Summer 2011 (Part 13) - Land Of Enchantment
Land Of Enchantment
Land Of Enchantment is a thematic adventure game published by Apple exclusively for the Apple iTwin. Taking place in both 1947 and 2011, the game tells the story of five teenagers who discover a mysterious crashed spaceship in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and are immediately granted superpowers, but then are warped to modern day New Mexico in 2011, only to be pursued by government agents and forced to work together to figure out their powers and survive. The game is a sort of combination of Uncharted and Psychonauts, and focuses just as much on exploration and puzzle solving as it does on action and combat. Players can control any of the five protagonists, and have the ability to switch between them at any time (much like how Grand Theft Auto V allows switching between its three protagonists), and each playable character has both a shared set of basic moves (running, jumping, climbing, action, etc.) and their own unique set of powers, each of which are required to progress through the story.
The five protagonists are as follows:
Shaun: The primary protagonist, Shaun is a fairly average teenage boy. He plays baseball and is somewhat popular, and takes on somewhat of a leadership role on the team. Shaun acquires the ability to turn himself invisible, allowing him to sneak around and manipulate objects and people without being seen.
Cliff: A James Dean/rebel type, Cliff is your typical "bad boy", leather jacket and all, though he harbors deep insecurities below his tough exterior. Cliff acquires a sort of empathic ability, able to sense and influence the emotions of others, which brings out his insecurities even more.
Arabeth: Arabeth is a quiet girl raised in a religious household, but longs to be her own woman and escape the life of a homemaker that her parents have planned for her. She has the ability to manipulate time, both to slow it down and speed it up, and is also the one responsible for the group's time travel to 2011.
Jane: Jane is a bit of a rebel herself, but she longs to be one of the popular girls, and even has a crush on Shaun. She's loud and frequently speaks her mind, and her powers involve telepathy/telekinesis, able to speak in people's minds, hear their thoughts, and manipulate objects.
Bill: Bill loves working on cars and fixing them, but his family doesn't have a lot of money and he frequently has to trawl the scrapyard for anything he can find. Bill has electrical manipulation, and can even give inanimate objects a degree of intelligence.
Land Of Enchantment lacks a defined mission structure like most games. Instead, players are intended to explore their surroundings for clues about how best to process (though the more the player explores, the more hints they're given). Players are encouraged to search around and talk to people, both NPCs and their fellow protagonists, for ideas and clues. It's possible for two or more protagonists to give each other suggestions about what to do next, for example, Jane can suggest to Shaun that the two explore a particular building or talk to a particular person, or Arabeth can direct Bill in combat. The friendship and camraderie between the five protagonists is a major part of the game, and even when the characters are literally separated by 64 years, they're almost constantly talking to one another. Combat utilizes both regular attacking and the characters' powers in order to deal damage to enemies or just distract them. There are melee weapons in the game, but no firearms (enemies have them, but none of the protagonists can pick them up in combat). Ranged attacks can be performed by certain characters, for example, Jane can use telepathy to throw something, or Bill can use electricity to shock someone. Other characters can throw certain objects, and there are unique/creative/context sensitive ways to fight as well, but for the most part, combat is to be avoided in favor of escape or simply talking it out. The game uses both traditional and motion controls, with many mini-games designed around the motion controls (but still possible to play traditionally). Land Of Enchantment is designed to seriously push what the iTwin is capable of, and is probably the console's best looking game across its entire lifespan, with great character animation, outstanding background detail, and beautifully rendered cutscenes comparable to some of the stuff available on the Sapphire/Xbox 2. The game features a period-appropriate soundtrack for 1947 scenes and also a modern, contemporary soundtrack for 2011 scenes, with an orchestrated score as well. The game's voice cast consists of mostly unknowns, with none of the five protagonists being voiced by anyone who'd be recognizable for their work IOTL, and only a few career voice actors among the game's supporting cast.
