1. What is it called?
There was an idea to drop the numbering system but this was changed, so the full title is "Might And Magic VIII: Day Of The Destroyer"

2. What is it about?
"basically the story is about the crystal that has risen up in a town on a new continent that is populated by less standard denizens than you're used to seeing: Trolls, Minotaurs, that sort of thing. Somehow this crystal is causing an elemental cataclysm where the four elemental corners on the continent have opened up and are encroaching on the world and the player's job is to figure out what's going on and find a solution that drives the game forward."
(Bryan Farina at an interview to Trent C. Ward of IGNPC)

Acording to Zoop, the story follows the victory of Dark in MM7. This does NOT mean, as some people misunderstood, that you have to play dark, but the world is what resulted from Dark's victory.

Lots of "evil" creatures around the land, some of whom will have to become your allies in order to "defeat" the Destoyer (though "defeat" is not really the purpose here).

3. Does this mean there is no Dark/Light path anymore?
Unlike previous M&Ms, there is no "Light" or "Dark" path. Instead, there are five principal warring factions in Jadame, all of which have to be united in order to win the game; there are more races/factions, but the principal ones are the Dragons, Dragon Hunters, Necromancers, Clerics of the Temple of the Sun, and the Minotaurs. Since it is impossible to unite all of them, you need to get the co-operation of at least three. I suspect Minotaurs would be the third since the other four come in mutually exclusive pairs.

Still, this does NOT mean you cannot learn Dark and Light magic! You may learn both, even at the beginning of the game (though not with the same character). So your cleric can master Light magic while your Necromancer (in the SAME party!) masters Dark.
Some pretty weird party combinations there, but I am sure they can only add to gameplay :)

4. Where does it take place?
Despite our original assumptions,the story takes place in Erathia, Enroth, Jadame and Crystal, but the actual game itself is only in Jadame.

5. What are the gameplay changes from MM6 and MM7?
Many. The most revolutionary development is that you start with one character, and recruit up to four more (total of 5). I personally love this development, btw.
Find more about hirelings and their races in the races section.

Class promotions can be completed anytime (whether you have the particular class in your party or not) and members joining the party later will just need to visit the pormoter to get them, without the party needing to go through the quest all over again.

eg you have a Minotaur, a Vampire and a Cleric. You complete the Troll promotion quest, given to you by Lord Silly. Then you hire a Troll and take him to Lord Silly, who automatically promotes the Troll to "Silly Troll".

There is only one promotion per race. Look at the races section for details.

6. What are the technical specifications?
Technically, the game uses the same engine as MM6 and MM7, so it has the same minimum system requirements: 166MHz Pentium (but a speed of 200 is recommended), 32MB RAM and 380MB free space on your HD.

The graphics are much more enhanced, especially the spells, and there is a wide-screen view of the surroundings. I have also noticed the game runs much stabler now, at least on my PC.

7. Is it multiplayer?
MM8 is NOT be multiplayer, and this goes for all M&M games that were ever made, are being made, or ever will be made in the future.
"Legends of Might and Magic" will have both a single player and a multiplayer capability, but NONE of the games in the core "Might and Magic" series will EVER be multiplayer!

Did that clear up the rumours?

8. Any other new features?
Where do I start? This game is as different from MM7 as it could ever be (considering the engine is the same).
It seems we had the wrong info about yelling. You can in fact still yell at peasants, though there is no point in doing so, since you can walk through them anyway. Best of both worlds for those of us who were just in a hurry, as well as those (Smarties et al) who made an art out of peasant-slaying...

We do not have our own castle this time :(
BUT! ...we do start on an island which is full of Regnan Pirates (and you thought that was a red herring!).

Also, the map and autonotes have been developed taking into consideration all of our criticism so far, see? There IS a real use for the community :)
So, now you can edit the autonotes and get info on ALL of the teachers.

What else? Well I guess the big news for us GWF people is that our Sacred Symbol the Wooden Flute is back in. Though I doubt it will be as successful this time round ;)

Also, the useless blasters are finally out, but Arcomage is in, after its immense success in MM7. It has also been upgraded with new cards and some bug-fixing. Note that a stand-alone Arcomage game is already available for internet ordering at 3DO .

And for those that got confused, removal of blasters does NOT mean removal of the Ancients. They are still there as always, to help protect the world :)

Another one: the Dodging and Unarmed skills have been removed (makes sense, doesn't it?). Light and Dark Magic are available (to those who can cast them) from the start. And a practical little addition: you finally get autonotes for Expert teachers as well, so that means fewer questions about them on the boards from now on ;)

9. What are the creatures and dungeons like?

Some of you have already seen the dungeons now, but if you're looking for me, I'll be at Lord Brinne's mausoleum. As you might know, the Lord also appears in the latest Ultima game, and in MM8 his tomb is guarded by members of "the Guild of the Wooden Flute".
Oh, btw, you cannot kill us! hehe :P

Generally, there seems to be a lot more focus on gameplay this time, and you often have to use your brain as well as your sword. There are a few traps and puzzles, at least in the first dungeon ;)

As for creatures, well, let me see...I noticed some Nagas, Centaurs, Basilisks, Cyclopes, Snakes, Pirates, Wasps, Ogres, Shapeshifters, Tritones...what else?

There's basically tonnes of new creatures, some of which are featured in the "Heroes" series...It's yet another reason to believe this game will feel very different.

10. Any new skills and spells?
"There is one new skill and that's the regeneration for the troll but there are new spells specific to class. For example Dark Elf has a spell called glamour that boosts their appearance and appealing manner to whomever they deal with (basically raises their merchant skill)."

As a matter of fact, Trolls are not the only ones who can regenerate, but you'll find out more about that later... More on Skills and Spells: There are 4 levels (3 advances) as in MM7: Basic, Expert, Master and Grandmaster.
Also some "special abilites" such as the Glamour above, which are accessed through the spell book. Dark Elves, Vampires and Dragons each have four such unique abilities.

If this sounds confusing, consider them to just be other magic schools. In other words, there are 4 Elemental schools (spells available from the same building this time), 3 Self schools (also available at one building), 1 Light, 1 Dark, 1 Dragon, 1 Elf and 1 Vampire (so 12 in total). Depending on their race, your heroes can learn magic from one or more of the above. The first 9 schools (ie elemental, self, light, dark) have 10 spells each, whereas the last 3 (ie elf, dragon, vampire) have 4 each.

More on Spells: Like MM6 and MM7, you will not be able to browse through spell books. The reason has to do with the RTM and TBM clocks (you cannot access the spellbook of a character that is recovering).
Most spells are carried over from MM7, but there are a couple of changes, as well as the 12 new "special abilities". As I said, for all practical purposes you can consider those as spells too.

Also note that Trolls and Knights cannot cast any spells at all and of course don't have spell points.

11. So how big is this game?
From what we know, bigger than MM7, smaller than MM6.
Expect it to take 50-60 hours of playing time (if MM6 took 100 and MM7 40).
Too bad they did not really use the other two worlds (Erathia and Enroth) for then we would have seen a REALLY big game! In any case, does size matter? ;)