What are their pros and cons? We know that the elves are the most magical race, but how badly does this impact their use of technology? Humans have a natural facility with technology, so they take less of a penalty to their magical essence when they use it. MG: When you apply technology to your body, you can channel less magic. As we understand it, the humans are the most balanced of the races. GS: Let's briefly go over each of the races. The tech and magic in the game give you new combat actions to combine, which allow you to outsmart and outplay your enemy. Each round of the game, gamers get an opportunity to buy new tech, magic, and weapons to grow and customize their character to match their play style. In Shadowrun, gamers can play an elf, dwarf, human, or troll, and each has unique abilities. Mitch Gitelman: I tell them that Shadowrun is a team-based first-person shooter that blends ancient magic, modern weapons, and advanced technology. Magic, technology, and guns collide in Shadowrun. It's sort of like Counter-Strike with magic, but that just scratches the surface of what the game involves. GameSpot: Shadowrun is a game that's not easy to describe. Shadowrun is being developed for the Xbox 360 and PC, and it will ship later this year. To learn more, we caught up with Mitch Gitelman, the studio manager of FASA Studios, the internal Microsoft group developing the game. The game is set in a world where magic, which is channeled through a character's essence, and technology coexist, and you can use both to do all sorts of things, such as teleport through walls and glide over the battlefield, in addition to using your guns to pick off enemies from afar and melee attacks to beat them down up close. Shadowrun hopes to shake things up by introducing all sorts of dynamic new forms of gameplay. That formula has remained intact for pretty much the genre's existence. First-person shooters tend to be pretty simple in that you run around a level with a gun and blast everything you see.

Shadowrun 2007 magic icon