Black & White 2

Emergent behavior and more giant monkeys await in Peter Molyneux?s next experigame.

"The Analytical Engine has no pretensions to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform." ?Ada Byron Lovelace

Video games have already left the moldy old Turing test in the dust, at least in the sense that bots and players can be impossible to differentiate in most multiplayer games like Halo or Unreal Tournament. But even beyond first-person frag-fests, game engines are making spontaneous decisions and assessing situations with incredible levels of sophistication.

Peter Molyneux?s groundbreaking Black & White pushed the boundaries of game AI into new realms, and enticed us with the astounding potential of intelligent systems to change the way we play. Software that exhibits emergent behavior and learns how to conduct itself through feedback suggests that you might be entering the Matrix sooner than you think...

But in the more immediate future, you?ll revisit Eden as a wayward deity in search of a following in Black & White 2. Sadly, the people of Eden are at war and your divine intervention is required. First, you must raise a mighty Creature in your image through behaviorist conditioning with a variety of training tools. Then it?s time to exhibit your power and earn the respect of the natives. Will you strive for peaceful coexistence, terrorize the puny mortals into subservience, conquer and destroy your neighbors, or nurture metropolitan bliss? Your Creature, who carries out your almighty will and embodies your worldview, has an expanded role on the battlefields of Eden in Black & White 2. This time, he?ll lead your armies, learn strategies, and even unleash new Miracles to help you attain your objectives. B&W2 contains new Epic Miracles, and allows the player to create unique game elements such as defensive gates and Creature-training tools. Weather will also take on greater strategic significance as you campaign for Good or Evil.

Black & White 2 promises to be so much more than a mere strategy game. Yea, it may verily cause you to question what it means to be human, or if machines can think, or if Haley Joel Osment really was a little boy?well, maybe that?s giving Big Stevie S. too much credit. B&W2 is scheduled to spread its unique brand of recursive joy in 2004.

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