Cheats-Area.com

   The Golden Compass is just one of the many new games already announced this week, and this one's coming from Sega. As the title implies, The Golden Compass will be yet another movie-to-game adaptation, based on New Line Cinema's upcoming theatrical release. And in turn the movie itself is based on the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy - a fantasy adventure set in a parallel world where "giant armoured bears rule a kingdom, beautiful witches fly through the frozen skies, and human beings' deepest essence is manifest as talking animals that remain their faithful companion for life - their daemon".

   The game will naturally try to maintain the film's atmosphere, by featuring environments and characters from the movie - such as those played by Daniel Craig (Casino Royale, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and by debuting actress Dakota Blue Richards, who plays the protagonist Lyra Belacqua.
"Players can assume the role of Lyra, a young girl, along with her daemon Pantalaimon (Pan), as she travels through the frozen wastes of the North collecting special items in order to explore, evade and deceive her way through confrontations to rescue a friend kidnapped by a mysterious organisation known as The Gobblers. Lyra can also use her daemon and collaborate with in-game characters to journey through an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well."    At times, players will also take on the character of Iorek Byrnison, a great armoured polar bear who joins the quest and battles to protect Lyra during their journey, using a riding mechanic and special attacks to fend off enemies. Additionally, players will be able to unlock secrets and mini-games using a mysterious truth-telling golden compass device called an "alethiometer".

   The Golden Compass is being developed by Shiny Entertainment for six platforms (PC, PS2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360 and Wii), and by A2M for the Nintendo DS, with a planned release date for late 2007 - "just prior to the opening of the New Line Cinema motion picture on December 7, 2007".

   Although Sega wouldn't say so in their press release, we found that the www.goldencompassgame.com website is already online. So go have a look if you wish; just don't expect to find much more than it's already been said above.

UPDATE: And here are the first couple of screenshots.