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{"schema":{"GAMENAME":"Text (40)","Percentage":"Double","ISSUEDATE":"Text (20)","GAMETYPE":"Double","COST":"Text (50)","ReviewBodyCopy":"Memo/Hyperlink (255)","PUBID":"Double"},"data":[{"GAMENAME":"10 Year Anthology CD","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Plenty of golden gaming moments, if you can handle the often archaic presentation. A worthwhile compilation which proves that good games can grow old gracefully.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"1830","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Anyone interested in non-war strategy games should take a look at 1830. It might not be the prettiest thing in the world, but boy is it a challenge. At a time when most games resemble graphics programs, 1830 shows the value of a strong game design. This is one train that will definitely run and run.","PUBID":17},{"GAMENAME":"1942","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"1942: The Pacific Air War\r\n\r\nThe battle for the Pacific heats up as MicroProse's latest enters the fray...\r\n\r\nPublisher\t\tMicroProse\r\nDeveloper\t\tIn-house\r\nPrice\t\t\t£44.99\r\nMinimum System\t386SX, VGA and 4 Mb RAM\r\nRecommended\t486\r\nSound Support\tAll major cards\r\nRelease Date\tOut Now\r\n\r\nWorld War II, it seems, is back in vogue. After a couple of years of current or near-future dalliances in the form of TFX, Strike Commander et al., the big hitters in the PC games industry have decided that John Major might actually be right about something - and are already busy lining up their back-to-basics offerings. Last month saw the unveiling of Origin's Pacific Strike (PCG 6: 93%), for instance, while Virgin's Overlord isn't far off. Sandwiched between them comes 1942: The Pacific Air War, and with it MicroProse once again confirms its supremacy of the skies.\r\nThe Pacific Air War enables you to fly single missions or an entire career as either an American or Japanese pilot. There are seven basic types of mission and over a dozen examples from each to explore - the specific mission you choose determining what plane you fly. The Career Pilot option starts in 1942, with you choosing whose side you're on, then your speciality - fighter, dive bomber or torpedo bomber. Afterwards, you're assigned to a carrier, where you fight through a series of missions in your year-long tour of duty, earning promotions and awards for success as you go. At the end of this time you have the option of signing up for another tour or retiring. If you re-apply you can then change your speciality, or stick with the same one.\r\nAlthough this approach isn't particularly original, the execution is virtually flawless. Graphically, The Pacific Air War is without fault - everything is smooth, beautifully rendered and full of wonderful details, from the spurts of dust kicked up by your machine guns when strafing to the spectacular explosions when you shoot an enemy plane out of the sky. Wings rip off in a shower of debris, flame blossoms from damaged engines, and crippled planes throw out plumes of thick, black smoke - this is the best-looking flight sim yet. Even more impressive is the speed - the game runs surprisingly fast, even at the highest detail settings. And beneath the visual splendour lies a flight sim of the highest quality.\r\nTrue to form, MicroProse has created an accurate and realistic model of each and every plane. Thus, in 1942 the American fighters are outclassed by the more agile and manoeuvrable Zeroes, but as the war progresses the discrepancies disappear. The weapons too have been accurately recreated - the American torpedo, for example, was notoriously unreliable and required textbook delivery, whereas the Japanese weapon was far less cranky, but had only a third the range. Add to this the superb artificial intelligence (even the ships'll do their level best to make bombing and torpedo runs a nightmare by weaving erratically and firing flak like there's no tomorrow), logical controls and the best 'virtual cockpit' yet, complete with working instruments and a handy padlock view, and you've got a game of unsurpassed excellence.\r\nBut the goodies don't stop there - The Pacific Air War also contains a complete naval strategy game. Taking on the role of Admiral for either side, you can choose from five actual battles and play about with a host of options - controlling your fleets actions, assigning reconnaissance, ordering airborne strike missions and so on. In addition, you can jump into the cockpit of any of your planes, at any time, and fly the mission you've set them. There's also a complete, highly detailed and very powerful mission designer. There's no 'Choose the type and number of enemy planes, the type of plane you're flying and that's it' fob-off here. This is the genuine article, which gives you complete control over every aspect of a mission, including the position and number of multiple naval task forces and airgroups, what they're all doing, what you've got to do, how you win... Finally, there's a mission film viewer - every sortie you fly is automatically recorded, and you can save it afterwards. Not only can you watch the mission again as it happened, but you can play with the powerful set of editing tools to set up camera angles and create a different view of events. With a bit of work, you can turn your mission into a stunning 'film,' complete with cuts, pans, zooms and so on.\r\nComparisons with Origin's Pacific Strike are inevitable. Both are flight sims with state-of-the-art graphics, covering the same time period and theatre. For all that, though, the two are still distinctly different. Pacific Strike is an attempt to create an action-packed sim with a cinematic atmosphere, and it succeeds very well - it's great fun and easy to get into, but sim die-hards are likely to find it too superficial. The Pacific Air War, on the other hand, is a far more flexible and complete game. In fact, with the mission designer, film viewer","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"1944","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"1944: Across The Rhine CD\r\n\r\nIt may have taken some time in coming, but at last there's a great tank game for the PC...\r\n\r\nPublisher: MicroProse\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 486DX, 8Mb RAM, CD-ROM\r\nRecommended: 486DX4\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: July\r\n\r\nReaffirming its top spot in the world of serious military simulations, MicroProse has managed to achieve something that's been tried several times in the past, but never successfully. On the face of it, tank simulations seem like a good idea - after all, flight sims are immensely popular on the PC, and tanks are very much the 'fighter planes' of ground warfare. \r\nUnfortunately, most of the previous attempts have also taken the same approach to tanks as to flight sims, and it simply doesn't work. The real problem lies in the very different nature of air and ground combat. Fighters and fighter/bombers are normally deployed either singly or in small groups, which emphasises the importance of the individual aircraft, which in turn makes for good games - the player's actions alone are vitally important. Tanks, on the other hand, never really work in such isolation. The smallest operational unit is usually the platoon - typically four vehicles - and platoons normally work together in companies. Likewise, tanks are just part of a ground army, and on their own are very vulnerable - thus they're usually supported by infantry, other armoured vehicles, artillery and so on. So, if a tank simulation is realistic, it must deal with large groups of vehicles and other fighting units, which in turn lessens the impact of the player's vehicle on the action. On the other hand, to give the player a real sense of participation, the game has to deal with small numbers of units, and thus fails to recreate the actual feel of ground combat. The other problem with many tank games is their choice of setting. Most have been modern games, and with such a huge preponderance of technology the actual skill of the player becomes less important - the result is decided far more by who has the superior equipment than by who's the better commander.\r\nThe reason that 1944: Across The Rhine is such a stunning success is simple - it manages to deal with both these problems and be a great game. The technology issue is, of course, easily avoided by the game's setting. Although the German army had a significant technological advantage during WWII, at the time when the game is set this was almost negated, as the American forces were far more numerous, better maintained and more fully equipped with fuel and ammunition. In overcoming the innate problems of trying to simulate tanks, though, Across The Rhine is very clever indeed.\r\nThe game covers the last year of the land war in Europe, beginning in July 1944 and continuing until 1945, and allows you to play as either an American or a German commander. Once you've chosen your nationality and named your character, you can then choose your rank, and it's here that the clever bit comes in. Although the scale of Across The Rhine allows for the authentic recreation of huge battles involving tens and hundreds of individual vehicles and men, it still keeps you as the player personally involved in the action via its progressive ranking system. The game runs in real time, and at the lower ranks you only have responsibility for the platoon that you command, which mirrors the actions of your tank. It should also be noted that the graphics, both on the various maps and in the 3D view, are superb, putting nearly every other game of this type to shame. The sound, too, is both well done and intelligently used, especially the comments from your crew.\r\nPlaying Across The Rhine at this level is very much like a flight simulation, in the sense that you're in the thick of it, and can directly control the movement and fighting of your unit. At the middle ranks, though, you're placed in command of a company, made up of a number of different platoons. You're still actually 'in' the command tank of the company, and can drive off and blow things up if you like, but you also have responsibility for all the units under your command - things start to get more tactical. Finally, at the highest ranks you become the commander of an entire battalion, made up of several companies. Again, you're still in the command tank, but at this level of play the course of the entire battle is entirely up to you - the game effectively becomes a real-time wargame, using an intuitive point-and-click control system to issue orders to your subordinate units. What's more, regardless of your level of command you can, at any time, 'jump into' any platoon on the battlefield and take complete control of its actions. Your character, however, remains in your original vehicle so if it gets destroyed, 'you' still die.\r\nIn this way, Across The Rhine manages to combine all the best elements of simulations and wargames into one seamless whole, and that alone is a unique ac","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"3D Lemmings","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Thought you'd saved enough lemmings to last you a lifetime? You're strongly advised to think again.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Psygnosis\r\nDeveloper: Clockwork Games\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 486/33 \r\nRecommended: DX2/66\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: 29 September\r\n\r\nEver since the first Lemmings back in 1722 or whenever, Psygnosis have claimed that every sequel marks a complete sea change in the game. With Lemmings 2 they famously remarked, 'Lemmings 2 is going to be very different... we probably shouldn't call it Lemmings 2 at all,' only to release a game that - although it was a very good game and everything - was by and large exactly the same as Lemmings, but with a few extra bits. When the time came for the third in the series, they even went so far as to call it 'All New World Of Lemmings', which was odd because the game itself was pretty much identical to Same Old World Of Lemmings 2, but with most of the new bits taken out again. There have been loads of other Lemmings games, data disks, Christmas specials, magazine coverdisks and so on, but the basic formula has been more or less completely unchanged every time. So as you can imagine, you could have knocked me down with a suspension bridge when 3D Lemmings turned out to be, well, a bit of a revolution. Stroll with me now down Well I Never Street and we'll find out more together.\r\nFirst things first, then. Okay, so it's not that different. (But you said... - Reader's voice) Shut up. Not basically. You still have to herd loads of dumb lems to safety by getting them to use a few simple actions, and you still don't get any more direct control over them. Also, you're back to having just nine actions, mostly taken from the original game. The only new one is the turner, which instructs all lemmings meeting it to turn through 90 degrees, and it's difficult to see how the game could have worked in 3D any other way, so that's not the big issue. The big change is in the lems' environment(s), and you can call me Atticus Finch if it's not a lulu. (Yes it is, yes it is, yes it is, yes it is, yes it is, yes it is, yes it is. - Ed) Instead of flat 2D screens which were basically all the same with different scenery, you've got dozens and dozens of Doom-style 3D worlds, all with their own features and laws. There are Egyptian tombs riddled with secret passageways, enormous statues of lemmings around which the little ones climb like ants, fantastic Aliens-themed corridor complexes with spinning fans and locked cells with more lems in, pleasant Victorian mazes full of gardens and cottages, mediaeval castles with spiralling turrets, obstacle-strewn army assault courses and lots, lots more. \r\nNegotiating these brave new worlds is a cakewalk, too. The numeric keypad controls up, down, left, right, in, out, zooming, rotating and changing speed, and the function keys select the various lemmings. Or you can do it all with the mouse, or use any combination you like (if you're using the keyboard, you can make all the icon bars disappear for a better view, and you can dispense with the largely useless map too). You can, thankfully, move around while you're paused as well, a pleasing indication that - unlike some previous lems games - the puzzles are the problem in 3D Lemmings, not handling the controls. \r\nIn fact, in everything except the actual puzzles, 3D Lemmings goes out of its way to make things easy for you. If you mess up a screen, the next go starts with an exact action replay of the previous one, which you can interrupt and join in at any time. This feature was first seen in All New World Of Lemmings, but in a massively irritating manner whereby completing a screen with the help of the replay was deigned to be 'cheating', and didn't enable you to get to the next level until you did it all over again 'properly'. This was clearly the work of a SCALY MINION OF BEELZEBUB, and has been put right in 3D Lemmings - you can finish a screen any old way you bloody well like, and it still counts. \r\nAnother one of the old problems of Lemmings was that you couldn't accurately pick out a single lemming in a crowd, and hence wasted countless frustrating attempts trying to do things with the wrong lem in the wrong place going in the wrong direction. ANWOL allowed you to pick out a single lem and mark him with an arrow above his head, but then didn't actually let you do anything with it, which missed the point by several hundred thousand miles. Here you can mark any lem you like, then simply click on the relevant icon to make him do the action right there and then, which is nothing short of a godsend. If you want to make doubly sure, you can even be 'in' the lemming (Eurch. - Ed), looking through his eyes as he goes about, doing whatever it is that lemmings actually do. You can even turn his head to look right and left as he walks, his view juddering around convincingly as he goes.\r\nAnd there's more. You can practise with any of the lemmings' actions on special practice level","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"5th Fleet","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Wargame set in the Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf with the eponymous US fleet battling it out against the Soviets. The documentation is first class, the graphics crisp and it's great in two-player mode. The units are represented as counters, but this makes it ideal for board wargamers who have converted to silicon.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"688 Attack Sub","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is another one of those sims that gives you a Cold War scenario. You can, as usual, choose to skipper either a US or Russian sub in this detailed and occasionally absorbing submarine sim. The crew members moan at you if you get them into trouble, and, of course, they drown if you really mess things up. But with all that nuclear stuff on board, you're not going to mess it up, are you?","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"A IV Network$ CD","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"21","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is not for newcomers to strategy/management games. It's hard to get into, and requires an awful lot of perseverance. For serious strategy gamers, though, A IV Network$ has a great deal to offer (not least the chance to win the competition). If you loved Transport Tycoon or SimCity 2000 but now find yourself wanting more from your games, this is definitely for you.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"A-Train","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"4","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Complex and fulfilling. An engrossing and superior simulation that's well worth devoting some time to.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"Aces of The Deep","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Dynamix's latest submarine simulation is far from substandard.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Dynamix\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nPrice: £39.99\r\nMinimum System: 386DX, 4Mb RAM\r\nRecommended: 486\r\nSound Support: All major soundcards\r\nRelease Date: Out now\r\n\r\nThe Gulf War showed, if nothing else, that we are living in an age of auto-kill. Push a button and, hey, instant death, just like in a computer game. But this is art imitating life and not vice versa. Simply pushing buttons, which appears to be the essence of current military combat, holds little appeal to most computer (as opposed to console) gamers. EA's Sea Strike, for example, showed that modern warfare does not translate easily into a game.\r\nFor the real heroics, you have to look back to World War II, which is precisely what Dynamix has done with its new submarine game Aces Of The Deep, a true simulation in which the player's role is that of a U-boat skipper.\r\nThe scope of the game becomes immediately apparent when you see that there are 13 scenarios as well as a career mode. Virtually all options can be toggled, from the speed at which the torpedoes are loaded to the language used in the game. This can be German or English (with a German accent, of course). Unless you speak German I'd recommend the latter, as some of the information bellowed out by your crew is quite important. The locale of the action, as you might suspect, is the North Atlantic circa 1939 and onwards. The manual sets the tone with a superb historical overview of the period, which I recommend you read - eventually.\r\nBut before that a quick perusal of the gameplay section of the manual is a must unless you want to start your career by being reincarnated from the depths. There is a tutorial, but this does not really provide all the essential information. For one thing, the action occurs at night, meaning that often you are, quite literally, in the dark.\r\nYou'd be better off turning straight to page 181 in the manual, which contains the keyboard commands for the game. Yes, yes, I know 'typing' is old hat, but what would you rather do, flail around frantically trying to point and click, by which time you could be at the bottom of the ocean, or just hit the 'p' key to dive? The individual missions certainly offer variety, and varying difficulty. In the later scenarios the advantages of radar have been discovered, making life and self preservation extremely difficult for U-boat captains.\r\nThe first big difference between this and other games of the genre that you will notice is the waves - big rolling, realistic things. But in case you are prone to sea-sickness these can be toggled off. The sound, too, adds greatly to the atmosphere, nowhere more so than the constant hum of the vessel's engine.\r\nPlay can be deadly slow, especially in career mode, unless you accelerate the clock - but some care is needed here, otherwise potential targets will whiz by, never to be seen or heard of again. Navigation is easy once you've discovered how to; just call up the compass from the tactical screen and then point it in the direction of any targets on view. Even on the easy level, getting targets in your sights is a tricky business, let alone sinking them. But persevere, and down they will go. Both the difficulty of sighting and sinking, and the attention to minor details, reflect the fact that this is a simulation first, a game second. Once you've finished a scenario you will find that the Hall of Fame is thoroughly comprehensive, providing not only full career details but also mission scores. The scores are modified by the difficulty level set, and the difficulty of the actual mission. On the subject of difficulty, I would suggest when you have mastered the game on the 100% level, you'd be well equipped to sail the real thing (were they still to exist), and sink a few super-tankers in the bargain.\r\n\tThe most obvious point of comparison here is MicroProse's Silent Service II, which was set in the Pacific. Aces Of The Deep is considerably more detailed than that game, and quite a bit more difficult. The graphics of Aces are better, as you would expect given the time that has elapsed, but not by much. The enemy ships look somewhat blocky still, but this is no big deal when you consider that naval games such as Aegis and Jutland had far superior visuals but virtually no gameplay. The control system in the MicroProse game is much easier than the one here, notably in the firing of torpedoes and the sinking of vessels. Perhaps this is because of greater familiarity of that game, but it nevertheless feels more intuitive than Aces.\r\nWhere Aces really scores is in conveying the atmosphere of life aboard a U-boat. In this sense it recalls Wolfgang Petersen's excellent film, Das Boot. Both game and film manage to evoke a certain sympathy for the crew, not an easy task given the cause they were fighting for. Turn the lights down low and the sound up and you'll begin to think you're actually in a sardine can in the middle of ","PUBID":40},{"GAMENAME":"Aces Over Europe","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You can really believe this is how being an ace over Europe felt, even though it doesn't feature any bold technological steps forward. Accessible and absorbing, with loads of atmosphere - and plenty to tinker with.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Aces: The Complete Collec","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Aces: The Complete Collector's Edition\r\nContaining: Aces Over Europe, Aces Of The Pacific, Red Baron and A-10 Tank Killer on one Windows-based CD-ROM.\r\nThe design of all the games is frighteningly basic compared to the likes of Dawn Patrol and Overlord, which are widely regarded as superb examples of this genre, and even in terms of gameplay none of the titles seen here really shine. All four games give you historically accurate planes with which to play, each with true representations of the fire-power available and handling limitations. However, when all's said and done you are left with a rather bland array of dated titles.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Action Soccer","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Action Soccer is a solid enough football game, with neatly animated graphics and all the standard features. But, although it tries to be different, it's difficult to recommend it over, say, Sensible Soccer or Striker.","PUBID":142},{"GAMENAME":"Advantage Tennis","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"35.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A fast tennis sim with lots of options, but the graphics and gameplay are rather basic. Decent tennis fun, but hardly CD material.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Aegis","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Navel warfare game that is very accurate but lacks the 'gameness' that would make it more fun. That said, you can't beat the feeling of satisfaction when you find that crucial enemy sub, outwit it, fire, and watch the wreckage silently float to the surface. Really one for navel contemplators only, though.","PUBID":138},{"GAMENAME":"Air Force Commander","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"5","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Original approach to a strategy wargame but the abstract screens aren't particularly involving. Good at what it does, but very much an acquired taste.