The game is scheduled for release in PC CD-ROM format to major retail outlets nationwide in spring 2004 for approximately $40.

Said Michael Bell, Encore's CEO, "We have been working with Monte Cristo over the past year to ensure that Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps appeals to U.S. and Canadian consumers. This is the first game in what we hope will be a long-term relationship with Monte Cristo."

Added Jean-Christophe Marquis, Chairman at Monte Cristo, "With its gripping gameplay, cutting-edge 3D technology, historical realism and attention to detail, Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps offers everything strategy gamers are looking for. As Monte Cristo increasingly focuses on bringing the highest-quality games to the North American market, we are confident that Encore provides the expertise and infrastructure we need to make this game a success."

Highly Realistic Combat in the North African Desert

Set across two campaigns and 20 missions, Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps offers players the opportunity to play the role of friend or foe as they follow the destinies of English and German heroes who were once friends but who now must fight each other in war. Players engage in missions ranging from recon operations and escort missions to large-scale sieges of desert fortresses. As they play, they can view the battlefield from any perspective - at close range, as an individual soldier, or zooming all the way out to the platoon level.

Features of the game include:

• 70 authentic and highly detailed units and vehicles including machine gunners, planes, tanks, APCs and flamethrowers; each vulnerable to location specific damage and equipped with specific abilities and strengths
• Full 3D gameplay and highly realistic graphics - real-time shadows, damage effects, explosions, weather effects
• A story-driven single-player mode with twenty missions and two campaigns, as well as the ability to play either British or German campaigns
• A management phase at the beginning of each mission for players to customize their task force and prepare for battle
• A Blitzkrieg mode at the end of some missions for players to carry their momentum to the next mission
• A pause feature for players to plan up to 3 moves ahead, bringing a turn-based element to an otherwise real-time experience
• Multiplayer for up to 4 players over LAN or Internet (via GameSpy)
  

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