News from the Net

                     From Alex van Kaam

@~Again here is some news from the WWW. First of all for all of
@~you how have been waiting on LOL III (okay the 2 of you then
@~<g>) I found the following:

Lands of Lore III Goes Gold
LAS VEGAS, NV, March 4, 1999 -- Mysterious soul-eating beasts roam
The Lands. They've murdered the king's brother and continue their
unholy feast on unsuspecting villagers. More of the monsters are
appearing, and the odds of Gladstone surviving are dwindling. In a
few weeks, the fate of the kingdom will depend on gamers around
the world.

Westwood Studios(tm) today announced that Lands of Lore(tm) III
has been completed and a gold master has been printed. The game
will start shipping to retailers in two to three weeks.

Lands of Lore III continues the rich heritage of the epic role
playing game series with a new adventure, new characters, and the
immersive gameplay that fans have come to expect from Westwood
Studios. Lore III features classic RPG elements like professions,
guild quests, skills, familiars and an expansive spell system.

However, the game is more accessible than ever thanks to a
streamlined, easy-to-use interface, detailed auto-mapping, and a
self-annotating journal that is virtually a manual that builds
itself as you play. The epic story leads you through six huge
worlds, each one with its own challenges and surprises.

"We went in search of the computer game Holy Grail, the accessible
RPG. I think we found it," says Louis Castle, executive producer
of Lands of Lore III and co-founder of Westwood Studios. "We're
giving the hard core players the stuff they wanted, control over
character development, lots of magic, lots of weapons, lots of
monsters and an epic plot. For the casual gamer, we've made the
game easy to learn and easy to play with an intuitive interface
and a game journal gives you all the information you need, when
you need it, but never overwhelms you."  Lore III's epic story puts
players in the role of 16-year-old Copper LeGre.  He's one quarter
Dracoid, and has spent his young life among the common people. But
he is not common. He is the illegitimate son of Eric LeGre, the
brother of King Richard.  Because of his dubious origin, Copper's
royal lineage means little until tragedy strikes and he becomes next
in line to the throne of Gladstone.

Ravenous, supernatural beasts attack in the night, killing Eric
and his sons. Copper wakes to find his family dead, himself
gravely injured, and his soul stolen. A spell cast by a powerful
friend keeps him alive, but it won't last long. As that spell
grows ever weaker, he must race to close the five dimensional
portals from which the mysterious and deadly beasts sprang. His
new position as heir to the throne complicates matters, and he
often finds more deadly opponents at home in Gladstone than in the
strange nether worlds beyond. Copper is an unlikely hero, given
the daunting twin tasks of saving his soul and saving the kingdom.
Lands of Lore III is optimized for 3D acceleration but will also
run in software mode. Minimum system requirements are a Pentium(R)
166 MHz with 32 MB of RAM, a quad-speed CD drive, a 16-bit sound
card, and a Direct X(tm) compatible video card. The game will
support 256 color and 16 bit color modes.

@~If you -like me- played Baldur's Gate then you will be pleased
@~to read this:

Desslock's News is reporting that Baldur's Gate has been nominated
for the following 1999 Computer Game Developers Association
Spotlight Awards: Most Innovative Game Design, Best Use of Audio,
Best Adventure/RPG and Best PC Game. The awards will be presented
to the winners on March 17 during the annual Game Developers
Conference in San Jose, California.

@~And to stay with BG:

Black Isle Studios announced that their most recent release,
Baldur's Gate, has sold over 500,000 units worldwide and was the
#1 selling title in January 1999, according to PC Data in the
United States. Developed by the Canada-based software company,
BioWare Corp., the game continues to break Interplay sales records
as their quickest selling title ever, and was the #1 selling PC
title in Japan last week, according to certain retailers - another
first for Interplay.

@~The next bit makes me worry a little, this always happens, 2
@~good RPGs come out (M&M VI and BG) and then every single company
@~wants to jump on the band wagon and brings out an RPG... so here
@~is Activision:

Activision, Inc has launched a new role-playing game, Guardian's
Crusade, this week of March 1, 1999. Guardian's Crusade takes
players on a magical journey to reunite a baby monster with its
mother. As a young knight, players must travel through a fantastic
world to discover the strange origin of the lost monster whose
personality and abilities grow and change based on the knight's
interactions with it. Guardian's Crusade will be available for the
PlayStation game console in more than 10,000 retail outlets
throughout the United States and Canada and will carry a suggested
retail price of $49.95.

"Guardian's Crusade is a sophisticated role-playing game that has
been designed for both novice and seasoned gamers," states Mitch
Lasky, senior vice president of Activision Studios. "The game
features masterful character design, a unique character
development system, a compelling story, sharp 3D graphics and
hundreds of fascinating weapons and spells. In addition,
Guardian's Crusade brings the most compelling features of virtual
pets to a story-driven role-playing environment."

@~As you may have heard, Sierra has announced that they are
@~stopping the Krondor series, I found the following message on
@~the web from Sinjin Bain on the Sierra incident and what is
@~going to happen with Krondor now that Sierra said they will be
@~doing no more in the series.

