News from the Net

                     From Alex van Kaam

     Alien vs Predator was a pretty cool game when it came out,
     okay playing as Alien made you sick, but all in all it was a
     nice game, I loved the atmosphere. Over at
     http://www.icecubed.com/demoreviews/avpmulti.html there is a
     multiplayer demo for AvP2

     Over at http://www.swankygames.com/content/index.php?id=72 is
     a review of Arcanum...

Welcome to Arcanum; the game where science and sorcery just can't
get along.  If you're in the know, you've probably heard about how
some of the original Fallout creators played a hand in this game.
What does that mean, you might ask? It means while you might see
some vague similarities, you can be certain that almost every
review that you're going to come across is going to compare the
two. Are you going to see that in this review?  Hellz no! Far too
often, games are judged with their predecessors in mind.  And to
go one step further, this game has nothing to do with Fallout. It
just happens to have some of the same key members that were
responsible for creating that classic RPG that we all keep a
special place on our hard drives for. So, I urge all you gamers
out there to play Arcanum with an open mind, because if you're
expecting to find a Fallout game in disguise, get ready for some
disappointment.

Character creation in Arcanum has the depth you'd expect from a
good RPG.  You can choose your gender as well as one of many
races. You can also choose from a number of background traits,
which gives your character that extra special touch. These are
both humorous and functional, so I recommend you read them all, if
not for the giggle factor alone. One thing you won't find in
Arcanum is a character class system. In its place is wide range of
skills, which lets you pick and choose, thereby allowing you to
create your own unique character without the limitations of a
certain class.  Keep in mind that there is also the option of
choosing a pre-made character, but what's the fun in that? Level
progression is accomplished by earning experience points. When
gaining a level, you are given a point which you can use to
increase either your stats, or your skills. Keep in mind that the
level limit is 50, so use those points wisely. This is not a game
where you can master every skill, so do a little planning ahead of
time.

     Of course most of you have heard of the C&C: Red Alert 2 add
     on named Yuri's Revenge, over at Actiontrip they have a
     review of the game...
     http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/commandconquerredalert2yu
     risrevenge.phtml

We are already used to Westwood Studios' games appearing as
scheduled. Well, their latest expansion pack for Red Alert 2,
called Yuri's Revenge, appeared just in time, and represents one
of the most impressive expansion packs for a game I have ever
seen.


The story in Yuri's Revenge logically continues the events we
witnessed in Red Alert 2. After the allies overpowered the Soviets
and conquered Moscow, Yuri retreats underground to develop his
plan on how to wreak his revenge on both sides. He starts building
a network of psychic dominators, which can control the minds of
people all over the planet. The allies manage to hold Yuri in San
Francisco long enough for Mr. Albert Einstein to send you back
through time. If you play the Soviet campaign, your mission will
not only be to stop Yuri, but also to change the course of history
and help Russia return to its old glory.

The C & C serial achieved great popularity, but the fact remains
that each of the games within it had poorly balanced units and
sides. This was most obvious in the Tiberian Sun, and Red Alert 2.
In Red Alert 2, allied forces were far more powerful than the
Russians, which badly affected multiplayer gaming, which is the
most important for the serial. It would be enough to mention the
allied planes and Spy Satellites and compare them to the useless
Russian Psychic Sensors and Kirovs as the most powerful air unit.

Yuri's Revenge mends this and provides a fair multiplayer
experience with balanced units.

     Staying at Action trip we find a review of Magic and Mayhem:
     Art of Magic
     http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/magicandmayhemartofmagic.
     phtml

After a lot of announcements, Art of Magic, the sequel to the
famous fantasy blockbuster Magic and Mayhem appeared on the
market.  Bethesda Softworks managed to publish the game in spite
of the chaotic situation with Charybdis designers who were, in the
meantime bought by Climax.

Art of Magic takes place half a century before Magic and Mayhem.
The world was less civilized and the magic was stronger. The story
begins with the death of the great wizard Magistrator who kept the
world in balance for an entire century. Many inhabitants of the
magical world soon grow unsatisfied and as the chaotic Necromagus
wants to conquer all continents, great wars are obviously on the
way. The single-player campaign develops through a series of
scripted scenarios.

You assume the role of Aurax, a young druid, in search of his
abducted sister and of revenge for his father's death. As time
passes, Aurax will learn new spells and influence political
situations in countries he visits, by helping the locals and
fighting chaotic mages. The plot will develop through conversation
with NPCs, some of which may even decide to join you.  The story
is not linear, but revealing anything more would be a spoiler.

The campaign is full of logical puzzles and problems which will
require you to think before you act; things like stealing an
artifact from a well secured troll castle, saving prisoners,
avoiding enemy patrols, and fighting superior magic creatures on
terrains with low mana sources.

This goes for all three modes of play: campaign, multiplayer and
skirmish battles.

The AI controlled wizards will carefully follow your strategy and
style and will do their best to thwart your plans. What's more,
they will even communicate and co-operate in doing so.

