If you haven't already noticed on their website, DreamCatcher is no longer referring to itself as "The Adventure Company". Instead, DreamCatcher is expanding their PC games to include more action-oriented titles, primarily action/adventures. However, they will continue releasing pure adventure games, including what should be their two best-looking adventures ever.

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One of these titles is the curiously-named Beyond Atlantis 2. While this title might seem fairly straightforward, DreamCatcher's first Beyond Atlantis game was originally known as Atlantis 2 (without the "Beyond") in Europe, and this new game will be known as Atlantis 3 there. Normally, I'm all for game companies that don't retitle every game in a series, but I wish DreamCatcher had started with something a little less prone to confusion -- I've already seen people merge the titles "Beyond Atlantis" and "Atlantis 2" to refer to the earlier game.

Whatever you want to call it, DreamCatcher's Beyond Atlantis 2 really is a new game, due out in Fall 2001. And it looks very good. This game tells the story of a young Egyptologist in the year 2020. The woman and her companion are searching for an ancient Egyptian site in the desert, and this search will turn into a quest for Atlantis itself. Expect a fairly traditional interface and story-based puzzles, wrapped up in a beautiful package. Cryo's French site talks about a PS2 version, but so far, DreamCatcher has announced only the PC release in North America.

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DreamCatcher's other major adventure on display at E3 was the Polish import Schizm. While you may have already heard about this game, DreamCatcher recently announced that it has picked up the North American distribution rights. The game should be available either on multiple CDs or a single DVD this Fall.

Schizm's developers describe their game as "beyond Myst" (not "Beyond Myst"), although the description is certainly overly simplistic for anyone who's familiar with adventures. Unlike the original Myst but like Myst III: Exile and many other recent adventures, Schizm uses pre-rendered backgrounds and 360-degree rotating views. However, the game promises inventory puzzles in addition to the Myst-like mechanical and logic puzzles, and it allows you to switch between two characters to give you some additional freedom when you get stuck.

The story is set in the year 2083, after humans have recently discovered abandoned cities on the planet of Argilus. Teams are sent to research the civilization, but they vanish, and you're sent to investigate. While this might sound like a fairly typical science-fiction excuse to wander lifeless worlds, Schizm was written with the help of noted author Terry Dowling and will give you characters to interact with during the game.

Of course, as with any adventure game, the success of both Beyond Atlantis 2 and Schizm will depend a lot on the quality of the story and puzzles, and those are things that are hard to judge at an E3 demo. If the graphics are any indication, though, both are very promising titles.