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"Airlines","Percentage":38,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An airline management simulation? A pointless and dull variation on an already well-worn theme, more like!","PUBID":78},{"GAMENAME":"Air Power","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Mindscape and Rowan Software offer a flight sim with a difference...\r\n\r\nAfter the success of Overlord and Dawn Patrol, Rowan Software have decided to do something a little different with their new game, Air Power. Although the flight models, graphics and enemy intelligence have been honed and improved, Air Power is more than just another flight sim.\r\nThe game takes place in a fictional world dominated by a single huge continent, ruled by a feudal government. The world's technology is roughly equivalent to World War II, but with some quirky twists. The most notable is the use of vast airships as aircraft carriers - without any oceans to speak of, these huge craft are the only way to give the airforces long-range mobility.\r\nAs the game begins, the Emperor and his heir have both died in somewhat mysterious circumstances. Without any clear successor the country has begun to fall into anarchy, with large towns declaring their neutrality and bandits capturing others. In response the three dukes and a duchess who were the Emperor's 'right-hand men' (and woman) have each decided to claim the throne. In order to succeed they must gain the support of enough of the country's population to ensure that their rule is accepted and can't be challenged by any of the others.\r\nAs one of these powerful nobles, in charge of your own airborne fleet of fighters, bombers and airships, you must decide the course of your campaign. You can fly to any town on the map and attempt to bring it under your control by diplomacy or an airborne assault. When the action calls for air combat, you switch roles and 'become' one of your trusty pilots, so as well as calling the shots strategically you also get to fly in every combat mission.\r\nAir Power is, to put it simply, superb. The air combat sections are the best Rowan has produced so far (and anyone who's played one of their games before will appreciate how good that makes them). The graphics are faster, smoother and more detailed, the enemy pilots are even more fiendishly skilled and the sheer variety of different missions is almost overwhelming. Everything from bombing a poorly defended bridge to a full-on clash between two airship fleets is possible. \r\nAdded to this is the strategic control you have over the course of the game. Rather than flying in a set series of missions, with no choice as to what you're going to do next, in Air Power everything is up to you. Every action you decide upon will take some time, in which the other dukes won't be idle, and every action has its consequences. Diplomacy may bring a town under your control without bloodshed, and maintain your noble reputation, but savagely crushing any resistance will ensure that bandits stay away from you, and so on.\r\nWhether you're a flight sim fan, a strategy gamer or just someone who fancies having a go at something a little different, Air Power has almost limitless playability to offer. Go get it now.\r\nANDY BUTCHER\r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 90%\r\nPCG Verdict: Not simply Rowan's finest game to date, but a step in a new direction for flight sims. Brilliant stuff.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Aladdin","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The graphics and gameplay are in keeping with the film, but it's frustratingly un-playable with the keyboard. In essence, a formidable platform romp that's as bouncy as its soundtrack.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Alex Dampier","Percentage":51,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"34.95","ReviewBodyCopy":"Alex Dampier 95 is NHL 95, only with an isometric view and not as good. After a tremendously impressive intro sequence, with a puck zipping about in rendered 3D, the game begins and ensuing tedium causes one's brow to furrow.","PUBID":88},{"GAMENAME":"Alien Breed","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Atmospheric, well presented and, most of all, fun, but it's still just a shoot-'em-up.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Alien Legacy","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Getting around the game can be a bit daunting at first, but with a few gentle nudges from your crew and a proper reading of the manual it soon becomes second nature. Where at first Alien Legacy might seem to attempt too much, it in fact manages a fairly credibly and unusual mixture of management and adventure gaming.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Alien Logic","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Very different to the run-of-the-mill fantasy RPG, and its very weirdness is a major part of its appeal. You spend a great deal of time discovering how things work, and must learn what to do and how to do it. In short, it's fresh, new and exciting.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Alien Odyssey","Percentage":22,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's a fly-along-on-rails-shooting-at-stuff game, converted from the CD-i of all things, and it's rubbish.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"Alien Olymmpics","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A sports game in what's usually known as the 'joystick waggling' genre. What you get is prettily done, with nice graphics and some cute characters. It's not very varied, but this is one of the better attempts at cloning this much-attempted game style.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"All New World of Lemmings","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The original Psygnosis classic took the public by storm. But is it still as exciting third time around?\r\n\r\nPublisher: Psygnosis\r\nDeveloper: Psygnosis\r\nPrice: £34.99\r\nMinimum System: 386\r\nRecommended: 486\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: Out now\r\n\r\nI wonder who it was who first said 'You can't get too much of a good thing'. It's hard to say, but chances are it was someone at Psyg-bloody-nosis, because no sooner have I heaved a massive sigh of relief on having finished the final level of Lemmings 2 and indulged in the rather petty thought of 'Ha, once again I've outsmarted those tedious programmer-types!' they shove a copy of Lemmings 3: All New World Of Lemmings under my nose. The manically depressive lemmings still haven't figured out that plummeting a long way is a bad thing and I'll have to step in and save them! again. But what was a stroke of genius the first time around and a welcome return the second, now simply fills me with a feeling of 'enough is enough' on the third outing. This is probably exactly why Psygnosis have changed the rules somewhat.\r\nThe rescue missions in the first two games were daunting because the levels were so cunningly constructed and there were so many of the suicidal little idiots to cope with. This nightmare was cleverly tempered by the proviso that you didn't actually have to save all of them to win the round. This time, presumably just to prove the point that a change is as good as a rest, there are less lemmings to save. Lemmings 2 was made more intriguing than Lemmings by the introduction of additional abilities, but the amount of different abilities was just about pushed to the max. To have added any more would have made it a complete head-spin and probably rendered the whole thing a bit unplayable. Now the user interface has been streamlined. There are just eight control icons at the base of the screen, three of which are the traditional speedup, nuke and pause options. The other icons enable your lemmings to walk, block, jump, use and pickup. The way it works is that all the tools necessary to complete a level are now scattered around the levels themselves. When the level first appears you'll see lots of little crates containing tools. There are ten in all, things like bombs, bricks, spades, umbrellas, grenades and so on. In order to be able to perform any task, you first have to get a lemming to pick up a crate then, when he's in the right position, you hit the use icon. This means that while there is still a huge number of different jobs to be done, you can now simply let one lemming go on his/her merry way, make the next lemming a blocker so that the rest are all safely contained at the start of the level and you can then use your one wandering lemming to carry out one task at a time. Effectively, this has removed that element of the gameplay which left you scrolling around the level in a blind panic only to find that you'd neglected a certain aspect and all your hairy little chums were lying dead. As a result, this game requires an approach of deliberate and carefully thought out strategies without the hindrance of feeling like it's all out of your control. Oh, and don't worry, the excitement is still there, this time generated solely by the strict time limits.\r\nEven so, taken in isolation, these changes would mean a cut down game rather than the Lemmings-plus we'd been expecting. So there's another addition to pep things up! the introduction of enemies. Hazards are still here in abundance, but to make things more, well, action-packed you now have to worry about intelligent opponents too. Crossing a chasm is bad enough, but made worse if there's a dreaded Potato Beast on the other side who, when you get close to him, homes in on you with alarming haste. It's a good job then that you can now pick up fireballs with which to waste such creatures. And there's the Lemme Fatale, who looks like a sexy female lemming but is in fact a right old bitch who kills you once she's put you under her spell.\r\nA final point that needs mentioning is the graphical difference. The new game structure has enabled the programmers to makes the lemmings twice as big as those in the previous games, making it both nicer to look at and easier to play.\r\nAs you've probably gathered it's a thumbs up all round for the game, but bear in mind a couple of points. The new structure genuinely gives rise to a different feel and made this third game a legitimate and worthwhile sequel. Had the style been unchanged, this third game probably would have been received with less enthusiasm. I for one would possibly have been a little tired of the formula by now. Given the revamp, I'm not. But essentially, the premise for the game is exactly the same as before, so if the previous games didn't tickle your ivories, this isn't going to either.\r\nANDY DYER\r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 88%\r\nHighs: The new approach has freshened the whole thing up.\r\nLows: Different though it is, the game is essentially the same.\r\nThe","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Allo Allo Cartoon Fun","Percentage":38,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"24.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Needless to say, it's a platform game of the old variety. The actual gameplay is by no means atrocious, but it's a careless implementation of a dreadful idea.","PUBID":7},{"GAMENAME":"Alone In The Dark 2","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Our friends across the Channel have a talent for producing weird entertainment - but often at the expense of playability. Here's one of those rare instances where they get (almost) everything right...\r\n\r\nPublisher\t\tInfogrames\r\nDeveloper\t\tIn-house\r\nPrice\t\t\t£39.99\r\nMinimum System\t386, VGA\r\nRecommended\t386DX or higher\r\nSound Support\tRoland, AdLib\r\nRelease Date\tOut Now\r\n\r\nEdward Carnby is back - and this time the Private Eye Of The Unknown is even tougher than before. We were first introduced to the occult detective in Alone In The Dark, which, for all its shortcomings, set a new standard for graphic adventures. It wasn't the first to use polygons (that honour went to Delphine's Another World), but it did have the novelty of playing in three dimensions and, more importantly, was incredibly stylish (something that's still sadly lacking from most games software). Sure, the content could've been improved, but that was more indicative of teething troubles than poor gameplay.\r\nAlone In The Dark 2 makes up for some of its precursor's flaws by being faster, smoother, more atmospheric, larger and easier to play - while, at the same time, harder to complete than its predecessor. It's difficult to point out the specific examples of Alone In the Dark 2's strengths without giving the game away, so to speak, so instead I'll forewarn you of the minor blemishes (but don't let that put you off - this is still a title that's well worth having in your collection)...\r\nThere are a few stupid and pointless idiosyncratic features, for starters. Standing on the wrong outsized playing card to open a trapdoor results in death without warning, for example, while drinking a bottle of booze results in an unnecessary reduction in your hero's health (the animation is splendid though). Also, it seems stupid that while Carnby can manage the stairway inside the mansion, he can't climb the steps outside. This, and the often unpredictable combat, makes constant saving essential (and there are only two slots available), which is a great pity because it interrupts the otherwise gripping ambience.\r\nThe 'camera' viewpoint changing with the character's steady movements between screens is occasionally disorientating, but more often than not it's conducive to a creepy feeling that you are being watched (as opposed to doing the watching). Oh, dear - now the good points are getting in the way... Alone In The Dark 2 feels more suggestive and interactive than the lesser, more blatantly linear, 'experiences' from LucasArts, Sierra et al - partly because of the 3D approach, but mainly because of the more flexible gameplay. The absence of ammunition need not now spell disaster, for example. It's quite possible to take on five armed thugs with a frying pan (and a little skill).\r\nUnfortunately, in common with the first game, there are times when the chips appear to be down, desperation sets in, and the loss of focus almost breaks the spell. Every pixel out of place is examined, you use every object in every possible location, and every trivial animation has more meaning than it should. But then, suddenly, you see what you're supposed to be doing and your interest is rekindled - the flush of success going hand in hand with the embarrassment of overlooking the obvious.\r\nThe mixture of straight and texture-mapped polygons and rendered scenery works well. The animation is often first class and there's plenty of it (although some routines are over-elaborate - the act of drinking from a flask, for example, takes too long). Everything looks and behaves as though it's part of a true fantasy world - not some pretentious attempt at simulating 'real life'. The soundtrack is appropriately moody too - and seldom intrudes. It contributes to the frequent moments of tension, where you find yourself driven closer and closer to a fragile precipice - where the slightest out-of-place sound is liable to push you over the edge and into the changing rooms for a clean pair of boxers.\r\nSlick, inviting, engrossing, frustrating but rewarding, atmospheric and often bizarre in a way only the French know how - that's Alone In The Dark 2. More than ever, the potential for something immense seems just around the corner. In the meantime, this certainly helps to relievethe wait. \tGARY PENN\r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 92%\r\nPCG Verdict: Quintessentially quirky and classy French fare.\r\n\r\n\r\nOur friends across the Channel have a talent for producing weird entertainment - but often at the expense of playability. Here's one of those rare instances where they get (almost) everything right...\r\n\r\nPublisher\t\tInfogrames\r\nDeveloper\t\tIn-house\r\nPrice\t\t\t£39.99\r\nMinimum System\t386, VGA\r\nRecommended\t386DX or higher\r\nSound Support\tRoland, AdLib\r\nRelease Date\tOut Now\r\n\r\nEdward Carnby is back - and this time the Private Eye Of The Unknown is even tougher than before. We were first introduced to the occult detective in Alone In The Dark, which, for all its shortcomings, set a new standard for graphic adventures. It wasn't the ","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Alone In The Dark 2 CD","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Infogrames' seminal horror 'movie' returns once more, now with added speech and a full orchestral soundtrack. Just one more reason to leave the landing light on...\r\n\r\nPublisher: Infogrames\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 386\r\nRecommended: 486\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: Out Now\r\n\r\nRehashes of floppy favourites on CD-ROM are fast becoming ten-a-penny, but some games are more suited to the treatment than others. You need to have a base to build on, else all the effort will be for nowt - most recent attempts to boost the atmospheric content of drab graphic adventures, simply by adding a dialogue track, have predictably proved unsuccessful. But just when all faith in the power of CD-ROM seems lost, along comes the enhanced re-issue of Alone In The Dark 2, Infogrames' uniquely cinematic horror epic. This, for once, is a CD-ROM upgrade that really works, taking an already atmospheric and involving game and elevating it to the realms of true cinematic art with the addition of an orchestral music score and a volley of new sound effects.\r\nMost PC gamers will already be familiar with the adventures of Edward Carnby, of course. Having battled through legions of spooks, demons and zombies in the ground-breaking original, the 'private eye of the paranormal' returns in this sequel for more of the same on a mission to rescue a young girl from the other-worldly clutches of a ghostly pirate. The gameplay is standard arcade adventure fare - explore, collect, solve puzzles etc - but it's the stunning combination of hand-drawn backdrops and lovingly detailed 3D polygon characters, and the use of movie-style directorial techniques (constantly-switching camera angles, intermission scenes etc) that mark both Alone In The Dark games out as something genuinely original, and uniquely atmospheric.\r\nIt's this most impressive aspect of AITD2's design - the striking look and feel - that the CD extras do so much to enhance. What was once creepy is now creepier. What was once a little like watching a movie is now like sitting in the front row. The soundtrack is a pivotal part of any cinematic experience, and the beautifully-orchestrated score serves to draw the player further into the game's dark and foreboding world. And the music moves well with the game - the initial 'oo-eee-ooo' standard type horror themes making way for bizarre sea shanties and folk tunes for the later scenes on board the pirate ghost ship. The effect, overall, is of a fully-rounded, lovingly-crafted and deeply involving experience.\r\nAside from the aural treats then, the CD version also offers a few extra 2D animated cut scenes, a new 12-screen section between the haunted mansion and the pirate galleon and a teleport short-cut through the garden maze, which apparently proved a headache for many players of the original. Oh, and there's a playable demo of Infogrames' less impressive Lovecraft tribute Shadow Of The Comet thrown in for good measure.\r\nAlone In The Dark 2 CD, then, is a great game made substantially better by using the CD-ROM to add to the original version's strengths. It's also telling to see that the game hasn't aged a bit after almost a year - it's still at the top of its class; unique, inventive and, at times, genuinely quite scary. Play it late at night, with the lights out. But try not to have nightmares.\tGARY WHITTA\r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 92%\r\nHighs: A superb new soundtrack which does wonders for the atmosphere.\r\nLows: The quirky camera angles are not to everyone's taste.\r\nThe Verdict: Still an unmitigated classic, but now even more so.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Alone In The Dark 3","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Alone In The Dark moves from the 'happy couple' scenario to the 'proud family' one, and the new addition smiles oh-so sweetly for the family album.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Infogrames\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nPrice: £TBA\r\nMinimum System: 386DX/33, VGA\r\nRecommended: 486DX2/66, VGA\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: February\r\n\r\nAlone In The Dark 3: A Fistful Of Horrors takes the illustrious hero, Edward Carnby, off to pastures new as he ventures out to the Wild West in search of a kidnapped damsel. Utilising the same game engine as the two previous instalments, the adventure places the player in Slaughter Gulch, a small ghost-town riddled with the un-dead and the odd Navajo Indian. Full of jangling country and western banjos and gun-slinging action, Alone 3 sees the return of the puzzle as well as one or two new surprises.\r\nNow, with the puzzle element back with a vengeance and many of the features greatly enhanced, Alone 3 is the definitive and more challenging sequel to what is already an award-winning series. It is also with open arms that we welcome back the Open/Search feature seen originally which, amid plenty of criticism, was omitted from Alone 2. \r\nBut it is the variety of new features that add the spice, such as an unlimited save-game facility spread over four directories, and three difficulty settings based around the strengths of Carnby, his opponents and the amount of ammunition available. There is also the ability to jump and there are numerous new levels incorporated to make use of Carnby's new talent. A haunting country and western CD-quality soundtrack jangles in the background and creepy digitised speech gives Carnby and the Slaughter Gulch spirits believable personalities. Yet perhaps the most interesting addition is the ability to change into a cougar, blatting wolves out of the way with vicious claws while attempting to solve a specific task before returning to human form. \r\nWhile it's all extremely intuitive and enjoyable to play, the biggest gripe I have is that the collision detection isn't as sensitive as it should be in a game of this nature. When trying to perform even the simplest of tasks, such as reading a poster, for example, you've not only got to bash your nose against it, but you've got to line your character up on the exact pixel first.\r\nThe same applies to using one object with another, like trying a key in a door. When performing such a task you will often be warned that you're not quite standing in the right position, so you try again. The problem is you're not always warned and in these situations if you didn't know for certain that you had to use one object with another, you could very easily miss the correct solution simply because the game fails to acknowledge the manoeuvre. One example can be found at the start of the game, where you need to place a token in an old bar-room piano. You should be able to approach the piano (and it's quite large) use the token and hey presto the automated sequence kicks in. But no, instead you repeat the process until you get a result moving pixel by pixel around the piano. Sadly there are other variants of this problem, ones which taint what is otherwise a superbly involved game. \r\nJumping is one such instance. It's another new addition to the Alone engine but due to the sometimes awkward perspective and the problematic collision detection, it is very easy to cock-up this straightforward manoeuvre - you know the kind of thing; launching yourself at a seemingly solid enough object only to annoyingly slip off it.\r\nBut while this collision detection thing induces one or two naughty words, the continuously switching camera angles calm the nerves. Where Alone 1 faltered (as did the recent Ecstatica) is through continuously changing camera angles which supposedly capture the feeling of being watched. Nonsense, it just makes the game bloody annoying. But Alone 3 cuts down on this feature and limits the different views to just one or two per room rather than a generous handful. Then, at most important sections where it's obvious that you must interact with some object or other, the camera angle changes again and homes in on this setting, letting you see clearly what's going on.\r\nAs a whole, the graphical quality of Alone 3 is superb, with fluid, menacing polygon sprites and distinctively eerie backgrounds generating the deserted ghost town atmosphere perfectly. Interactable objects are again rendered and as a result stand out clearly from the hand-drawn backgrounds, while a new addition comes in the form of a miniature town map. Furthermore, the frame rate on the sprites has been dramatically improved and now, even on slower machines, it is quite surprising how much faster the game runs compared to Alone 1.\r\nGripes aside, I liked it. Alone 3 is an improvement over its predecessors, despite its sometimes cock-eyed collision detection. It's not perfect, but at least the programmers have recaptured the entertaining aspects of both previous games ","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Al-Qadim: The Genies Cur","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"35.