It's been several weeks since the last time Playback reared its gossipy undertones and insider info, and there are many lame excuses to give (London, vacations, too many games to play, etc.). At the beginning of the month, I was rushed over to the GameSpot UK offices to scare British PR chaps into giving me information about games before they were shown at ECTS. And this was no picnic, since many of the PR people, for lack of an appropriate euphemism, sucked. There were exceptions at companies like Rage, where an extremely well-informed PR person called me back almost right away, and then there were the nine unsuccessful calls to Sony (now that was fun). Luckily, the staffs of GameSpot and GameSpot UK rallied at the show to fill in the cracks left by the PR people and bring you great coverage. In short, ECTS was nothing like E3. People were laid back, and at every turn, there was some new soccer or rally title. Booths at the show were a little smaller than those at E3, and there weren't as many big announcements at the show, with the exception of one major one - WarCraft III. Even though this game has been worked on for some time and will probably take even longer to complete (Blizzard is not known for speed), we got a chance to watch the game in action, and it looked as though this one would be highly sought after. First and foremost, we needed to play Diablo II.

　　Back in the US, release fever has begun, and the boxes are beginning the pile up as the holiday season moves inevitably closer. So what is going on in the gaming world? Nvidia's GeForce 256 is out of the bag and ready to shake up the gaming world in the middle of October. And the season looks to be a guaranteed success, as 3dfx's Voodoo4 won't be released until 2000. With 3dfx's drive to sell Voodoo3 boards, don't be surprised to see an aggressive ad campaign that attempts to keep games far away from any GeForce board. There's also talk that the GeForce 256 chip could be powering Microsoft's secretive X-Box. Reportedly, the machine will be healthy competition for the PlayStation2, Dreamcast, and new Nintendo machines, but it is more likely that it will be treated as a fast and tiny Pentium III 450/DVD player for your TV. Microsoft has been working on all sorts of TV-screen technology for its WebTV division. Expect this to make waves with standard consumers. Right now, it doesn't sound like hard-core gamers will give up their monitors for TV screens.

　　Babylon 5 has officially been shown the door at Sierra after someone tallied up the amount of money going into the title and how much Sierra would get back. The number on the end of the equal sign wasn't up to snuff, so the team was eliminated. Fans of the upcoming game have been continuously e-mailing us, hoping to bring the game back. As previously mentioned, the game could be sold to a company that is willing to complete the game. There would be some difficulties, as that company would also need to buy the Babylon 5 rights to the game from Warner Brothers. Also, Sierra may have to pay some sort of fee for not completing the game. (Bad press can't be a good thing.) Luckily, we know of a few parties interested in how much it would take to grab the game and turn it into a money maker. We've been chatting with one large publisher, and we hope to bring you better more solid news about the title in the next few weeks.

　　And now for the bad news: With Sierra's reorganization of its divisions, Dynamix will lose its name, as its efforts will now be contained under the newly formed "core games" unit. One bit of information missing from the release that announced the reorganization was the future of iffy games like the old Front Line Sports series. Readers may remember that Sierra's last football game, NFL Football Pro '99, was released in January and then immediately recalled for severe errors. To reply, the company sent out full refunds and a T-shirt to all those wishing to return the game. Since then, the series has gone to the great end zone in the sky. For now, the Sierra Sports lineup includes Skiing 99, PGA Championship Golf, NASCAR (although Papyrus' days seem numbered), and a whole slew of value (read: Target/Kmart/Wal-Mart-quality) titles including several Deer Hunter clones and the recent release of Professional Bull Rider. We're still waiting for someone to release badminton, T ball, and cheerleading games.

　　And the news gets worse. Sierra swung a big ole ax at Berkeley Systems' Orcs as well. The title was to be a Diablo clone of sorts based on the famous J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings series. Interestingly, the other title being developed under the Tolkien license is Middle-earth. Official word is that the game is being shut down for redesign, yet the team has been fired. The game's development has been troubled since it was announced. No screenshots, no list of features, no staff - all we know is that the title is massively multiplayer. At this point, we're not sure if the title will ever come out, but our news noses say that Havas knows how big the massively multiplayer market will become in the next few years and wants a piece of the pie. But with EverQuest dominating the scene and Ultima Online 2 coming along, Havas has to make sure it has something that can compete. We wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Starsiege universe would make a jump into the massively multiplayer realm. I'm not giving away any secrets here, but no one else out there has a sci-fi MMORPG in the works, and Starsiege has an extensive storyline.... Seems like it would have been cheaper than buying the Tolkien license, right? On the good side, Valve has Team Fortress 2 coming, and Homeworld is already selling well nationwide. So this may be the end of the storm for Sierra.

　　In other news, Hasbro has purchased Wizards of the Coast - the company behind the popular and controversial Pokemon card game, everything in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons universe, and Magic: The Gathering. The deal was completed yesterday, and early reports say the deal is worth US$325 million. With all these acquisitions, Hasbro Interactive is looking more and more like the only company to give Electronic Arts a run for the money.And to think, Hasbro is based in my little speck-on-a-map, hometown? Anything can happen, I guess. Until next week, stay tuned.