Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny

With Decent Rpgs thinner on the ground than Norwich City supporters, fans of the genre will be pleased to hear that Westwood are still working hard on the sequel to Lands of Lore. Virgin can't tell us much about the game at the moment, but the crystal ball tells us that it will probably be in SVGA, and is likely to be even bigger and better, and also wash whiter than its predecessor. We're also prepared to lay money on the fact that it will feature spellcasting, role playing, and a character development system that makes all the people in your team get better at whatever it is they're doing as the game progresses.

Either way. it's bound to be a massive improvement over the first game, considering that it's taking Westwood an absolute age to get it all together. Hopefully we'll see a much more realistic playing environment (Ultima Underworld 96 perchance?) and an enhanced AI engine. We'll be keeping an eye on this one as it's quite possibly going to be one of the biggest releases of the year, although Virgin have voiced fears that the proposed on-sale date could possibly slip into next year. In the meantime though, here are a few screenshots to whet your appetite (which we suspect are from a pre-rendered intro or something).

Once strictly the realm of long-haired, yellow-fingemailed, Pratchett-reading heavy metal fans, role-playing games are becoming a lot more popular as advances in 3D technology and more accessible formats are developed in an effort to broaden their appeal. That said, Lands Of Lore II is distinctly old-school in appearance, although it makes up for this with engrossing gameplay. Hardened RPG fans may leap up and down at the thought of yet another big fantasy world to explore, but the rest of us may be better off playing Final Fantasy VII or the fantastic Zelda: Ocarina Of Time on the N64 while we wait for the likes of Infogrames' innovative Silver, EA's keenly awaited Ultima: Ascension and Gremlin's highly anticipated Soulbringer.