Master of Orion 3

Master of Orion 3: The Threat is coming this year and it's going to be more turn-based than its predecessors. The plan is to have you raise and lower diplomatic points to unlock new technology and lots of other nifty stuff. The second big feature will be the addition of three difficulty levels.

Speaking of races, there's a new game mode called "Creatures-The-Century War" which will let you lead your enemies to victory in a gameworld spanning five races, with or against all of them. You'll be able to play through the entire campaign with your fleet of Battlemasters. Your campaigns will be partially scripted, however, so you won't be able to actually select a campaign, which means you won't be able to create your own scenarios. The idea is to make the experience more appealing to more serious players, who will be able to understand the nuances of your game without being locked into a single, random environment.

Other features that will be available at launch include a new and improved system for controlling all your armies, which includes attacking different terrain, including grasslands and deserts, and, of course, terrain that's radically changed. An artificial intelligence-controlled commander will also be included in the game, and this is something that we've seen in the demo we were shown, and we're pleased to report that he seems to be as capable of playing against the computer as he is in any other RTS game.

The visual presentation in this version of the game will also include some new gameplay enhancements. The gameplay, which you can read about in our previous coverage, is getting some considerable visual polish, and we're pleased to report that it looks better and better. The units you'll fight will be fully 3D models, and they look quite good, thanks to the Xbox hardware's impressive lighting effects and particle effects. The units you'll see in the game, both organic and organic, will be rendered with high-quality special effects such as shiny banners and cloth on their surfaces. In addition, the environments in the game are getting a nice bump in visual quality that will look far more natural and alive.

The audio in the game will be a major factor in bringing the big battles to life, and while it's not an exact match for the PC version of the game, the same ringside sound effects will be featured in the Xbox version. We got to see two of the game's characters speaking with each other, who offered a pretty big thumbs up. The first character we met was the alpaca, and it was based on one of the weapon-related action movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though you can guess his voice through the various facial sounds in the movie, we can say that his voice really had an advantage in the game. Though the sequence ended with a subtle cliffhanger that led into the end of the movie, the game definitely sounds like it's going to offer a good amount of action. The next of the two characters we saw was the Russian sniper Dominguez, who, as you might expect, was the meat of the demo, but his final appearance will be the character who will be voiced by Yoda in the Xbox version of the game. The PC version of the game will have plenty of new voice work for Dominguez as well. The game's hero is James Gandolfini, a Japanese officer who was training to get into the rank of lieutenant for the Soviet Union in his early days in the Eastern Front. Unlike the other characters we saw in the game, Gandolfini will actually act as a secondary character in the Xbox version.

Speaking of the US Army, we were given a first look at the game's Eastern Front, which will be a close-quarters combat affair in the spirit of Rogue Squadron. The game will feature approximately 25 levels that will take place in different theaters of war in China, including the Western Front.

In the demo, we were able to take a brief look at a mission set in the Western Front that will put you in the role of the US Army officer tasked with securing a couple of explosives hidden in an enemy installation. Once the explosive is located, you'll actually be able to take cover in a hallway that you can walk over to its location, where you can take cover behind your character and fire at any enemies who happen to be within. The level had us using the conventional-style machine gun emplacements you'll come across in the game, such as smoke grenades or grenades, and even used the UNSC jeeps to get behind enemy vehicles. In the game, you'll actually be able to engage the enemy forces directly on foot. So as you'd expect, you'll be able to use jeeps as cover while on foot.

Graphically, the game is very impressive, with detailed scenery and smooth geometry that's sharp and sharp. The environments are also very impressive, with plenty of fine detail and a wide variety of visual effects to help add to the overall experience.