Legends of Might & Magic

As if there weren't enough Might's Magic games on the market, developer 3DO has announced Legends Of Mights Magic, yet another title based on the MSM universe. The series has taken somewhat of a beating of late, with the latest offering Crusaders Of Mights Magic receiving a mere 46 per cent in. However, 3DO is aiming the game at an online audience, claiming it will be the first Internet RPG that emphasises co-operative play. This, of course, is somewhat of a bold statement, what with Nihilistic's Vampire anti Bioware's Neverwinter Nights boasting the same.

As with Vampire, you'll be able to join up with several other players over the Net (in this case up to six of you can play at once), and take part in a series of missions. If teamwork isn't your thing, you can go solo against 15 other human players over the Net, in a deathmatch style game.

Fundamentally, LMSM will be an RPG. However, there will be a far greater emphasis on action than in the more traditional gameplay of Mights Magic VIII. There's also going to be fewer character classes to choose from than usual (just six in all), in order to allow each one to have distinct and unique attributes.

Legends will be modular based, enabling gamers to pick and choose which sections of the game they wish to play. As well as a brand new gaming world, there'll be more familiar lands from previous games in the series, such as Enroth, Varn and Xeen.

Graphically, LM&M looks superb, utilising the new Lichtech 2.0 engine in order to render characters in polygonal 3D. The down side to these visuals, is that the engine can't display as many evil creatures as previous M&M titles, so you'll have to make do with about 50 instead of the usual 200 odd.