Midway Press Day: Area 51 Revealed

Online multiplatform first-person shooting. Oh my.

At their annual press event in Chicago, Midway divulged the first information today on Area 51, a new online first-person shooter based on the early-1990s series of arcade gun blasters. The title will hit the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004, and both versions will feature full online support.

Area 51's basic plot should be familiar to anyone who played Atari Games' series of light-gun shooters in the arcades. Lt. Nick Cross, a hazardous-materials specialist for the U.S. Army, has been sent to a remote part of the Nevada desert to investigate Area 51, the world-renowned government institution that's home to aliens and other bits of extraterrestrial nonsense. The truth, as they say, is out there, and Nick's got two things to worry about as he explores the complex for this truth?the alien creatures out to get him, and the bio-mutagen that's infected him and is slowly turning him into an alien himself.

In the single-player story mode, Nick has to blast through Area 51's eight stages of clandestine cover-ups and bloody horror, discovering secret items and attempting to find the secret behind the complex. Over 15 weapons (human and alien) are available, and as time goes on, the bio-mutagen pervading Nick's body will grant him alien-enhanced physical abilities. Multiplayer will include Deathmatch and several other game modes; you'll be allowed to play either online or off, via the game's four-player split-screen function.

As Midway is quick to point out in the release, Area 51's monsters are designed by Stan Winston Studio, the special-effects shop behind movies like Aliens, Jurassic Park, Predator and Edward Scissorhands. "The intrigue and rumors that surround the top-secret facility add a unique intensity and all-new dimension to this first-person shooter," stated Midway vice-president Helene Sheeler in a release.

More information should come on Area 51 shortly, so be patient.

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