SynTax News From The Net

                 Compiled by Alex van Kaam

@~Hi and welcome to the SynTax news section.

@~As many of you might know, Might and Magic VII is coming closer
@~and closer to its release date, and the folks at Vault Networks
@~have slapped up a nice preview of the game at:
@~http://www.vaultnetwork.com/features/previews/mm7-1.shtml, it
@~has some good screenshots and also tells you about the new
@~classes you will find in M&M VII.

                            ***

@~I know the following title will bring back a lot of good
@~memories to many of you...Pool of Radiance...now you might
@~wonder why I bring this up, well the answer is simple, I
@~stumbled onto this report on Vault Network:

SSI Announces New Pool Of Radiance Product
by James Fudge  Posted 05/12/1999

Strategic Simulations Inc. announced plans to publish a new Pool
of Radiance title, continuing the adventure-roleplaying franchise
originally created for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in 1988.
Praised by fantasy fans and the gaming community alike, these
titles came to be known as the Gold Box Games, due to their
distinctive gold packaging.

"The Gold Box Games were definitely a high-water mark for SSI and
fans of fantasy gaming," says Chuck Kroegel, general manager of
Mindscape Entertainment. "With this new Pool of Radiance product,
we intend to extend the heritage of the Gold Box Games to both
long-time Dungeons & Dragons players as well as newcomers to the
fantasy roleplaying genre.

The new Pool of Radiance game is set in the Forgotten Realms world
of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons universe. Players control a
party of six adventurers in various quests that form an
overarching storyline involving the discovery of a new Pool of
Radiance in the mysterious and ancient elven ruins of Myth
Drannor. Multiplayer support is also available for up to six
players - a feature that was never available in the original
games.  According to SSI, Gameplay closely follows the AD&D paper
games, with familiar spells, weapons, items and armor that can be
acquired by members of your party.

"From its earliest days as a pen and paper game, the Dungeons and
Dragons franchise has been the inspiration for nearly all role
playing games," says Rene Flores, director of licensing, consumer
products for TSR. "Our collaboration with SSI in 1988 was a big
success, and we're even more excited about the reintroduction of
this franchise."

SSI promises that the game will feature a rendered three-quarter,
isometric view of the environment, with hand-drawn landscapes and
structures, populated by rendered monsters and NPCs (Non-Player
Characters). Some gameplay environments are interactive;
characters can move crates, tip over tables and block doors. The
computer will act as the Dungeon Master, communicating important
events and findings to players, as in the original series. A
release date is to be announced at a later date.

The "gold box" series of games set in and around Phlan, Myth
Drannor, Zhentil Keep and Hillsfar spanned across five games
including Pool of Radiance, Hillsfar, Curse of the Azure Bonds,
Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness. Fans should
expect old characters and old enemies to make return appearances
in the game. Will we see the return of Moander and his cultist,
Zhentil Keep soldiers, Bane's evil priests, the Red Wizards of
Thay, The Fire Knives or the Dragon Hoards that plagued the world?
Only SSI knows at this point.

*1999 Strategy Plus, Inc.

@~So it seems that the RPGs are really back, I mean if SSI is
@~starting again then we RPG lovers are in for a whole bunch of
@~games in the future.
                            ***

@~Many, if not all, of you play Adventures, so to lighten up your
@~day here is some news from LucasArts which I found at Computer
@~Games Online:

Star Wars: Episode I:The Phantom Menace
Adventuring in the Star Wars world
Published by LucasArts
Posted on 03/25/1999

Revealed at last! One of the two games LucasArts is releasing to
coincide with Episode I: The Phantom Menace film is this adventure
game with the same name. Considering LucasArts' reputation for
producing the best adventure game on the market (their latest
being the award winning Grim Fandango), it's surprising that The
Phantom Menace marks the first time they've ever done a purely
story-based game set in the Star Wars universe. "Certainly there
was little reason to reproduce the events from that film," says
Tom Sarris, LucasArts Public Relations Director.

In the past, games based on movies haven't proven to be a
particularly successful formula. "One of the mistakes companies
seem to make when they base games on film properties,"
philosophizes Sarris, "is that they think people want what they
see on screen recreated on their computer." While The Phantom
Menace is essentially a playable version of the movie, Sarris is
adamant that it's certainly "much more than that."

"The game starts where the movie starts," says Joel Dreskin,
Product Marketing Manager for the game, "and ends where the movie
ends." What happens in between will dictate whether the game falls
into the trap that Sarris described.

