Microsoft Game Studios was on hand at E3 2004 with its upcoming massively multiplayer game, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The game is has been in development at Sigil Games, a studio founded by some of the original creators of EverQuest--designers Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, and fantasy artist Keith Parkinson. The new game is currently in a pre-alpha stage, but already features a number of built-out environments, including an expansive dry swampland lined with short grass and dotted with towering pillars of rock. We then moved to a huge town permeated by cobblestone streets lined with crowded villas, past which townspeople bustled and across which the citizenry had hung its laundry out to dry. The team at Sigil will attempt to make the world of Vanguard completely seamless and continuous--that is, there will not only be no load times, but also, every single visual feature on the landscape will be a real 3D object you can reach.