and now, a collection of articles (and eventually also forum & usenet postings) on the Geist Force game, and the related CGI / FMV demo.
http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/065/065241p1.html
Geist Force -- First Pics
Sega's fabled "E3 Shooter" gets shown at TGS
By IGN Staff
October 15, 1998 - Shown to an awe-stuck industry crowd prior to last May's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Geist Force was on display at the Tokyo Game Show in video-only form - and it's an almost entirely different game to the one we saw just five months ago.
Developed by Sega of America's internal studio and sporting cinematics by Netter Digital Entertainment, Inc, who also do the special effects for Babylon 5, Geist Force is an enormous 3D flying shooter set on an alien planet in the distant future. The game features hundreds of miles of 3D mountains, deep canyons, erupting volcanoes and rushing rivers. The game also offers full-3D special effects with true-to-life physics. When an explosion occurs, a player's ship and the objects in the immediate area will be jolted by the blast, as would occur in the real world.
The Tokyo Game Show demo was allegedly nearly 80% complete, but is largely unpopulated by enemies and suffers from occasional slowdown. What's odd is that the version shown at E3 was packed with enemies, was smooth as silk and was bristling with all sorts of special effects not in this version.
Needless to say, there's plenty of head-scratching going on, and there's even been talk that what we saw prior to E3 was actually pre-rendered footage and not a game utilizing 30% of Dreamcast's potential power.
Much can - and probably will - change with the game before its early December release rolls around in Japan. We'll keep you posted.
http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/068/068219p1.html
Geist Force Canceled
DC shooter is no more thanks to Sega quality control
By IGN Staff
May 21, 1999 - It appears that Geist Force, whose's status has been more uncertain than Oprah's dietary habits, has taken a flying leap of the cliff of gaming oblivion. A spokesperson from Sega told IGNDC that despite earlier rumors that the project was being handed to other programmers inside Sega after a recent internal shake-up, Sega COO Bernie Stolar recently decided the project was better left unfinished.
Prior to E3, Sega claimed the title was still on target for a September release with the system, but apparently after further examination early last week, Stolar decided to cancel the project as it simply did not live up to Sega's AAA billing. While it is certainly a bit depressing to see Geist fall by the wayside, it is nonetheless a positive sign to see Sega upholding some standard of quality for their titles.
Sega did manage to say that certain element of the title, such as art direction and certain gameplay aspects are being saved in hopes that they could be incorporated into later titles, but as of yet were not prepared to comment on what, if anything, they had in mind. We'll be sure to keep poking around, and you can expect the full scoop when it surfaces.
I think we can squarely place the blame of Geist Force's cancelation on then-SoA President Bernie Stolar. edit: actually, it might have been that Stolar simply announced the cancelation, and that it was SoJ's decision.
more:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec ... ode=source
Move beyond all the hot air and bs, and take a good hard look at what's been going on at SOA thus far. We've seen them bleeding executives left and right and having Ion Storm calibre product development disasters (the Gamefan revelation yesterday that Stolar has fired much of the Geist Force team after a year of delays to begin with is only the latest fiasco).
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec ... ode=source
Darien Allen May 20 1999, 12:00 am
rec.games.video.sega
I HATE that Geist Force was cancelled...
and I think the reason blows to high heaven "because it did not
possess the quality-level of the rest of Dreamcast's launch titles".
My brain must be getting addled, because I've gone around and round
with Mike Mullis on this one...and can't figure it out. Basically
Mike thinks the Starfox comparisons are bothering Sega. But if the
game is graphically superior and plays better...wouldn't all the
reviews have ended up saying this is what Star Fox for the N64 should
have been?
Or is this ïn-game"?