Land Of Enchantment begins with a segment briefly introducing each of the five characters and how they end up near the crash site, with some of them already knowing each other and some (Arabeth, Cliff) meeting the group for the first time. They come across a strange, glowing object, only for each of them to be temporarily blinded by an overwhelming burst of light. They discover they've each been given superpowers, and head back home to try and sleep it off (some of them think it's a dream). The next day, government agents come for all of them, but they use their powers to escape, and eventually reunite back at the crash site, where they're all teleported to 2011 and modern day Roswell. They explore the town briefly, experiencing the modern sights and sounds, but soon, modern government agents pursue them, and they realize they're still notorious, even 64 years later (it's also revealed that at least two of the agents from 1947 managed to find a way to 2011). The next part of the game consists of the group trying to find a way back to 1947, but only Arabeth, Shaun, and Bill make it back, with Cliff and Jane stuck in 2011. After the groups are separated, Jane is still able to keep them in communication across time using a combination of her powers and Arabeth's. Arabeth, Shaun, and Bill head to 1947 Alamogordo, while Cliff and Jane head to Albuquerque, both groups hoping to find some answers. During this part of the game, about halfway through, each character goes through their own individual trial and tribulation: Arabeth reunites with her family and reveals her true dreams to them, making them upset, Shaun tries to deal with his growing feelings for Jane as the two of them talk each other through infiltrating a pair of government buildings, Bill (an African-American) is forced to confront racists and the temptation to use his powers on them, Cliff uses his powers at a hospital to help a young woman dying of cancer (he can't heal her but he can make her feel better with his empathic abilities), and Jane ends up captured, but even though she can't immediately escape, she is able to find out more about what's been happening, especially the two government agents who have traveled from 1947 to 2011. The agents, a Men In Black-esque male/female pair named 01 and 02, have been in negotiations with a group of aliens who have been monitoring Earth from outer space. The events of World War II convinced an alien council (the equivalent of Star Trek's United Federation Of Planets, and somewhat similar to the alien council Klaatu represented in The Day The Earth Stood Still) that humanity is dangerous and needs to be contained. A group of aliens who disagreed with the decision attempted to smuggle tech to Earth that would allow human beings to fight back against the council, but these aliens were caught and captured by government agents. 01 and 02 represent a group of dissenters who helped these rogue aliens escape custody, and thanks to time travel, the dissenting humans and dissenting aliens have been in contact for many years, formulating a plan to help humanity either prove its case that it deserves to be allowed to continue operating as normal, or to help humanity escape via as big an alien ship as can be smuggled away. However, members of the council have already infiltrated humanity, posing as both government agents and as civilians, and are attempting to stop and capture both groups of rebels. Jane manages to escape, and relays this information back to the rest of her group, leading to a series of missions making up the final third of the game. The rogue aliens intended for the superpowered tech to be given to humanity's greatest leaders at the time, which included the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. However, this would have involved giving superpowers to Joseph Stalin, which was deemed unacceptable by Agents 01 and 02, who sabotaged the mission so that they themselves (along with three other defectors, Agents 03, 04, and 05) would be granted the superpowers instead. The sabotage was botched, leading to the crashed Roswell craft and the five teenagers getting the superpowers instead. Ultimately, the five Agents decide that they want to use the superpowers to sabotage and destroy the entire alien council at once, and begin killing the alien defectors and the alien saboteurs both. They end up acquiring their own set of superpowers which are designed to directly counter the superpowers held by the teenagers. In a series of epic scenes and boss battles, the Agents initially battle the teenager whom their power is designed to defeat, and they end up defeating them, but the teenagers are able to switch things up and the true boss fights consist of Shaun, Cliff, Arabeth, Jane, and Bill each battling an Agent whose powers they ARE able to defeat. These boss fights are proceeded by emotional revelations for each of the protagonists, designed to give them determination, hope, and anger leading into their fight. Shaun is battling an Agent responsible for killing his father, Cliff is fighting after the cancer patient he helped in the hospital died in his arms, Arabeth is battling an Agent who tried to have her parents brainwash her, Jane is battling an Agent who killed one of her only friends, and Bill is battling an Agent who destroyed his brother's place of business and who nearly killed his brother. The teenagers defeat the Agents, and through their bravery and heroism (each of them having learned something important about themselves, made incredible character growth, and forgave most of the people who tried to harm them in the process) convince the alien council to spare Earth and to pardon the defectors. The game ends with Arabeth showing her friends a beautiful vision of the new 2011 for humanity, a technological paradise in which there's peace on Earth and where humans travel the stars. Arabeth doesn't know if it's a future set in stone, but she and her friends promise to use their gifts to bring humanity as close to that future as they possibly can.
