Title: Startopia (http://www.muckyfoot.com/startopia/startopia.html)
Developer: Mucky Foot (http://www.muckyfoot.com)
Publisher: Eidos (http://www.eidos.com)

The charts of last year prove implicitly that people like simulation games and not just boring ones, titles with comedy and style. Even now The Sims is still floating about in the charts and before that, titles like Theme Hospital with its wacky diseases were a complete blast to play. Startopia will be Mucky Foot's second title and, with some of the team being old Bullfrog attendees, expect a sim with more than a dash of laughter.

As the title kind of implies you will be building your very own idyllic space station in the stars with no shortage of strange alien residents. To begin with you will just have once section to play with but, through good management, your goal is to take over the whole thing. The aim will be keeping all the different alien races happy, and as they have all evolved differently, each race wants different things to keep them happy. Obviously one of the keys will be ensuring a good balance of facilities so everyone is happy.

One interesting feature to note is that will be able to go and explore visible planets and moons for new and exciting life forms to add to your collection of guests. Hmm, but wont that make things harder for you? We shall have to wait and see. Graphics are looking good to go, so lets just hope the developers hit that heady mix of easy controls, shallow learning curve, involving gameplay, witty banter and sweet graphics these types of games really need. Things are definitely looking on track with Startopia and it should be ready to play early summer.

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