Combining the elements of both a real time shooter and a strategic mindbender, Wizcom has created a new genre in games they are labeling as "Action-Tactics." Trans will be set to feature amazing gameplay, cinematics, storyline and original music. Trans will be capable of both single player and multiplayer action, and you'll be able choose up to 21 different robot types, each with its own capabilities. Every robot will be able to transform into another creation and switch weapons as well as key characteristics. Trans will include over 30 weapons to choose from with 20 specials. Additional bonuses and game upgrades will be set to ship in the near future. UPDATE-May 2000 Recently Wizcom sent us a demo of the game and I was very excited to give it a try. The Opening movie is very well produced, combing graphics with spectacular real cinematics. It completely draws your interest in as an opener—very reminiscent of The Matrix. All the people of Eladia have to partake in a virtual experience labeled TRANS. Participants are injected with a fluid called Transer on the soul throne to create the experience, and they fight in arenas as robotic machines similar to Transformers. The year is 2250. Now called Eladia, the earth is host to a new world order, a perfect society with no pestilence, hunger, conflicts or rivalries that plague our own modern civilization. Technology is perfect, scientific advances are stunning. The people are celebrating 50 years of light, and gather to hear their spiritual leader, Archwise, give a speech. The movie then flashes to the character Arthur Divine, who is in Trans on the soul throne. He sees visions of system failure and destruction, which isn't supposed to happen. He confides in Wise Durst, who writes on paper all that Arthur tells him, and stamps it with suspicious seal. There are only a couple of missions in this playable demo, as well as a tutorial, but there was enough here to wet my appetite. The interface is nice and easy to use. You can toggle easily between your different machines; each of them has the capability to transform. Control is easy, you move with assigned keys to go forward, backward, left and right and you aim and fire with your mouse. The main idea is to move your transformers to your enemies' base and destroy it. Your base is equipped with blue beam networks to provide your machines with healing levels of energy. The graphics are good, but in the playable demo there is a limited screen resolution of 640 X 480. There is also no 3D acceleration support at this time, so I was unable to take advantage of the Voodoo 3. All this should change with the official release. The Music is right on the money, what more can you ask for from this genre of new age SCI-FI gaming than upbeat techno? Just perfect. We've got our eyes closely on this one— the whole concept of the game has us extremely interested. Keep your guns ready, Trans is sure to have us all "In-Trans." For more information about this upcoming game please click on the link above to Wizcom's web site. We've also updated this preview with more screen shots at 800 X 600. Enjoy. GAME SPECS Pentium II 450Mhz or equivalent 64 MB Ram Voodoo Banshee Hardware accelerator card Sound card MS Windows 98/2000 DirectX 7.0 MS DirectPlay based network play via TCP/IP or IPX FEATURES TRANS explores a new genre, called action-tactics. It has a single player campaign and a multi-player. Action The view is third person. The playing units are robotic transformers each having two forms with different functions and weaponry. The robot's movement is controlled by the keyboard. The targeting and shooting is done with the mouse. Since different transformers have different capabilities, most players will handle very well certain types, while being mediocre with others. Thus, teams of players with different skills can assemble and divide the control of robots between themselves. Strategy In the game there is no money concept involved at all. The only quantifiable resource is energy. It is contained in the batteries of the robots. All robot operations, like moving, firing, transforming or special actions use energy from the batteries of the robots. The base emits energy around itself forming the initial energy area. The player can build a network of energy nodes to expand that area and create his/her energy network in which he/she can recharge the batteries of the transformers. There are various game objectives are to destroy the opponents' bases. In some single player missions there can be multiple objectives, including securing territory, rescuing characters, etc.