I have spoken with [Krondor author] Ray [Feist] and he's pretty
committed to keeping the franchise growing and developing, whether
it's with Sierra or another publisher. I am sure Ray and the
management at Sierra will figure out what the best way to proceed
is in the near future. I am also confident the final outcome will
be communicated by Ray and Sierra when the decision has finally
been made. Everyone has to give them time to make an intelligent
decision on this.

I know that many people who have worked very hard for Sierra are
upset with the latest turn of events, and this is natural. Our
group here at PyroTechnix has been around for many years, we
finished RtK on time and on budget, and the game has received
positive reviews. We were very surprised this event affected us.
Being small in Cincinnati has always been an advantage, and now we
know it has at least one disadvantage. I am very proud and
appreciative of every person who worked for me at PyroTechnix over
the last 11 years.  It is really bittersweet for PyroTechnix because
we got a chance to do something we really wanted to do over the last
4 years of the company's existence, and that is provide tools and
technology for others to make games, and then successfully get our
own product on the shelf. If it were not for Sierra, RtK would not
have been completed.

Everyone here can take a lot of pride in the work we did here
since I started the company 11 years ago. For me personally
probably the biggest disappointment is that I really liked the
people in the Sierra Studios brand group. Scott Lynch and Mark
Hood were really supportive of us and gave us the support we
needed to successfully release RtK, and on the marketing side Jim
Veevaert is a great guy and really talented. I will really miss
having the opportunity to work with these guys.

You don't start a business and keep it going for 11 years in the
computer graphics industry by looking backwards... I'm focused
forward and looking where I can best apply the diverse skillset I
have developed over the last 11 years of starting and building my
own business. Time to move forward for me. I hope everyone
affected by this "bomb" is able to move forward to an opportunity
that is better than what they had at Sierra, me included.

Sinjin Bain
Ex-Manager, PyroTechnix Studio

@~If the above comes as a surprise to you then go read the article
@~at:  http://www.justadventure.com/articles/rip_sierra.html which
@~goes something like this:

For those of you who aren't aware, Sierra On-Line, the pioneers of
the graphic adventure, closed down their central division on
Monday (22-2), putting 125 people out of jobs and putting to rest
a twenty-year saga.

You can read more about the story here. Josh Mandel, an employee
there for many years who worked on some of Sierra's best-loved
games, offered to write a few loving words about this once-great
company. We hope you enjoy. Our prayers are with the families of
ex-Sierra employees.  R.I.P. Sierra
Date: February 25, 1999

Article by: Josh Mandel

On Monday, the last vestige of the original Sierra On-Line was
laid to rest in Oakhurst, California. That branch, recently
renamed "Yosemite Entertainment," was shuttered on Monday,
February 22nd, putting most of its 125+ employees out of work.
You may not care for what Sierra has become since the days when
dozens of unpretentious parser-driven graphic adventures flowed,
seemingly effortlessly, out of Oakhurst. But there's no denying
that, back then, Sierra On-Line was the life's blood of the
adventure game industry.

Maybe the games were a little more rough-hewn than those of its
competitors -- not that there were many competitors at that point.
But Sierra kept adventure gamers happy and fed, gamers who
would've otherwise starved to death on the arguably more polished,
but frustratingly infrequent, releases of Lucasfilm Games (as they
were once called).....

@~Next in the news list is a small -preview- of System Shock II, a
@~game I am looking forward too :-)

Unlike the first game where everything you encountered was
strategically "good to get," here you'll have choices. You'll only
get a certain number of the cybernetic upgrade modules (skill
points) which you will use at four upgrade stations throughout the
ship, similar to visiting shrines in Ultima Underworld. The
stations will include upgrades to basic skills (intelligence,
strength, etc.), cyber-tech skills (hacking, repairing,
researching technologies), weapons skills (modify, configure and
repair weapons) and psionic skills (altering the world via powers
such as cryokinesis, electro-dampen and others).

Finding them will be rather like mini-quests (which has got to be
easier than finding Griggle the Ancient Weapons Master or the like
in Might and Magic VI). Once you do find them, they will appear on
your map. You will acquire various types of software that you
install in yourself ("Number 5 alive") and cybernetic implants of
which you will only be able to wear one at a time. Think of them as
"ring slots" in a fantasy RPG.

@~Sound good to me...what also sounds good to me is the update
@~from the Revenant team:

Greetings!

Greetings once again from the Revenant development team. We should
probably start out by apologising for the lack of updates in the
past few months. We have been devoting our time exclusively to the
game and the web page always takes a backseat to the game. That
being said, we would like to bring you up to date on Revenant's
progress.