Land Of Enchantment is released in September 2011, as one of the most hyped (if not the most hyped) iTwin exclusives of the year. Reviews are excellent, praising the game's graphics and cinematics, though there are some criticisms of the game's pacing, with a few critics calling it boring and keeping its score down around the low 9s instead of contending with games like Tales Of The Seven Seas: Horizon for the best reviews of the year. Still, the game gets great word of mouth, and initial sales are outstanding, with the game having the third best launch week sales ever for an iTwin exclusive. It doesn't really exceed the hype, but it does very much live up to it, and Apple has another hit IP on their hands.
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October 5, 2011
The fifth of October, 2011 was a normal, healthy day for Steve Jobs. His cancer still in complete remission, he spent most of the day attending meetings at Apple headquarters. His fitness and vigor had mostly returned, his weight was up from a few years ago, and he had as much energy as ever. At 3 in the afternoon, he felt a sort of out of body feeling, almost as if two ghosts were passing each other in the aether at the exact location of his body, but in a split second, that feeling was gone, and he shrugged it off as the briefest of dizzy spells, before making his way to his next meeting.
This meeting took place in a large conference room, where some of his top developers had been comparing notes and demonstrating tech for a new Apple device, one set for release sometime in the next two years. Everyone in the room turned to greet Jobs as he entered, but he quickly waved at them and told them to keep working.
"Don't stop on my account," said Jobs, before going to meet with one of his tech designers, who was holding a tablet in one hand while speaking into an earpiece. "Talking to the media?"
"No, this is actually Capcom on the phone right now," said the designer. "After this latest demo, we're comparing ideas for that RPG they want to make for us."
"The immersive one?"
"Yeah, Project Immerse."
"Do we have the combat fixed? I know it's got to be kept kind of simple because of the motion controls, but it's also gotta be fun, it can't be like a fucking Elder Scrolls game."
"They want to do something like Devil May Cry, but with two feet kept on the ground."
"I want the player to be able to bend down, pick up the monster, and slam it back down again, or tear it apart."
"That's what I told them, they said it's possible, they just have to work out how it's actually programmed into the game."
Jobs nodded his head and paced the room. The demo units were still in place, and Jobs briefly looked at them, a pair of small boxes, with lenses on the front and then a third, larger box, mounted on a platform behind them. He could see one of his designers standing nearby with another tablet, and on the screen he could see some parameters recorded by the three boxes. He stepped in the center of the boxes and picked up two objects that looked like iTwin controllers, but larger, more curved, and with straps.
"Hey, one of you guys hook me up, I'm gonna play for a bit," said Jobs. Most of the designers in the room turned toward him, and one ran over and hooked up the large box to a power source and a screen. "Thanks."
Jobs immediately found himself in a stony dungeon, as shown on the large flatscreen monitor in front of him. As he moved his legs, his character moved, and as he moved the controllers, his hands moved. One press of a button on the right controller unsheathed a sword, and as a monster approached, Jobs swung to cut it down. He swung again. His sword movements were quite fluid, and it was possible to do a few basic combos without having to exert himself much. He looked satisfied, but he was never satisfied, and after a minute or two of playing, set the controllers back down.
