System Shock 2 Contest Winner Will Be Killed by SHODAN

Looking Glass Studios has picked the winner of its Get Killed By SHODAN contest: Brian Norris of St. Louis, drawn at random out of a pool of over 4,500 entries. His name and likeness will appear in System Shock 2 as one of the crew members murdered by SHODAN, the rogue AI who terrorized players in the original System Shock. Over 4,500 people volunteered to be killed by a homicidal computer. Sounds about right.

The game itself is due this summer, and it layers a full role-playing system onto the science-fiction horror: detailed character generation and growth, inventory and equipment management, and clusters of special traits that vary per character. On the technical side Looking Glass is promising textures in 16-bit color, colored light sources, and variable translucency, plus a new, easier interface that keeps all the depth of the original.