     And my last Actiontrip link leads to Ruins of Myth Drannor,
     which is already out and high in the charts even though the
     installer seems to be bugged as well as the game
     http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/poolofradianceruinsofmythdr
     a nnor.phtml

Almost ten years after the first Pool of Radiance, we finally face
its sequel. So much has been said about this game in the last
couple of years that I find it quite surprising that the game
turned out this much of a failure. I was personally very
disappointed when I saw it as I could hardly wait for it to
appear, thinking that its superior graphic design, better script
and the implementation of AD&D third edition rules would make it
far better than the Baldur's Gate serial. Unfortunately, apart
from its good graphics engine, Pool of Radiance is just another
"dungeon crawl" which doesn't require you to think while solving
quests more than Diablo. This was a major blow to all true fans,
which is best illustrated by the fact that the official game site
shut down its forum one week after the game was published, because
it was crowded with angry players' comments. All this never
stopped Pool of Radiance to become a blockbuster. But let's look
at the bright side of the entire affair: at least it made certain
things clearer (i.e. what players want and do not want to see in
an RPG), and we should expect better games in the future.

The story of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor begins with
reactivation of the extinguished Pool of Radiance below the city
of New Phlan, which emits energy that turns living into the
undead. This basically means that you will encounter a huge number
of undead creatures roaming around the ruins, thanks to the pool.
The whole thing had been orchestrated by the evil witch Kya, who
plans to subdue the world with her undead horde.  Grand wizard
Elminster employed a team of adventurers to find out what is
hiding in the ruins of the ancient elven city of Myth Drannor, as
the evil seems to come from there, but the first expedition
disappeared without a trace. Now, it is up to you to go through
the portal, find out what transpired and eliminate the potential
threat in Myth Drannor.

     Okay so I lied, here is another Actiontrip link (how was I
     supposed to know they had so much stuff up!!)
     http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/throneofdarkness.phtml

Sierra and Click Entertainment finally published their long
expected and much-hyped action-RPG - Throne of Darkness. The
current market yearns for a good RPG title, but then again what
can be defined as a good RPG? RPG became a very ambiguous term,
and the games belonging to the genre changed a lot since the dawn
of computer gaming. The fans of this genre usually fall into one
of two categories: action-RPG fans, and fans of traditional Role
Playing, which requires some brains in contrast to the first
category.  Throne of Darkness is an action-RPG, and brings no
novelties that would liven up a bit this tiresome and boring
subgenre.


Throne of Darkness is a game that might theoretically attract you
with its eye-candy, and atmosphere. The wonderful cartoon in the
intro will introduce you to the world of daimyo warriors and their
fight against the Zashin the demon, who wants to get hold of the
immortality potion. It is your goal to stop the demon and free the
people of his tyranny. Through constant action set in the exciting
and mystic oriental settings, you will have a chance to immerse in
the samurai adventures.

     Over at Gamespot they have a review of X-Com Enforcer
     http://www.gamespot.co.uk/stories/reviews/0,2160,2097784,00.
     html

X-Com has long been regarded as one of the most compelling
strategy series to ever appear on the PC. Although recent
departures like the space hack X-COM: Interceptor and the
play-by-mail X-Com: First Alien Contact have somewhat diluted its
appeal, UFO Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep remain two
enduring stars of the PC strategy firmament.

X-Com Enforcer is the latest title to bear the revered X-Com
moniker and to say it's something of a departure is like gently
hinting that Mike Tyson might sometimes enjoy the occasional bout
of fisticuffs. This is a new X-Com for a new millennium and it
basically re-writes the rule book - leaving strategy and isometric
graphics behind.

You play the titular Enforcer, a gun-toting, power-armoured
killing machine, created by a loopy scientist as earth's last
defence against the marauding alien hordes. The action (and
there's plenty of it) is viewed from a third-person perspective
with you roving across each of the themed levels smiting the
aliens, rescuing hostages, encountering the occasional
end-of-level boss and destroying the teleport generators that are
the aliens' gateway to earth.

If it sounds fairly simplistic, that's because it is: Enforcer is
basically an unadulterated arcade-style thrash, which plays like a
kind of 3D cross between Gauntlet and Robotron. If you like your
violence mindless, it really doesn't come much more mindless than
this. Gameplay consists of teleporting into a level to encounter
wave upon wave of unrelenting alien nasties rushing headlong
towards you to be fried, barbecued, diced and annihilated in a
variety of initially amusing ways, by an arsenal of hi-tech
weaponry which would make the commander of the Death Star seethe
with envy.

For every alien you mash you earn credits which can spent
upgrading your weapons and abilities in between missions, which
adds a little bit of RPG-style advancement. Each level also has
five hidden 'Bonus' letters which you collect to unlock hidden
levels (which are variations on arcade classics like Pacman).
Occasionally you'll uncover a piece of alien technology which can
be researched to discover new and unusual ways of dealing death to
the alien foe, and once in a while you'll even be rewarded (if
that's the right word) by a cut scene which advances the
storyline, such as it is.

