Andrew Fradley has just released a new version of ModelEx. He's been working on this one for quite awhile (the last official release was almost 3 years ago), but it was worth the wait. This version can load the models and textures from all three versions of Soul Reaver, and it can export the results in .x format so they can be imported into a 3D modeling application. This includes both the Material and Spectral versions of each area, as well as both model variations for objects that have two (vampires, humans, etc.).

As several of you have let me know, Soul Reaver is now available in the online Playstation store. Like the release of Blood Omen in this format a few months ago, this is great news for anyone who never had a chance to play the original game, or doesn't have their disc anymore.

Despite the end of United Cutlery, there is still an effort to convince someone to manufacture a licensed (and accurate) replica of the Soul Reaver sword. If you'd like to chime in to add your support, that link will take you right to the forum thread at Epic Weapons.

In my last update, I neglected to mention that Blood Omen is now available in downloadable form from the online Playstation Store (at least in some parts of the world). This is great news for anyone with a PS3 and/or PSP who has had trouble tracking down a secondhand copy of the game.

I finished playing through Uncharted 2 last week, and in an unprecedented feat, it manages to leap past the spectacular original both in terms of the stunning visuals and the gameplay. Obviously I have a personal attachment to the story and setting of Legacy of Kain, but judged on its own merits, Uncharted 2 is by far the best game that Amy Hennig (director of Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, and Defiance) has made. There are already a chorus of voices praising Uncharted 2, but it is one of those rare titles that truly deserves the recognition being heaped upon it. It has outstanding action and puzzles, a great story, and plenty of ancient ruins, including some that make use of ultraviolet light to eerie effect. Which brings me to an announcement I've been wanting to make for quite some time now:

For almost three years now I've been spending almost all of my free time working on a new hobby - multispectral photography (specifically, infrared and ultraviolet photos in addition to "visible light"). I finally have something to show for it too - a new website where you can see some examples of what I've done so far, and an explanation of what the images represent. To bring this back to the topic of Legacy of Kain, the first outing I went on to take a lot of pictures in the field (back in 2007) involved me heading down to Los Angeles, where I was honoured to have lunch with Amy Hennig, Richard LeMarchand, and Michael Bell(!). It's been a very interesting project for me, and I hope at least some of you think so as well.

It's hard to believe that it's been close to a year since I posted an update to The Lost Worlds. There is a good reason for that, and I'm going to have some exciting news to share soon. But enough about that for now.

Tomorrow (13 October 2009), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will hit store shelves. Uncharted 2 is the latest game that Legacy of Kain director Amy Hennig and designer Richard LeMarchand have been working on for Naughty Dog. The original was a truly spectacular adventure game, and based on the previews I've seen of this sequel it looks to be even better. I've had my copy pre-ordered for quite awhile, and I cannot recommend more highly that you check it out.

A few months ago, Daniel Cabuco (another former long-time member of the Kain team) sent me some original texture files from The Undercity and The Temple, one of the major areas deleted from the original Soul Reaver, and they are now available on that page. Thanks Daniel!

In other prerelease/deleted material news, Raina Audron (a fan of the series in Slovakia) has put together a really comprehensive and interesting comparison between two different beta versions of Soul Reaver and the final (retail) version of the game.

Legacy of Kain: Prodigal Sons is one of the more promising fan efforts I've seen over the years. Creating a complete game is still a daunting task, but I'm looking forward to seeing how Jake Pawloski's project turns out.

As part of this update, I've removed the download-limiting functionality from TLW. It was causing a lot of people to have trouble downloading the Soundtracks, which I apologize for. As far as I can tell, it was something related to differences between PHP4 and PHP5, because I switched hosts last year and that's the only change I'm aware of (my old host was using PHP4). It could also just be that PHP is a terrible language. All I know is that the scripts worked fine on the old host, but not on the new one. This new host doesn't cap my bandwidth, but if the crazy Russians or Brazilians (or anyone else, for that matter) start downloading the same thing over and over again I will just outright ban them from the site because I don't want to aggravate my provider unnecessarily.

Removing that functionality involved performing a complete rebuild of TLW using an updated version of Charon, the batch software I wrote to create and maintain the site, so if you notice any bugs (broken links, etc.), please let me know using the Contact form. Note that you may need to clear your browser cache in order for the site to display properly, since some of the links and code are different now.

Finally, I know it's a little late in coming, but for those of you with access to a PS3, I'd recommend giving inFamous a look. I actually bought and played through it when it came out earlier this year, and I was blown away by what a solid adventure game it was. I noticed a lot of aspects that made me think that the design teams were big fans of Soul Reaver, even though the setting (a modern-day city) is very different on the surface. I don't want to provide any spoilers, but this feeling only intensified the further I got into the game.

A lot of this site's visitors are still anxious for news about a sequel, so I'm posting this even though it's probably not the news most of you want to hear.

Back in March of this year, forum member Rabban sent me a link to Ranjeet Singhal's portfolio, which includes a composite image of a Kain model partway in-between his appearance in Blood Omen 2 and in the Soul Reaver games. At the time, I didn't really understand the full meaning.

