The first question that popped into my mind when I loaded up the press beta of Dungeon Lords was, “This was the game that was originally scheduled for release last holiday season?” Unless the team at Heuristic Park, the developer responsible for Dungeon Lords and also 2000's Wizards & Warriors, has got some incredible trick up their sleeve, or I was given an old beta that doesn't reflect their current progress, I think it highly unlikely Dungeon Lords will even make it before this holiday season, as the game is nowhere near ready. Given Heuristic's track record of 'ship first, patch later' (Wizards & Warriors was almost unplayable at release, and was never fully patched up to kill many of the more serious bugs) I think it likely we'll see a premature release followed up with patches. This is a very irritating strategy for us PC gamers, but one used by many publishers (especially ones obsessed with profit margins) to recoup money spent on development when they feel they cannot wait any longer. Even some of the better games in recent memory (Vampire, KOTOR II, et al) were clearly rushed out the door at the last minute by a publisher demanding they have the game on shelves by a certain date. In the case of KOTOR II it was obvious: They had to make the Christmas ship date for sales. In Vampire's case, it was the publisher doing a 'cut and run' because they knew the title was going to be hard pressed to dent the market. Sure enough, Troika went belly up soon after, and another sad chapter in PC development history was closed, as Troika was a great publisher with a fantastic (albeit unfinished) product in Vampire.