"What's Sonic going to look like on this?" he asked one of his designers.
"We want the player to be able to sort of 'throw' Sonic across the screen, one flick of the wrist sends him flying."
Jobs nodded, and checked some of his designers' notes on the machine's recent performance.
"And games like Land Of Enchantment, how would they function?"
"Here, I'll show you."
Jobs picked up the controllers again, and immediately was transported back into a virtual world, this time into a higher-definition version of Land Of Enchantment, with even more realistic motion controls and a first-person perspective. He was playing as Jane, and was easily able to use his hands to telekinetically throw objects around. However, he still wasn't completely impressed.
"I know, I know," said one of the designers. "Just... give a little eye flick. Look at what you're wanting to pick up, just look at it."
Jobs fixated on a vending machine in the corner of the room.
"Now just move your eyes where you want it to go while holding down the trigger button on either controller."
Jobs held down the trigger and looked at an enemy nearby. The vending machine was flung to the left, taking the enemy out.
"Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."
Even Steve Jobs was impressed that time. For the briefest of moments, he felt like he actually had superpowers. There were still plenty of technical kinks to work out, but the new technology was working even better than he had expected it to, and it was vastly better than the iTwin's simple motion controls.
"It's good so far," said Jobs, putting the controllers down after a few more minutes of play. He spent a bit more time talking to his developers and designers, then left the room to attend another meeting.
It wasn't the first tech demo he'd been given for the new device, and it definitely wouldn't be the last, but Steve Jobs was more confident than ever as he left the conference room at Apple HQ that day. Whatever Google was cooking up, whatever Nintendo had planned, it was nothing like this.
The Apple Virtua was looking better than ever, and Jobs planned to launch it in less than two years. If it was as fun for everyone else as it was for him, Apple looked poised to win what he hoped would be its second console generation in a row.
And once he'd done that, he could figure out how he was going to accomplish his next goal: putting his rivals out of the video game business once and for all.
Land Of Enchantment is a thematic adventure game published by Apple exclusively for the Apple iTwin. Taking place in both 1947 and 2011, the game tells the story of five teenagers who discover a mysterious crashed spaceship in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and are immediately granted superpowers, but then are warped to modern day New Mexico in 2011, only to be pursued by government agents and forced to work together to figure out their powers and survive. The game is a sort of combination of Uncharted and Psychonauts, and focuses just as much on exploration and puzzle solving as it does on action and combat. Players can control any of the five protagonists, and have the ability to switch between them at any time (much like how Grand Theft Auto V allows switching between its three protagonists), and each playable character has both a shared set of basic moves (running, jumping, climbing, action, etc.) and their own unique set of powers, each of which are required to progress through the story.
The five protagonists are as follows:
Shaun: The primary protagonist, Shaun is a fairly average teenage boy. He plays baseball and is somewhat popular, and takes on somewhat of a leadership role on the team. Shaun acquires the ability to turn himself invisible, allowing him to sneak around and manipulate objects and people without being seen.
Cliff: A James Dean/rebel type, Cliff is your typical "bad boy", leather jacket and all, though he harbors deep insecurities below his tough exterior. Cliff acquires a sort of empathic ability, able to sense and influence the emotions of others, which brings out his insecurities even more.
Arabeth: Arabeth is a quiet girl raised in a religious household, but longs to be her own woman and escape the life of a homemaker that her parents have planned for her. She has the ability to manipulate time, both to slow it down and speed it up, and is also the one responsible for the group's time travel to 2011.
Jane: Jane is a bit of a rebel herself, but she longs to be one of the popular girls, and even has a crush on Shaun. She's loud and frequently speaks her mind, and her powers involve telepathy/telekinesis, able to speak in people's minds, hear their thoughts, and manipulate objects.
