/ Previews / Adventure / King's Quest: Mask of Eternity / Page 5
	The graphical beauty of King's Quest gets a facelift. Damnit, it's about time! Err, I should just shut up now.

Any fool could just make a game based on the Tomb Raider engine and be done with it. Sierra is much better than that though. Everyone knew that the one thing that would have to change in King's Quest VIII would be the graphics. The graphics are the things that look dated quicker than anything else does. Williams knew this, so she (and the rest of her team) decided to take advantage of the latest technologies available, those specifically being 3dfx and Rendition cards. She made it in a complete 3D world. The game is looking rather sharp, with the graphics beautifully designed, adding an intense sense of reality to the game.

Williams explains: "3D acceleration is very important to experience 'Mask of Eternity' to its fullest extent. What it does is: it gives the game a much higher frame rate with better-looking graphics. It smoothes the pixels and gives you true 16 bit color with a higher frame rate. Basically -- in layman's terms -- the graphics look much more beautiful, and the game runs smoother with a 3D accelerator." We all knew this already (if you didn't, I suggest you go rape your cat), but hearing it from someone who has been in the industry as long as Williams is good to know. It lets us know that she isn't stuck in a rut at all, and she really is listening to what gamers want these days.

The engine being used to take advantage of this game is Dynamix's 3Space. From the screenshots, the game looks to be taking advantage of this engine in a big way. It's looking damn nice, considering that it is the first game to be created with that engine. Of course, in my opinion, it should look extremely nice, considering that it's been in creation for nearly three years, but then again my ass isn't that hard (at least I don't think it is). As for cinemas, they will be 3D hand-animated, very similar to the rest of the game, and they will be very integrated with the rest of the game.

As I've mentioned many times before and will mention many times after, graphics don't make the game, and they never will. All they do is get people to buy the game. The gameplay is there, and it's rather interesting, and that should make for a good substitute for the mere facial value of the graphics. That's all I have to say about that. (I feel as dimwitted as Forrest Gump right now, because that was the wittiest thing I could think of saying.)