Since its highly visible inception in early 1997 - one that came with a large investment from Microsoft - Digital Anvil has remained relatively quiet and operated behind the scenes. Up until Tuesday that is. That's when it unveiled, with Microsoft, its new PC games lineup that includes three titles: Starlancer, Conquest, and Loose Cannon.

　　"Loose Cannon, Conquest, and Starlancer will feature creative and technological excellence without compromising playability," said Chris Roberts, founder and CEO of Digital Anvil as well as the producer for Origin's popular Wing Commander series. "Intuitive interfaces allow gamers to enter the game quickly and easily and concentrate on the most important part: having fun!"

　　"Chris has assembled a team of imaginative storytellers," said Ed Fries, Microsoft games' general manager. "By combining great storytelling and game design with stunning visual effects, Digital Anvil's games are able to engross gamers in more immersive game experiences than they have previously encountered."

　　Starlancer is described as being a first-person space combat experience a la Wing Commander, with a nonlinear mission structure, fluid space-flight engine, eight-player network play, and about a dozen different types of ships. Starlancer is also being coproduced by Warthog, a Manchester, England-based development house.

　　The second title is being tentatively called Conquest: Frontier Wars and is a three-dimensional real-time space domination strategy game. Conquest will feature one of two races vying for star systems as well as AI-run fleet admirals that can be delegated to control fleets and gain experience and rank as the game progresses. Four-player network games will also be featured.

　　Lastly, Loose Cannon will be Digital Anvil's three-dimensional action-adventure. Players take control of a bounty hunter named Ashe in 20 missions with numerous script plots and subplots. Loose Cannon will feature 15 vehicles, fully animated motion-captured characters, eight-player network play, 12 different areas with modeled traffic patterns, reactionary police forces, and so on.

　　Digital Anvil and Microsoft, who will be publishing and marketing the titles, plan to start releasing the games starting late summer 1999.