The Combat System:

The combat system continues to be Revenant's strongest and most
revolutionary feature. We have made some adjustments to the system
to support varying attacks based on the distance between you and
the enemy. For example, the thrust button when hit at long
distance does a running thrust. At medium range the same button
will do a standard thrust attack. At close range the thrust button
will cause Locke to deliver a forearm to the enemy, knocking them
backwards. This works for all the attack buttons and it has
improved the combat system drastically. In some other combat news,
our animation team has been adding tons of new interactive
attacks. You'll recall that interactive attacks are the throws,
slams, and fatalities that occur in combat. We now have a full
regiment of interactive attacks which totally change depending on
what enemy you are facing. For instance Locke may have a
decapitation interactive vs. an ogrok, but vs. a lurker Locke
might have a shoulder throw. The enemies also have interactive
attacks vs. Locke, ranging from simple throws to ripping Locke in
half and eating him.

Armor, weapons and magic:

The artists were running around the office yesterday with some
surprising news.

Our final tally for possible armor combinations is now:
33,554,432. Check out this screenshot to take an advance look at a
small sampling of a few sets of Revenant's massive armor system.
For more information on the armor system, check out the prior news
entry on the subject. As for the weapons we now have well over 30
different types of weapons to take on your enemies.  These include
axes, swords, hammers, sickles, maces, bows, and much more.  The
magic system is now finalized and complete. Revenant features over
30 spells to cast. All the spells are gorgeous 3D effects that
range from glowing auras to massive asteroids falling from the
skies.

Maps and scripts:

As you may know, Revenant's maps were all built completely by
hand. Our design team spent months hand crafting each level,
building it piece by piece from the ground up. You won't find any
auto-generated maps in Revenant. Every area in Revenant is
entirely unique, from the structure to the lighting and right down
to the details. We are very proud of this feature, as most of us
aren't big fans of auto-generated maps used by some of the other
titles out there. Mapping was completed recently and the designers
have moved on to scripting the game. Plot and story play a major
role in Revenant and we feature a full cast of over 50 NPCs to
interact with.

All of the dialog in Revenant is professionally voice acted, but we
have included options to play with subtitles or text only, depending
on your preference. In addition to all the dialog, Revenant features
a great deal of event scripts. These are very similar to the kind
you see in Half-Life.  These scripts can range from enemies fighting
each other over a hunk of meat, slaves digging for artifacts, an
assassination attempt on a warlord, and much much more. We hope to
include as many event scripts as time will allow us.

Enemies:

A killer combat system needs an impressive cast of enemies to
complement it and Revenant's enemies do not disappoint. Locke's
rivals in Revenant, the Priests' Cult, have employed a wide range
of threats for him to contend with.  Expect to take on Tai-Boxing
monks, ninjas who flip over your head and strike you from behind,
priests who can summon the aid of the undead, Dragons who hover in
the air breathing fire, the list goes on and on.  Revenant also
features some of the most intense boss fights you'll ever
experience, including the brutal hand to hand/wrestling match vs.
the fearsome Ogrok Champion, Baez.

So when can we play this game ?!?!?!?
In the immortal words of some game designer somewhere, "A late
game is only late until it ships, a bad game is bad forever." That
being stated, Revenant will be available when it is ready, and
that's all we can say for right now.  We realize that many of you
are dying to get a chance to play Revenant and we want nothing
more than to give you that opportunity. We are considering a
playable demo prior to release and we will keep you updated as to
when and if that will happen. Until then, please enjoy the new
screenshots and E-mail us with any questions

The Revenant Development Staff

@~I think we RPG players can look forward to a busy busy
@~year...and that is why next in line is a preview of M&M VII
@~which you can fully read at:  http://www.gamecenter.com/News/
@~Item/0,3,0-2519,00.html?st.gc.fd.si.gn
@~Below is a small part of this preview:

However, according to director Keith Francart, there are a large
number of new features and changes to the game. Francart explained
that the team literally sifted through thousands of emails and
letters from Might and Magic VI players with suggestions on how to
improve the game.

First off, new races have been added, so players are no longer
restricted to humans. Also, three new character classes have been
added, the Monk, the Ranger, and the Thief. There is also a new
castle that players can call their own. Not only does the castle
act as a stronghold where players can store their gear safely, but
it is also something of a trophy. As players complete quests,
additional levels will be built on the castle.

@~Gamespot has come up with a huge Myth II guide at
@~http://www.gamespot.com/features/myth2_gg/index.html If you are
@~playing or have played Myth II (me) it might be a nice read, it
@~has tactics and level walkthroughs.

@~Larian has posted a small note on the LMK page, remember I wrote
@~about this game several moths ago:

Hi guys, I keep on getting emails from people asking me what's up,
and I couldn't restrain myself any further from coming here, and
offer at least some comments.

I just want to assure you that LMK is not dead. There are some
problems which started some time ago, and we are working very hard
to fix these.  You have to understand that games like LMK are huge
projects, and a lot of people spend a lot of time on it.
Unfortunately, such a setting is bound to attract problems, and as
you can all figure out, we've been having some.  We'll have to make
amends to all of you when we finally fix all of our problems, and I
promise you that we will. For now however, I can only ask you not to
think too much bad thoughts.
Lar
@~Uh ho
                              - o -