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Tries hard to be accessible, inoffensive and appeal to the masses, but through the many faults and inadequacies that such an approach entails, it's unlikely to whet the appetites of either hardened role-players or newcomers.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Al Unser Jr Arcade Racing","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"25.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"AUJAR is a very nice game. AUJAR is nice because it's a perfectly okay racing game with lots of scenery and other cars that whizz by in a very pleasing manner. AUJAR is nice because you can play it with only half your mind, leaving the other half to concentrate on something equally pleasant. AUJAR is nice because it's fun to play without ever being really exciting. AUJAR is nice because there are lots of different cars and courses to choose from. Al Unser Jr Arcade Racing is a very ordinary racing circuit simulation that does everything competently and well but has not one shred of imagination to it.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Apache Longbow","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"19","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"From the makers of Tornado comes a helicopter simulation which follows\r\nin the impressive footsteps of its predecessor.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Digital Integration\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nPrice: £39.99\r\nMinimum System: SX25, 8Mb RAM SVGA\r\nRecommended: DX2/66, 8Mb RAM SVGA\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: June\r\n\r\nYou'd be forgiven for thinking that Apache Longbow, like its predecessor Tornado, is going to be just another heavy flight sim riddled with too many options and features. It can be that if you want it to, of course, but what is so special about this particular helicopter sim is that you don't have to be an experienced 'flight simmer' to get the most out of it. You see, thanks to the inclusion of an Arcade mode and Quickstart feature, even the most basic of flyers will be able to get straight into the thick of things without it being a massively daunting experience - the aircraft levels out automatically and you don't have to fly for an age between waypoints before you find any opposition.\r\nThe game comes into its own in Realistic mode, but if you're not an experienced flyer, you'll be struggling to keep the Apache level let alone get yourself out of tricky situations. The main gripe here is overcoming the Cyclic and Collective controls, which can be spread over joystick and keyboard control. However, if you have a Thrustmaster joystick, you'll find handling much smoother with one hand dedicated to both controls while your other hand is free to muck about with the various key options, such as view changes, chaff, and flares. With so much information to take in, it's very easy to find yourself panicking in a critical situation. \r\nAnother problem I came across is the way in which the difficulty levels are categorised; they're broken down into the proficiency of the enemies. Even on a 'Poor' setting, as soon as I entered a battlezone I was set upon by incoming missiles from all directions, with very little time to do much about it. As a beginner this is quite frustrating, as you panic to switch your views or try to remember which button controls Cyclic motion or Collective. Aarrgghh! And before you know it, you're biting the dust in a splendid swirl of orange flames - thank heavens then for the Invincible mode.\r\nIf you feel that you're becoming too bogged down with intricacies, you can always slam on the pause button and delve into the accompanying manual. Everything has been included, from the bog-standard 'how to play the game' features to how each instrument works and affects flight and play. \r\nDespite being a novice pilot, and despite my earlier complaints, I found myself gripped in combat and even bubbling with excitement as I approached enemy borders at low altitude, wide-eyed in anticipation of the ensuing confrontation. Because the game handles so fluidly, especially in Realistic mode, you feel surprisingly 'in control' of your helicopter. This, coupled with the crisp graphics and stunning rendered cut scenes, creates a complete and believable environment. \r\nTo enhance playability further, there is the option to use foot pedals to control the tail rotor, as is done in a real Apache. Add to this the steady 'thwup, thwup' of the rotors and digitised speech from your co-pilot and I don't think you could get more of a sense of 'being there' other than climbing into the real thing. And then there are the SVGA graphics - with screen detail on full, all the ground contours are illustrated with subtle shading, while flying low across the sea defines delicate reflections and changes in surface colour. Plus, ground vehicles and enemy aircraft are not texture-mapped; instead, Gouraud shading is used to smooth off their edges thus creating a solid and believable chunk of machinery rather than a flimsy cardboard cut-out.\r\nOverall, the presentation of the game is spot on, and it is also apparent that great care has been injected into the gameplay, with a two-player mode and a network option for up to 16 players! Then there are the superb rendered cut scenes, which depict settings for your missions and generate a flowing plot-line; these make everything gel together. Extra niceties include numerous viewpoints (ranging from static, chasing, target, and weapon perspectives), which enhance the feeling of reward when you disintegrate a target.\r\nAs for longevity, the game is huge, with full Arcade and Realistic mode access to all campaigns, Quickstart missions and two-player scenarios. Playing a single campaign is gruelling enough, but wading through every possibility will no doubt see you flying towards your PPL!\r\nIn short, Apache Longbow is suitable for all flight enthusiasts, from the real anoraks who adore waypoints and hours of laborious toing and froing, to the more 'hands-on' player who likes to wade into the combat scene with everything ablaze. This probably is the best helicopter sim available, not just because it's the latest offering in a fairly small genre but because it plays intuitively, looks gre","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"Arcade Mania","Percentage":5,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing: Breakout, Battlezone and Operation Wolf.\r\nBreakout's slow and inaccurate, Battlezone keeps trapping you behind buildings, and Op Wolf, despite cleverly having robots as adversaries which move in unexpected directions, has no reload times so you can hold down fire permanently, no big monsters suddenly lurching into the foreground, first-aid kits which appear just as your energy is about to run out and no variation between levels except speed. In short, utter rubbish.","PUBID":32},{"GAMENAME":"Arcade Pool","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Easy-to-use interface and nine pool variants to play, but the ball behaviour is sometimes unnatural. On the whole, it's basic but playable pool game with lots of variety and plenty of fun","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Archer Macleans Pool","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Uses the same engine as Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker for America's green baize game. It's good, but pool's far more lightweight than snooker.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Archer Macleans Pool CD","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Essentially the same as its snooker brother, this pool sim suffers in the light of more recent games, namely the excellent Virtual Pool. This time, though, it's on CD-ROM, but it doesn't seem to have any kind of enhancements, which is a shame seeing as the format is ideal for added speech and music. One for people who like less balls, and shorter games, then.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Archon Ultra","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"30.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A fun strategy title that's easy to get into, and for two human players offers a fair amount of enjoyment. Against the PC, though, it quickly ceases to have much appeal.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Are You Afraid of The Dark","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Designed specifically for kids, this graphic adventure is based on Nickelodeon's TV show of the same name which is screened on SKY and cable channels. It centres on a band of kids who sit around a camp fire and tell ghostly stories to one another. The game is far from difficult, but it's still entertaining and compelling to play thanks to a superb plot-line, fine melodramatic acting, and some really well-implemented puzzles.","PUBID":96},{"GAMENAME":"Armored Fist","Percentage":46,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Excellent scenario builder and editor, plus atmospheric sounds. However, the graphics are indistinct and block and there's no two-player mode or tutorial. A rather poor attempt to transpose the Commando system to a tank game.","PUBID":97},{"GAMENAME":"Ascendancy CD","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A science fiction strategy game might not be the most original concept, but Virgin's latest release shows that you can teach an old dog new tricks...\r\n\r\nPublisher: Virgin\r\nDeveloper: The Logic Factory\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 486, 4Mb RAM, SVGA\r\nRecommended: 486DX\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: September\r\n\r\nCall me a cynical hack if you like, but after playing so many computer games there are certain things that you find yourself taking for granted. Some of these are quite general in nature, such as the fact that for some inexplicable reason nearly every game has to have a plot, whether it's remotely relevant or not. Others, though, are specific to certain genres - strategy games, for example, are more often than not slightly lacking in the presentation department, a little bit dry, and normally require you to plough through a hefty manual.\r\nIt always comes as something of a pleasant surprise, then, when something turns up that breaks some of these 'unwritten rules' of games design. Ascendancy is, without a doubt, a strategy game. In the normal scheme of things, then, there'd be a long and involved background, featuring all manner of ridiculous plot devices and general silliness. Ascendancy's plot, however, amounts to 'make your race rulers of the galaxy', no more, no less. In addition, it looks great, has a (admittedly slightly warped) sense of humour, and although the manual is certainly quite heavyweight, it's by no means required reading for your first few games. In other words, it's slightly unusual. It's also rather good.\r\nStarting from a single homeworld, the aim of Ascendancy is to make your species the leaders of the galaxy, by either bringing more than half of it under your control or forcing every competing race to accept peace with you on your terms. Even before you start playing, a few things strike you almost immediately. The first is the presentation. Ascendancy is played in 256 colour high resolution SVGA throughout, and everything looks slick, clean and well designed. What's more, there are none of the usual SVGA nightmares. I tried the game on four different PCs, each with widely differing graphics cards, and it worked first time, every time. The next item of note is the tutorial option, which takes you on a step-by-step guide to each main section of the game. Best of all, rather than being just a manual on disk (as with the help available in most Windows programs), the Ascendancy tutorials actually play the game - moving the mouse around the screen, selecting things and so on, just as you would if you were actually playing. At key steps a text box pops up, explaining what's going to be done next, and at any time you can stop the tutorial and continue playing the example in progress. This is one of the best tutorials I've ever seen in any software, and in addition you can get in-game help by holding down the Shift key and clicking on what you want to know about. Together these two features will get you playing in hardly any time at all, without even having to get the manual out of the box. Finally, while Ascendancy does have the obligatory animated intro sequence, it doesn't start it automatically every time you play, but gives you the option to view it from the main menu. Not an important point, but nonetheless this kind of attention to detail and ease of use is much rarer than it should be.\r\nYou still haven't started playing when the next impressive aspect of Ascendancy appears, and that's the set-up screen. From here you can choose from a number of options to customise the game to your own specifications - the size of the galaxy (from five options), number of races (between three and seven), atmosphere (peaceful, neutral or hostile) and your own race (from 21 different species). With this amount of control, and so many possible combinations of race, Ascendancy is guaranteed to be different every time. What's more, you can easily set the kind of game you want to play - a short, bloody conflict is easily achieved (smallest galaxy, seven races, hostile atmosphere), as is a vast sprawling game of exploration and diplomacy, with highly developed technology (largest galaxy, three races, peaceful atmosphere).\r\nIn short, before you even start you know you're onto something very good indeed, and that impression is only strengthened once you've got the game up and running. Ascendancy mixes just about the right level of complexity and challenge with an intuitive interface, great graphics and the odd spark of humour. Being able to research 'Advanced Fun Techniques', which in turn allows you to set your planets to producing the 'Endless Party' is one example of this. It gave us a bit of a chuckle, anyway. \r\nHaving said all that, however, Ascendancy is not quite perfect. As with so many games of this type, the key problem lies in the artificial intelligence. While certainly not unimpressive (the computer controlled races can be a real pain if you're not careful), it is a litt","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Asterix & Caesars Challe","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Asterix is a 'nice' game, as horrible as the word sounds. It's presented well, has some great animations, and offers enjoyable arcade entertainment rather than lists of dreary questions. There's plenty in here to keep the kids happy, and adults should get a fair few laughs too.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Atari 2600 Action Pack","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing: Pitfall!, Sky Jinks, Fishing Derby, Kaboom!, River Raid, Chopper Command, Cosmic Commuter and Frostbite.\r\nThese games were great in their day, but now the thrill is gone. Just like any other unearthed artefact, they're little use for anything other than a curiosity or conversation piece. But it was still a lovely idea.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"AV-8B Harrier Assault SVG","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If instant thrills are what really give you your kicks, you'd do better looking elsewhere. Good, but takes dedication to get the most from it.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Award Winners Platinum","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing: Lemmings, Civilization and Frontier.\r\nThis pack offers three of the classiest acts available on re-release. If for some reason you don't already own all three of the above titles, try and get hold of a copy of this budget package","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"B-Wing","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"20.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Big and very challenging. The B-Wing itself is excellent. Providing you enjoyed the original, this is pretty much perfect.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Ballistic","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"For a fiver each you get Impact, an Arkanoid clone distinguished by, er, nothing at all and Helter Skelter, a strange bounce-a-rubber-ball-onto-aliens'-heads platformer. Helter Skelter is the better of the two, being pleasingly odd and difficult to get the better of, and since most shareware these days has a registration fee higher than this price, you can't really complain.","PUBID":148},{"GAMENAME":"Barbie","Percentage":12,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The first true TV glam game, and it's a cheap plastic platform romp packed with terribly sad, sexist stereotype sludge.","PUBID":63},{"GAMENAME":"Battle Beast","Percentage":18,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A shatteringly abysmal game beribboned and prettied with THE TEASING RAIMENT OF THE DARK ONE.","PUBID":1},{"GAMENAME":"Battle Bugs","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A wargame featuring, among other, fleas, mosquitos, cockroaches and beetles. It's original and funny, and the graphics are stunning, but it's just a bit too tricky for the light-hearted subject matter.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Battle Chess CD","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Flashy and stylish, but ultimately rather shallow. For novices or the easily impressed only.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Battle Isle 2 CD","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"5","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.95","ReviewBodyCopy":"Illustrious German programmers Blue Byte sure know how to design playable wargames - but with this sequel to the runaway hit Battle Isle they've gone one better.\r\n\r\nPublisher\t\tBlue Byte\r\nDeveloper\t\tBlue Byte\r\nPrice\t\t\t£44.95\r\nMinimum System\t386, VGA, 4 Mb RAM, CD-ROM\r\nRecommended\t486, 8 Mb RAM, double-sided drive\r\nSound Support\tAll major cards\r\nRelease Date\tMarch\r\n\r\nThe ORIGINAL version of Battle Isle was something of an anomaly when it first came out. Depicting the titanic struggle between the beleaguered Drullic Empire and the might of TITAN-NET (an artificially intelligent supercomputer bent on world domination), it single-handedly dispelled everyone's preconceptions about wargames in virtually one fell swoop. In fact, people who ordinarily wouldn't go near a game with hexes unashamedly sang its praises. Now Blue Byte have finished the imaginatively titled sequel Battle Isle 2 - and gone and done it again. Once more, you are in charge of the Drullic forces in their continuing campaign - and, once more, the game is superb. \r\nOn the surface there are many similarities between the two titles - most obviously, the presentation, still an area of weakness in other wargames, which is utterly flawless throughout. The main map graphics are superb too - clear, well designed and highly detailed - and complemented by some impressive ray-traced animations for each vehicle type, as well as a new 3D combat view that uses smoothly moving polygons to show the results of clashes between units. Some of these scenes are truly breathtaking - the static screenshots on these pages just can't do justice to the imaginative camera angles and fluid animation. The sound is likewise excellent, from the unobtrusive tunes to the wonderful sound of enemy vehicles exploding.\r\nBattle Isle 2 still uses a hex-based map, admittedly, but the hexes themselves have been made even less intrusive, which, combined with the detail and variety of the new maps, makes them virtually invisible most of the time.\r\nA few minutes' play is enough to make you realise that Battle Isle's sheer playability hasn't changed a jot. But there are many improvements - the most obvious being the loss of the original split-screen display as direct a result of the different turn structure (more of that in a moment). As well as making the screen easier to understand, this also has the effect of doubling the area you can see at any one time, which provides you with a clearer picture of the overall situation. Yes, the turn system is different - but don't fret. Instead of the original's alternating turns (where you could only either move or attack), you can now do both. This makes the game much easier to get to grips with.\r\nYour field of view has also been improved. Previously, you could see the whole map, together with all the enemy forces' positions. Now you can only observe what your units' sensors can detect. Each type of vehicle has a different 'vision' range, you see, which the enemy can jam if they so wish. This is perhaps the most important change to the game. Reconnaissance is vital, as is anticipating the enemy's likely moves. No longer can you be sure of what he is doing or even where he's doing it, and the uncertainty adds immeasurably to the gameplay. Radar installations and vehicles with long sensor ranges become important strategic targets, because what you can't see you can't shoot.\r\nBlue Byte have also simplified the control system, which previously used a cursor that changed to represent different actions. The various options open to a selected unit are now displayed as icons in a window along the bottom of the screen. As you move the cursor, each one is clearly identified and highlighted, so you don't even have to remember what the icons mean. There are few enough PC games you can sit down and play instantly without reference to a weighty manual anyway, but with a wargame? It's got to be a first. Beyond these obvious changes are many of a more subtle nature. Units now have a given amount of ammunition for each of their weapons and use fuel to move around. This adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay. Destroying your opponent's supply vehicles, for example, can cripple his war effort.\r\nThe last of the big changes is in the game's structure. You can still play individual battles against the computer - using the familiar password system (which has amazing AI) - but the original two-player option has now been dropped in favour of a stunningly superior multi-player mode. Battle Isle 2 supports up to seven players, in fact, and allows for any combination of human or computer opponents. And then there's the all-new campaign mode. Here you play through 20 combat situations in a fixed order, each with its own specific objectives, which vary from battle to battle. How successful you are in each affects the entire campaign - do well and you can distribute experience gained between your units.\r\nThere are few faults with Battle Isle 2. Aside from the sometimes con","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"Battle Isle 3","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Uses the same tried and tested system which Blue Byte have come to perfect over the years. It's been refined, improved and tweaked for Battle Isle 3, but ultimately it's not much different from The History Line. Challenging, addictive and, above all, fun. Unfortunately, you may find it all too familiar.","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"Battle of Time CD","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This compilation pack includes The Perfect General, Mega Lo Mania and Battle Isle, amongst others. A worthy strategy pack, with no real duffers.","PUBID":142},{"GAMENAME":"BC Racers","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"17","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fun and humorous in the vein of Nintendo's Mario Kart, but it's horribly pixellated and the opponents show very little intelligence. All in all, a nice, playable and comical racing game but ultimately lacking any real involvement.","PUBID":31},{"GAMENAME":"Beneath A Steel Skey","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"1","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Beautiful visuals, an enthralling plot and plenty of brilliant puzzles. A great adventure game.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Beneath A Steel Sky CD","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"9","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The speech improves the atmosphere, which is then let down by the rest of the sound. Still a fine adventure - although it's now looking a little dated.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Betrayal At Krondor","Percentage":56,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There's plenty of scope for exploration here, but the prose is poor and so is the combat system. A desperately average RPG plonked on CD, with one or two tweaks.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Bioforge","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"18","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Alone In The Dark 3 may currently be astounding the adventure game fraternity, but Bioforge has no qualms about coming along and unashamedly blowing it out of the water.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Electronic Arts\r\nDeveloper: Origin\r\nPrice: TBA\r\nMinimum System: 486DX2/50, 8Mb RAM\r\nRecommended: Pentium 60, 16Mb RAM\r\nSound Support: SoundBlaster compatibles\r\nRelease Date: April\r\n\r\nStrange isn't it? We torture ourselves with brain-melting puzzle-orientated games that demand our full concentration, induce frustrated madness, cause divorces and ultimately turn us into dribbling wrecks, yet when the opportunity arises, although we plead for\r\nmercy, we jump at the chance to go through this absurdity all over again.