Then in October, Nosgothic Realm forum member FallenVVarrior found the portfolio of Aaron Hausmann (an artist from Ritual Entertainment) which included a few screenshots of a project titled "Legacy of Kain: Canceled Sequel".

Now, Divine Shadow has returned to tie it all together (mostly). His thread describes the available information in detail, but from what he pieced together, this project seems to have been started shortly after Defiance shipped, but was canceled after about 3 months in development. All three of the artists who mention it work(ed) for Ritual, who would later go on to work with Eidos on 25 To Life. The title (according to Jason Muck's portfolio) was Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy.

The available screenshots aren't much to go on, but there are some interesting clues about what might have been. Please keep in mind that just because this particular sequel was canceled doesn't mean that there is no possibility of a different sequel being made at some point in the future. Game developers and publishers cancel projects frequently before they're ever announced publicly. For example, Eidos themselves canceled Core's remake of Tomb Raider: Anniversary and gave the concept to Crystal Dynamics to build from scratch.

Speaking of Tomb Raider, Underworld ships next week (for the PS3, Xbox360, PC, Wii, and PS2 - the latter three being significantly cheaper). I thought Crystal Dynamics did a fantastic job on Anniversary and Legend, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they've done with their first title built from the ground up for next-gen systems. The team that made Underworld has a number of names that will be familiar to fans of the Kain series, including Riley Cooper (who did design work on Blood Omen, both Soul Reaver games, and Defiance) and Chris Bruno (who has tested or been in charge of testing all of the Kain games).

Some people were still running into problems downloading the Soundtracks.

I've updated the download script to work a bit better, and it should be more visitor-friendly as well.

It supports resuming of transfers now (although that will still count against your total number of downloads of a particular file, so don't use this feature unless you have to). It will not even allow you to attempt downloading the same file multiple times within the space of a few minutes (rather than allowing the attempt and then adding to the count of times you've downloaded the file). Also, as long as your browser has JavaScript enabled, the download link will disappear after it's clicked on to prevent people from clicking more than once and downloading the same file multiple times.

Sorry for any hassles this has caused. I wish I didn't need to use the script at all, but there are a few people out there who think it's clever to download the same file literally hundreds (or thousands) of times. I've already had to ban entire ISPs in Russia and Brazil from accessing the site altogether because of the actions of that small number of people.

Some people were having trouble downloading the Soul Reaver 2 soundtrack (the biggest file) from the Soundtracks page, so I split it into two parts.

The Lost Worlds has moved to a new host, and I am now able to host the Soundtracks (previously at LOKMusic.com) here. This has been in the works for most of this year, so I apologize for the delay.

Less than a week ago, Dead Space hit store shelves. Its executive producer was Glen A. Schofield, who previously directed Blood Omen 2. One of the things I really noticed about Blood Omen 2 was the attention to detail in terms of the design of Meridian - for a PS2-era game, the city felt surprisingly lifelike. Dead Space takes that mentality and multiplies it many-fold. The mining starship on which it's set is mind-boggling in its realism. From the warning labels to corporate motivational posters to the dirt and grime to the tools that the protagonist uses as improvised weapons, every inch feels as though it were painstakingly modeled after a photograph sent back in time from a real space vessel.

The ground that the story and setting tread are well-worn by sci-fi horror films - you'll see bits and pieces of the Alien series, Event Horizon, Supernova, and virtually every other movie in that genre - but the Dead Space team has managed to take the very best of all of them and create what is literally the most stylishly-executed videogame I've ever played. Every level looks like something that Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, or Paul W.S. Anderson would have built if they'd had an unlimited budget. Even the lighting feels as if it were created by a film professional.

Unless you are faint of heart (or stomach - this is a very gory game), I highly recommend giving Dead Space a try. It's available for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. There is also an animated prequel coming out on DVD later this month.

I am finally getting around to sorting out the hosting for the Legacy of Kain soundtracks. You may notice the LOKMusic.com redirect page come and go for a week or two, but I am on track to fulfill my promise of having them online again before the end of the year.

Tenaya from Nosgothic Realm wrote to let me know that that site is now being updated again (after a saga which you can read about on the main page there). This is great news for fans of the Kain series! Nosgothic Realm is the longest-running fan site, and has a ton of official concept art as well as fan art and fiction.

Last week, Silicon Knight's Too Human was released after being "in the works" for over ten years (first for the Playstation, then for the Gamecube, and finally completed for the Xbox 360 as the first part of a trilogy). If you enjoyed Blood Omen or Eternal Darkness, I would recommend giving Too Human a look. In the same way that I found Uncharted to retain the "feel" that Amy Hennig and Richard Lemarchand brought to the Soul Reaver games and Defiance, the Blood Omen to Eternal Darkness to Too Human progression is also quite pronounced. The story and voice acting are excellent, and the gameplay is a hybrid of Diablo-style fast action with more traditional adventure elements.

Both Too Human and Uncharted have free demos available for download from their respective console's online service.

ALX wrote me recently to let me know that he and his team have finished a fan-produced Portuguese translation patch for Defiance. There are a surprisingly large number of fans living in Brazil, and I'm sure they will appreciate having subtitles and menu text in their own language.