April Myst

What's the biggest selling PC game of all time? Could it be "Red Alert", or maybe "Doom"? Perhaps even "Tomb Raider" or (god forbid) "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"? Not even close. The answer is actually "Myst", the early CD-Rom adventure game which has gone on to sell over four million copies worldwide, although to be fair it probably falls into the same category as Stephen Hawking's best-selling book "A Brief History Of Time" - everyone has a copy, but most people didn't get past the first chapter...

Which must be both a comfort and a concern for Presto Studios, who have been entrusted with developing "Myst III : Exile" and must come up with a worthy sequel to the game that everybody bought but nobody admits to owning. This time round Myst will feature the kind of full 360 rotational camera system that French publisher Cryo used to great effect in adventure games such as "Faust", allowing you to look around in all directions instead of simply facing a series of fixed pictures to click at. It's all still lovingly pre-rendered though, and the locations we've seen so far are rather impressive looking. Also on the cards are five new "ages" to puzzle your way through, and a whole new storyline starring one of America's great B-list actors Brad Dourif ("Dune", "Child's Play") in the leading role.

According to the latest information from publisher Game Studios, Myst III will be released in the UK on Friday 13th April. We're expecting preview code within the next few weeks and will give you a full run-down on how the game is shaping up then, but in the meantime why not check out the latest batch of screenshots from the game, in all their widescreen high resolution glory?