A-LEVEL STARS ARE FINALLY JUMPING IN. No longer does a cameo by Dennis Weaver sum up Hollywood's involvement in multimedia. With Bruce Willis' participation in Activision's Apocalypse — including wearing an outfit wired to capture his every motion--a major movie player has really starred in a game. What once was career suicide now looks like career insurance: "They'll have the technology to capture an actor when he's 28 and use that when he's 80," Willis told the press at Atlanta's Planet Hollywood, of which he's a major shareholder. "And I intend to get in on that before I get too f---ing old."
AND A-LEVEL CHARACTERS ARE BEING SOLD OUT. Crude Mortal Kombat-style fighting games are cash cows, but surely LucasArts Entertainment's Star Wars franchise wouldn't go over to the dark side, right? Wrong: Unlikely galactic rumbles such as Chewbacca whomping on Princess Leia become a reality in Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE EMBARRASSED ABOUT PLAYING ON YOUR COMPUTER ANYMORE. Three-D accelerator cards for the PC are proliferating, and so are the games that take advantage of them. New titles like Quake 2 and Tomb Raider 2, using hardware like 3Dfx's Voodoo card, now have the razor-sharp graphics that once were found only on videogame systems.
THERE'S STILL ROOM FOR PLAIN OLD WEIRDNESS. Sony's Parappa the Rapper, a hit in Japan, is a hip-hop-meets-Simon Says PlayStation game that lets you help a one-dimensional dog rap his way to impressing his girlfriend (who's a flower — don't ask). Sounds like nothing you've played before? That's why it's so good.
SONY THROWS A HELL OF A PARTY. From martinis and cigars for thousands to the Grucci-level fireworks display, Sony's outdoor bash whispered, "We have money to burn." The capper was a 60-minute set by alternative godfathers Soul Asylum, easily E3's most entertaining offering. Someday, with any luck, even the games may be this good.
