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E3 2003: Dark and Light
Dark and Light
Developer: NP Cube
Publisher: TBA
Release Date: Q3 2003
Fantasy MMO
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Dark and Light - Div Devlin (05-20-03)
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| DnL Booth Babe. Drool. |
Dark and Light is one of those games that snuck up on us when we were not looking. Our first thought was, that when you have a fine ass booth babe, you're trying to distract attention from the game itself because it's just vaporware. In this case, we were very wrong, and the fully bendable booth babe posing was in fact meant to draw attention to the game. We were drawn right in, and were glad we were, as this game is offering up some mighty big words. Promoting itself as the “largest mmo rpg game world ever seen,” it will be offering up 15,000-sqaure feet of varied environments, while eliminating zone loading!
The Magic Server Pixie Dust!
Using the new Mafate graphics engine which features a revolutionary (there's that buzz word everyone is fond of hearing) procedure for graphics rendering that will never create the same backgrounds, including terrain tiles, climate settings, infinite flora and vegetation. Every tree will appear with subtle differences from another. Using a new network technology Dark and Light will also will be offering one game world where “thousands” of players will all be on the same server simultaneously, with lag being managed through an automatic PNJ mode. Whatever that means, as long as there is no rubber banding.
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| Rendered Faery |
They are actually going to have pixies in the game!
Dark and Light will have a large offering of player races within game consisting of not only the standard fare of Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and Half-Elves but also Demi-Gods called Braves, Half-Trolls, Half-Orcs and Fairies that actually fly for their movement, as well as other sub-races of elves and a race called Lutins, which are the equivalent of sprites known for their poison. Traditional fantasy classes will also be within game, with up to 14 possible professions that a player can choose from with each race having advantages over the others. Each player will also be able to fully customize the look and appearance of their in game personas via clothing, gear, trinkets and jewelry.
About the PvP:
Dark and Light is a scaled down PvP based game based on lore and factions, which take place under war rules. Factions will consist of the “good” and the “bad” guys as Light versus Dark doing battle to impose their will upon the land while battling for the control of territories by capturing “mana fountains.” Similar to Kingdom vs. Kingdom in a couple of other games already out. Players do not solely need to immerse themselves within the PvP combat aspects of the game, and can take part in the politics of city management or through merchant and trading skills.
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| Looking for adventure |
Newbs will have a viable time to learn the game before being thrust into the high-end content of PvP. Through training levels new players will interact with NPC's and high-level players that are a part of the same faction to help (or grief) them during the learning curve and base character development, which will define the character prior to entering the huge world for exploration.
But, What's there to do?
“Become a Hero, Raise a City…” Ok, wrong game, but same thing. Players will have a lot of exploration and PvE to contend with. Avoiding the combat aspects of the game, claims are being made that there will be a fully functioning quest system that will be affected by weather conditions and lunar cycles. With the social system in place, players will have the opportunity to become noblemen or women that can manage the economic aspects of maintaining cities as well as developing and protecting them from sieges. Once players learn the game, no mobs will appear in the same place, so questing for levels will also occupy a player's time as loot and spawns will be randomized with the games engine.
Travel across such a large land mass will consist of a ridable mounts, which looks like some kind of giant bird, and magical gates or portals to teleport to different locations. There is going to be a guild management system in place to showcase their presence with tools to organize themselves as well as grouping system when out exploring.
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| Stunning Eye Candy! |
Eye Candy:
Dark and Light will have a lot of eye candy. The Tech demo showcased the varied environments, from running across mountaintops, to traveling through woodland areas. Having a dynamic weather system in place, snow and rain and adverse weather conditions will exist. One of the highlights that many people noticed and brought to our attention was the fact that characters interact with the terrain when standing. Instead of blocky graphics where a character's feet appear slightly hovering above the textures, the ankles actually bend so that the feet are “on” the ground.
Final Thoughts:
While only offering a scripted movie of the game, we noticed no visible content for a game that is entering or is in pre-beta. We'd expect a more hands on demo of items within the game, and interaction with the mechanics that will set this title apart from others. DnL is offering a lot of promises, like the largest MMO game world, Guild Management Tools, Economy Models, Quests, and Faction PvP for a Q3'03 release that we honestly don't see them delivering. Expect a delayed title, or content to be patched in later, from our initial E3 look. Eye candy is not everything, we as gamers want more! If we didn't mention it, they did have a fine ass booth babe though. Hope she was a hired model and not the wife/grrlfreind/significant other for one of the developers or we wont be covering this game much in the future as we've already pissed them off. Were going to hopefully have some interviews with the developers of Dark and Light as we walked away asking more questions then we learned. This is a game to watch, and we are going to be keeping a close eye on it!
[DnL Gallery]
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