News Collated by Sue Alex is really busy at work this issue so I'm giving him a well earned break! He was very kind and gave me the links he'd collected during the last 2 months so here's a selection of what he found and a few of mine Dragons Lair 3D --------------- The official site at www.dragonslair3d.com has all the news but at www.dragonstone.com you can download some really good wallpaper in 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768. This has various titles such as "Dirk's got a few new tricks up his sleeve" and "The Cyclops Worm." All of them are very colourful. The home page leads to a variety of links such as Encoresoft and Ubisoft who are programming different versions of the game, Digital Leisure where you can buy the original game on DVD and Don Bluth's home page at www.donbluth.com. There are also a number of links to preview of the game including ones from GameSpy and GameZone. Mystic Collector (www.mysticcollector.com) wrote the following: Dirk the Daring returns in his first fully 3D title, and while not knocking Don Bluth, this is the best looking Dragon's Lair yet. The same gameplay mechanics exist, meaning Dirk can't stand more than one hit, and more often than not puzzles stand in his way instead of random monsters making this the thinking man's action game. Dirk has to once again save the princess in this amazing cel shaded title developed by Dragonstone Software, a new company that is showing a lot of promise. This title is getting ported to just about everything, by everyone. Ubi Soft is releasing the PC, Mac and Xbox versions, with Dolby digital sound and 1080i resolution for HDTV output on the Xbox. Encore Software is putting out the PS2 and GameCube versions, while THQ picks up the international rights. The Thing --------- From Computer Artworks (www.artworks.co.uk) comes a game based on The Thing, John Carpenter's film. Here's the gen: The CA teams are proud to announce that they are currently developing the multi-format games version of John Carpenter's 1982 film classic THE THING, on behalf of Universal Interactive Studios. The game will appear on Xbox and PS2 formats as well as PC. In development for just under 2 years, the game is now nearing completion and will be coming to your stores in the 3rd quarter of this year. Prepare yourself for the infectious game-playing experience that is The Thing. Genre: Survival Horror Action Format: PC, Xbox, PS2 Minimum System Requirements: Coming soon Recommended System Requirements: Coming soon Publisher: Universal Interactive STORY SYNOPSIS After the enigmatic deaths of an American scientific expedition in the uncharted and frozen wastelands of the Antarctic, a military rescue team is sent to investigate their deaths. Within these inhospitable surroundings the team encounters a strange shape-shifting alien life-form that assumes the appearance of people that it kills. The game brings fear and suspense to unimaginable levels, with a compelling plot and unique gameplay elements based upon action, evasion, trust and fear. Forget everything you ever learned about obliterating alien species simply with a barrage of violent ammunition - this monster is difficult to see, hard to kill, and seemingly impossible to evade. PRODUCT FEATURES Taking place shortly after the events seen in the 1982 film - The Thing takes us back to the Antarctic base and familiar locals from the film for a terrifying, new chapter of isolation and paranoia. Advanced trust/fear interface adds a new dimension to the genre - How you influence non-player characters (NPCs) psychological state determines whether or not these characters will cooperate with you. Amazing lighting, weather and particle effects complemented by subtle sound cues and scripted events create a new level of suspense and terror. Unique combat system that features a host of weapons from machine guns, to tazers and flame throwers. Puzzle Solving can be accomplished by a multitude of scenarios - there is never just one way to accomplish an objective. Varied pace of gameplay throughout the game, blending action, puzzles, horror and human interaction. There are a lot of related downloads including official trailers, movie files and E3 trailer. The biggest of these is almost 60 meg! Sea Dogs II ----------- Due in the autumn from Bethesda and Akella is a swashbuckling experience. Here's the official info: Welcome to "Sea Dogs 2", a pirate game that combines RPG and 3D action into one epic adventure. "Sea Dogs 2" allows the player to enter a world that captures the romance of the 17th century upon the Caribbean. The focus of this heroic game consists of steering mighty sailing ships and partaking in naval battles. Players captain their own ship and have the opportunity to live the life of a pirate by fighting tooth- and-nail for gold and experience. Adventuring choices range from captaining a squadron for one of the European powers, bloodthirsty pirating, peaceful and profitable merchant sailing or becoming a fearless bounty hunter. Beginning your career as the captain of a small ship, you find yourself in the midst of a fictional archipelago. The archipelago consists of small and large islands upon which you'll fight, trade, and