Characters
The movie tells the story of young Anakin Skywalker, who will
eventually become Darth Vader. He meets up with two Jedi Knights,
a teacher (Qui-Gon Jinn) and his student (Obi-Wan Kenobi). The
story spans multiple worlds, from Tatooine and Coruscant (seen in
Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, respectively) to a world
we've never visited (Naboo).

You play the game as four different characters with an emphasis on
the two Jedi Knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (played by Liam Neeson in the
movie) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). At subsequent points
you'll get to play Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman), and Captain
Panaka (Hugh Quarshie).

"You play Obi-Wan more than anybody else," says Dreskin. In terms
of how the game ties in to the movie, Mike Ebert of developer Big
Ape Productions says, "We're trying to cover all of [the Jedi
Knight's] actions from the movie."

Rendered cut scenes introduce major plot points
The game is broken down into levels - 11 in all, with the
possibility of a couple of mini-levels, one of which may be a
combat sequence that pushes the story forward. You don't select
the character you wish to control ... you're given a character that's
most appropriate for the story, and you control him or her for the
duration of the level. Unlike other LucasArts adventure games and
more like their first-person action games, you will be able to
die; however, you'll also be able to save at any point in a level.
Gameplay-wise, this is a true action/adventure hybrid, falling
somewhere between the pure action in a Jedi Knight and the more
traditional adventuring of Grim Fandango (Dreskin thinks it's
closer to Grim). Ebert likens its balance of elements to
Nintendo's Zelda series of games. You have a full inventory, and a
lot of dialog (over 400 lines, according to Ebert), but these
adventure game staples are balanced with simple combat. "There's
plenty of fighting in the game for people who like action games,
and hopefully they won't be turned off by the number of puzzles
we've put in there."

The game features a top-down view of the character you're
controlling, but almost everything in the game world is composed
of 3D objects (the game will require a Direct3D-compatible
accelerator card). The view of the action is fixed; however, it
does zoom in during conversations and pans and rotates during the
in-engine cut scenes that usually start each level. (There are
also about eight rendered cut scenes.)

The levels seamlessly move from outdoor to indoor locations, and
once you go inside, the roof of the building dissolves, exposing
the interior. If you've seen the trailer for the movie, suffice it
to say you'll visit many of those locations and bump into many of
those characters in the game.

People will likely want to see the movie before playing the game,
lest they spoil the movie's surprises. "Yeah, if you play the game
all the way through, you'll find out how the movie ends," says
Ebert. "But we're hoping you won't be able to play it all the way
through before you see the movie."

Playing the adventure
At this point, the game looks fairly complete, technology wise.
The gameplay mechanics are in place. A few of the levels are
complete. All the music and sounds are placeholders because, as
Dreskin says, "They haven't been finished for the film." LucasArts
will hire actors to sound like Neeson, McGregor etc. aside from
their obvious press commitments for the coming months, the costs
involved with using the actual actors would be prohibitively high.

With all of this in mind, Ebert loads up the game. In this
demonstration, they're somewhat limited in what they can show,
giving an indication of the diversity of locations without giving
away too many of the specifics of the story. Despite this, it's
hard not to get chills when John Williams' unmistakably riveting
score blares through the speakers. As the opening crawl text moves
up on the screen, though, something is amiss.

The name of the game. "Episode I: The Beginning."

Huh?

"Hey, we didn't know what the real title was when we did this,"
Ebert admits, laughing. It will eventually be replaced with "The
Phantom Menace."

At this point, the game shifts to a rendered cinematic scene that
also opens the movie. A ship carrying Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Jan
arrives at a starship, and after landing, the game shifts to an
in-engine cut scene that utilizes the game's 3D characters and
sets.

The first level is more action-oriented than others, and you
control Obi-Wan. "Qui-Gon is sorta helping you through the whole
level," says Ebert, "so it's almost a training level." Your main
weapon is the lightsaber, which can be used to deflect fire and
redirect it toward the various robots that are patrolling the
spaceship. "We do give you access to blasters and stuff, but we've
tuned the lightsaber to be the best weapon." You can also use the
Force to temporarily stun people.