\r\nWhen you find a game of Bioforge's calibre, however, it's not difficult to see how the weeks of torture pale into oblivion and the vicious cycle can begin once more: 'Yes I'm stuck, yes I'm tired, yes I'm bloody well frustrated, but I am in heaven!'\r\nGetting to grips with Bioforge's control system and, more importantly, the way the main Cyborg character moves is like second nature - players of the Alone series will feel quite at home. However, while similarly incorporating combat and object utilisation, Bioforge offers a greater selection of in-game options than in other adventures of this nature (Alone In The Dark 3 and Ecstatica, for example).\r\nA vast range of attack manoeuvres set Bioforge instantly apart from other adventure games. While combat isn't emphasised as the predominant feature, with a staggering sixteen individual hand-to-hand moves (including a nifty back-flip!) as well as use of a blaster, this element becomes a game in its own right and not just a diversion from the task at hand. \r\nBioforge's basic structure is far from linear. Even though you are pushed in a general direction and have to solve problems in a specific order to ultimately ascertain who, what, and where you are, there are plenty of options forcing you to explore all the possibilities. Furthermore, what appear to be straightforward enough puzzles can sometimes be very difficult to solve. \r\nOne such tricky situation sees you trapped in a lift by two hoverdroids; venturing into the open only results in a barrage of enemy fire. To get out of the lift you actually have to blast the lift walls at an angle which causes a plasma bolt to ricochet off the surfaces and, with a little subtle re-alignment, ultimately hit the droids square-on!\r\nIt is imaginative and clever aspects like this that will make Bioforge a force to be reckoned with in the creation of future adventure games. The standard has now been set, as, for once, the 'interactive' labelling works. Your character has complete freedom of movement within his surroundings, resulting in a blissful coupling of exploration and combat. \r\nGraphically, Bioforge again offers change. The camera angles switch only when necessary, accentuating the feeling of involvement by offering a clean view of each setting. While some may criticise this feature as failing to easily determine a 'useable' item, it actually makes things more exciting - you search everything you feel necessary and if something interactive is found, the greater the feeling of reward. \r\nGone also are the plain polygons, replaced by detailed bit-mapped graphics and sprites which, upon close inspection, are precise and frighteningly lifelike. The main character is highly responsive to control changes, and with unnerving conviction gets quite agitated during combat, ranting and raving at the enemy then waving his arms in desperation and anger. The 'nice' effects don't just stop at quirky character movements either; also worth mentioning are the speech and sound FX, the background detailing and the variety of alien opponents you will face. \r\nThere are imperfections of course. The collision detection is a little askew and you may have to repeat the 'use' command at times, altering your footing slightly as you do so to achieve a result. Also, some of the camera angles linger for too long in places as you walk away from the source, making your character quite small and pixellated before the camera again homes in on the action.\r\nDespite these niggles, the game is a joy to play. The puzzles are challenging without being too abstract, the futuristic setting is idyllic, your Cyborg character is phenomenally hard, and it will only be a matter of time before we see Bioforge: The Beat-'Em-Up... I hope. \r\nALLIE WEST \r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 92%\r\nPCG Verdict: Clever game design, devious puzzles, amazing graphics and an involving combat element.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Birds of Prey","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There are loads of different planes to fly, but they all feature the same cockpit instrumentation and fly in much the same way. The graphics are workable rather than excellent, and the missions are too similar as well.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Bitmap Brothers Compilati","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The games featured on this package are Gods, Magic Pockets, Speedball 2, Xenon 2, Cadaver and its expansion disk, The Payoff. Speedball 2 is the only truly outstanding game featured here, and with that also available on re-issue, this collection is of interest only to true Brosettes!","PUBID":115},{"GAMENAME":"BlackHawk","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A traditional run 'n' jump 'n' shoot romp, but an unremarkable example of this tried and tested formula. Blizzard Entertainment gets an 'A' for effort, but unfortunately a big 'C' for achievement. In conclusion, BlackHawk is mediocre with a capital 'M'","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Bloodnet","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Cyberpunk and gothic horror collide head-on in Microprose's newest role-playing adventure. But can high-tech and street smarts beat an evil from beyond the grave?\r\n\r\nPublisher\t\tMicroprose\r\nDeveloper\t\tIn-house\r\nPrice\t\t\t£44.99\r\nMinimum System\t386SX\r\nRecommended\t386\r\nSound Support\tAll major sound cards\r\nRelease Date\tLate January\r\n\r\nWith Virtual Reality and information technology currently in the media spotlight, just about anything with a technological slant is branding itself as 'cyberpunk' in an effort to cash in on the trend. Even the games industry has been quick to catch on Ð just look at Syndicate and SubWar 2050, with their corporation-dominated worlds. But most of the books, films, and TV documentaries of late have merely paid lip-service to the style, with nothing really capturing the atmosphere of Gibson, Sterling and Williams' (and others') work, the guys who originally coined the term.\r\nThat's perhaps not surprising, considering the nature of cyberpunk, portraying a bleak future, full of poverty, degradation and social collapse. With the subject matter incorporating technological self-mutilation, designer drug use, brutal violence, illegal computer hacking, street gangs, powerless governments and tyrannical rule by an uncaring corporate elite, it's easy to see why software publishers might shy away from the more depressing implications Ð concentrating on the flashier surface side instead. But Bloodnet's got the lot. With fangs.\r\nYou take the role of Ransom Stark, a freelance street mercenary. Years ago you worked for the global megacorporation, TransTechnicals: the brains behind the Manhattan cyberspace net. Your job entailed prolonged use of cyberspace, and, as a result, you contracted Hopkins-Brie Ontology Syndrome Ð a brain disease in which the sufferer loses the ability to distinguish between real and Virtual Reality. TransTech denied responsibility and left you to wander the dangerous streets of Manhattan, helpless and sick.\r\nFortunately, Deirdre Tackett, a brilliant programmer and scientist fighting an underground war against TransTech's despotic rule of the city, saved your life by giving you a neural implant that controls your perceptions, helping you keep a grip on your sanity. Thanks to her timely assistance, you have built up a reputation as a mercenary in the city, at which point the game begins.\r\nIt starts with you accepting a mission from a hauntingly attractive woman, after which you meet her at a penthouse flat to receive payment. Then everything goes wrong. For months, rumours of vampires have been circulating the streets of Manhattan, and although you'd dismissed them as paranoid delusion, you now find them to be true. At the penthouse, you are overwhelmed and bitten by Abraham Van Helsing, a vampire lord infected by Dracula. But you don't fall into his sway immediately Ð the neural implant given to you by Tackett fights off your vampire impulses, keeps you human, and provides you with a chance to escape.\r\nYou now have a mere matter of days before your implant is overwhelmed by the rising power of the vampire within you. Your only chance to free yourself from the curse is to pursue a quest which brings you into direct conflict with both Van Helsing and TransTech, two of the most powerful forces in Manhattan. Oops.\r\nBloodnet is an odd combination of graphical adventure and role-playing game. The action takes place in two main locations Ð the streets of futuristic Manhattan and the TransTech-controlled cyberspace grid that services it. At the start you know the location of various people and places, from street gang hang-outs to TransTech's HQ, but as you progress you discover new ones.\r\nThen there's cyberspace, which you can access from any location with an active computer terminal, using your portable 'deck'. Cyberspace is made up of a two areas Ð a general 'plane', and various 'wells' and 'clusters' that you can only reach by giving the right address to access ports scattered across the plane. Once you've arrived at a location, whether real or Virtual, you can talk to the people there (or end up in fights with them) and seek out useful items. The combat is well done, if a little slow-moving, and there are various tactical options, which, with the game's great variety of weapons and armour, combine to create a flexible system.\r\nMost of the time, however, you're left to discover just what the hell is going on. On the way you get involved in various sub-plots and puzzles, some vital to your quest, others mere sidelines. The trick is knowing which is which, especially as the game is totally non-linear Ð the order in which you do things being entirely up to you. There's a great deal of interaction with other characters, and lots of text to read. More than anything else it's a detective story, with you trying to piece together the clues.\r\nAnd, to my surprise, it's a truly excellent game.It's incredibly atmospheric, with superb backdrops and excellent character interaction, and utterl","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Bloodwings - Pumpkinhead","Percentage":35,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Tedious, painful and pointless as a blunt pencil, Bloodwings is a surprising turkey from the usually reliable Electronic Arts. Plays like a poor man's Doom with a B-movie horror flick simply tacked over the top.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Blown Away","Percentage":49,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This isn't a proper game. It's a 'multimedia'... 'thing' - an assembly of video clips and pictures on which you can click in the hope that something interesting will happen. There's plenty in here, and thousands of man-hours have clearly been ploughed into it, but you'd be better off playing a proper game.","PUBID":74},{"GAMENAME":"Blue And The Grey","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Was the first wargame to give a decent 'Miniatures'-style battle sim in a campaign setting. The graphics aren't great but it's got loads of long-term playability.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"Blue Force","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An accurate portrayal of life on the beat in the US - girls, guns and guts - but playing it by the book makes the game feel like a dull documentary. Fine attempt at a realistic simulation with winding plot, but neither element succeeds.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Blues Brothers","Percentage":58,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Colourful platform fun for those who don't set their standards too high.","PUBID":139},{"GAMENAME":"Body Blows","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"While this may be up to scratch visually, the gameplay's painfully inadequate. The animation's jerky, with few frames for the various fighting moves, which gives the fight a jolting, stop-start feel. More than that, though, it just lacks finesse. The characters don't boast many moves, and the whole game just doesn't impress.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Bram Stokers Dracula","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Quite big and fun to play but it's unoriginal and has crap sound. Basically, Wolfenstein without the speed or big guns.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Bravo Romeo Dalta","Percentage":23,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"10.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A perversely original idea (participate in a 'limited' nuclear war - that is, show the other side you mean business by nuking a few cities, but small ones so it doesn't escalate) destroyed as if with a claw hammer wielded clumsily by a fiend unresponsive to electric shocks at scientifically-set levels because it is THE WORLD'S MOST BORING GAME.","PUBID":60},{"GAMENAME":"Brett Hull Hockey","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Brett Hull Hockey 95 is NHL 95, only with a 3D view and not quite as good, It is, however, still a great game, and has an excellent running commentary which makes it worth considering in its own right.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Brutal - Paws of Fury","Percentage":21,"ISSUEDATE":"9","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Don't fork out 30 quid of your life savings on a dreadful, dreadful pile of goat's entrails like this. You have been warned.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Brutal Sports Football","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Mindless and violent action that soon grows dull. Not that funny or sporty, and not a patch on Speedball 2.","PUBID":91},{"GAMENAME":"Bubble Dizzy","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the simplest PC games you'll ever play, but that doesn't mean it's not an unfeasible amount of fun. Sweet and playable - a perfect budget game.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Buried In Time CD","Percentage":37,"ISSUEDATE":"23","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A point-and-click adventure which commits the cardinal sin of so many adventure games: you can die through absolutely no fault of your own. This is a gorgeously presented, moody number with a gaping hole in its heart. A totally wasted opportunity.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Burn:Cycle","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You've got two hours to prevent your cyberpunk character from turning into a cyber-cabbage. Burn:Cycle is an enjoyable and atmospheric CD-i conversion, but it's far too easy and offers very little replay value.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"Burntime","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Lots of strategy and a useable interface, but just not enough action and fun. Burntime is a good idea which nearly comes off. Take a look at it if you liked Stephen King's novel The Stand.","PUBID":78},{"GAMENAME":"Bureau 13","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"17","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Bureau 13 began life as the Stalking The Night Fantastic RPG back in 1983. Since then the award-winning system has spawned four new editions, several novels and even a hard cover Russian omnibus. Perseverance in this RPG is occasionally rewarded with good-looking animated scenes, but the ability to approach problems using different agents means you're rarely as stuck as you can be in other adventure games and occasionally a solution is elegant enough to make you feel smug about being right. Sadly, though, this isn't enough to save the game. This is one for addicts only.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Buzz Aldrins Race Into S","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Atmospheric, entertaining and informative, with excellent footage - although the full-screen visuals do take some getting used to. A superb strategy game, and a fascinating guide to the real space race.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Cadaver","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An isometric arcade adventure which has the slick, shiny, graphics that are the Bitmap's stock-in-trade. But it's quite a soulless affair, the gameplay blatantly failing to live up to the fancy surface. Certainly not a pleasurable experience.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Campaing II","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Part arcade game, part vehicle simulation, part generic wargame, Campaign II is such a confused piece of work, it's hard to see who it's been designed for.","PUBID":105},{"GAMENAME":"Cannon Fodder","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"5","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"35.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"With more gung-ho than John Wayne and Sam Peckinpah put together, Sensible Software's latest release boldly boasts that 'war has never been so much fun.' Whatever would Monty have said?\r\n\r\nPublisher\t\tVirgin\r\nDeveloper\t\tSensible Software/AVME Ltd.\r\nPrice\t\t\t£35.99\r\nMinimum System\t386SX, VGA, 1 Mb RAM\r\nRecommended\t386SX\r\nSound Support\tRoland, Soundblaster\r\nRelease Date\tMarch\r\n\r\n'THIS GAME IS NOT in any way endorsed by The Royal British Legion' is the first thing you see when you load up Cannon Fodder - and with good reason. Said body of old soldiers were none too chuffed about the game's controversial use of the Remembrance Day poppy when it first appeared on the Amiga late last year. In fact, the subsequent tabloid furore led to the image being removed from the box altogether (even though it still appears as part of the in-game presentation) and the inclusion of the aforementioned disassociating message.\r\nWhether or not Cannon Fodder is in poor taste is open to endless debate, but that it's a triumphant exercise in innovative game design and - dare we say it? - fun is never even up for question. Sensible Software has a long history of doing things that little bit differently - the likes of Wizball and Wizkid (PCG 4: 90%) proving that great games needn't belong to familiar genres. Even Sensible Soccer, by the team's own admission based on ideas first used in Kick Off 2, brought a new level of instinctiveness and realism to the simulated sport. And now we have Cannon Fodder, which effectively turns the whole wargame genre on its head by mixing military strategy and tactics with (shock, horror, blasphemy!) high-octane arcade action.\r\nYou're a frontline military commander charged with completing 23 missions, each split into a number of phases (levels). With each comes an objective ('destroy enemy buildings,' 'rescue hostages,' for example) and a squad of soldiers with which to carry them out. No explanation is given for the missions or the fictitious war as a whole. Cannon Fodder's approach is effectively to boil everything down to its simplest form, so out goes the superfluous data about scenarios or the strategic importance of what you're doing in the long run.\r\nAfter the mission briefing, it's down to the nitty gritty. Play begins just after your squad's been dropped behind enemy lines - and, boy, is it fun. Everything's so easy to do. You've got your team of soldiers (squad size varies with the complexity of the level), and you guide them around the eight-way scrolling map simply by clicking where you want them to walk. Firing's just as easy - a right-button click turns your directional arrow into a crosshair and then you can strafe away (with unlimited ammunition, of course) to your heart's content. An easy dual-click action activates rockets, grenades and other special weapons. That's all you need to know to get started. But you'll need a little more to stay alive...\r\nEver played paintball? Cannon Fodder's a lot like that, with missions a mixture of tactical thinking (should we attack head-on or use the cover of the treeline to go the long way round and surprise them from the rear? ) and all-out blasting. Now as clever as all this strategic stuff is (you can split your squad into smaller groups and issue preset orders to each, so you can attack from two directions at once, for example), it's in the gung-ho department that Cannon Fodder really excels. Although the sprites are small and the graphical style more comical than photo-realistic, there's a tremendous amount of on-screen violence, with blood, fire and the screams of the wounded coming thick and fast. Both sides can lose a hell of a lot of men in the course of a single firefight - but your job is to make sure that losses to your side never rise beyond the acceptable. New recruits join your fighting force after each mission, but since you have to try again with new soldiers each time you fail a level, it's easy to lose men faster than they join up.\r\nThe nice part is that soldiers who complete a mission and survive get promoted, and their experience translates into better weapons skills - accuracy, range, rate of fire and so on. This means you can get very protective about the men who've been with you for a few missions - and feeling genuinely sorry for them when they finally get cut down by the enemy.\r\nI could go on. About how amazingly vicious the enemy soldiers get on later levels. About how you can capture vehicles like tanks, helicopters and snowcats and run amok in them, driving over soldiers and using their weaponry to torch enemy installations. About horrible little touches like the spike pits that might impale one of your men but not kill him, so you have to shoot the guy yourself to put him out of his misery. About... Oh, all sorts of things that make Cannon Fodder the most enjoyable wargame I've ever played. But if what's gone before hasn't been enough to convince you already, I don't know what is. \r\nWhat we have here is that most endanger","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Cannon Fodder II","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The same successful formula combining wit with arcade action, except that this time around it's not so stimulating a chemical reaction. More of the same really, only less so.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Capitalism","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The aim of Capitalism is to construct a thriving commercial empire from various integrated businesses. However, the sheer amount of information results in you being engaged in a battle just to understand and implement the basics, let alone make any significant progress before your hair goes grey. Admittedly, once you've conquered the interface, Capitalism becomes as deep and involving as A-Train, but if 99% of gamers will be unable to achieve this, then what does it matter?","PUBID":71},{"GAMENAME":"Cardmania","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You've played it in pubs, now play it on your PC! Two of Bell-Fruit's popular gambling machines have been converted for home use. The package features Quintoon (loosely based on pontoon) and Pokio (based on poker). Cardmania's not bad and it's great fun for gamblers, but of course the whole point of gambling is the reward at the end of it and there's none of that here.","PUBID":75},{"GAMENAME":"Carriers At War II","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Nice interface and plenty of details, but a lack of scenarios make it less than challenging. Excellent rendition of the subject matter, but it should have come as an add-on disk.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Castles II","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Different from the majority of CD upgrades in that it's taken a mediocre game and turned it into something interesting and fun. It's not the greatest strategy game ever, but it's still a hoot.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"CD3","Percentage":57,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This compilation CD contains Zool, Nigel Mansell's World Championship and Lotus, none of which really stand out as a 'must buy'.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"CD-ROM Interactive Collection","Percentage":42,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing: The Animals, World Atlas, Interactive Space Encyclopedia, World Cup USA 94, Winter Olympics, Links, Thunderhawk, Curse Of Enchantia, James Pond 2: Robocod, Out Run, Print And Paint Power, Comedy Central: It's All Relative, Midi Music: Phil Collins, Midi Music: Madonna, Midi Music: Michael Jackson, Johnny Castaway Screensaver.\r\nDespite the huge variety of titles on this CD, there is little here that instantly appeals or screams out 'Buy me!'","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Central Intelligence","Percentage":58,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A large and complex title which is terribly unfriendly and offers no visual/aural treats. A huge game, but it's just presented in such an incredibly indigestible way.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Championship Manager For","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's a game for die-hard blokes, bonkers about soccer Ð and to its credit it's got everything a football fan could ask for. Dull for the rest of us, though.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Championship Manager Ital","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Like its predecessor, Italia '95 is a no-nonsense management game with a level of realism that will pay dividends to those interested enough to make the effort, but the dry statistical presentation and cult interest subject matter makes this grossly unappealing to all but the most serious of would-be managers.