Jim, Bob and Bill are your
everyday genius developers. One day, they are brainstorming on the
ideas of a new game, when their boss walks in. Their boss informs
them that in order for them to get any funding for their new game,
they have to include his son Spiff’s ideas in their new game. Spiff
is introduced to the brainstorm and it goes something like this.

Jim:
You know what people would like to see, they would love an intelligent
game based on a classic book

Spiff: Yeah, with lots
of action

Bob: errr, yeah.. right
spiff.. action huh.. well, you know I read a book a long time ago
called Dune, and it had a great storyline as well as a good deal of
action

Jim: Yeah, I read that
book too.

Bill: Great idea, we could
have the game follow the stories and the trials of Paul from the ship
till his conquest of Dune

Spiff: Never read it

Jim: Well its about this
man who seeks his destiny as a master of space and time…

Spiff:
is there a lot of killing?

Bill: Well, on the way
to his destiny, there are a lot of raids

Spiff: Yay, lets make the
game about his raids

Bob: Um Spiff, there is
a lot more involved, a whole substory about his sister being born..

Spiff: BORING.. sister
is born at the start of the game..

Jim: errr.. ok.. anyhow,
OK the game can be about the raids, but lets give it really kewl graphics.
We can follow the raids, the war, the city invasion, the riding of
the worms…

Spiff: Too long, cut it
down to 5 missions.

Bill:
(swallowing in his throat) OK, but we can do this with great action
scenes.. Paul can use his voice and sneak around like an Assassin.
We wont make him a pretty character, realistic violence and sharp
graphics will tell the story.

Spiff: Yeah, you know what
I like? I like those old martial arts films where their lips move
one way, and they talk at a different time.. lets use really bad lip
synching to capture that old time flavor.

Jim: um.. yeah.. good idea
spiff.. Well, I suppose if the characters are far enough back in the
cut scene…

Spiff: NO WAY.. put them
right up against the screen so we can see their mouths in detail.

Bill: alright, alright..
anyhow, the game will go through each level roughly following the
story, and we will incorporate a lot of adventure puzzles..

Spiff: Beh, the only good
puzzles are how to kill the next guard

Jim:
OK, OK.. we will put lots of guards in and make the user figure out
how to sneak up on each guard..

Spiff: Great, and make
them pay if they do it wrong. Give them little ammo, and no save points
during the mission. If they make one mistake, they should pay for
it hard. This will also increase the games longevity.

BOB: That does it, I quit.
I am going to go work on a user friendly game..

Spiff: Users don’t know
what they like, lets set the default keys for them, they will love
the selection I am picking…

BOB LEAVES

Jim: great Spiff.. is your
daddy gonna fund us?

Spiff:
As long as all my ideas get used….

Well, that was it.. my
interpretation of the developers meeting for Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Although the game is fair to the books in sections, the difficulty
of the missions coupled with the bad control scheme and a horrible
save scheme makes the game near unplayable to the average gamer. There
is a lot to like about this game, the graphics and the way Paul is
portrayed are perfect for the game. The only advice I can give is
to know your style. If you like Action/Adventure games on the Action
side, and have a high tolerance level, Dune will be a treat. If you
are more into adventure games, this game will be on your shelf long
before your third mission.

Final Grade: C-

System Requirements:

Windows 98/ME/XP
Pentium® II 400 MHz (Pentium® III 500 MHz Recommended)
64 MB RAM (128 MB
Recommended)
4X CD-ROM Drive
DirectX® 8.0 Compatible Sound Card
16 MB DirectX® 8.0 Compatible Video Card (32 MB Recommended)

Supported 3D Chipsets:

ATi: all 16 MB VRAM or Higher
Matrox: G450, G550
Nvidia: Riva TNT2, GeForce Series
S3­Savage 4