Bill: Bill loves working on cars and fixing them, but his family doesn't have a lot of money and he frequently has to trawl the scrapyard for anything he can find. Bill has electrical manipulation, and can even give inanimate objects a degree of intelligence.
Land Of Enchantment lacks a defined mission structure like most games. Instead, players are intended to explore their surroundings for clues about how best to process (though the more the player explores, the more hints they're given). Players are encouraged to search around and talk to people, both NPCs and their fellow protagonists, for ideas and clues. It's possible for two or more protagonists to give each other suggestions about what to do next, for example, Jane can suggest to Shaun that the two explore a particular building or talk to a particular person, or Arabeth can direct Bill in combat. The friendship and camraderie between the five protagonists is a major part of the game, and even when the characters are literally separated by 64 years, they're almost constantly talking to one another. Combat utilizes both regular attacking and the characters' powers in order to deal damage to enemies or just distract them. There are melee weapons in the game, but no firearms (enemies have them, but none of the protagonists can pick them up in combat). Ranged attacks can be performed by certain characters, for example, Jane can use telepathy to throw something, or Bill can use electricity to shock someone. Other characters can throw certain objects, and there are unique/creative/context sensitive ways to fight as well, but for the most part, combat is to be avoided in favor of escape or simply talking it out. The game uses both traditional and motion controls, with many mini-games designed around the motion controls (but still possible to play traditionally). Land Of Enchantment is designed to seriously push what the iTwin is capable of, and is probably the console's best looking game across its entire lifespan, with great character animation, outstanding background detail, and beautifully rendered cutscenes comparable to some of the stuff available on the Sapphire/Xbox 2. The game features a period-appropriate soundtrack for 1947 scenes and also a modern, contemporary soundtrack for 2011 scenes, with an orchestrated score as well. The game's voice cast consists of mostly unknowns, with none of the five protagonists being voiced by anyone who'd be recognizable for their work IOTL, and only a few career voice actors among the game's supporting cast.
Land Of Enchantment begins with a segment briefly introducing each of the five characters and how they end up near the crash site, with some of them already knowing each other and some (Arabeth, Cliff) meeting the group for the first time. They come across a strange, glowing object, only for each of them to be temporarily blinded by an overwhelming burst of light. They discover they've each been given superpowers, and head back home to try and sleep it off (some of them think it's a dream). The next day, government agents come for all of them, but they use their powers to escape, and eventually reunite back at the crash site, where they're all teleported to 2011 and modern day Roswell. They explore the town briefly, experiencing the modern sights and sounds, but soon, modern government agents pursue them, and they realize they're still notorious, even 64 years later (it's also revealed that at least two of the agents from 1947 managed to find a way to 2011). The next part of the game consists of the group trying to find a way back to 1947, but only Arabeth, Shaun, and Bill make it back, with Cliff and Jane stuck in 2011. After the groups are separated, Jane is still able to keep them in communication across time using a combination of her powers and Arabeth's. Arabeth, Shaun, and Bill head to 1947 Alamogordo, while Cliff and Jane head to Albuquerque, both groups hoping to find some answers. During this part of the game, about halfway through, each character goes through their own individual trial and tribulation: Arabeth reunites with her family and reveals her true dreams to them, making them upset, Shaun tries to deal with his growing feelings for Jane as the two of them talk each other through infiltrating a pair of government buildings, Bill (an African-American) is forced to confront racists and the temptation to use his powers on them, Cliff uses his powers at a hospital to help a young woman dying of cancer (he can't heal her but he can make her feel better with his empathic abilities), and Jane ends up captured, but even though she can't immediately escape, she is able to find out more about what's been happening, especially the two government agents who have traveled from 1947 to 2011. The agents, a Men In Black-esque male/female pair named 01 and 02, have been in negotiations with a group of aliens who have been monitoring Earth from outer space. The events of World War II convinced an alien council (the equivalent of Star Trek's United Federation Of Planets, and somewhat similar to the alien council Klaatu represented in The Day The Earth Stood Still) that humanity is dangerous and needs to be contained. A group of aliens who disagreed with the decision attempted to smuggle tech to Earth that would allow human beings to fight back against the council, but these aliens were caught and captured by government agents. 