Lucid Dreamers Development is currently working on a new Master of Magic clone, called Empires of Sorcery. It will have many of the features you remember from MoM, and expand those ideas in a lot of ways. World maps will be new and unique each time a game is started. The overland map will be very familiar, with cities, dungeons, temples, magical founts (nodes) and other features. Character creation will also be similar, with choices of magical powers from different schools, special skills, and several races to choose from.

The magical system will be more intricate than MoM. Spells are organized into elemental schools (fire, earth, air, water, life, death) as well as sorted by similar effects (summoning, protection, destruction, mentalism and more). There is much overlap of these schools, and where two schools meet there will be unique spells.

City management is very similar to MoM as far as constructing buildings and training units, but some features have been added. Assigning population to different jobs (farming, production, research) will give you more flexible options but still a very simple interface, and moving population from one city to another will be much easier. The addition of a build queue allows you to plan ahead and means you'll have to check on your cities less often.

The alternate planes from MoM, light and dark, are also included in Empires of Sorcery. It will also contain options to include several more alternate planes at game creation.

One of the biggest new features of Empires of Sorcery is the Undead as a playable race. An entire kingdom of skeletons, zombies and more powerful Undead creatures, organized into cities and armies. The Undead empire will play by very different rules, and will add a very unique experience to the game.

More information about EoS is available at the Empires of Sorcery homepage http://www.empiresofsorcerygame.com/ and wiki page http://wiki.empiresofsorcerygame.com/index.php/Main_Page . Lucid Dreamers is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to pay for artwork and other resources for the game, which can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lucid-dreamers/empires-of-sorcery

Have you ever read a book that is being written while you read it ? In ancient times when men were real men, women were real women, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real furry creatures from Alpha and only the boldest dared to dream about 2D games whole new style of games has emerged - massive multiplayer in first crude form - telnet games. They have brought new elements - communication and cooperation (as well as new cool ways of wreaking havoc). Comparing to classic adventures there is no game ending - player can explore the world, steal from other players, help newbies or just go troll hunting. Player controls avatar in virtual world with simple text commands - such as "go north", "go south" or "kill troll" and the world is being described in the same way. Avatar has to face many dangers - such as hunger, thirst, trolls* and other players. MUD themes varies from Napoleon wars to Star Wars. They also have different core engine that participates on gaming experience - most namely DIKU or Circle MUD. Interesting fact - MUDs are very much alive even today despite nowadays fancy 3D MMORPG - that is a big victory for human fantasy (perhaps also for the fact that you can open window with text even in work or school). So if you're interested in trying one - try my favourite www.aardwolf.com

* author (that's me) is not a shapist and has nothing against trolls who besides having big clubs and green skin are great fellows

I have recently played Ultima 8 (again). Who played this game before will surely understand me, when I say: I love it and I hate it. It is the last game of a classic Ultima series and as the first one, it creates quite a good looking 'feel 3D' engine. But the game itself has a fantastic story (as most of The Ultima series games by the way). The story begins exactly when the Ultima 7 ends. Avatar is cast to the world of Pagan, and he has to find his way out of there to help Britannia, which is (once again) under attack. But you have to feel the story by Yourself of course :-). You can try the game here: http://www.freegameempire.com/games/Ultima-8

Now, why I love it? It is because of the world it creates, the way Avatar conquers the world of Pagan (Without any real knowledge by the way. It reminds me that there are no too much clever people there), a graphics (well, it is quite old today, but it used to be something) and of course the great story that is always part of Ultima series games.

And why I hate it? I always get pretty angry playing the game. Controlling the avatar is dedicated to mentally strong people, especially when you don't have a patched version. You will probably die many times stucked behind a tree or in the corner, unable to jump over a rock 2 inches high or my favorite; you will die countless times in the bottomless water pool 5 feet wide.

As you can see (and we are slowly reaching the end of my analysis), this is simple the game you cannot miss. Some of Ultima fans will only hate this game, without the love part I think. But it will always have a small place in my collection.

If you're fan of turn-based hexagon strategies you'll have to check this one out: http://www.wesnoth.org/ Game is set in fantasy world so you can command dwarves, elves, undead and of course human troops (much like the classic game fantasy general), not to mention you've got opportunity to hook up with extremely attractive princess (you have to fight her several times before :). Rules are pretty complex, yet easy to understand - every kind of terrain has different defense modifiers and movement penalties. Units have different types of attacks and different vulnerabilities. For example skeletons are vulnerable to blunt and holy damage while they are pretty hard to harm in any other way, elevens gets defense bonuses when ending their turn in forest, mounted units can do double damage when charging (but then they also take double damage from retaliation strike) etc. What is really great about this game is changing of night and day - chaotic units such as undead or robbers are strongest in the night, while lawful units are strongest in bright day, so you have to plan ahead - attacking undead fort in deep night is nearly suicidemission even for experienced veteran units, while taking them down in bright day is a piece of cake. Also for a game made by community (so it is totally free - really) it has got really good graphics & music background.