FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August, 2003 APEZONE RELEASES STARSHIPS UNLIMITED 3.0 CONQUER THE GALAXY WITH CUSTOMIZED STARSHIPS Quebec, Canada, August, 2003 - Apezone announced the release of Starships Unlimited 3.0, a real-time strategy game set in space, the sequel to its award winning Starships Unlimited: Divided Galaxies. In Starships Unlimited, players assume leadership to one of a variety of intergalactic races fighting for dominance of the galaxies. As in other 4x games, players explore and search out new planets and colonies, expand their power and control, exploit new resources and technology, and of course exterminate their enemies on the road to victory. In Starships Unlimited, the starships themselves are the stars of the game. What differentiates Starships Unlimited from other 4x strategy games is the greater focus on starships compared to territory or resource management. Players can customize almost every aspect of their starships, limited only by their imagination; from multiple weapon subclasses, armor and shields, power sources and computer systems, to specialized equipment to assist in scouting, production or research missions. This gives the ships character instead of treating them as just another "soldier" unit. The ships gain experience gradually with each battle, leveling up to become more maneuverable in battle such as learning advanced moves such as sweeps, strafes and reverse twists. These added maneuvers are what make starship combat continually interesting and enjoyable. The player enjoys a high level of involvement in building and developing the ships' capabilities, which means that every battle is crucial, both as an opportunity to build up their starships, and yet also a potentially fatal encounter for their unique spaceship creations. Even other aspects of gameplay are closely linked to the emphasis on the starships as the game's main focus. Researched technologies mostly result in some improvements to the ships capabilities. Exploration is a race against time with enemies as planets may contain artifacts to improve the starships' capabilities. In terms of exploration, there are now expanded galaxy exploration opportunities as well as more galaxy shapes and sizes. 3.0 offers even more starship variety, including freighters and colony ships, an increase in ship size, as well as new technologies and artifacts to boost the starships' capabilities. Starship Unlimited features many opportunities for diplomacy in addition to all out warfare. Players can build alliances, form non-aggression or trading treaties or even form large federations with their allies. Players can even initiate covert operations to spy on and undermine the enemy's peace, or even finance pirate raids on the enemy's trade routes. A new addition in 3.0 is the option to unite the galaxy through peaceful means. The improved economic and spy model as well as the smarter AI makes the game more balanced and challenging, as well as giving it more depth and options than before in their quest to unite the galaxy. The game's learning curve is such that it would be easy to dive into the game straight away, but makes learning about in-depth gameplay easy to pick up. For example, players can let the computer fight the battles for them and observe how it is done, then take over and apply these strategies when they have manual control over their fleet. Although the game plays out in real-time, it also pauses at important events, so players will not feel overwhelmed by their galaxy wide ambitions, even when they are fighting simultaneous battles across the ends of the galaxy. There are also different skill level settings, and 3.0 increases the number of difficulty settings from 3 levels to 5 levels, so the game can be enjoyed by both casual players as well as experts looking for a good challenge. Starships Unlimited also features a new user interface, improved graphics as well as enhanced sound effects and soundtrack. AWARDS: PC Gamer magazine "82%" Gamespot (8/10) PC Strategy Gamer (4/5) Computer Games magazine (Editor's Choice, 4.5 stars out of 5) Computer Games Online Review (4.5/5) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 300 Mhz CPU, 64 mb Ram, 350 mb HD, DirectX 7

Starships Unlimited v3.5 Demo (2.54MB)