Black & White Patch

In Black & White you can be the god you want to be. Will you rule with a fair hand, making life better for your people? Or will you be evil and scare them into prayer and submission? No one can tell you which way to be. You, as a god, can play the game any way you choose

The only way to earn worshiping power is by taking over villages by impressing their inhabitants, and as your zealous power base grows you are faced with innumerable challenges. The people will pray to you to help them, make them rich, harm their neighbours of simply make their lives easier. Whether you choose to listen to them or help them is up to you.

In Black & White you can be the god you want to be. Will you rule with a fair hand, making life better for your people? Or will you be evil and scare them into prayer and submission? No one can tell you which way to be. You, as a god, can play the game any way you choose.

And as a god, you get to own a Creature. Chosen by you from magical, special animals, your Creature will copy you, you will teach him and he will learn by himself. He will grow, ultimately to 30 metres, and can do anything you can do in the game. Your Creature can help the people or can kill and eat them. He can cast Miracles to bring rain to their crops or he can drown them in the sea. Your Creature is your physical manifestation in the world of Eden, He is whatever you want him to be.

Your people will build you a Temple and although you can go anywhere in the land, this Temple is your base. It's a mighty piece of work and contains all you'll ever need to be a god, run your world and look after or check on your Creature.

But things are never simple. You are not the only god on Eden. There are others, and they will not have the same views as you. They, too, are intent on gaining the hearts and minds, and finally the souls of the tribes, and, like you, they have Creatures capable of great works or of mass destruction. There will be war between the gods. Whether you win is down to you, your Creature and what sort of a person you really are.

Black & White utilises brand-new graphics control systems, and you see the world from any angle, direction or height. It's fully scalable, has light-sourcing and reflections, and you can even import real weather from the internet into the world. Nothing like this has ever been seen before.

And the game also boasts a new level of artificial intelligence. Your Creature is almost a living, breathing thing. He learns, remembers and makes connections. His huge range of abilities and decisions is born of a ground-breakingly powerful and complex AI system.

The villagers in Eden also use revolutionary AI. Each has his or her own personality, and this can be altered by what they see, what they do and what sort of person they are.

Another innovation is Gesture technology. There are no icon panels or on-screen controls in Black & White. If you want to carry out even the most intricate or powerful Miracles, you can do so by simply drawing the correct sign on the ground. It's quick, intuitive and adds to your power as a god.

If you have an Immersion TouchSense-compatible mouse like the Logitech iFeel Mouse, the virtual Black & White world will provide realistic tactile feedback through the mouse.

Pulling up trees, powering up Miracles, stroking or slapping your Creature, zeroing in on faraway villagers, and many other interactions all have their associated touch sensations which will add to the overall immersive game experience.

Finally, the game sets new standards in on-line gaming. Not only can you play with others, either co-operatively or against them, but you can take you Creature out of the single-player game and onto the web. You can also send and receive e-mail and phone text messages from within Black & White, using the all-new unified message system.

And the game will even interrogate your e-mail package, import your contact names and assign them to individual tribespeople. So someone can come up to you and give you a message personally!