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Championship Manager II","Percentage":49,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Championship Manager 2 is the same old fairly clever football management sim that it always was, but on CD, so costing you half as much again. It handles results competently and they're always believable. The better team usually wins. And in its defence there's a dinky new tactical editor that lets you simply click and drag your players to a preferred position and then simply (again) click and drag a direction and distance that you'd like them to run to at appropriate moments. But at the heart of this is a cynical old 'mutton-dressed-as-lamb' confidence trick much beloved of the software industry. The changes to the original are superficial. You won't find the brave new dawn of multimedia interactivity here. What you will find is an old, somewhat tired game that should stop plastering its face with make-up and trying to score down the disco and allow itself to be led quietly off to the old people's home, where it will be remembered kindly.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Chaos Control","Percentage":25,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is one of those tedious shoot-'em-ups where you 'control' very little other than your laser's cross-hair. Set over three distinct levels, alien hordes swoop into view on a collision course, but you can do bugger all apart from shoot them out of the skies Ð really challenging.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Chaos Engine","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"32.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you've got the floppy version, then there's no reason why you should even look at this. The Chaos Engine IS The Chaos Engine on whatever format, regardless of any extra bells and whistles that are added.","PUBID":115},{"GAMENAME":"Chaos Engine CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you've got the floppy version, then there's no reason why you should even look at this. The Chaos Engine IS The Chaos Engine on whatever format, regardless of any extra bells and whistles that are added.","PUBID":115},{"GAMENAME":"Chessmaster 4000 Turbo","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"32.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Its ability to create and edit computer opponents is Chessmaster's winning card. It really has too many good points to mention and is still one of the best chess games available for your PC","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Chuck Yeagers Air Combat","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fifty historical missions to dogfight your way through; as well as a mission builder facility, make this a fun and engrossing flying sim. The graphics may well look a bit dated but Chuck Yeager's Air Combat goes like the clappers.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Civilization","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the most engrossing sims ever, Civilization is a game of world building. You find yourself sucked into the power struggles, politics and wars of your land, as you race from ancient times to the Space Age.","PUBID":104},{"GAMENAME":"Civilization For Windows","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Relatively pointless if you already own Civilization (or Colonization, for that matter) but a must for all Civilization virgins.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Civil War","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Empire's latest offering is as complex and challenging as civil war itself.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Empire\r\nDeveloper: Dagger Interactive Technologies\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 486, CD-ROM\r\nRecommended: 486 DX\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: Out now\r\n\r\nCivil wars are invariably the most complex affairs, both politically and militarily, the tragic drama currently being played out in Bosnia being the classic example of this. From a game designer's view, then, civil wars offer a tremendous challenge, though clearly no-one with any sense of decency would attempt to make a game out of the Balkan crisis.\r\nThe latest offering to take up such a multi-faceted challenge is Empire's prosaically titled Civil War, a game which starts up where the Napoleonic game Fields Of Glory left off. That is to say it uses the same game engine, though with the important addition of a reasonably challenging AI.\r\nThe tutorial gets things under way quickly with examples of both strategic and tactical battles. It soon becomes clear that the game can be played on a number of levels of complexity, with factors like Resource, Supply, Unit Types, Facilities, Command and Control, Fatigue, Terrain and\r\nMorale all being variable.\r\nIn addition to the campaign game, in which you can play either side, four battles are included in the game: 1st Bull Run, Wilson's Creek, Mill Springs and The First Day At Shiloh. As you would expect, the victory conditions in these are markedly different from those in the campaigns. In the latter, the capturing of cities is the key to success; while in the battles, forced surrender or rout are the goals. The structure of the battles will be familiar to those who have played table-top miniature wargames, while the campaigns have more in common with the many board-games on the subject. However, unlike most such translations, Civil War runs in real-time. This mode is very much a matter of taste. Some complain that they do not like that haste which real-time games necessitate, while others argue that it captures the chaotic nature of war far more accurately. In Civil War, though, you can have your apple pie and eat it, for the game can be slowed down to the most leisurely pace desired. The real-time mode also makes the game highly suitable for modem play, an option which is included here, as it ensures that there is very little 'down time' while your opponent ponders a move.\r\nThe scope of the game is considerable, somehow managing to incorporate all the prominent elements in this most messy of wars. Railways, sharpshooters, militia, navies and the blockade running have all seamlessly found their way into the game.\r\nThe mouse/icon interface has been well thought out, with the cursor changing shape to indicate what actions are possible. Particularly useful is the zoom/magnifying glass on the battle screen. A pity, then, that the presentation of the main screen is such a mess. At the bottom of the map there is a huge keyboard icon. Despite looking like a piano tutor, all this does is to toggle the sound on and off. Surely this and similar distractions could have been reduced or hidden to preserve the integrity of the map, which is, after all, the thing most players will want to focus on?\r\nIn addition to the game proper, an on-line encyclopedia is included. This is truly an excellent addition and adds great flavour to the game. You can scan biographies of some of the famous characters in the war, or access weapons, tactics, battles and even songs and music of the period.\r\nThe documentation is similarly excellent. The manual does a great job of explaining things while war historian Paddy Griffith's book Battle In The Civil War is also included and provides many examples of tactical nuances. As if this isn't enough, a full colour map is thrown in; a document which pays particular attention to the famous battle sites.\r\nLike many wargames, Civil War may appear a daunting proposition to the beginner. However, because of the tutorials and the graduated learning curve, no-one need feel that they have been thrown in at the deep end. Veterans will admire the attention to detail, though they may find the computer a bit of a pushover after a few games. The best solution in this case is to take advantage of the aforementioned modem option and hook\r\nup to a friend.\r\nCivil War, then, gets a firm recommendation to anyone interested in the subject matter, or those who may be hovering on the fringe. It's as moving and as cerebral as you want it to be. It's also challenging, entertaining and educational in the best sense of the word. And if this isn't enough, then go whistle Dixie. \r\nBRIAN WALKER\r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 87%\r\nPCG Verdict: Excellent and easy to follow rendition of a complex subject. It'll be hard to find a better civil war game than this.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"CJs Elephant Antics","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An incredibly dated platformer that might appeal to a three or four year old. Mindnumbingly boring for adults.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Classic Collection: Delphine","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing: Flashback, Another World, Cruise For A Corpse, Operation Stealth, Future Wars.\r\nThis adventure pack brings together a number of ancient titles from French developer Delphine Software. All these adventures are distinctly different from the ones featured on the LucasArts pack, in that they are not your usual run-of-the-mill point-and-click affairs and are more arcade based in their design. Compared to the dated LucasArts Adventure Classic Collection, the Delphine pack is far more entertaining.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Classic Collection: Lucas Arts","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing: The Secret Of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Loom, Zak McKraken And The Alien Mindbenders and Maniac Mansion.\r\nIf you're looking for a decent LucasArts compilation, it would be better value to buy LucasArts x3: Adventure Pack boasting three of their more recent titles - Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis, Day Of The Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit The Road.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Clockwiser","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A delightfully simple and satisfying puzzle game. The round-the-clock movement is novel and the levels are cunningly designed. Unfortunately, it does suffer from a common puzzle fault - there's only a finite amount of levels, and either you'll finish them or get stuck. A neat little puzzler all the same.","PUBID":111},{"GAMENAME":"Club Football","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not enough detail, and a distinct lack of information. May appeal to casual supporters, but the man on what used to be the terrace is hardly likely to be satisfied.","PUBID":135},{"GAMENAME":"Colonization","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Few games have a pedigree as distinguished as that of MicroProse's latest release - but is Colonization worthy of its heritage, or is it just a rehash of the same old ideas?\r\n\r\nPublisher: MicroProse\r\nDeveloper: Sid Meier\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 386, 4MB RAM and VGA\r\nRecommended: 486\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: Out Now\r\n\r\nColonization is the latest game from Sid Meier, the man behind such classics as Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon and, of course, the utterly superb Civilization. After this string of hits, however, very little was heard from the co-founder of MicroProse for two years. Despite continuous rumours as to the subject and impending release of his next game, nothing materialised until the beginning of this year, when it was confirmed that a new game was in fact on the way. Since then fans of his previous games have been virtually gnashing their teeth in anticipation of the latest release. Well, gnash no longer, because it's finally here, and it's been well worth the wait.\r\nBefore talking about the game proper, there are a couple of things that need to be cleared up. The first is that Colonization is not Civilization 2. However, it does share a great deal with the previous game, and fans of that will find Colonization very simple to get into. If you loved Civ, then you might as well go and get this now - you won't regret it. If, however, you've never played it, then read on (but go and get a copy of Civilization anyway - it's brilliant).\r\nColonization is about the discovery, settlement and eventual independence of the Americas. In the game you become your country's Viceroy of the New World. Starting in 1492, with the discovery of the new lands to the west of Europe, you have complete control over your country's efforts to colonise these territories and exploit their rich natural resources. Your eventual aim, however, is to develop a nation strong enough to stand on its own without the support of your homeland. To succeed you must declare independence and survive the inevitable war that will follow when your King attempts to regain control of his wayward Colony.\r\nThe game is played in turns of six months' duration. Your declaration of independence must be made before 1800, and the war must be resolved by 1850 at the very latest. At the start of the game you can choose from one of the four Old World powers that were involved in the settling of the New World - England, France, Spain or the Netherlands. Each country had its own objectives and strengths, and these are characterised in the game. The Spanish, for example, were intent on plunder and conquest, and as such a Spanish player has the advantage in combat with native Indians. You also choose a difficulty level from the five available, and whether to play using the real continents of North and South America or with random land masses (which can be customised to an extent). Then it's into the game itself.\r\nYou begin with a single ship carrying a couple of units and a completely blank map of the New World - the map's made up of squares of different types of terrain, from mountains to ocean. Sailing west for a couple of squares usually brings you within sight of land, and then you can unload your first Colonists and explore.\r\nYour first priority is to seek out a suitable piece of land, build a Colony and develop it. As the game continues you'll build more and more towns, increase your economic and military might and so on. During this time, of course, you'll also have to deal with the other European powers (all of whom are competing with you for land and resources) and the native tribes. The New World is widely settled by Indian tribes, which, for the purposes of the game, have been abstracted into eight 'nations'. How you deal with them is entirely up to you, but it's impossible to ignore them.\r\nLike its predecessor, Colonization is a work of such depth and subtlety that any review can barely scratch the surface of the game. Even after several days of dedicated play you will still be learning more and more about it - I know I am. Because of this, there's little point in trying to explain it all here. There's simply too much to address. What I can say, however, is that it's a truly excellent strategy game of immense proportions. It may not have quite the same level of addictiveness as Civ, but it's at least as engrossing and far more sophisticated in many ways.\r\nColonization is one of those games that manages to cross the boundaries of its genre. Even if you're not a strategy game fan, you'll almost certainly enjoy the challenge it represents, while strategy fans themselves will be enthralled, and fans of Civ will find themselves in seventh heaven. Its bad points are limited to some fairly average graphics - that's it. Try as I might, I haven't found anything else to criticise. Everything is so intelligently designed, and the game is so packed with clever ideas and concepts that it's a joy to play, and I'd recommend it ","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Combat Classics 3","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This compilation will appeal to the strategist and tactician rather than the ardent action fan, but be warned, there is something here for the action seekers too. A well-balanced compilation of classic wargames, that manages to entertain rather than bore you to tears.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Combat Air Patrol","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"You're a rookie pilot on an aircraft carrier. There are various sorties to choose from, as well as a dozen or so practice missions to fly. You also get to arm up your plane with all the bombs, bullets and missiles you think you're going to need. This isn't the kind of flight combat game you want to start on, because it's not very exciting. Likewise, it's not for those experienced in the genre, because you'll all have played much better titles already.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Command & Conquer","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"20","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's been a long time coming, but Command & Conquer has been worth the wait - a superb game in almost every respect.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Commander Blood","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Highs: Superb 3D graphics. Breaks new ground in game style.\r\nLows: A little bit complex and requires a lot of attention.\r\nThe Verdict: An original game concept, despite being a revamp of an earlier game","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Companions of Xanth","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An updated text adventure that borrows some ideas from modern point-and-click control systems, but without abandoning the style and design of its keyboard-based ancestors. It's fine if you want to play dated text adventures. Do you?","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Complete Universal Mil Si","Percentage":51,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A victim of its own lofty ambitions. It simply tries to achieve too much, and as a result ends up far too mechanical and laborious for even the most tolerant of wargamers.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Conspiracy CD","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A nice reworking of a good solid game, but the old and new don't sit well together. A good performance from Donald Sutherland, but the ambience is continually broken by the ridiculously jolly pop soundtrack.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Cool Spot","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"8","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A graphical treat - great animation, fine scrolling and a fab soundtrack - but a bit repetitive and not very thought-provoking. A platformer that oozes character and attitude, but it's just a feast for the eyes really.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Corridor 7","Percentage":43,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Much less fun than Wolfenstein, has nothing like the atmosphere of the flawed In Extremis and doesn't even deserve comparisons with Doom. In short, it's workmanlike, boring, unattractive and unnecessary.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Cosmic Spacehead","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's hardly a state-of-the-art game, but don't expect Sam & Max and you won't be disappointed. The phrase 'nice but limited' comes to mind - one for the kids.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Countdown","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This PC game of Countdown does just what you'd expect it to - plays the embarrassing TV quiz Countdown. The presentation's shabby, the samples are hissy, but the basic game's just so darned playable.","PUBID":81},{"GAMENAME":"Critical Path CD","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Critical Path is scary, violent and very dark. A good interactive movie, but not exactly the ultimate gameplaying experience.","PUBID":86},{"GAMENAME":"Cruise For A Corpse","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A period murder mystery set aboard a luxury cruise ship. Stylishly presented, with lots of cinematic cut scenes and set-pieces, and easy to play thanks to the ever-friendly user interface.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Crusader: No Remorse","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A good, solid shoot 'em-up with a huge playing area, great explosions and a barman.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Crystal Maze","Percentage":34,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The Crystal Maze theme tune is impressive but the puzzles are very poor indeed. The Crystal Dome is the biggest disappointment of all though, comprising Eighties-style vector graphics.","PUBID":123},{"GAMENAME":"Curse of Enchantia","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There's only one word to describe this graphic adventure - okay. Nothing great, nothing special, just okay. The graphics are pretty, the sound and speech is good, but it lacks atmosphere and feels too much like a succession of puzzles rather than an adventure story.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Cyberbykes","Percentage":40,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Yet another 3D shoot-'em-up with you driving your bike in and around a series of futuristic cities, blasting enemy bikes, picking up power-ups and all the usual stuff. Unfortunately, actually doing any of this is very hard - the enemy bikes are horrifically fast, yours is far from manoeuvrable and the whole thing quickly becomes frustrating. On top of this the graphics are five years out of date.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Cyber Race","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Impressive 3D - fast and furious fun on a powerful PC - plus guns. However, it can be confusing to play at times and does not offer enough long-term appeal.","PUBID":33},{"GAMENAME":"Cyberwar","Percentage":15,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Cyberwar supposedly carries on from The Lawnmower Man and carries you into the next dimension. It's like some pointless cross between Tron, The Crystal Maze and the kind of compilation of BASIC programs that used to come free with a new computer in the early Eighties. This kind of approach to interactive entertainment is a criminal waste of CD-ROM's Ð and your PC's Ð gameplaying potential. Complete and utter Cybercrap.","PUBID":118},{"GAMENAME":"Cyclemania","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A good standard racing game (nice digitised roadway and good basic road racing) but one that lacks excitement (no atmosphere or adrenaline rush). The phrase 'less haste, more speed' springs to mind.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"CyClones","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Review to follow.","PUBID":130},{"GAMENAME":"D-Day: The Beginning Of T","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Engrossing and highly detailed wargame which could prove daunting to beginners. One of the most comprehensive wargames yet published, and a must-buy for armchair generals everywhere.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"X-COM","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"17","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"X-COM: Terror From The Deep\r\n\r\nMicroProse unleashes the follow-up to UFO: Enemy Unknown on an unsuspecting world. If only film sequels were always this good...\r\n\r\nPublisher: MicroProse\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nPrice: £44.99 (recommended)\r\nMinimum System: 386, 4Mb RAM\r\nRecommended: 486\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: March\r\n\r\nIt's a funny thing, but computer game baddies seem to come in and out of fashion. For example, the good old 'rogue computer' seems to be very 'in' at the moment, with games like Earthsiege, System Shock and Descent all featuring jumped PCs with superiority complexes as their chief adversaries. Of course, with the huge range of games available today, you can find yourself up against virtually anything imaginable, from demonic hordes to the Rebel Alliance, but there are definite trends. \r\nBack at the time of the first computer games, though, things were a little simpler. There was only one type of opposition to be had Ð the trusty space aliens, and the only good alien was a dead alien. The very simplicity of it all was, and still is, attractive. You didn't have to worry about their motivations, where they came from or, in fact, what they really wanted. All you had to do was kill the lot of 'em.\r\nUFO: Enemy Unknown (91%, PCG Vol 1 No 5) captured this appeal. As well as offering a superb blend of strategy and tactical combat, the game's baddies were a group of aliens from the 'old school'. They wanted Earth, and they meant to take it from us, preferably causing a great deal of death and destruction in the process. Your job was, quite simply, to stop them. Now, with X-COM: Terror From The Deep, the story continues with a new horde of aliens. And they still want our planet.\r\nThe game's plot begins 65 million years ago, when the vast alien colonisation vessel T'leth crashed while attempting to land on Earth. Its automatic safety systems placed its crew in suspended animation and began to broadcast a distress beacon, and it's been there ever since. At regular intervals the computers have awakened small groups of aliens to explore the ship's surroundings and keep up to date on the world around it, but the rest of the ship awaited a response to its beacon Ð a response that never came, until now. \r\nThe Ethereals and their minions detected the T'leth's beacon when they began their attacks on Earth in UFO: Enemy Unknown, and reported it to their masters. When the news that the invasion attempt had failed and the Mars base had been destroyed reached the alien commanders, they decided to activate the vessel. The signal took years to reach Earth, but when it did the vast ship finally stirred. Now, 40 years after the events of UFO: Enemy Unknown, another assault has begun on Earth Ð an invasion from beneath the sea, where the T'leth lies.