01 and 02 represent a group of dissenters who helped these rogue aliens escape custody, and thanks to time travel, the dissenting humans and dissenting aliens have been in contact for many years, formulating a plan to help humanity either prove its case that it deserves to be allowed to continue operating as normal, or to help humanity escape via as big an alien ship as can be smuggled away. However, members of the council have already infiltrated humanity, posing as both government agents and as civilians, and are attempting to stop and capture both groups of rebels. Jane manages to escape, and relays this information back to the rest of her group, leading to a series of missions making up the final third of the game. The rogue aliens intended for the superpowered tech to be given to humanity's greatest leaders at the time, which included the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. However, this would have involved giving superpowers to Joseph Stalin, which was deemed unacceptable by Agents 01 and 02, who sabotaged the mission so that they themselves (along with three other defectors, Agents 03, 04, and 05) would be granted the superpowers instead. The sabotage was botched, leading to the crashed Roswell craft and the five teenagers getting the superpowers instead. Ultimately, the five Agents decide that they want to use the superpowers to sabotage and destroy the entire alien council at once, and begin killing the alien defectors and the alien saboteurs both. They end up acquiring their own set of superpowers which are designed to directly counter the superpowers held by the teenagers. In a series of epic scenes and boss battles, the Agents initially battle the teenager whom their power is designed to defeat, and they end up defeating them, but the teenagers are able to switch things up and the true boss fights consist of Shaun, Cliff, Arabeth, Jane, and Bill each battling an Agent whose powers they ARE able to defeat. These boss fights are proceeded by emotional revelations for each of the protagonists, designed to give them determination, hope, and anger leading into their fight. Shaun is battling an Agent responsible for killing his father, Cliff is fighting after the cancer patient he helped in the hospital died in his arms, Arabeth is battling an Agent who tried to have her parents brainwash her, Jane is battling an Agent who killed one of her only friends, and Bill is battling an Agent who destroyed his brother's place of business and who nearly killed his brother. The teenagers defeat the Agents, and through their bravery and heroism (each of them having learned something important about themselves, made incredible character growth, and forgave most of the people who tried to harm them in the process) convince the alien council to spare Earth and to pardon the defectors. The game ends with Arabeth showing her friends a beautiful vision of the new 2011 for humanity, a technological paradise in which there's peace on Earth and where humans travel the stars. Arabeth doesn't know if it's a future set in stone, but she and her friends promise to use their gifts to bring humanity as close to that future as they possibly can.
Land Of Enchantment is released in September 2011, as one of the most hyped (if not the most hyped) iTwin exclusives of the year. Reviews are excellent, praising the game's graphics and cinematics, though there are some criticisms of the game's pacing, with a few critics calling it boring and keeping its score down around the low 9s instead of contending with games like Tales Of The Seven Seas: Horizon for the best reviews of the year. Still, the game gets great word of mouth, and initial sales are outstanding, with the game having the third best launch week sales ever for an iTwin exclusive. It doesn't really exceed the hype, but it does very much live up to it, and Apple has another hit IP on their hands.
-
October 5, 2011
The fifth of October, 2011 was a normal, healthy day for Steve Jobs. His cancer still in complete remission, he spent most of the day attending meetings at Apple headquarters. His fitness and vigor had mostly returned, his weight was up from a few years ago, and he had as much energy as ever. At 3 in the afternoon, he felt a sort of out of body feeling, almost as if two ghosts were passing each other in the aether at the exact location of his body, but in a split second, that feeling was gone, and he shrugged it off as the briefest of dizzy spells, before making his way to his next meeting.
