Hearts in Atlantis (1999) is a collection of two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King, all connected to one another by recurring characters and taking place in roughly chronological order. The stories are loosely autobiographical; in an author's note, King writes that while the places in the book are fictionalized, "Although it is difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened."
Halo: Combat Evolved is a 2001 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. It was released as a launch game for Microsoft's Xbox video game console on November 15, 2001. The game was ported to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in 2003. It was later released as a downloadable Xbox Original for the Xbox 360. Halo is set in the twenty-sixth century, with the player assuming the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier. The Chief is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence. Players battle aliens as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped artificial world.
LithTech is a game engine developed by Monolith Productions and comparable with the Quake and Unreal engines. Monolith and a number of other video game developers have used LithTech as the basis for their first-person shooter games.
Suikoden is a series of role-playing video games created by Yoshitaka Murayama. The games are loosely based on the classical Chinese novel Water Margin, whose title is rendered as Suikoden (水滸伝) in Japanese. Each individual game centers on themes of politics, corruption, revolution, mystical crystals known as True Runes, and the "108 Stars of Destiny"—the 108 protagonists who are loosely interpreted from the source material.
In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements between two concentric, grooved rings called races. The relative motion of the races causes the rolling elements to roll with very little rolling resistance and with little sliding.
The Batmobile is the fictional car driven by the superhero Batman. Housed in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is both a heavily armored tactical assault vehicle and a personalized custom-built pursuit and capture vehicle that is used by Batman in his fight against crime. Using the latest civilian performance technology, coupled with prototype military-grade hardware—most of which was developed by Wayne Enterprises—Batman creates an imposing hybrid monster car to prowl the streets of Gotham City.
A hover car is a personal vehicle that flies at a constant altitude of up to a few meters (yards) above the ground and used for personal transportation in the same way a modern automobile is employed. The concept usually appears in science fiction.
Alan Wake is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in May 2010 for the Xbox 360, with a Windows version following in February 2012 and a remastered version released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows in October 2021, as well as a Nintendo Switch version in October 2022. The story follows bestselling crime thriller novelist Alan Wake as he tries to uncover the mystery behind his wife's disappearance during a vacation in the small fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington, all while experiencing events from the plot of his latest novel, which he cannot remember writing, coming to life.
The comic book stories published by Marvel Comics since the 1940s have featured several noteworthy concepts besides its fictional characters, such as unique places and artifacts. There follows a list of those features.
Wipeout Pulse is a futuristic racing video game developed by Studio Liverpool and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. It was released in December 2007 in Australia and Europe, and in February 2008 in North America. A PlayStation 2 port was released in Europe in June 2009. The game is the seventh installment of the Wipeout series and serves as a sequel to Wipeout Pure. It takes place in 2207 and revolves around players competing in the FX400 anti-gravity racing league.
The Saboteur is an action-adventure video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in December 2009 and eventually on Steam on March 7, 2024. A mobile version of the game was developed and released by Hands-On Mobile for BlackBerry on January 21, 2010, for iOS on March 24, 2010. The game is set in German-occupied France during World War II, and follows Sean Devlin, an Irish race car driver and mechanic, who joins the French Resistance to liberate Paris after his best friend is killed by Nazi forces.
Ballistics is a futuristic racing computer game developed by Grin and published by Xicat Interactive in 2001. Grin developed an arcade version of the game, released in 2002 featuring a unique reclined seating position cabinet by Triotech. Players race across seven different tracks in various leagues against other competitors on high-speed hoverbikes.
Saints Row is a series of action-adventure video games created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. The series follows the 3rd Street Saints, a fictional street gang originally operating out of the Saints Row district, hence the series' title.
Faramir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He is introduced as the younger brother of Boromir of the Fellowship of the Ring and second son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Faramir enters the narrative in The Two Towers, where, upon meeting Frodo Baggins, he is presented with a temptation to take possession of the One Ring. In The Return of the King, he leads the forces of Gondor in the War of the Ring, coming near to death, succeeds his father as Steward, and wins the love of Éowyn, lady of the royal house of Rohan.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.
The Bollingen Tower is a structure built by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. In appearance, it is a small castle with four towers. It is located in the village of Bollingen on the shore of the Obersee basin of Lake Zürich.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a 2011 action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Snowblind Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. An OS X port was developed and published by Feral Interactive in 2013. It is the first video game based on both J. R. R. Tolkien's 1954 high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's film trilogy adaptation released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. This is because, until 2009, Vivendi Universal Games, in partnership with Tolkien Enterprises, held the rights to make games based on Tolkien's literary works, whilst Electronic Arts held the rights to make games based on the New Line Cinema films. In 2009, WB Games acquired the rights for both intellectual properties.
Destiny is an online first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie. It was released worldwide on September 9, 2014, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One consoles. Destiny marked Bungie's first new console franchise since the Halo series, and it was the first game in a ten-year agreement between Bungie and Activision. Set in a "mythological science fiction" world, the game features a multiplayer "shared-world" environment with elements of role-playing games. Activities in Destiny are divided among player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) game types. In addition to normal story missions, PvE features three-player "strikes" and six-player raids. A free roam patrol mode is also available for each destination which feature public events. PvP features objective-based modes, as well as traditional deathmatch game modes.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a 2014 action-adventure video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. An original story based on the legendarium created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the game takes place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings film trilogies. The player controls Talion, a Gondorian Ranger who bonds with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, as the two set out to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Players can engage in melee combat, and use wraith abilities to fight and manipulate enemies. The game introduces the Nemesis System, which allows the artificial intelligence of non-playable characters to remember their prior actions against the game's protagonist and react accordingly.
Dark Souls II: The Lost Crowns is a set of three downloadable content packs for the 2014 action role-playing game Dark Souls II. The first of the trio, Crown of the Sunken King was released in July 2014 and was followed by Crown of the Old Iron King in August and Crown of the Ivory King in September. The DLC, developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, were met with positive reception and drew praise for returning to the complex interlocking and looping level design of Dark Souls.