gradually improve your vessel. The storyline is truly freeform and open-ended; there is no need to follow each detail. You can simply choose to sail, fight, complete quests and go on living in the world of "Sea Dogs 2". Select your hero - will it be brave Blaze Devlin or beautiful Danielle Greene? They have different initial parameters and skills. These skills will affect a number of gaming aspects, from controlling the ship and boarding actions to trading operations and dialogues with the world's populace. Over time, these skills will improve, depending on the gaming strategy you implement. Some of the computer-controlled characters you'll encounter (NPCs) may eventually team up with your hero. The companions you control can accompany you while strolling through islands and towns; they can even watch your back in a fight! Like your hero, the NPCs gain experience over time. Although you'll be able to manage their evolution, remember that your character is the hero; only him you can control directly. You can receive tasks and quests from the NPCs. Completing them will result in experience, gold coins, and unique items. A complex economic model provides an opportunity to trade goods. It'll require planning and an understanding of the supply and demand of goods throughout the islands to get the most from trading. We've combined two different game modes - sailing mode and walking mode. Each format has its own gameplay. Unlike "Sea Dogs", where all action take place only at sea, in "Sea Dogs 2" both modes have equal gaming importance and affect each other. Players control their character in town and steer the ship at sea. In town, your hero can walk, run, go upstairs and downstairs, take various items, talk and fight with troublesome NPCs. At sea, you will steer the ship, raise and lower the sails, handle artillery engagements with enemy ships and forts and board enemy ships. While walking through town, your hero can enter taverns, shipyards, churches and other buildings. Traveling overland across the islands, you will encounter an open tropical landscape... as well as secret treasure caves or smuggler's lairs. At sea, you can actually manage the ship, her hold, her armament, crew, passengers and taken captives. Your ability to navigate is directly linked to your experience; skill point management allows the player to determine which skills they'd like to take immediate advantage of. Tired of the same old quests? We understand; that's why we'll be using a quest generation system. This system will prevent players from exhausting all of the available role-playing paths and should add the element of replayability. Coupled with a unique role-playing system and the opportunity to create a party of characters, "Sea Dogs 2" the only game in which RPG and sailing simulation meet to create a fantastic gaming experience. The multi-player game mode supports up to 16 players via LAN or Internet, enabling numerous types of gameplay such as Deathmatch or Capture the Fort. Best of all, we're including a powerful game editor in "Sea Dogs 2", allowing players to design their own add-ons for the game. Clearly, "Sea Dogs 2" will continue to evolve long after it's release. Minimum System Requirements 00 % PC compatible system based on PentiumTM III 500 processor 128 Mb of RAM GeForce \ ATi Radeon Windows- 95\98\2000\XP Operating System and Direct X 8.0 Recommended System Requirements 100 % PC compatible system based on PentiumTM III 700 processor 256 Mb of RAM GeForce III \ ATi Radeon 8500 Windows- 95\98\2000\XP Operating System and Direct X 8.0 There are two downloadable trailers - Sea Dogs II Trailer Large (25Mb) and Sea Dogs II Trailer Small (11Mb) Check out http://www.akella.com/seadogs2/game-overview-en.html for more Neocron ------- Though Alex is the one into MMORPGs, I found this bit. The Neocron homepage at www.neocron.com contains the following: WELCOME TO THE 28TH CENTURY NEOCRON, A POST APOCALYPTIC METROPOLIS Neocron is an action-packed 3D MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) set in a post apocalyptic metropolis which gives you the opportunity to lead a virtual life in the exciting world of the 28th century. The user becomes a citizen of Neocron and it's up to him whether he wants to experience exciting adventures or just lead a normal life in this virtual world. STATE-OF-THE-ART 3D ENGINE - NEXT GENERATION TECHNOLOGY Unlike many other MMORPGs, Neocron uses state-of-the-art 3D technology which you would expect from a modern game. It also features real-time combat rather than traditional turn based combat. Yet the combat is highly skill dependent. Check out our official video trailer to see Neocron in action. There's a detailed player's guide available from a link on the main page. Farscape -------- Alex got into this TV series but it never really grabbed me. One day I'll give it another go. But he sent a Homelan link to a preview of a game based on the series. Here's the start of it: I must admit that when Farscape first started on the Scifi Channel a few years ago I was very skeptical. For those unfamiliar with the series, it's about an Earth astronaut named John Crichton who is fired into a far away section of the universe