This meeting took place in a large conference room, where some of his top developers had been comparing notes and demonstrating tech for a new Apple device, one set for release sometime in the next two years. Everyone in the room turned to greet Jobs as he entered, but he quickly waved at them and told them to keep working.
"Don't stop on my account," said Jobs, before going to meet with one of his tech designers, who was holding a tablet in one hand while speaking into an earpiece. "Talking to the media?"
"No, this is actually Capcom on the phone right now," said the designer. "After this latest demo, we're comparing ideas for that RPG they want to make for us."
"The immersive one?"
"Yeah, Project Immerse."
"Do we have the combat fixed? I know it's got to be kept kind of simple because of the motion controls, but it's also gotta be fun, it can't be like a fucking Elder Scrolls game."
"They want to do something like Devil May Cry, but with two feet kept on the ground."
"I want the player to be able to bend down, pick up the monster, and slam it back down again, or tear it apart."
"That's what I told them, they said it's possible, they just have to work out how it's actually programmed into the game."
Jobs nodded his head and paced the room. The demo units were still in place, and Jobs briefly looked at them, a pair of small boxes, with lenses on the front and then a third, larger box, mounted on a platform behind them. He could see one of his designers standing nearby with another tablet, and on the screen he could see some parameters recorded by the three boxes. He stepped in the center of the boxes and picked up two objects that looked like iTwin controllers, but larger, more curved, and with straps.
"Hey, one of you guys hook me up, I'm gonna play for a bit," said Jobs. Most of the designers in the room turned toward him, and one ran over and hooked up the large box to a power source and a screen. "Thanks."
Jobs immediately found himself in a stony dungeon, as shown on the large flatscreen monitor in front of him. As he moved his legs, his character moved, and as he moved the controllers, his hands moved. One press of a button on the right controller unsheathed a sword, and as a monster approached, Jobs swung to cut it down. He swung again. His sword movements were quite fluid, and it was possible to do a few basic combos without having to exert himself much. He looked satisfied, but he was never satisfied, and after a minute or two of playing, set the controllers back down.
"What's Sonic going to look like on this?" he asked one of his designers.
"We want the player to be able to sort of 'throw' Sonic across the screen, one flick of the wrist sends him flying."
Jobs nodded, and checked some of his designers' notes on the machine's recent performance.
"And games like Land Of Enchantment, how would they function?"
"Here, I'll show you."
Jobs picked up the controllers again, and immediately was transported back into a virtual world, this time into a higher-definition version of Land Of Enchantment, with even more realistic motion controls and a first-person perspective. He was playing as Jane, and was easily able to use his hands to telekinetically throw objects around. However, he still wasn't completely impressed.
"I know, I know," said one of the designers. "Just... give a little eye flick. Look at what you're wanting to pick up, just look at it."
Jobs fixated on a vending machine in the corner of the room.
"Now just move your eyes where you want it to go while holding down the trigger button on either controller."
Jobs held down the trigger and looked at an enemy nearby. The vending machine was flung to the left, taking the enemy out.
"Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."
Even Steve Jobs was impressed that time. For the briefest of moments, he felt like he actually had superpowers. There were still plenty of technical kinks to work out, but the new technology was working even better than he had expected it to, and it was vastly better than the iTwin's simple motion controls.
"It's good so far," said Jobs, putting the controllers down after a few more minutes of play. He spent a bit more time talking to his developers and designers, then left the room to attend another meeting.
It wasn't the first tech demo he'd been given for the new device, and it definitely wouldn't be the last, but Steve Jobs was more confident than ever as he left the conference room at Apple HQ that day. Whatever Google was cooking up, whatever Nintendo had planned, it was nothing like this.
The Apple Virtua was looking better than ever, and Jobs planned to launch it in less than two years. If it was as fun for everyone else as it was for him, Apple looked poised to win what he hoped would be its second console generation in a row.
And once he'd done that, he could figure out how he was going to accomplish his next goal: putting his rivals out of the video game business once and for all.
