The engine enables environments to be shown with far greater terrain detail so that even landscape features that are miles away in the game world will look natural.

Lakes and seas also look incredibly natural thanks to great water effects. Water reflects the colours of the sky above and surfaces and sea states change depending on whether it's a calm day, windy or even a raging storm.

Up close, the visual detail goes right down to the animation of individual trees and bushes. The engine can determine how each one sways in the wind depending on the climate and the size of the tree.

As players explore the world's different terrain types, the visuals of the varied environments blend seamlessly from one to the other and, as players approach objects, additional detail fades imperceptibly in to the scene.

Dragon Empires is scheduled to enter Beta Testing early in 2003. To date, Codemasters has received Beta Test applications from over 90,000 online gamers. With a maximum of 100,000 possible places, Codemasters recommends any remaining players who would like to be among the first to sample life in Dragon Empires sign up.

Dragon Empires will be launched in the autumn of 2003 for PC gamers as a boxed product with players subscribing on a monthly basis to play. More on Dragon Empires, including videos and a busy forum can be accessed from the game's dedicated microsite web site.

ABOUT DRAGON EMPIRES

Dragon Empires promises to be a groundbreaking MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). The world will be filled with embattled clans, each striving to prove their superiority in head-to-head group combat, as they aim to take political and economic control of the game's 50 magnificent cities and, ultimately, 5 empires. As empires grow, players can tax the cities they own, foster trade and a strong economy and keep would-be rivals from challenging their position. Dragon Empires is set in an age of sorcery, where magic is plentiful and the lives of humans, monsters and dragons are intertwined. The world is made up of five empires, and player-to-player combat is always possible under the watchful eyes of the fiercely protective dragons.