\r\nX-COM: Terror From The Deep once again puts you in command of X-COM, the top secret multi-national Earth defence agency. It's the year 2040, and strange reports have started to appear Ð ships disappearing without a trace, ports attacked and ransacked, abnormal sonar contacts in seas all over the world, and sightings of weird humanoid creatures. It's your job to stop whoever is responsible.\r\nThe game's interface is functionally very similar to that of UFO: Enemy Unknown, so experienced players will have very little trouble jumping straight into the action. For those people unfortunate enough not to have played the original, the game is split into two main sections Ð the Geoscape and Tactical. The Geoscape is the strategic section of the game, and centres around a highly detailed polygon map of the globe which can be zoomed and rotated to your heart's content. X-COM's fight against the aliens is founded on a series of floating bases, and at the start of the game you choose where to place the first one. These bases contain sonar systems, with which you detect alien submarine activity, launching facilities for your own subs, labs for your scientists, workshops for your technicians and so on. Once alien activity is detected or reported, you can send in your subs to deal with it. Moving subs must be downed by your own interception craft, and just about any other alien activity detected (including the remains of subs downed by interception) are dealt with by sending in a troop transporter. Once this lands at the site the game switches to its second section, a tactical wargame where you control a squad of X-COM 'aquanauts' (read 'soldiers') in an attempt to neutralise any aliens and recover their equipment and other items. One of the beauties of UFO was that the game was simple to understand and control in both sections, with the challenge coming from the aliens, as opposed to the interface, and this hasn't changed in X-COM.\r\nSo, for veteran UFO players (and people wondering what all the fuss is about), what has changed? Well, obviously enough there's a whole new group of alien races involved, complete with a whole new range of technologies at their disposal. Yo","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"X-Wing","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not as polished as TIE Fighter, but still an excellent space flight sim. X-Wing will take you months to complete, as its toughness is now legendary. The graphics look a little basic compared to the impressive texture-mapping of the Wing Commander series, but it's quick and captures perfectly the atmosphere of the Star Wars movies.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"D-Generation","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A beautifully conceived game - you're a delivery boy trapped inside a hi-tech office block and have to make your way past the building's security systems and lethal Neo-Gens to reach the mysterious Dr Derrida. The rooms maintain a fine balance between dexterity-testing tasks and brain-teasing puzzles, so players of all persuasions will be satisfied.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Deadalus Encounter","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The emphasis in The Daedalus Encounter has very obviously been placed on the movie side of things. What little gameplay there is constitutes a fair few hours spent in front of your PC, and the puzzles are quite devious in some instances, but where you can watch a film numerous times, it's unlikely that Daedalus will have similar longevity","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Deamonsgate","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you have the time and commitment, this will give you many days of enjoyment. For the rest, though, it'll be just a chore and a disappointment.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Dark Forces","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's not bad by any means, but not as good as we hoped it would be.","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Dark Legions","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"35.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Superbly presented combination of ideas that works very well, but the average computer opponent limits one-player appeal. A unique, absorbing, highly playable strategy game which is not quite brilliant.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Dark Seed","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A brave step away from adventure convention, but let down by the often tedious gameplay. As good as it was the first time round (i.e. quite), but wasted as a CD title.","PUBID":33},{"GAMENAME":"Dark Sun: Shattered Lands","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"45.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A solid meaty role-playing game with no fat and lots to sink your teeth into. The graphics aren't bad either.","PUBID":130},{"GAMENAME":"Dark Sun: Wake of the Rav","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The second of SSI's official AD&D licences to use the Dark Sun setting. It also uses exactly the same engine as the previous Dark Sun game, and suffers from exactly the same problems: the scrolling is jerky and slow, the animation's virtually non-existent, and the interface is confusing and inexact. A missed opportunity, but still fun if you have the patience.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Darker","Percentage":35,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Space combat game in which you're just doing the same things over and over against ever-increasing odds, and it gets very frustrating very quickly. It's atmospheric, but in the end just depressing.","PUBID":127},{"GAMENAME":"David Leadbetters Golf","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There are six courses and four difficulty settings to work your way through. The most notable aspect of the game, however, is the sheer number of options available, ranging from numerous modes of play and in-game features to the various camera angles from which shots can be viewed. In short, this is one of the few golf sims that gives PGA Tour a run for its money.","PUBID":104},{"GAMENAME":"Dawn Patrol","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Dawn Patrol is the best WWI flight sim yet for the PC.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Day of The Tentacle","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"23","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Don't hesitate to buy this if you don't already have it. DOTT is a very special adventure, not least because of its LucasArts origins and supremely funny dialogue and crazy plot. You have to help the three time-travelling kids unravel the sequence of events that lead to a huge purple tentacle ruling the world in the future - and if you think that sounds complex, wait until you play the game.","PUBID":154},{"GAMENAME":"Deathgate","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A somewhat twee RPG which hardened adventurers may well find a bit obvious. Nevertheless, it's huge, absorbing and really quite good fun.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Defender of The Empire","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"As far as mission disks go, this is pretty good. If you're a TIE Fighter fan, it offers almost exactly what you want. In short, it's an almost archetypal mission disk; great for fans, and of no interest to anyone else.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Delta V","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"45.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Super-slick, fast-moving, non-stop 3D action throughout, but it's just too fiddly and difficult to get into or enjoy properly. A bit of a missed opportunity, really.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Descent","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A great 3D blaster - one of Doom's only serious challengers.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Detroit","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Good blend of gameplay and simulation, but the graphics are dull and there's a lack of interactivity with opponents. Should appeal to fans of number-crunching Ð and car freaks, of course.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"DID Virtual Works","Percentage":40,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This compilation features F-29 Retaliator, Epic and RoboCop 3. Of this trio, only RoboCop 3 is any, erm, cop, the other two having long since been relegated into the 'less said, soonest mended' category.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Diggers","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A large strategy game, in which the fun lies in buying and using the equipment. However, the tiresomely slow gameplay, dodgy graphics and dated concept make it a decidedly average game.","PUBID":91},{"GAMENAME":"Discworld","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"LucasArts beware, but don't fear the Reaper Man yet.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Doom II","Percentage":95,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" It's better than Doom. What's left to say? Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Double Trouble","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This quietly enjoyable compilation features Wreckers and Exterminator. Exterminator is terrible (it's a peculiar reaction game where pests rush around a house and you have to swat or crust them) but Wreckers is fiendishly absorbing. It's a disaster movie set on a spaceship - fiddly 3D, utterly confusing and stunningly difficult, it's nonetheless consistently frenetic and hugely entertaining.","PUBID":148},{"GAMENAME":"Dracula Unleashed","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"High quality video playback and genuinely scary moments. Poor quality overacting and hilarious cockney accents.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Dragon Lore","Percentage":58,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A combination of graphic adventure, RPG and abstract puzzle games like Myst, complete with vast amounts of lovely rendered graphics and an interesting fantasy plot involving dragons and things, Dragon Lore promised much. It doesn't, however, quite manager to deliver. It's not that it's an inherently bad game, there are just too many faults and flaws. A huge disappointment.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Dragons Lair","Percentage":26,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Great fun for five minutes, and that's your lot. Impressive ten years ago, but just an unplayable oddity today.","PUBID":44},{"GAMENAME":"DragonSphere","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A solid graphic adventure that makes good use of the CD and spins a neat yarn. Not the sort of game that blows you away, admittedly, but still a well-designed piece of software.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Dr Dragos Madcap Chase","Percentage":36,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A turn-based board-game that's far from enthralling and when something of interest does materialise your reaction is about as euphoric as if you'd caught the flu.","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"DreamWeb","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An adventure game with an atmospheric gameworld and refreshingly 'adult' treatment, but it feels dated, with a veneer of '90s graphical credibility. Nothing really bad, but nothing really good or novel, either.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Drug Wars","Percentage":15,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Like its predecessors Mad Dog McCree, Who Shot Johnny Rock, Crime Patrol and Space Pirates, this is a particularly awful shootout game. There's no justification for this contemptible genre's existence, except for the sad fact that there are plenty of gullible punters to keep buying this pap.","PUBID":8},{"GAMENAME":"Dune","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The similarities between this game and the film are pleasing and the stylised nature of the characters with whom you interact gives the game a certain direction, but it's not gonna make you go 'WOW!'. The control system is friendly and intuitive, and, coupled with an involved plot-line, Dune is actually great fun to play.","PUBID":114},{"GAMENAME":"Dune II","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is Dune 2's second budget release, but, even in light of the recent and excellent Command & Conquer, it is still great.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Dungeon Hack","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A role-playing game with no convoluted plot, detailed character interaction or novel programming techniques. The equivalent of a shoot-'em-up - and just as much fun.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Dungeon Master II","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A mix of good and bad that's actually quite hard to rate. Certainly fans of the original will have great fun with it, providing they weren't expecting anything radically new. Likewise, new players may well find that the game's innate simplicity and addictive nature are very appealing. However, you have to balance these strong points against a frequently frustrating interface and a lack of anything really different.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Ecstatica","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The graphics are gorgeous and the ellipsoid sprites move extremely fluidly while the digitised sound effects and speech add to the game's depth. However, all the good points are outweighed by the tedious camera changes, the lack of an inventory and the clumsiness of many character actions.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"EF2000","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"In EF2000 you fly the as-yet-not-actually-finished Eurofighter in north-western Europe against the ravening hoards of the new generation of Russian imperialists in the early part of the next century. \r\nThe Eurofighter is a plane of the future. Indeed, so futuristic is it that without its computer system continually adjusting its control surfaces it wouldn't actually fly at all. If you built a perfect scale model of the Eurofighter and threw it, it would fly only as far as a similarly sized brick. This is bad news for anyone who's in one when all the on-board computers fail but extremely good news for anyone trying to get to grips with the virtual plane in EF2000. If the plane can only fly because its computers tell it it can and not because the laws of physics keep reminding it that it can't, you can throw it about the sky with a great deal more reckless abandon safe in the knowledge that the flight computers will just say 'Heigh ho' and make the necessary adjustments to the wings and canards (the little wings just behind the nose).\r\nEF2000 scores highly in the 'thoroughly gorgeous to look at' stakes. Four million square kilometres of Scandinavia and northern Europe have been mapped out for the game and this means that every mission involves flying over mountains, fjords, glaciers and ice bergs Ð even if you never find your target, the views are stunning. Stunning, that is, as long as you're running at least a Pentium 90. Anything slower than that and they're merely 'great as long as you don't mind a little jerkiness'.\r\nEF2000 takes you a few years into the future and asks you to imagine a world where Russia has grown weary of its reduced size and importance in World affairs and has embarked upon a policy of expansion and imperialism. With 4 million square kilometres of Scandinavia and northern Europe mapped out, though, it's not as boring as it could be. The war progresses according to your success or failure and again you can choose to take part only in those missions which interest you. You can even skip past whole eight-hour blocks and just look at the results of everyone else's efforts when it's all over. It might not be all that innovative, but there's a full-on wargame in there just waiting to be played.\r\nDID's minimum recommended system is a DX2/66 with 8Mb RAM, but they'd prefer you to use at least a Pentium 90 with 16Mb RAM and a quad speed CD-ROM drive. Golly. If you've got the machine for it, then EF2000 is the business. It's a real flight sim with plenty to look at and loads to do even while you're not shooting at the bad blokes.","PUBID":36},{"GAMENAME":"Elder Scrolls","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"42.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A first-person perspective game, along the lines of the Ultima Underworld series, and uses a similarly intuitive mouse-based interface. Utterly huge, limitless potential and you can do anything you want. However, the character interaction is poor and the graphics a bit slow.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Empire Deluxe Master Edit","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's not a simulation, nor is it very taxing, but discovering what lies around the next corner is always a lot of fun. A highly competent wargame.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Empire Soccer","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Cleanly drawn cartoon graphics and simple controls, but you can't see enough of the pitch. A fun footy game made virtually unplayable by the tiny pitch display.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Epic","Percentage":20,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A weak shoot-'em-up which makes the ship combat in Wing Commander look sophisticated. Don't be fooled by appearances, the 3D polygons may look good, but Epic is one of the goldenest turkeys ever.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Evasive Action","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Amazingly playable, superb enemy pilots and brilliant with two players. Unfortunately, as a one-player game it lacks longevity. A true classic of its time.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Even More Incredible Mach","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Involving puzzle game which can get very frustrating after a while. On the whole, though, it's puzzle-tastic, mate!","PUBID":40},{"GAMENAME":"Eye Of The Beholder","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Classic piece of RPG history that's looking a bit long in the tooth. Still, it's a good game, especially at this budget price.","PUBID":130},{"GAMENAME":"Eye Of The Storm","Percentage":56,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An unfocused, lame little game that looks horribly dated. Imagine Starglider on your PC with a few shaky MFI knobs on it. Simple and vacant.","PUBID":113},{"GAMENAME":"F-1","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Arcade racing action with great speed and plenty of mindless fun. F1 has very little depth, with car modifications tagged on for effect rather than any real purpose. Interesting as 'thumb-candy', but pales into insignificance against IndyCar. Mega Drive wannabees only!","PUBID":104},{"GAMENAME":"F15","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Despite the flight simulation genre being one of the fastest-moving and improving genres on the PC, F-15 holds up surprisingly well against its modern-day rivals. A graphical pioneer at the time, it's still as good to look at as the likes of TFX, and MicroProse's unique ability to combine simulation depth with instinctive action shines through here.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"F-29","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Moves fast and there's plenty to do, but looks seriously dated. A good starting block for potential flight fans.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Fade To Black","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Better-looking, more fun and more compelling than any other PC game I've ever played.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Falcon Gold","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This package is nothing if not definitive - every Falcon program ever commercially released is here (with the exception of Falcon 4.0), all in their latest version updates. And unlike most compilations, there's been no skimping or cutting corners on the documentation - all the original maps and manuals are here. There is simply no more complete and exhaustive flight sim package available.","PUBID":128},{"GAMENAME":"Fantastic Dizzy","Percentage":53,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A huge leap backwards for cute platform puzzle games. If you make enough allowances for this, you'll eventually discover the gameplay, and if you concentrate really intensely, you might just be able to ignore how diabolically it's all been put together, but why not just buy a good game instead?","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Fantasy Empires","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"35.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An excellent magic system and an intuitive interface. Poor graphics, too much text and stats reduce player involvement. An uneasy mix of RPG, strategy and arcade action, this is unlikely to appear to fans.","PUBID":130},{"GAMENAME":"Fantasy Fest","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing Dungeon Hack, Fantasy Empires, Unlimited Adventures and Stronghold.\r\nA good solid compilation offering adventure players a wide range of game styles from the SSI stable. While the variety of games found in this compilation would send an RPG fanatic into convulsions, it may still be a little daunting for the novice adventurer or strategist. However, the pack offers hours of gameplay even if these aren't the finest of SSI's titles, and the comprehensive manuals could ease in a beginner very gently indeed.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Fantasy League Football Manager","Percentage":30,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Doesn't play any sort of game in itself, rather it lets you 'keep track of' up to three teams which you've got entered in, er, 'real' Fantasy Football games in newspapers and so on, using Windows. If you've, I don't know, run out of bits of paper and pencils or something. So it's a bit rubbish.","PUBID":102},{"GAMENAME":"Fatal Racing","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.95","ReviewBodyCopy":"A thrilling, bumpy, adrenaline-inducing, 16-car, potentially 16-player, violent racing game.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Fields Of Glory","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fields Of Glory takes you into the bloody heart of the Napoleonic wars, circa 1814. Able to play as either Napoleon, Wellington or Blucher, you can adopt the skills, attributes and tactics of each leader to re-create history by executing orders representative of your chosen historical figure. Or if re-writing the history books is more to your liking, you can always make use of your own skills and outwit your opponents with more modern-day thinking. Fields of Glory offers a vast range of options and niceties, but if you're even remotely perturbed by long and dragging combat sims, avoid this like the plague.","PUBID":104},{"GAMENAME":"FIFA International Soccer","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Almost everything is extremely well executed, apart from the playability, which is terrible at times. Paradoxically, the best and worst soccer simulation available","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"FIFA Intl Soccer CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Still the same old FIFA International Soccer game. The control mechanism is still imperfect and you never feel as if you're in total command of the team. The isometric view of the pitch and the big detailed players do look lovely but it's very hard to get any feel for the game from such a view. Ultimately, a disappointing, frustrating game, but Tony Gubba's outstanding commentary is so good you might just want to put up with the flaws.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Fire & Ice","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"30.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A platformer that's been designed with the player in mind. Super, smashing and gorgeous, it's just a shame it doesn't look a bit smarter.","PUBID":115},{"GAMENAME":"Fighter Duel","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fighter Duel feels more like a programming exercise than a game you'll want to play repeatedly. The basic core of it is jolly good, but to have any long-term fun you're going to have to exploit the modem option and duel with a pal.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"Flashback CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Still a strong, playable platformer with a mildly intriguing plot to keep you at it, but it's exactly like the floppy version except for some cutaways and a pointless 'zoom' feature, where the screen in blown up so you can't see more than two inches to either side of your character.