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THE 'TITLE' MAY BE old but this brand new game from Atari will likely set the benchmark for RPG games for a long time to come.

Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil is a Dungeon and Dragons module that was a lot of players first introduction to the paper and pencil world of role playing. This module's rich storyline is now about to make a comeback by way of the PC and a stunning game engine.

"Lond ago in the land od Flanaes an evil demoness founded a cult dedicated to exploring evil in its most elemental forms. This cult was based in a temple just outside the village of Hommlet in a vile shire known as Nulb. Soon, this cult ruled the region with tyranny; times of chaos and violence ensued. Hard-fought battles were waged and the war was eventually won by the good armies of nearby lands. The temple was razed, the villains were imprisoned, and order was restored. The temple itself faded into distant memory...until now."

Sporting a game engine built around D&D rules 3.5 this game will give players the ability to form a party of intrepid dungeon delvers. The game will play very much like the table top game it owes so much to with turn based combat, and monsters right out of the monster manual. With up to 5 members in your party the return to a turn based combat system as opposed to the current vogue in the genre of real time combat is understandable and will give players the time to plan out each aspect of a combat round.

It appears a lot of work has gone into the graphics and spell effects with some of the screenshots we have seen being absolutely stunning. A nice feature we have picked up from these is the effect of friendly fire. Unlike most RPG's on the shelves today where area effect spells seem to only effect the bad guys, if you miscalculate the position of your fireball spell in this game your party members will also get toasted!

The feature list for the game includes: -

• Faithful incorporation of D&D 3rd edition rules based on the classic module by Gary Gygax

• Create up to five characters in your party, and gain followers and familiars too.

• Dozens of skills and class abilities, over 50 feats and hundreds of spells to chose from, including cleric domain spells

• Over a hundred different monsters, from goblins and hill giants to elementals and demons

• Hundreds of NPC's, each with dialog and reactions to player behavior

• Dozens of potential followers, each with their own goals and agenda

• Multiple solutions to quests, including many that use dialog skills to allow non-combative options

• More than 50 sidequests invite the player to explore away from the main storyline

• Multiple starting points depending on your party's alignment and multiple end games depending on how you play the game

By all accounts this looks like it will be a contender for the RPG game of the year and one that we can't wait to get our hands on. Expect to see it on shelves here in New Zealand around October 10th - although it may turn up a bit sooner.

Follow the below link to check out some screenshots, and stay tuned for our full review.

Show me the screenshots!