via a wormhole. He joins up with a group of renegade aliens onboard the living bio-ship Moya that is fleeing from the fascistic race known as the Peacekeepers. This series was being created by the Jim Henson Company who are known for their children and family fare and their attempts to make more serious movies like The Dark Crystal were disappointments. Not to mention the fact that the main character is from Earth who finds himself "lost in space" is a concept that has been done to death in mainstream sci-fi television. To be fair, it took a few episodes before Farscape began to find its own voice but it did eventually find its own themes. Now as the series is about to start its fourth season on Scifi it has turned into, in my opinion, one of the best science-fiction TV series ever made, right up there with the best of Star Trek and Babylon 5. Its terrific characters (Crichton, sexy Chiana, warrior D'Argo, confused Aeryn Sun, conniving Rygel, and spiritual Zhaan among others in its rather extensive regular and recurring cast), its sense of humor, its adult themes and soap-opera like continuing storylines, and especially its unexpected surprises contribute to its artistic success. In Farscape, the creators are not afraid to mess with the status quo of the show and that includes killing off major characters unexpectedly. At one point in the last season, Farscape literally split in two with two parallel storylines and two versions of John Crichton. The quirkiness of Farscape's characters coupled with the fantastic art direction and special effects from the Henson company would seem to lend themselves very well to a PC game. Publisher Simon and Schuster Interactive seemed to think the same way and recruited Red Lemon Studios to develop a Farscape game. HomeLAN recently received a beta version of the full game to check out and based on what we have player of the game so far Red Lemon seems to have captured the look and feel of the TV show very well, along with the personalities of the main characters. The game is set sometime around season one of Farscape, sometime after the introduction of Chiana to the cast and about when the series itself really started to pick up steam. The storyline finds the crew of Moya once again getting in the middle of a fight with the Peacekeepers. The CGI opening depicts a firefight above an alien planet and Moya under attack. Some of the crew leaves Moya and heads to the planet below where the game truly begins as the crew finds out that there is more going on than just a fight with their long time adversaries. Perhaps knowing that a lot of Farscape fans might not be hard core PC gamers, Red Lemon has made the game fairly easy to pick up and play. There is a tutorial in the game where you actually are portrayed as one of the bad guy Peacekeepers but you can actually learn more just by playing the game itself. Farscape is a third person isometric oriented title that's similar to Diablo in its interface. You point and click on the mouse in the game world and the characters that you control move in that direction with other clicks for firing weapons and performing other actions. The gameplay is mostly action oriented with some adventure and puzzle solving added in. The game, however, is single player only with no multiplayer modes planned.... For the rest of it, go to www.homlan.com Dominion Wars ------------- Simon and Schuster have another TV spin-off game on its way, this time based round the Deep Space Nine universe: STRATEGIZE! MANEUVER! ANTICIPATE! AND WHEN YOU'VE GOT THE ENEMY WHERE YOU WANT HIM -- STRIKE! The Dominion War rages! Now you can take command of Federation, Klingon, Cardassian and Dominion fleets and get right into the battle. No base building, no resource gathering -- just unprecedented access to all facets of space combat. COMMAND UP TO SIX SHIPS SIMULTANEOUSLY -- Select from more than 20 different starship classes, including several original, never-before-seen ship designs. CHOOSE A CAPTAIN FOR EACH SHIP -- Groom your captains as they move through progressive missions. Establish the crew for each mission -- including engineering, security, and bridge personal. FULLY CONTROL EACH SHIP -- Execute sensor sweeps and space scans, allocate power to shields, and engines, identify threats and deploy weapons. BOARD ENEMY SHIPS -- Transport crew members to board and conquer enemy ships. ENGAGE IN 20 EXCITING COMBAT MISSIONS -- Assign and deploy the right captains and ships to meet the multiple objectives. JOIN IN MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMEPLAY -- For up to 8 players. Play as any one of the four races in scenarios including Open Space Deathmatch, Deathmatch with Asteroids, Planets, Nebulae, etc., and Starbase Attack/Defend. IMPORT SHIPS FROM STAR TREK r: STARSHIP CREATOR WARP II -- included in this box! Design Defiant-class, Galaxy-class, Akira-class and Klingon B'rel-class birds-of-prey, then fly them in multiplayer Dominion Wars battles! Minimum System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000 - Pentium II 266 MHz - 64MB RAM Minimum install 150 MB hard disk space full install 600MB 8 MB Direct 3D-compatible sound card - 4X CD-ROM That's all folks! - o -