Bungie Newsletter, vol. 2, 5/22/98 ---------------------------------- 1) Bungie Announces Myth II: Soulblighter! 2) Myth: The Fallen Lords v1.3 in beta 3) Registration is open for the Platform Wars Tournament 4) Bungie at Electronic Entertainment Expo, Booth #2230, East Hall And, now, our lead story: Bungie Announces Myth II: Soulblighter! --------------------------------------- For the past several months we've been working on a sequel to Myth: The Fallen Lords and now's a good time to start talking about it. While there is no firm release date, we do expect the game to ship in 1998. Though the land of Myth is rid of Balor and his fearsome legions, all is not right in the new order. As foretold in the first game, King Alric's peace is threatened by an unexpected enemy with a boundless appetite for destruction and this time it will take more than throwing a head in a hole to stop them. Unlike sequels that are little more than a handful of new units and a few more levels, Myth II: Soulblighter boasts numerous improvements to the game engine and added features that improve gameplay. A short list of the new features includes: Game engine: - Animating 3D models, like drawbridges and windmills - A lighting model supporting colored light sources and shadows - Four-times finer terrain mesh, for smoother, more detailed terrain Special effects: - 3D fire, that burns the landscape and damages troops - Ambient life, like chickens and other livestock (that explode!) - Frighteningly powerful new magic spells Gameplay: - Indoor environments and fortifications - Simplified controls and interface, gradual ramping of difficulty - Improved pathfinding and AI - New units and terrain types Content: - Twice as many frames of unit animation, and multiple attack animations - CD-quality, context-sensitive, in-game music - True 3D surround sound Multiplayer: - Team rankings and a Leader Board for Orders - Map actions, like reinforcements, in multiplayer games - Make and break alliances during multiplayer games - Worldwide player rankings across languages and versions In short, as cool as Myth: The Fallen Lords was, Myth II: Soulblighter will be a lot cooler (even using the fully functional no-blood option). Myth II: Soulblighter will be a cross-platform, simultaneous release for Windows 95 and MacOS computers. Like its predecessor, it will take advantage of the highest-end game technologies while still supporting the average user, and also like the first one, aims to exceed its pre-release hype. Myth: The Fallen Lords v1.3 in beta ----------------------------------- You may have heard the news that we're working on version 1.3 of Myth: The Fallen Lords. For those of you working on third-party map editors, making your own maps or other modifications, v1.3 will greatly simplify the process. The update answers the need for players to have a framework in which to easily incorporate and share their maps and modifications. v1.3 will allow everything from quick changes, like altering the names and colors of Myth units, to total conversions, linked scenarios with new maps, different unit types, altered victory conditions (like multiplayer game types) and hopped-up physics models. v1.3 lets Myth recognize numerous new files as one single .gor file, and resolves conflicts between files written by different people in different formats. bungie.net is also modified to accept the use of them in multiplayer games. On bungie.net players will be able to select which combinations of extensions to use in a multiplayer game, and change them between games. The update is well into beta-testing and will be available shortlyÑkeep an eye out for it at http://www.bungie.com and http://www.bungie.net. Registration is open for the Platform Wars Tournament ----------------------------------------------------- The place: the GenCon Game Fair in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The date: August 6, 1998. The event, Platform Wars. Of all games, only Myth: The Fallen Lords allows PC and Mac gamers to compete on a truly level playing field, at a game that demands from the winner both ruthless action and brilliant strategy. On June 15th, 500 randomly-selected entrants, PC and Mac, will begin battling on bungie.net for the honor of defending their chosen platform. Two semifinalists will win CPUs and come to GenCon for an intense series of finals matches. The finals will take place in Bungie's GenCon booth and will be broadcast over Imagine Radio. A PC winner will help crush the gaming pretensions of Mac users, while a Mac winner will have struck a decisive blow for the legitimacy of the Mac as a hardcore gaming platform. Of course, you can enter even if you don't have a chip on your shoulder the size of Montana about what platform you use. Sponsors of the tournament include Cyberian Outpost, Apple Computer, PC Gamer, MacAddict, TechWorks, and EarthLink. Mac users go to http://www.macaddictnetwork.com to register and look for the red Platform Wars logo. PC users go to http://www.pcgamer.com and look for the red Platform Wars logo. More info can be found at http://www.bungie.com or http://www.bungie.net. Bungie at Electronic Entertainment Expo, Booth #2230, East Hall --------------------------------------------------------------- Bungie's booth at the E3 will feature multiple machines running several levels of single-player and multiplayer Myth II: Soulblighter. Players will have a chance to get acquainted with Bungie's extension of the Myth world. In addition there will be video of the never-before-announced project Bungie West Studios has been working on for the past year. Though this game is neither a first-person shooter nor a real-time strategy game, like Myth, it will change the way people think about the boundaries of game genres. More on that to come... ------------------------- Bungie has moved! our new address is: Bungie Software 350 W Ontario, 7th Floor Chicago, IL 60610 Tel: 312 397 0500 Fax: 312 397 0502