Many products come and go each day, most of which fade away without much notice. The majority of the time, there isn't much software with merit hitting the shelves. Occasionally, something reall uniqe and special comes along. It isn't popular at first, but rather it stays in the "underground" for awhile. Then, one day, through word-of-mouth (and maybe a little advertising), that product hits the "big time." Everyone knows the legends of gaming, the software that went big and stirred up the industry. Doom, Hexen, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Myst, the 7th Guest; the list goes on...

All of the legendary ground-breaking games brought something new to light. With Doom, it was the first-player shoot'em up aciton. Quake brought the first true 3D texture-mapped gaming engine. Myst brought the photorealistic surrealism. The 7th Guest took strategy and mystery (along with the first incarnation of full motion video) and blended them seamlessly. Each contributed something valuable which made the game popular with consumers.

SouthPeak Interactive continues this tradition by releasing Temujin : The Capricorn Collection. Temujin bases itself upon a strong story rather than just throwing together a bunch of fancy effects. The plot : Supposedly, the power that Ghengis Kahn used to conquer his part of the world was derived from an ancient, mystical, jewel-encrusted, golden goat's head. Its power, locked inside for many years, is now in jeopardy of being released again. The mystical object is located within the Stevenson Museum, and to save the world, the player must find and destroy it.

Temujin incorporates a totally new way of acquiring backdrops and scenes -- actually making them. No rendered backgrounds are used. All of the backgrounds are actual sets painstakingly built to the smallest detail. Then, they are filmed from every possible angle with 35mm film. Actors are then filmed inside of the set, not behind a blue screen like other games. The background and actor's scenes are combined in post-production, along with special effects and 3D modeled objects.

All in all, the "new" techniques used to create Temujin make the game better than any competitor. The player is immersed in the game, which has a feeling of actually being there. Temujin is probably the closest thing to an interactive movie to date.

With SouthPeak's initiative in re-defining the gaming standards, they are helping to move to the next step forward. Their innovative use of film, combined with computers, creates a game unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Put simply, Temujin crushes all other games in a comparison of realism, gameplay, and story. I'm sure we'll see games in the future that will use and expand upon SouthPeak's new techniques.

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