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Managing Editor I'm looking forward to quite a few games next year, and with one exception, they're pretty much all role-playing games. The exception would be Bungie's Halo, a very impressive-looking team-based shooter. Considering that Bungie was bought out by Microsoft earlier this year and that both Halo and Oni have been delayed, Bungie's been understandably tight-lipped about the game and its status. But after seeing the amazing E3 trailer, I knew that I wanted to play Halo.
In addition, I've been waiting on SSI/The Learning Company's Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor for quite some time. The game will feature both crisp 3D graphics and TSR's new 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, and it's being developed by Stormfront Studios, the creators of SSI's classic gold-box role-playing games. Though the game was originally due out this Christmas, it's been pushed back to next spring. But when it is released, I'll be ready and waiting to play it.
I'm also very interested in many upcoming online role-playing games that are currently scheduled for release next year. Among these are Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot, a game that'll feature the character-development aspect of conventional online role-playing games and the tactical considerations of some of the best strategy games. Mythic has already developed two other fantasy-themed games, the underrated team-based shooter Spellbinder: The Nexus Conflict and its predecessor, Rolemaster: Magestorm, so the developers are already familiar with the process of creating balanced, competitive games for players of differing character classes and skill levels.
I'm very much looking forward to Funcom's Anarchy Online. The game will be a science-fiction-themed online role-playing game that'll take place several millennia into the future on an alien planet. I'm intrigued not only by Anarchy Online's interesting setting and its many character classes, but also by the game's elegant solutions to many of the problems that plague the current generation of online role-playing games.
I'm also looking forward to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights: It'll feature single-player and multiplayer adventures, but it'll also feature a powerful tool kit that'll essentially let players conduct their own tabletop role-playing sessions online. When I first heard about it, I was extremely skeptical about whether Neverwinter Nights (or any other computer game, for that matter) could reproduce the experience of playing a pen-and-paper role-playing game with friends. But now that I've seen it in motion and seen its progress over the past few months, I admit I'm thoroughly intrigued.
I'm also looking forward to playing World Fusion's Atriarch, an ambitious and rather offbeat online role-playing game that'll take place on the alien world of Atriana. The game will feature five different alien races, but interestingly enough, it will also feature complex building and social systems and will let you (once your character becomes an architect with enough skill and funds) design and build your own city in the world of Atriana and populate it with other player characters or "native" nonplayer characters.
In addition, I'm interested in seeing how Ultima Worlds Online: Origin will turn out. The original Ultima Online is one of the oldest and most established online role-playing games, but it's also been one of the most problematic. UWO: Origin's development team is all too familiar with these problems, and it's taking steps to remedy (or eliminate) imbalances in the upcoming sequel - and it will be building this newer, better world in full 3D as well as in an alternate time line in which technology and sorcery both exist in the world.
Finally, I'm looking forward to Wolfpack Studios' Shadowbane, an online role-playing game that's thematically darker than most. Shadowbane will be distinctive for a number of reasons, not the least of which will be the fact that it will actually encourage player-vs.-player combat. I've dabbled with this type of play in the current generation of online role-playing games, and I can't say that I enjoyed any of them all that much. Then again, the current generation of games discourages player-vs.player play and separates player-killer characters from non-player-vs.-player players, often by putting them on completely different servers. Shadowbane will be designed around balanced player-vs.-player combat; it'll be interesting to see how well a system that's specifically geared toward such combat will play.
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