updated 03:50 pm EDT
May 28,1998

In addition to introducing loads of magic powers, Black and White will also give you a chance to grab any living thing off of the landscape and manipulate it, through the use of different training pens, into a fighting machine. These creatures can be trained through punishment (the use of slaps and hits with a wooden club) or praise (sorcerers can pet or stroke their creations). Once these monsters are set loose on the landscape, you can watch them roam free or you can take control of them from a first-person point of view that Peter claims will be as entertaining as a console fighting game.

Other features include several different tribes, each with its own magical specialty based on ancient Earth cultures (current plans include the Japanese who will excel at illusions and mind magic, the Egyptians who will have building spells to create walls and the like, the Celts who will have mastery over the weather, the Zulus who will command army magic, and the Tibetans who will have the most powerful magic of all). The entire game is movement recognition-based (you will move the mouse in various ways to determine the nature of the spell you cast) and will have no icons of any kind. Current plans are to make the game massively multiplayer (Peter won't give a number yet, but think big) with a US-based game server (no details are available yet as to whether or not you will have to pay to play). We've got a lot more details that will be available as the day wears on. Keep checking back.