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Fleet Defender","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Intensely detailed and highly realistic air-to-air combat sim. Initially bewildering controls; highly complex and demanding gameplay. Only to be recommended for true simulation fans.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Flight Commander","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Very atmospheric, lots of play value and full colour documentation, but you can't actually fly anything. If you can accept the strategic nature of the game, you'll really enjoy it.","PUBID":17},{"GAMENAME":"Flight of The Amazon Quee","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"18","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This admirably challenges the reign of LucasArts' adventure games, but the static and pixellated nature of the graphics, coupled with the obvious puzzles, leaves it tagging along in second place. Perhaps too long in the making, this is not going to win any awards, and even though it pipped LucasArts' Full Throttle to the post, it already looks dated. Nevertheless, it's jolly good fun.","PUBID":115},{"GAMENAME":"Flight Pack 2","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"23","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This pack includes MiG-29, F-19 Stealth Fighter and Flight Sim Toolkit. The actual games are poor by today's standards, but the toolkit is well designed and easy to use. One for flight sim fanatics only, and even then only those who have nothing better to do with their £20.","PUBID":105},{"GAMENAME":"Flight Simulator Toolkit","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Well designed, huge in scope and very absorbing. Requires a lot of time and effort to get the best from, but great fun for flight sim fans and frustrated programmers alike.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Flight Unlimited CD","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"81","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"An audacious sim that breaks the mould, yet remains entertaining.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Formula One Grand Prix","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Undoubtedly the most exhaustive and addictive simulation of Formula One racing, Geoff Crammond's masterpiece offers drivers an ultra-realistic driving model, comprehensive recreations of the F1 season and seemingly no end of engine tuning and customisation options to make the experience complete. For die-hard speed freaks there's simply nothing better.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"Fortress of Dr Radiaki","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"39.95","ReviewBodyCopy":"Doom it ain't, Ultima it ain't, but it's still a decentish, if slightly flawed, first-person shoot-'em-up with plenty of gore and an above average sense of humour.","PUBID":88},{"GAMENAME":"Front Page Sports: Baseba","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Accurate baseball action in both arcade and management modes, but the sheer size of the game will be daunting to some. Bigger and better than anything seem before, but no real difference.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Front Page Sports:Footbal","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Big, clear graphics and excellent sound effects throughout. Not as friendly as it should be, but persevere and it gets better.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Front Page Sports: F-95","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A very comprehensive American Football game but the sheer amount of detail overbalances things. Treat it as a headcoaching game and you'll get a great deal from it, but if you want to be an armchair quarterback, running back or defensive back, you'll have a lot of pain for every little gain on the pitch.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Frontier: Elite II","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" Looks set to carve a place for itself in the hearts of serious gameplayers all over again.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Frontier: First Encounter","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" A worthy addition to the Elite series and a must for existing fans, marred only by the poor presentation.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Full Throttle CD","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" A worthy addition to the Elite series and a must for existing fans, marred only by the poor presentation.","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Fury 3","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fury 3 is Terminal Velocity with its hair parted on the other side. This is by no means a bad thing, but it's a bit odd. If you've got Windows 95, and the convenience of Autoplay and on-line instructions seems important, Fury 3 is your game. On the other hand, if you're on a network, Terminal Velocity's Deathmatch option will keep you entertained long after you've got bored of shooting computer enemies. But you'd be a loony to buy both games.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"Fury Of The Furries","Percentage":98,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Smooth, varied, tricky and addictive. Can get frustrating if you're the impatient sort, but, all in all, a great PC platform game.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"FX Fighter CD","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A beat-'em-up capable of taking on all the rest and pounding them to a bruised and bloody mess.","PUBID":59},{"GAMENAME":"Gabriel Knight CD","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"4","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Well-paced, clever plot and some great atmosphere. However, it's quite tough to get into and has limited longevity. On the whole, absorbing, eerie, adult entertainment.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Gabriel Knight:Sins of th","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Well paced and atmospheric, but tough to get into. Once in, though, it's an absorbing 'adult' graphic adventure.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Games","Percentage":30,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Originally released at the time of the Barcelona Olympics, it has an impressive number of events but is fatally marred by an ill-conceived control system. None of the sports recreate the ambience of the real thing anyway; they just feel like tatty, basic computer games.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Games: Winter Challenge","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fun for a while, but you're unlikely to come back to it after the initial interest fades. Good fun with a few other players, but don't expect too many thrills if you're playing solo","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Gateway II","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not a bad game, but you can't help wondering why Legend went to all the bother to develop this mouse-based system instead of just making the thing a graphic adventure and being done with it.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Genesia","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Populous with several new twists. However, things don't gel as they should and the control system is a bind. Engaging but flawed attempt to refine the God sim.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Global Domination","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A fair attempt at a multi-player strategy game with plenty of maps and options. The group games are a bit too long, though.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"Goal!","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Tons of options, easy to get the hang of and thoroughly playable. However, the pitch doesn't take up the whole screen, so you're forced to squint.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Goblins 2","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A good, original adventure with some funny touches, but younger players will probably get the most laughs out of it.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Goblins 3","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Neat puzzles and lots of gags, but can be very frustrating. Identical to the other games in the series, but still playable.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Golden Games","Percentage":4,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"20.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Truly, Golden Games is the Internet - but on a PC. For £20 you get a CD of shareware games, freeware games, cheats, patches, demos and utilities. Perhaps Golden Games would be slightly useful as a compilation had you never ever, for example, bought a PC magazine with cover CD, but then you wouldn't be reading this, would you, bignose?","PUBID":60},{"GAMENAME":"Good To Firm","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"24.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Truly, Golden Games is the Internet - but on a PC. For £20 you get a CD of shareware games, freeware games, cheats, patches, demos and utilities. Perhaps Golden Games would be slightly useful as a compilation had you never ever, for example, bought a PC magazine with cover CD, but then you wouldn't be reading this, would you, bignose?","PUBID":95},{"GAMENAME":"Gone Fishin","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The graphics are rudimentary and the sound effects frequently laughable, but it's still quite compelling. There are loads of different 'lures' to try out, and the game comes with a huge map that folds out and shows you all the prime fishing spots which you can then pilot your little boat to. There's even a mosquito spray icon which you can click on whenever you hear buzzing. Even if you've never been fishing in real life, you may get some enjoyment from this.","PUBID":25},{"GAMENAME":"Graham Gooch World Class","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The well-balanced batting is spoiled by overly physical bowling and limp fielding, thus giving the whole affair the feel of a country player who's always on the fringes of the England squad. All in all, though, it's a capable cricket game that'll still keep you playing despite its flaws.","PUBID":16},{"GAMENAME":"Grandest Fleet","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A cerebral game, and no mistake. Even on the lower levels, it will take you some time to come up with winning strategies. It's an excellent strategy game with loads of options and plenty of replay value.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Grand Prix Unlimited","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not a classic, but a competent and playable racing title that remains pretty entertaining even after all these years.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Great Naval Battles II","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Stunning graphics and sound; excellent attention to detail. May overwhelm the average gameplayer, but all in all a top notch naval sim.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Guilty CD","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The sequel to Innocent Until Caught, this is another point-and-click adventure in the LucasArts vein. It's an enjoyable romp through the predictable, which leaves you satisfied yet far from compelled.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Gunship 2000","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A good example of a very rare breed - the helicopter simulation. By nature slower-paced and more fiddly than fighter aircraft sims, this is a well thought out and methodical strategy simulation for those who like to stalk their prey.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"Hammer Of The Gods","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Strategy game full of Vikings, berzerkers and men with big hairy beards. It's got a good interface and is quite atmospheric but there's a lack of interaction, and the waits between turns are too long.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Hand Of Fate","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The acclaimed sequel to Legend Of Kyrandia, this is an entertaining and challenging point-and-click adventure beautifully illustrated and slick in its design. Probably the best of the instalments in the Kyrandia trilogy.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Hanna-Barbera Animation W","Percentage":56,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Structuring an educational animation package around loveable cartoon characters with which the player could associate is all well and good in theory, but in practice this mighty concept sadly fails to impress. The interface is far from friendly, the icon-driven menus leave you trapped between clumsy commands, and the actual animation package is frustratingly linear","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Hannibal","Percentage":15,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A trading game in which you have to accumulate points, though precisely how this is achieved is never made clear. What you get is basically silent number crunching, with minimal graphics and an interface so primitive it could have been designed by one of the lost tribes of Carthage. Totally lacking in replay value and atmosphere.","PUBID":79},{"GAMENAME":"Hardball","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Simple to pick up, but with more than enough depth to satisfy the most demanding gamer - just what a sports sim should be.","PUBID":138},{"GAMENAME":"Harpoon","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"8","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"17.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the most rewarding modern wargames around, Harpoon offers much more excitement than rival war titles and could even woo a die-hard arcadester. Maybe.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Harpoon II","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"9","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An uncompromising study in modern naval warfare and not a game to be taken lightly, Harpoon II still remains user-friendly. It's a monster title and Harpoon devotees especially will see this as a gift from heaven. Those who approach the game casually, however, will not find it much fun.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Heimdall 2","Percentage":66,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A decent adventure game with challenging puzzles, but it plays slowly and suffers from a cumbersome control system. Engrossing for a while - but lack of pace, and flaws lessen impact.","PUBID":31},{"GAMENAME":"Heirs To The Throne","Percentage":20,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Graphics this primitive haven't been seen since man gave up cave painting. An appalling PC strategy program with weak gameplay and poor presentation.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Hell CD","Percentage":42,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A few of the pictures are pretty and the dialogue could be worse but there is too much inaction and not enough interaction. If you've got anything approaching a life, you should try something more stimulating, like counting out a million grains of salt.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Heroes Of The 357th","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Plenty of WWII atmosphere which really helps things along. At times, the combat is truly exhilarating. However, you'll be frustrated by the game's limitations. Fun for a while, but everything feels too hit and miss.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Hexen","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":" Yes. Yes. Yes. Hexen creates an utterly compelling, violent and addictive game world. I love it.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"High Command","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"17.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A strategic level wargame depicting World War II in Europe. It's an unreconstructed hex-map based game and is showing its age a little. A solid performer, if a little uninspiring","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Hi-Octane","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Hover car racing game which is slickly presented, pleasingly original, and by and large pretty exciting, especially when played as a network game. But what it's not is a classic of our time, which for a Bullfrog game is something of a surprise.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Hired Guns","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Absorbing 3D strategic shoot-'em-up, with lots of action and thrills. Steep learning curve, and plenty of opportunities to get killed. Terrific fun, and very original gameplay.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Hole In One","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Easy to pick up, easy to play and easy to put down, with some nice ideas along the way. Lacking a bit on the presentation side though.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Holiday Lemmings","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Seasonal and snowy japes. Great fun, if you're not pig sick of the little fellas already.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Horde CD","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A strange hybrid of strategy and arcade hacking. Excellent graphics and sound, combined with wonderful silliness, make this a unique and fun game, but the repetitive gameplay begins to pall quite quickly.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"In Extremis","Percentage":58,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"37.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Dull graphics, repetitive gameplay and crap aliens. Vastly inferior Wolfenstein/Doom style shoot-'em-up.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Inca II","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Superb space combat sequences and an interesting storyline, but tacky looking in some areas and there are long periods of inactivity.","PUBID":30},{"GAMENAME":"Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A tough LucasArts adventure with plenty of cunning puzzles and teasers to keep you interested. This is one from the Golden Age of LucasArts PC games, when even a 386 could be made to look good.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Indianapolis 500","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Based on the famous hoop-shaped Indianapolis speedway, Indy 500 is a neat crossbreed of arcade racing and driving simulation. Fast, fun, and easy to get into.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"IndyCar Circuits Expansio","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"17.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is identical to nearly all game expansion packs. The numerous little utilities are neat and the automatic update is a great idea, but only serious IndyCar players need apply.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"IndyCar Racing","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Brilliantly fast 3D, lots of options, lovely presentation and great feel.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"IndyCar Racing CD","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Although the graphics are by no means up to the standards of NASCAR, this still looks quite fresh, but it's the quality of the gameplay that makes this a classic.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Inferno (Disk & CD)","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A space combat game with stunning graphics combined with loads of clever touches, let down by an awkward control system and confusing structure. Huge potential, but only if you're prepared to put in a lot of time.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Innocent Until Caught","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A big, well-designed graphic adventure which is quite funny in parts, but not particularly outstanding in any way. A fine effort from Psygnosis, but still not up with the best from LucasArts et al.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"International Sensible Soccer","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Sensible Soccer just IS football - there's no other way of describing it. The controls are so incredibly intuitive, it's simple to bend the ball to the left or right, play lobs or make it dip. The differences between this version of Sensi and the '92/'93 edition are slight, the major change being that the players look far less blocky. Apart from that, there are rule changes to incorporate the new FIFA directives for the World Cup and, of course, there's a World Cup tournament, so you can play with all the appropriate teams and players. It's incredibly playable and is still the best footy game out there - accept no substitutes","PUBID":121},{"GAMENAME":"International Tennis Open","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Straightforward front end and incredibly friendly gameplay, but the digitised goons and a wibbling git do not a CD spectacle make. A top-notch tennis sim, padded to the gills with unnecessary extras.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"International Sports Challenge","Percentage":5,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Poor graphics and gameplay leave this almost unplayable and far from entertaining, while the execution of the events is laughably bad. Four players can take part and you have six events to try, including pigeon shooting, cycling, swimming and even show jumping.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"In The First Degree","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A murder investigation which takes the form of a series of video sequences that you review, such as interviews with witnesses, important documents and scene-of-crime diagrams and photos. The game engine works well, the video is smooth and cleverly implemented and the whole thing is strangely compelling. It's nothing great, but it's worth a look if you like watching LA Law and Perry Mason.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Iron Assault","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There's action, playability and carnage aplenty. Missions are somewhat predictable at times, but this is a deceptively involving Mech sim with lots of good features","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Iron Cross","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Somewhat diffuse and simplistic experience; one that cannot really be recommended to wargamers. What Iron Cross would be ideally suited to is modem play, but unfortunately there is no two-player option of any kind. The computer plays a good game and a place in the Hall of Fame is not easily attained, but staying the course might be a real problem. Some nice ideas, but you never really feel in control of things.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Iron Helix CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Excellent presentation, original ideas and tense gameplay. Iron Helix was one of the first 'real' CD games.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Ishar III","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Good graphics and sounds, plus lots of play for RPG fans, but there are tedious levels of detail for non-RPG fans. Really one for hardcore players only; action seekers should look elsewhere.","PUBID":34},{"GAMENAME":"Ishar Trilogy","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Over the years, the Ishar games have proved competent in the role-playing genre, but none have shone out as outstanding examples in their field. In all, this compilation is quite heavy-going and for the serious RPGers only. Don't expect fireworks","PUBID":34},{"GAMENAME":"Jack Nicklaus Golf","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An okay simulation, really just Mean 18 with knobs on. Still not as good as the PGA series of golf sims.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Jagged Alliance","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Jagged Alliance bears many similarities to MicroProse's UFO: Enemy Unknown and X-COM: Terror From The Deep. You must balance your attention between an overall strategy for taking over the island and tactical combat against the baddies. Although harder to get into than MicroProse's games, it has a great deal to offer strategy fans. The tactical combat is well designed and the enemy soldiers display an impressive degree of intelligence, and even though the strategy section requires some thought, the whole game is surprisingly entertaining.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Jimmy Connors","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Follows the same format as seemingly every other tennis game - except for one thing. The power for each shot is determined by the length of time you hold down the shot button. It's not a perfect system, but if you master it, you'll get plenty of good matches out of this one.","PUBID":142},{"GAMENAME":"Jimmy Whites Whirlwind Snooker","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Technically showing its age, and the graphics have dated badly, but the game's still genuinely exciting. The historical detail can't be faulted, and it's nice to fly clumsy, venerable bombers for a change","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"John Madden Football","Percentage":33,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The first in a classic series that clearly shows its age. Extremely dated American Football conversion.