Dreamcatcher was right next door to the Adventure Company booth and now that TAC is handling all the "adventure" style games Dreamcatcher is able to concentrate on the more action-oriented games. While they were showing around 8 new titles spanning all sorts of genres and even their first Xbox title (Arx Fatalis), the surprise hit of the booth, perhaps the entire show, was their upcoming FPS game, Painkiller.

Painkiller (PC)
Just when you thought the first-person shooter could be reinvented along comes Painkiller. This intense shooter takes everything you love about games like Doom, Quake, and Serious Sam and blends them together in a gothic horror FPS that will have your palms sweating before they even touch a mouse.

Graphically, Painkiller is unmatched. Played out over more than 20 completely unique and different levels, the proprietary 3D engine puts out 100X the polygons of the latest shooters, while adding increased texture quality and the latest lighting and shadowing techniques. No two levels share the same textures - something unheard of in a 3D game these days - and these levels are HUGE!

Dozens of unholy monsters controlled by chilling AI will instill new fear into gamers and the bosses have never been bigger or badder. Just watching the first giant boss storming through the chapel ruins knocking down pillars, walls and chunks of ceiling was breathtaking, partly due to the scale but the detail was stunning. Parts of the levels were actually constructed with individually modeled bricks so when you knock down a wall the Havok 2.0 physics engine deconstructs the level brick by brick.

Painkiller is about to put the "shooter" back in first-person shooter and is a likely contender for Action Game of the Year. Look for it this Fall.

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X-treme Beach Soccer (PC/Xbox/GBA)
Soccer is about to get a whole lot better with this exciting new arcade sports title, the first beach soccer game to ever hit the market. Never again will fans sit through dour 0-0 ties or tedious penalty shoot-outs. X-treme Beach Soccer takes gamers to a funky world of fast-paced action, where beach babes replace rampaging hooligans, and quick goals and crazy skills are the name of the game.

This adrenaline-fuelled game takes place in stadiums on the exotic beaches of Rio, Marseilles, Venice (California) and Bangkok. The game allows players to score amazing goals from bicycle kicks, diving headers, and tricked-out one-timers. With authentic world stars, laser shows, babes and DJs dropping ‘phat’ beats, this is one beach party you simply cannot miss!

With 32 teams, season, custom, survival and arcade modes available, gamers will be engrossed for hours. Using unique ‘Sand-Physics’ technology and more than 1000 motion captured moves, the game captures the authenticity of the sport while keeping the game fun and challenging for the casual gamer.

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U.S. Open 2003 (PC/Xbox)
Dreamcatcher keeps the sports them going with the latest next-gen tennis game. Grab your racket and get ready to hit the courts in the latest version of the critically acclaimed tennis game, US Open! Combining extra-fluid animations, smooth controls, incredibly realistic details both on and off the court, this game is sure to be a smash! Of course you can't forget the official courts and top stars from the US Open and Roland Garros tournaments that have been painstakingly replicated, but the jaw-dropping bonus courts make this tennis game completely different than all the others.

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