Panzer dragoon for those of you who haven't yet heard of it until now have been missing out a little, Panzer Dragoon originally came out on the Sega Saturn which is why most people haven't heard of it or played it and was based in a world where human prosperity was low and few people lived amongst the earth and set you in the role of a rider on a dragon where you would go round and destroy your enemies with a laser cannon that also had a berserk attack enabled on it after defeating a lot of enemies.

As you were on a dragon the game followed a fight/action type approach and was great fun to play and an original title at the time, it was a hit amongst most of the Sega fans at the time and had a sequel as well as a RPG which was a brilliant game and is a piece of gaming history if you can find it as there aren't many copies around and are worth a lot, my local games shop has a price tag marked 'A Lot!!' on the game, that's how valuable it is.

A lot of speculation had been floating around about the games supposed next appearance as the team who created the game had split up, but Sega have worked their magic into creating an Xbox only title especially for us, good old Sega! Panzer Dragoon Orta is et in the future from all of it's predecessors and only small pockets of humans are now alive around the world, although an Empire rules over the world at present and all the remaining humans decide it's time to take down the empire and so they revolt to become rulers over the empire to form a better place to live. As the world is at war a mysterious girl on the Dragoon becomes mankind's only hope and stands alone against the empire. Her name is ORTA.

So far we've been told that Panzer Dragoon Orta is set to include huge areas, each with several different routes and practically a unique journey each time you play the game. Berserk mode is set to return with all kinds of new attacks and effects using Xboxes capabilities, your dragon will become an individual forming its own attacks and looks. High quality cut scenes similar those from the panzer dragoon RPG are to be implemented. High speed aerial combat will be the name of the game against new and old enemies with a sub-plot to also be played through to see the empires perspective of the story, plus the game is set to include a huge extras section based on the panzer dragoon series past and present.

The game is set to put the best of all 3 previous games all into one great package with new characters and weapons with faster gameplay too. From the screenshots the game is looking mightily impressive with brilliant draw distances, if I'm not mistaken this is going to be one hell of a comeback for Panzer Dragoon and Sega too, it's all the great parts of the games with new and better stuff and all with heavy implementation of the Xboxes capabilities used too. Don't mind me but I'm off to preorder a copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta it looks simply amazing.

Preview By: Graham Seward