Turok may not be known by the recent gaming population, it may not even be known by the casual gaming population & it probably won't be remembered by the 'hard-core' gaming population. There are a number of reasons for this, well, at least a number of possible reasons for this. Firstly, it has been six years since the last Turok was released, a large gap for any on going franchise. Secondly, 'Acclaim', the previous publisher/developer of the Turok series defected due to poorly produced, and therefore, poor sales of its games. Thirdly, Turok was one of those games which didn't sell very well and ended up as a very average shooter despite starting out very well on the N64, so to now hear that Turok has returned and is being developed by quite a new company (Propaganda games) has probably either brought back some bad, memories or some very inquisitive people.

Now, you may or may not be glad to know the next-generation Turok doesn't follow the previous installment, well, there are dinosaurs and you have a knife and bow, but that's generally about it. This time your name is Joseph Turok, once a member of a special force called the 'Wolf Pack', you are now issued to another force out to hunt a former leader and mentor of yours called Roland Kane. During your descent to the planet where they believe Kane to be held you're shot down by his soldiers, now you find yourself in the wilderness being hunted by Kane's troops and, funnily enough, roaming dinosaurs. Not the most innovative or surprising of story lines I know, but that's the basic plot.

The different direction Propaganda games seems to be taking with the latest Turok isn't obvious at first as everything so far sounds quite clich?d or expected, but what the developers are aiming at here are to re-apply the basic gameplay elements and make it more 'interactive' shall I say, so really making Turok as it should have been. Instead of the dinosaurs now being here because the developers promised them, they actually serve more of a primary purpose within the gameplay, not just as enemies but as allies. You can now choose to lure the carnivorous reptiles into enemy territory and the unlucky foes will attempt to deal with them. You now also have the option to either go into battle guns blazing with a potential wide range of weaponry, or, go into the battle prone and stealth like with your close combat knife and your trademark bow. Each situation has a preferred approach or player's choice approach, making the player think before they enter a difficult spot. Propaganda games seem to be opening up gameplay options and making the experience up to you, the player, seems to be what a lot of game developers are doing now, but not a lot of games have dinosaurs in them.

There are large improvements in other areas, to be expected, a new improved graphics engine, at least for Turok. Turok is using a modified Unreal Engine to suit more to the jungle like theme, and to be honest, it looks great. The style since the previous installments has changed a whole lot too, with it now heading into a more dark and gloomy surrounding, quite the contrary to the Far Cry series, which is a definite good thing if there are dinosaurs. There now seems to be much more concentration within the 'core' aspects of the game, which I personally feel many developers are missing now a days; things such as dynamic game situations (different outcomes), the AI and how it reacts to other AI, and how the player itself can interact. Here, all these points seem to be covered.

Multiplayer has also been mentioned to be a large portion of Turok, partly why Propaganda games chose the unreal engine was so they can have the flexibility. There will be a separate cooperative mode now, which will also support up to 4 players online, pursuing a sequence of objectives, and a competitive online multiplayer, which will include a variety of gameplay modes to choose from. Explicit multiplayer details have been kept under wraps, but I'm sure whatever Turok withholds it's going to change a few minds. And yes, it has been confirmed there will be dinosaurs in the multiplayer too.

Turok will be available on the Xbox 360 on February 5th for the US and February 8th for Europe.