Qui-Gon tries to negotiate in Mos Espa
After escaping the ship, you move on to the next level, which
takes place on a transport. You'll end up visiting the swamps and
cities of Naboo, an underwater city, Coruscant, and Mos Espa on
Tatooine. Each level has an objective, and once completed you move
on to the next. On one level, you need to successfully escort
Queen Amidala though her palace to an escape ship. She will offer
clues, and it will be up to you to keep her out of harm's way.

Some of the levels, such as one on Mos Espa, are more in the mold
of the classic LucasArts SCUMM adventures (Grim Fandango, Curse of
Monkey Island).  You walk around town, talking to the various
denizens selling their wares, with the main objective being to
successfully obtain a certain drive for your ship. On other
levels, you have sidequests that you can choose to complete. In
one particular case, completing the task gains you future allies,
and not completing it causes a slightly more difficult time the
second time through the level.

While you can run through each level and just do the things you
need to complete it, Big Ape is putting a lot of characters off in
the periphery, where they'll give you more story information. "We
want people to feel free to explore," explains Ebert, "and you can
learn a lot about what's going on if you're willing to explore the
environment."

With that in mind, the team is trying to take advantage of what
the interactive medium offers, like making individual levels
non-linear so as not to force you to stick to the path of the
movie. "The film creates such great locations and fascinating
locations, you can spend so much time exploring the worlds and
meeting other people," says Dreskin, and lets slip out, "In some
ways it's more interesting to live it than to watch it." That
would probably be news to Mr. Lucas.

Steve Bauman *1999 Strategy Plus, Inc.

                            ***

@~Sounds promising to me, and since all LucasArts adventures are
@~perfect it will probably end up on my shopping list too <g>.

@~Lord British himself has been interview by GameSpot about the
@~Ultima Ascension game at
@~ http://headline.gamespot.com/news/99_05/11_pc_garriot/
@~index.html - there is not much of any real new news in it, but
@~still a good read to learn more about UA.

@~Keeping close to UA I found this strange news piece on GamePen,
@~read it and if you think what I am thinking then I am off to buy
@~the game and create many many many characters.......... so Sue,
@~if you see a Ferrari with Dutch licence plates parked in front
@~of your door in a few months.....it's me <g>

4.13.99

EA Opens Up About Auctions
Electronic Arts passed down some long-awaited word about its
Ultima Online property. In recent weeks, people have been flocking
to one of the Internet's auction sites, eBay, to bid on Ultima
Online (UO) accounts, being sold by UO players. Several of the
accounts have traded at more than $2,000 and two accounts have
sold for $3,000 each.

"In Ultima Online, we're providing the perfect medium for people
to live an alternate life in a virtual world," said Richard
Garriott, senior vice president at ORIGIN and the creator of the
Ultima series. "People are spending hundreds of hours a month
developing characters and assets that now have real monetary
value. Real world money is being used to purchase virtual real
estate. Once again the world of Ultima Online has grown and
evolved in ways we could have never imagined. I can't wait to see
what the future holds."

                            ***

@~You will all have heard of Final Fantasy VII, and maybe you have
@~heard that FF VIII will appear on the PC....related to this is
@~the following news piece.....

Digicube, the game products purchasing service found in Japanese
convenience stores, announced that sales of Altimania's FF VIII
Strategy Guide has sold over one million copies in 24 hours. This
is the first time that a game strategy guide has sold this many
copies. The books were sold in 380,000 7-Eleven, Circle K, Family
Mart, and Sunkus stores, as well as 680,000 bookstores. Comparing
software sales (3.5 million) to the book sales for April 5th, the
ratio was almost 3 to 1.

@~Now would this mean that FF VIII is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
@~difficult or what ??  (be warned <eg>)

                            ***

@~A bit of sad news, as you might know, CaveDog, the people behind
@~the Total Annihilation series were working on an RPG/Adventure
@~called Elysium, well I just stumbled on this piece of news at
@~http://www.cavedog.com/elysium_frame.html

"We want to be the first to let you know that after a great deal
of thoughtful consideration Cavedog Entertainment has decided to
stop development of Elysium and is reassigning its talented team
members to other projects. Specifically, lead designer John Cutter
has begun work on a new game, which will be announced at a later
date. Our mission continues to be exploring interactive gaming and
setting new standards of fun, which means we plan to take plenty
of risks and push many boundaries in the future. As we begin to
release and announce new titles over the coming year, this team
reassignment will ensure that our future projects are even faster,
more attractive, and more addictive to play."

Thanks for your continued, enthusiastic support.

-- Your friends at Cavedog Entertainment













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