge into large arrows, which also point to the border in the middle.

Two large red and blue flags were planted on the middle ground.

Then a flame burns up from the middle, like a paper map in the real world, with a candle lightly underneath.

The flames burned a large hole in the middle, and then quickly spread all over the map.

Ashes burned, scattering from the screen......

Seeing this scene, Noel's fighting heart was ignited.

That's too artistic, isn't it?

Originally, I thought it would be a 2D map display, but the moment when the flame burned at the end was really exciting.

It is worthy of Pokeni, although it is the Pokeni of the United States, but Noel has also felt its technical and design capabilities.

And I don't know why, I didn't even see a decent character and war scenes, just staring at a few red and blue arrows, Knoll had already made up a lot of magnificent war pictures in his brain.

……

After the video is played,

Entered the first level mission:

The game starts with the Republic of Corion.

The player takes on the role of a soldier from Corien.

[You are a high-ranking soldier of our army,

Sent on a secret mission.

In this village, Werner, a high-ranking officer of our army who had been captured, was detained.

You must rescue him within the allotted time, otherwise he may reveal the military secrets of our army and cause terrible losses.

In order to complete the mission, you will stop at nothing to deal with the obstructive enemy.

A more aggressive way of fighting, or a smarter one, is up to you. 】

……

After the subtitles ended, the map section of [Border] was taken out separately in the screen (in fact, Pokeni only made a terrain design of the size of the border)

The conflict zone between the two countries is, on the whole, a strip of long, narrow shapes, but it is divided into several parts.

This time the mission began in the forest on the right near the Corrion side.

The camera pans in, and a flag is planted in the area.

The scene shifts to a village with rocks piled up on the side of the road and a small hill with graves nearby.

In the distance is a large wheat field.

The trees around them withered, like giant hands stretched out one by one, grasping something towards the sky.

The male protagonist hides behind a large tree and wears a military uniform characteristic of Corion.

The uniform is a light-colored military uniform that fits the character's body, except that the head is not visible, and his cuffs are rolled up to reveal two strong arms.

This is a standard first-person view game, with the camera just above the neck, and all of the player's actions are observed through this camera.

In order to achieve the simulation of the perspective of people in the real world.

While Pokeni wasn't the first to do a first-person perspective, it was by far the best experience for Knoll.

Next, the game moves on to the teaching part.

The teaching content is very simple.

First, they teach walking, climbing, jumping, and crouching.

After learning to jump, Noll began to press the spacebar as he walked.

That is, the effect of running and jumping in the picture.

Even if you don't press the spacebar, you always feel like something is missing.

……

Yes.

Noll Cook was quite surprised by the game's graphics.

He originally thought that this game would be a version of the game with a very rough model produced by a small workshop, but when he came in, he found that the game's graphics were quite well detailed.

In 3D mode, all kinds of lighting and shadows, as well as the models and materials of the trees around you are quite realistic, and the shapes and movements of the characters have reached an amazing level.

Sure enough, everything Qing Zhiyuan said was true.

The sets and objects in the game are no longer the rigid photo patterns that were commonplace in the past, but models and textures that are textured and well handled in detail.

And this time, Pokeni is no longer using static light effects, but dynamic light, which is generated by real-time calculation, but it is still in a relatively early stage.

Even if it doesn't reach the ray tracing effect of around 2020 in the previous life, the current dynamic light is enough to amaze Knoll.

When you show it, it gives a natural feeling.

The trunk still has some rough outlines, but it has been done quite well.

This is probably one of the best 3D games Knoll has played in recent years.

It seems that buying an Nvidia graphics card is a very wise decision.

……

————————————————————————

There is another chapter in the afternoon

(End of chapter)