Editorial

Hello again and welcome to the first SynTax of 2004. There's only
two issues to go before the magazine finishes ... I'm feeling
quite sad already. So don't forget, if you want to make more of a
mark on the final Contributor of the Year scores, you haven't got
long to send things in.

Game-wise I have really only been playing demos to write about for
SynTax and I don't see me doing much more than that until SynTax
finally finishes. But it's given me ideas for some games I'll look
out for in the future. The main one I liked this issue is the
follow up to Dungeon Siege called Legends of Aranna. What a great
game. It looks lovely, there are lots of bits of cool kit to
collect and I can handle the combat! Regular readers will know
that combat in real time RPGs is not my forte. I have had to give
up on several games because of my ineptitude. Not so Legends of
Aranna.

I also surprised myself by enjoying Harry Potter: Quidditch World
Cup though I would never consider buying the full game.  But the
demo was fun. I also liked Ghost Master and that's a possible
future purchase. Incidentally if you already have the game, there
is a collectors' edition out now and a bonus scenario; I've put
details in an article in this issue.

Last issue I told you how much I liked URU: Ages before Myst. I
was talking to Jenny Perry ... sorry, Philpot ... recently. She
said she'd bought it and asked me to warn people NOT to get it if
they're not good at action sequences. There's evidently some
fierce running and jumping in it. There was some in the demo but
nothing that caused me any problems. It's a shame if they've
spoilt the game by being too action-oriented. If we wanted to play
games like that, we'd buy one!

Just as I was finishing the magazine, I got targetted by the
Mydoom virus. Luckily my machine didn't get infected because I
never open attachments from people I don't know - or if I have any
suspicions even though I know the name. So be warned. I'm getting
30 or 40 infected emails a day.

Well, I shall stop there and get back to finishing the magazine.
It's snowing heavily outside so the best place to be is on
the PC! Please consider sending in a final contribution
before it's too late. See you in March for the penultimate issue.

                                                 Best wishes,
                                                     Sue












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