ATLANTA -- With more than 1,600 titles on display, and each in its own stage of development, picking favorites from among the games previewed at the E3 gaming conference proved a futile exercise. Still, the following titles caught our attention at this year's annual carnival of smoke, light, and heat -- if only momentarily. Release dates vary, but most are due out this fall or very early in 1999.
Elmer's Cut and Build 3-D: It just might be the first computer game brought to you by a glue factory. Kids can design an entire medieval village (or space station) on their screens with drag-and-drop architecture, then print it out in full color, cut it out, and glue the whole town together. Paste provided.
Daikatana: The next Quake? Game-design legend John Romero's time-traveling action title takes fans of the "first-person shooter" genre from ancient Greece to futuristic space stations. Ultra smooth rendering of aliens, guns, enemies ... and more guns.
Beneath: A third-person action adventure title set in 1906, where you play an Indiana Jones-type adventurer who descends into a hidden world through a fissure in a glacier. Put your hero through all kinds of neat movements, including hand-over-hand maneuvers along ledges and cables, and tricks with grappling hooks.
Perfect Dark: Another first-person action game from Nintendo, brought to you by the team that designed the smash hit Goldeneye. Players take the role of Joanne Dark, a cyberpunk-styled gunslinger in the year 2023, and blast away at big-headed aliens and other enemies, with the help of "real-time ray tracing" and "natural intelligence" technology.
Abe's Exoddus: From the developers of Oddworld comes the sequel to Abe's Oddysee, another chapter in the series of side-scrolling "platform" adventure games starring Abe, an odd-but-lovable "Mudokon" who's also a hunchback. He uncovers a grim plot involving bones and beer.
Age of Empires II: The game that made Microsoft a serious player in the world of computer gaming as well as word processors will be back at the end of the year, pending US Justice Department approval. Strategy gaming fans will likely invest hours working through history from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.
Tomb Raider III: Lara Croft goes from Antarctica to the jungle to the rooftops of London to an Area 51-style military base. More moves, better lighting, faster running.
Asteroids: This PlayStation and PC title is among a line of revived and revamped "vintage" titles at the show that also includes a remake of Centipede. This time around, you're working your laser cannon in 3-D, and those rocks can come at you from any side, or above, or below.
Lego Builder: You'll never run out of plastic with this game in which you assemble toys, cars, and anything else on screen from a bottomless bucket of virtual bricks. Once you're done, you can print out a diagram and give it to your friends.
Interstate 82: Picks up where Interstate 76 -- a funky action-driving game stocked with muscle cars bristling with big guns -- left off. Same characters, new graphics engine, new-wave cars, and new-wave soundtrack.
