Afrika Preview

Get ready to go on a safari.



Afrika is a PlayStation 3 game first announced briefly in a promotional video during the Sony press conference at E3 in 2006 and has a scheduled release date of 28 August 2008. It is an African safari simulator including wild animals from the far reaches of the continent. The game has been referred to as a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 title Pokemon Snap.

At the Tokyo Game Show 2007, a new trailer was shown featuring humans driving jeeps and walking with cameras taking photographs of the animals. The game is being developed by Rhino Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Afrika will not be released in Europe or the Americas.

Gamers playing Afrika will assume the role of a photojournalist who will be able to take pictures of various wildlife. The story will be mission-driven. This means that the character gets e-mails at his base camp which tell him what pictures to go and take. To get to the location and animals he/she needs to photograph, the characters has the ability to go by foot, jeep or air balloon, as previously hinted at in various screenshots and trailers; however, in recent gameplay footage it is possible to manually drive a vehicle as well as the player will have the ability to completely manipulate the camera using the Sixaxis.

At the location of the mission, the player must take pictures of the wildlife. This will be done with a virtual camera. This camera is completely controlled by the motion-controlled Sixaxis in a similar way as the camera during the transport to the location. This way the player is in complete control of the angle, focus, aim and clarity of the pictures. If the Sixaxis is not held by a firm and steady hand, the picture might be too blurry and thus worthless. However, if the picture turns out to be of good quality, virtual cash can be earned. The better the shot, the bigger the amount of money earned. This virtual money earned in the game can be used to buy new cameras which in turn will deliver pictures of even better quality to earn even more money.

Additional to the actual gameplay are unlockables such as various footage and real-life snapshots of the animals you encounter, which are collected and stored in your “Animal Library”.



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