The dark horse

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
With an outrageous amount of respect and care for the Warhammer tabletop game license, the imminent strategy game Warhammer: Mark of Chaos stunned us with its early good looks this spring.

Mark of Chaos boasts worlds that look like they are plucked from fine-art paintings. But these lands run red with blood when the forces of Empire and Chaos clash with clanking, torso-severing force that we felt in our guts. MoC has nearly everything it needs to be the next epic strategy game: gorgeous environments, incredibly detailed forces and mind-bending battle effects.

We haven't been able to get hands-on time with MoC, so we haven't seen if it possesses the most important traits of a strategy title: balance and depth. We already know we'll have some quality time with our favorite races, so we'll have a good idea of its nuances next week.

We can barely keep our hopes down that this one does everything right.

There's always more...

Fallout fans have had their hopes of a franchise resurrection fanned by the inception of a new Bioware development studio, which we think may point to a Fallout MMO. Failing that, perhaps the oft-overhauled Star Wars Galaxies is due for a mercy killing and changing of the guard.

Also, Quantic Dream, the team behind Indigo Prophecy, is cranking the handle on the rumor mill. We have heard scuttlebutt that they are busy on a new, unannounced title to follow up on last year's freaky adventure.

Finally, with the core members of the World of Warcraft team gone to form Red 5 Studios, we can't help but wonder what we'll see next from them. We know that they're up to something, and we hope to pry it loose during the show.