Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles Info taken from www.darkageofcamelot.com Now in Stores: the first expansion pack for Dark Age of Camelot - Shrouded Isles. New races, classes, continents, and much more! Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles is the first expansion pack available for Dark Age of Camelot players. It extends the story of the original game with new character classes, new races, and three new continents to explore - displayed in an all-new state- of-the-art graphics engine that make it look as advanced as any game on the market. Here is a short list of new features: New graphical engine with spectacular new visual effects Three new Island continents in which to explore and adventure (one per realm) One new player race per Realm - three total. Two new player classes per Realm - six total. All new ambient music soundtrack Revamped user interface In addition, Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles contains loads of new quests, weapons, armor, outfits, monsters, advanced monster encounters, and a ton of other additions. You can find Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles, in your favorite computer game retailer. Graphical/Engine Enhancements Dark Age of Camelot is a beautiful game, even without a graphical overhaul. However, Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles presents the user with an even more beautifully detailed view of the game's world. Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard have never looked so good, with crisp details, smooth animation, and lots of new graphical effects. Here's a short list of some of the new Graphical features: Reflective surfaces Realistic water with reflection with wakes as you move through it. Shadows on players, monsters, and world objects. Super high-resolution textures make every player, monster, and world object (including the ground!) more detailed. Animation blending makes all monsters and characters move more smoothly and realistically. Mip-mapping reduces texture "sparkle" at long distances. New terrain system supports cliffs and other vertical surfaces not supported in the "outside" terrain areas of the world in the original game. Faster frame rate. Ambient Music Shrouded Isles has much more that just graphical changes - there's also an entirely new ambient music system featured in Shrouded Isles that may turn out to be revolutionary in its implementation - we've taken our random ambient sound generation system and applied it to music, resulting in almost totally random music playing in the background. The music is written in a multi-track format so that different bits and pieces of it can be applied randomly together in a way that is not intrusive, but adds life and atmosphere to the game. Our sound engineer implemented this music it so that the game plays different pieces of ambient music depending on what zone you are in, the time of day, and other factors as well. So, as you travel across the world of Shrouded Isles, you'll hear different random tracks playing all the time, depending on your location and time. It's a really neat system that provides a real sense of atmosphere as you are playing - almost like a movie soundtrack. Shrouded Isles FAQ What is Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles? Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles is the first expansion pack available for Dark Age of Camelot players. It extends the story of the original game with new character classes, new races, and three new continents to explore - displayed in an all-new state- of-the-art graphics engine that will make it look as advanced as any game on the market. Here is a short list of features: New graphical engine with spectacular new visual effects Three new Continents in which to explore and adventure (one per realm) One new player race per Realm Two new player classes per Realm All new ambient music Revamped user interface When will it be available? Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles is available in stores now. Do I have to have Dark Age of Camelot to play it? Yes, you must have the original game in order to play Shrouded Isles. This is an expansion pack, not a standalone product. What are the system requirements? In order to play Shrouded Isles, you'll need a current-generation 3D accelerated video card that supports the new DirectX 8.1 feature set. Our plan is to support all GeForce 2-4 cards (including MXs), as well as other DX8-compatible cards. However, the more advanced graphical features will probably only work on the current generation of GeForce 3/4 cards (as well as cards from other manufacturers that fully support DX 8). If you don't have a current-generation cards, you'll be able to play the expansion, but you won't see many of the graphical upgrades. For complete information on system requirements for Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles, visit our support website at http://www.support.darkageofcamelot.com/. Do old areas of the world look better in the new engine? Yes, when you upgrade to Shrouded Isles, even the older parts of the world look much better. New trees, water effects, and especially textures will look much more sharp, detailed, and realistic. Of course the new continents will look best of all, as they are being designed specifically with the new engine's features in mind. Can I re-open my account to play Shrouded Isles? Yes, if you are a former Dark Age of Camelot player, after your purchase Shrouded Isles, you can reactivate your account and play in the new areas with your old characters. We have not deleted any characters from the game database, so even if your account has been closed for a long time, your old characters are still accessible should you decide to reopen your account. See also the article in this issue - o -