A recent update to the Pillars of Garendall progress logs at Ambrosia's site has been made by Dee Brown, explaining that the game is now in its third (and hopefully final) phase of testing. The title will be the first to show off the cross-platform Coldstone Game Engine in development by Beenox.

Pillars of Garendall will be an isometric RPG with impressive graphics, lighting, and combat systems. The game should compile for Mac OS 9, OS X, and Windows, thanks to Coldstone's compatibility across all platforms. It sounds like this third beta is quite an improvement over the previous, with much lower memory requirements and improved speed. Here's an excerpt from the long list of changes:

The baby just went on its third (last?) ride.

Synopsis:

This version has hundred of fixes and enhancements over the second beta. The engine must be considered as a total rewrite since it's now 100% C++. It's faster, takes less memory (take almost half the RAM of the latest beta) and look better overall (translucency). The battle system also has been greatly improved with better NPC AIs, different attack styles for the player, more sound feedback, block feature, etc.. In game graphics are also much better.

Dirty details:

Some of the major improvements:

* Engine now 100% in C++

* Translucency now supported

* Initial loading time GREATLY optimized (0.4sec instead of 14sec on my G4)

* Global map loading time improved and some maps (like the first town) have been reworked to load faster

* Take about half the RAM

* Bunch of special FX added

* Battle system improved a lot (more sounds, better AIs, more attack styles, etc.)

* Some hostile characters now have special attacks

* A couple of change to the ending to make it even more interesting (hehe, you will have to see by yourself)

* In-game cut scenes

[UPDATE] IMG received the following note from Dee Brown: "This should be the last beta round. This third beta is a "real world" test for Pillars of Garendall -- final game data, registering stuff, documentation, everything's there. There will probably be some little updates to the engine during this beta to fix minor issues that could be raised by the testers but that's all. We are definitely getting there!"

Pillars of Garendall Progress Logs

Pillars of Garendall Betashots Page

Ambrosia Software (add to watch list)

Beenox (add to watch list)

Pillars of Garendall (add to watch list)

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