     Now on a totally different note... I stumbled accross the
     website of BigFive software.....
     http://www.bigfivesoftware.com/index.asp, the guys who made
     games like Miner2049er, Bounty Bob Strikes back, Galaxy
     Invasion, Attact Force, Cosmic fighter etc. etc.

     Bounty Bob Strikes back was like the first ever game I ever
     played and the coolest part is they have a download of the
     game (and Miner 2049) for under Windows... at only 98k
     zipped I have included it for Sue to put into the magazine
     :-)

@~It's in the programs folder . Sue

     The guys over at Voodoo Extreme have a review of DaoC, which
     seems to be the best thing ever happened to MMORPGs, it sure
     has had a big impact on EverQuest as my guild went from 400
     people down to 40 in about 2 weeks !!!
     http://www.voodooextreme.com/games/reviews/daoc/

Dark Age of Camelot is set in a period soon after King Arthur's
death and the Kingdom he once ruled has splintered into three
major realms - Albion (Camelot and surrounding area), Hibernia
(the Celtic regions) and Midgard (Norse). Within these realms,
hordes of monsters have arisen due to the weakened presence of
King Arthur's unified armies, and at the borders, the three realms
are at perpetual war against each other. Featuring PvE (player
verses Environment) and PvP (Player verses Player: featured in the
realm verses realm skirmishes), Dark Age of Camelot offers both a
captivating traditional massively multiplayer experience as well
as an addictive competitive aspect as well.

While Dark Age of Camelot isn't an revolutionary step in the
massively multiplayer genre, it's an evolutionary new title that
takes the good points from other games (EQ, AC, etc), reflected on
the aspects players didn't like from them, meshed it all together
and the end result is what we have here - Dark Age of Camelot.
Camping (while still possible) is discouraged in the game by
awarding bonus experience to players who hunt on the move
(monsters will stop dropping treasure to players over-hunting the
same areas). Zones have all but been eliminated, as the only time
the game goes to a loading screen is when players enter the large
capital cities, or dungeons. To cross these huge, expansive
zoneless regions, stable masters sell tickets for players to hire
horses, at the low cost of five silver pieces.

There are quite a few different coins used as currency - bronze,
silver, gold and mithral (100 bronze = 1 silver, etc) and to be
frank, Dark Age of Camelot is a fairly poor world when it comes to
cold, hard cash.  The chance of seeing anything mithral is
extremely rare, and unless you have a player over level 30, your
savings will be counted in gold pieces. High quality weapons and
armor is expensive, and keeping your equipment state of the art is
no cheap feat. Twinking (giving new characters powerful items) is
virtually eliminated in Dark Age of Camelot as Mythic came up with
a system where players will actually damage items if they're too
powerful to use. To give you an idea - gray items are to weak to
use, green items are slightly below your level, blue items are
ideal for you, yellow items are powerful for you, but still very
attractive to use, orange items will start taking a little too
much damage than you'd like, red items the same, and purple is way
too powerful for you to use.

     Over at RPGDos is a interview with Robert Sirotek, the man
     behind Wizardry and Sir-tech company, as you may have heard
     they are closing.... but not without releasing the game, so
     head over to http://www.rpgdot.com/team/articles.php?ID=171.

     From what I read on other places it seems they had so much
     trouble to get a publisher for W8 because they demanded to be
     paid well and that the publisher would put money into W9

RPGDot: Wizardry 8 will be released November 15th in North
America; what about other territories (except Poland & Russia,
which already have a publisher)? Are you still looking for
publishers in Europe and Australia?

Robert Sirotek: We have licensing agreements in place for many
countries, but nothing yet for Europe. We have someone for
Australia.


RPGDot: What about Sir-Tech's future now? About 6 weeks ago you
told me, you will close down and that Ian & Linda Currie have left
or are about to leave the company. You also said that a handful of
Sir-Tech employees will take care of Wizardry 8 support. Now I see
Linda still around the boards as a Sir Tech representative. Has
anything changed? Will Sir-Tech continue business?

Robert Sirotek: Wizardry 8 will be supported, but Sir-Tech will
close down.  Wizardry 8 will be the last product it will ever
produce, but it certainly is the finest product it has produced.

     Over at http://www.darkfallonline.com/visuals/index.shtml you
     can start to learn more about Darkfall, yet another MMORPG
     which again is looking sweet, time will tell.

     Myth III should be out real soon, not sure if you played 1
     and 2, either way, head over to
     http://www.strategyplanet.com/myth3/features/articles/mjtrip/
     ga mereport/ and read up about this game... it seems to be
     just what we need :-)

     And to close this news, here is a link to images for Outcast
     2, these are from the PS2 but it will also be out for the PC.
     Outcast 1 was a great game but you either loved it or hated
     it... most hated it but I must say I had a great time
     finishing it :-) http://www.appeal.be/html/TLP/News.htm

     Regards, Alex











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