Lords of the Realm III announced

Sierra has announced its upcoming medieval empire-building game, Lords of the Realm III. The game is the next installment in Impressions' popular Lords of the Realm series, and it will feature several improvements over the previous games, including a new real-time 3D engine.

Players will assume the role of a lord during the Middle Ages, and they will control all aspects of expanding and managing their empire, including designing and building castles and raising armies of knights and soldiers. In addition, players must manage peasants, engage in diplomacy, and deal with the influence of the church and the powerful merchant class.

The game will include both a single-player campaign and multiplayer support for up to eight players. The game's different scenarios and campaigns take place between the years AD 850 and AD 1350 and are set in the British Isles, Germany, France, Normandy, Brittany, Flanders, and Denmark. Lords of the Realm will also feature a number of recognizable characters, locations, and events, such as William Wallace and Robin Hood, Stonehenge and the Tower of London, and the Crusades and the black plague.

Sierra has also launched the official Web site for the game, which contains a general overview of the game's features, answers to frequently asked questions, a discussion forum, and a gallery of concept art. Lords of the Realm III is in development at Impressions Games, the studio that created the previous games in the Lords series, as well as the popular city-building games Zeus: Master of Olympus, Pharaoh, and the Caesar series. The game is scheduled for release in late 2002. For more information, visit the game's new official Web site.