Xengen
Enclave, an Xbox game from Conspiracy. This was originally planned as an online multiplayer game for the Xbox Online Initative (the fancy title that has been given to their online system for Xbox) but since that hasn't been announced, they are finishing up a single player version of the game for Q3 2002. (Side note: it is widely speculated in the gaming press that the Monday before E3 Microsoft will be announcing details for this and XGR will be there.)
"So, what is the darn game about Paligap?" Well, I will tell you, it's the best looking game this side of Morrowind. It's a third person action/adventure (although you can switch to first person view) set in a mythological world filled with knights, archers, and wizards on both the light and dark side. There was a kick butt trailer I saw that was done up like a movie trailer and showed off all sorts of action and cool particle system effects.
You can choose from 12 different characters from 6 different races and you get to traverse through 25 levels that are a good mix of outdoor and indoor environments. The weapons you can choose from are similiar to most games of this genre- bows and ranged weapons for the archer-types, swords and axes for the knights, and spells and staffs for the wizards.
The quality of the graphics in this game is out of sight. There was one room I entered that had a painting hanging on the wall, nothing out of the ordinary there, but when you walked up close to the painting you could see the texture of the canvas in the painting. Not only that but the team went out and photographed all the environment textures they could. For example, down in the lairs of one of the levels there are a lot of stone walls - if you look up close at them it looks like the rocks have bits crumbling off them - a VERY nice touch in an already gorgeous looking game.
There are still some tweaks to be made in the game - at one point I was climbing a ladder with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other which was right in front of my face and I wasn't getting burned. The camera is awkward as it does not auto-adjust during battles so not only do you have to concentrate on executing the right moves to defeat your foe you also have to worry about seeing them. Hopefully the developers will work on this minor fix and ship a game that I think a lot of people will be talking about.
In playing this game you can totally see how it was designed for multiplayer action but I think it will make a very satisfying single player experience. They still have plans to release the multiplayer version once MS rolls out their online program.
Link: http://www.xgr.com/article.php?article=2704
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So it looks like a late July/Early August release for the single player version and a little mp and online for October possibly.........??? It sounds very much like that's the route they will go..............
