Ideallo.co.uk had a nice publicity piece for Stargate Worlds, highlighting the wisdom of basing the graphics engine on Unreal Engine 3.

Everything started with Roland Emmerich: the film Stargate from 1994 has since grown into a whole universe of stories: Television series and books are commercial successes. No surprise then that a computer game is now in development too. But Stargate Worlds is really giving effort and looking to be an ambitious MMORPG project. Thanks to the Unreal 3 Engine and multisided scenarios the graphics look absolutely stunning, like in most MMORPGs.

The “Make” e-zine blog reported finding aluminum molds in a scrapyard. Case in point, the stuff I found this week in a bin of what’s called ‘New Aluminum’ in the scrap metal trade. They looked like 12″x12″ pieces of 3/8″ aluminum plate until I flipped one over to reveal… The StarGate. In absolutely jawdropping detail. Really. Take a moment to scope these detail images and fantasize about what you could make if you had a cnc mill with this kind of resolution. Un-freakin’-believable… and there was a pair of ‘em! Both sides of a mold made specifically to crank out weensy little StarGates about 9″ across. Personally, I’d always thought Richard Dean Anderson was taller than that, but whatever… These things had come into the yard in a load of stuff from one of the movie industry prop shops…they’d seen some use (there were a few stray bits of resin visible), but were nearly new. I’ve done a fair bit of casting and mold-making over the years, but I experienced a complete WTF moment when I realized that this particular mold had no sprues.

I’ve a friend who’s picked up a few things while dumpster diving, and is a total wizard when it comes to garage sales (I mean, a total wiz!) but I could never have imagined anyone scoring movie/tv props like these!

Talking of sweet images, the recent WarCry Preview of Stargate Worlds (forum members got an exclusive look at the hi-res images linked in the article) showed off some nice details.

The article has some nice quotes:

Which leads into the second major differentiator for Stargate Worlds, and it’s all in the title. Unlike the last three sci-fi/rpg/shooter games [Hellgate: London, Tabula Rasa, Mass Effect], they have a major intellectual property behind them: Stargate.

They’re very aware of their own IP and have gone to great lengths to weave the style of the show into all facets of gameplay. Nowhere is this more evident than in their approach to classes and, as a result, basic gameplay.

“Frankly, we have the best writing staff in the game industry and we understand how to tell stories in the interactive space,” boasted Klug. He cited the team’s experience from Earth & Beyond, Ultima Online and other past projects as examples of their strength.

I play The Matrix Online for the ongoing story, and the chance to participate in the story. A quote that claims “the best writing staff in the game industry” sends shivers through me as it hits my “hot button” for gaming. Why else would my favourite XBox games be

• “Knights of the Old Republic” (I and II)
• Jade Empire
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (original, and Chaos Bleeds)

Yeah, I like story.

The WarCry article finished off saying an encouraging

They did say Stargate Worlds remains on schedule for a Fall 2008 release, but did not get into public testing timelines. The target date should put it up against some stiff competition in the form of EA Mythic’s Warhammer Online and potentially Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft. Nonetheless, Cheyenne doesn’t seem too worried. “All you can really do is make the best game you can,” Klug said.

I cant wait! Roll on Q4!!