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Jonny Quest","Percentage":8,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An atrocious arcade adventure - with an overwhelming stench of soap, talcum powder and derring-do-goodery. Guilty of gross decency. Hanging's too good for it.","PUBID":61},{"GAMENAME":"Jump Raven","Percentage":10,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"75.72","ReviewBodyCopy":"A steaming mound of a game which features a far too large amount of needless rendered and animated in-betweeny scenes. Downright teeth-grindingly insulting shoot-'em-up.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Jungle Strike CD","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is a great game, even though little effort seems to have been exerted to make it any more than just a straight port of the Mega Drive version. The whole engine should have been enhanced with rendered sprites and digitised sound effects instead of including one measly 'new and exclusive' extra level and a smattering of budget FMV.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Jurassic Park","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"1","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Nice Wolfenstein-ish 3D in the second half and plenty to do, but rather repetitive and some stupid gameplay mistakes. It's one of the better film game tie-ins, but it's still no work of genius.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Jutland CD","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"59.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A potentially superb high-tech wargame, electronic book and all, let down by lack of paper. You'll need to persevere to get the most from it.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Ka-50 Hokum","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Accurate helicopter sim wedded to a challenging strategy game, but it's complex and difficult to get into, which is not helped by the poor manual. A great helicopter sim for the PC, but not for beginners.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Kasparovs Gambit","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A competent chess game for players of all levels and there's a nice 3D board in it.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"KGB","Percentage":56,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A Soviet spy thriller set in 1991 at the time of Gorbachev's reforms. Like Dune, KGB has a restricted, linear storyline and is enjoyable and attractive. Unfortunately, the story just washes over you and is ultimately disappointing.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Kick Off 3","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Kick Off 3 is rubbish. It's not the worst football game on the PC but with the likes of International Sensible Soccer and World Cup USA 94, why should anybody bother with stuff like this?","PUBID":9},{"GAMENAME":"Kingdom: The Far Reaches","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"20","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"39.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A cartoon-based graphic adventure similar in style to Dragon's Lair. Aimed at children, the puzzle structure is far from difficult and the screen update can be a bit sluggish. However, as far as interactive cartoons go, this one is good, but the novelty soon wears thin as does the exaggerated cartoon structure. And the plot.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Kingpin Ardace Sports Bow","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Looks basic and soon gets repetitive, but then it does cost only £12.99.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Kings Quest III","Percentage":44,"ISSUEDATE":"8","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Looks every bit its eight years of age. Clunky CGA graphics, an embarrassing soundtrack of beeps and a painfully basic interface all get in the way of the story, which isn't much to talk about anyway.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Kings Quest IV","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"7","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Won't appeal to anyone reared on Monkey Island and Sam & Max.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Kings Quest VII: The Pri","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" A big entertaining game with excellent production values.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Kings Quest Collection","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The nostalgic tone of this compilation makes you forget how cringeworthy the KQ series can be at times. It's an excellent package, but Sierra could have made it a whole lot better by making it less of a pain to load the games - which drags the whole thing down a bit.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Kings Table","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An interesting and demanding little strategy game. For strategic boardgame fans only, but, even then, it's hardly likely to set the world alight.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Knights Of The Sky","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A flight sim with period charm and plenty of action. Ropy, old-fashioned 3D graphics, though.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Knights Of Xentar","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A desperately mediocre adventure game with washed-out graphics and a banal storyline to do with demons and swords, and a resolutely male-orientated sprinkling of second-rate innuendo.","PUBID":87},{"GAMENAME":"Krustys Super Funhouse","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"30.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Playable puzzle action mix that wears thin after a while. A good title, definitely, but not for everyone.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Kyrandia 2: The Hand Of F","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Big, rambling fantasy adventure with a gentle sense of humour. Tricky at first, so it may well put off first-timers, but a good game with lots to do and plenty of staying power.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Labyrinth Of Time CD","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Very large and complex adventure game with beautiful ray-traced graphics, and a great movie-style score. A well constructed game which will absorb you for days on end.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Lands Of Lore","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Nice-looking adventure with lots of character. Quite tricky, but not as much of a challenge as it could have been. A meaty adventure that's easy to get into, but hard to beat.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Last Bounty Hunter","Percentage":11,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Peculiarly compulsive full-screen video cowboy game, but still astoundingly dreadful. American Laser Games should be burned to the ground.","PUBID":8},{"GAMENAME":"Lawnmower Man","Percentage":32,"ISSUEDATE":"5","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"54.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Technically impressive graphics and sound, but no imagination and no fun. A string of tedious and depressingly slow mini-games do not a top CD game make.","PUBID":118},{"GAMENAME":"Legend Of Kyrandia 3","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you like this sort of game, well, you know the rest!","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Legions","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Well-researched manual and a network option, but the unit representation is poor and the combat system inadequate. Unfortunately, the bulky manual can't hide the fact that there is not much going on here.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Leisure Suite Larry 1","Percentage":53,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Suffers from the same problems that plagued earlier graphic adventures: it's hard to get into; the problems are frequently illogical, silly, and rely on poor American humour; it's frustratingly easy to die; and it's very linear.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Leisure Suit Larry 6","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Big, complicated and lots of great puzzles, but the silly humour leaves you groaning rather than guffawing. Harry really has had his day.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Links","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A golf game with nice graphics and options but fiddly club control. Looks better than it plays.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Links 386","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The Links name is synonymous with a classy and accurate golf sim, and this CD adaptation is just as slick as its forebearer. However, this is just an enhanced version and offers very little over the original, of which the most significant features are two new championship courses.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Litil Divil","Percentage":43,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Litil Divil is wholly unremarkable, failing to function on any level of competence. It falls between the worthy stools of Curious Cartoon Entertainment and Collection Of Engaging Set-Pieces With A Cartoon Look And Feel to land firmly at the feet of Some Half-Arsed Mish-Mash Of The Two.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Little Big Adventure CD","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Stunning adventure that offers suspense, tension, fun and frolics.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Lode Runner","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A puzzle game with instantaneous gameplay and humorous elements, but it would play just as well on a GameBoy. Good fun for a while but basically just early '80s retro.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Lord Of The Rings CD","Percentage":46,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An RPG that lets you wander around fruitlessly for hours on end until you hit a point which triggers an enemy to fight. All in all, an anticlimax.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Lords Of Midnight 3","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A vast strategy game whose epic scope is matched only by the amount of effort required to get into it. The potential of the game is enormous, and if you're the kind of person who actually enjoys games that can last for months, then there are few others that can compete with this.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Lords Of The Realm","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's like Defender Of The Crown meets Country File with John Craven. A bit more mass violence and a little less farming malarkey might not have gone amiss. Could appeal to those who prefer resource management to combat, though.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"Lost Eden CD","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Gorgeous rendered graphics and easy-to-pick-up gameplay, but the puzzles are simple and there's a distinct lack of depth. In short, a pleasant graphic adventure, with the emphasis on the graphics.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Lost Files Of Sherlock Ho","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"8","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Wonderfully evocative with no fancy CD extras. Feels just like a good Conan Doyle yarn.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Lost In Time","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"structured and somewhat linear approach to adventuring, but it's extremely attractive and has plenty of puzzles and an entertaining plot.","PUBID":30},{"GAMENAME":"LucasArts x3:Adventure Pa","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"59.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing Sam & Max, Day Of The Tentacle and Indiana Jones: Fate Of Atlantis.\r\nThis is a graphic adventurer's dream come true. You're getting the three best point-and-click adventure games in the entire cosmos packaged together in one big, glorious box. Hurrah!","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"LucasArts x3: X-Wing Pack","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing X-Wing, and the mission disks B-Wing and Imperial Pursuit.\r\nAnother outstanding LucasArts package, this time centred around the exploits of George Lucas' brilliant Star Wars trilogy. The graphics are excellent, with solid polygon craft and a detailed hands-on cockpit bringing about all the ambience and feelings of war which was generated in the films themselves, as well as offering the player intuitive, action-packed gameplay. Neither the serious flier, the arcade junkie or the Star Wars fanatic should doubt the appeal of X-Wing. This is a superb game and the mission disks simply add to the outstanding longevity and complexity of it all.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Maabus","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Maabus casts you as a commander of a futuristic tank, charged with tracking down the deadly source of lethal radiation emanating from a remote Pacific island. It looks wonderful, but even all the sound and video effects in the world can't disguise its underlying dearth of playability.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Machiavelli The Prince CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"20","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is an updated version of an older game called Merchant Prince that never got a wide release in this country. But although the graphics in this economic strategy game have been updated to SVGA and the presentation tweaked, it still suffers from the same problem as the original game - initially it's very disappointing to look at and hard to get to grips with","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Magic Boy","Percentage":51,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"25.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Simple and very familiar, but frustrating and tedious. Unoriginal and badly executed platform game.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Magic Carpet CD","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Brilliant and original in the way only Bullfrog knows how.","PUBID":26},{"GAMENAME":"Magic Carpet: Hidden Worl","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is a nice little expansion pack but if you've already got Magic Carpet II, you won't find much use for this.","PUBID":26},{"GAMENAME":"Magic Carpet II:The Nethe","Percentage":41,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There's no real plot, no depth, no difficulty curve, no learning curve, no sense of control, no atmosphere, no thrills, no point and no fun. More of the same for fans of the original, then, but if you haven't played Magic Carpet before, don't start now.","PUBID":26},{"GAMENAME":"Manchester United Premier","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"All the home teams are in there and Tacti-Grid is a bit good, but there are various niggling faults which will aggravate the impatient player. Despite this, it plays a good, solid game of football and, in two-player mode at least, it's up there with the best of them.","PUBID":79},{"GAMENAME":"Manchester United -The Do","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The sequel to Manchester United Premier League Champions is a nice little game. It hasn't changed much from its predecessor, with just the addition of a very elementary management facility. It still has the excellent Tacti-gridTM, which is one of the best ways ever of positioning your players; it'll let you edit everything and it plays a fine game of football.","PUBID":79},{"GAMENAME":"Manhunter New York","Percentage":44,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A moody sci-fi adventure with a non-text interface, the game is ultimately let down by a rigidly linear storyline - and has aged badly.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Mario Andrettis Racing C","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The cars are uniformly hard to control and tend to skid at the slightest provocation. The fact is, there isn't that much difference between classes and competitors. A moderate racing game.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Master Of Magic","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An effective blend of many ideas, making a very absorbing game that's a bit slow to get going and somewhat lacking in originality. All in all, another excellent strategy game from MicroProse.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Master Of Orion","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fans of Civilization will immediately feel at home with this space-based strategy game, but beginners may feel a little hindered.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Master Of The World 1","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Dirty politics and trading in 14th century Italy is what this, the first instalment in QQP's Masters Of The World series, is all about. Complex and worthy, yet somehow uninvolving playing against the PC.","PUBID":108},{"GAMENAME":"MechWarrior 2 CD","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" From the intro movie to the closing credits, this is slick, smooth, playable and challenging.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"MegaRace CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Extremely impressive graphics, good fun, not overly complex and yet still challenging. However, the gameplay is pretty shallow in places and it could just do with a bit more of everything.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Manzoberranzan CD","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Well presented and easy to understand fantasy RPG with nice graphics, but the 3D is a bit grainy and the gameplay somewhat predictable. A fairly good RPG with no outstanding features.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Merlin","Percentage":40,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"7.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Flight sims don't come much simpler than this. It's realistic, but only about half an hour's fun at most.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"Metal & Lace","Percentage":12,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Metal & Lace is about as close to being a decent beat-'em-up as Theme Park is. Tripe of the lowest quality.","PUBID":87},{"GAMENAME":"Metal Marines","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An elaborate Battleships-type game which could have been stunning if it had been properly thought out. However, the gameplay simply doesn't flow, with improper icon menus and limited perspective, and the limitation on actions while the battle rages simply makes this frustrating and slow.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Metaltech: Battledrome","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A futuristic simulation of huge robot fighting machines, with neat sound and challenging gameplay. The only real problem with the game is the computer opponents, which are quite weedy. To be fair, Battledrome has been developed as a multi-player game, and to that end it succeeds admirably. However, for a single player, it's just not as good as Earthsiege.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Metaltech: Earthsiege","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A superb 'futuristic simulation'. With big guns.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Metaltech: Earthseige Exp","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"As is the way with so many scenario disks, the Earthsiege Expansion Pack is hardly exceptional. If you loved the original, then it's probably worth taking a look at. On the other hand, there's absolutely nothing significant enough about it to change your mind if you didn't enjoy the game itself.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Michael Jordan in Flight","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Although the graphics were all very clever and impressive when the game was originally released, they now look somewhat ordinary, and while the game plays quite well, its insistence on accuracy and realism detract from the fun. To top it all, you can't even play a proper game - the most it can manage is a three-on-three match.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Micro Machines","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A fabulous racing game, with an unmissable two-player option.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Micro Machines 2 CD","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" Addictive and highly entertaining in multi-player mode, but a bit samey if you're playing on your own.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Microcosm CD","Percentage":56,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A shoot-'em-up with beautiful graphics and sound, but tedious and samey gameplay. Not for the squeamish, as it's like watching one of those medical programmes where they poke a fibre optic probe down someone's throat.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"MicroProse CD","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A very tasty package - a bundle of Gunship 2000 and the Islands And Ice Scenario pack. You can fly many different modern US attack helicopters, including the Apache, the Longbow Apache, the Super Cobra, the Comanche, the Blackhawk and the Defender. Two good chopper combat games despite looking dated.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"MicroProse Sid Meier CD","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Railroad Tycoon and Civilization on one CD. Railroad Tycoon is beautifully designed, easy to learn and offers enough scope for many, many games. The same could be said about Civilization... only more so. An epic title that places you in control of the destiny of a tribe in 4000 BC, Civilization is strategy on a grand scale. Two classic games at a bargain price - and both come with their original weighty and comprehensive manuals, too.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"MicroProse Sports CD","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This pack contains Formula One Grand Prix and David Leadbetter's Golf. The former is a classic and needs no introduction but the latter isn't in the same league at all. It is, however, still a golf sim to be reckoned with and should give you many hours of play.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"MiG-29M Super Fulcrum","Percentage":43,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Still one of the few Soviet sims available, but it's packed with problems. Wasn't good when it was first released and now looks even worse.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Mordor: The Depths of Dej","Percentage":12,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is a reasonable idea; they've tried to put AD&D on to a computer and use Windows to make it easier to use. The problem is that Mordor suffers from every clich? that dogs fantasy role-playing games. So, then, it's an interesting idea flawed by a complete lack of imagination.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Mortal Coil","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The complex waypoint system and the poor presentation obscure what is at heart a solid attempt at combining the very best of maze games and sims. But Mortal Coil is certainly something different, and I found myself becoming more and more absorbed by it. If you like the idea of a cross between Hired Guns, Doom and UFO, here it is.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Mortal Kombat","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Slick, good-looking, violent and playable, Mortal Kombat is a class A conversion, and arguably better than the console versions. However, you shouldn't even think of buying this now that MK3 has been released.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Mortal Kombat 2","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A genuinely good beat-'em-up, and one that deserves (almost) all the hype that publisher Acclaim managed to generate for it. A great job has been done here, and a large gap in the PC's gameplaying repertoire neatly filled as a result. You'll need a good joystick to get the most out of it, though.","PUBID":2},{"GAMENAME":"Mortal Kombat 3","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":" Mortal Kombat 3 is a winning update to one of the best beat-'em-ups ever devised.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Motor City","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A charming little game from German developers Max Design, which allows you to emulate the feats of budding tycoons in the golden age of motoring from 1886-1929. Don't be put off by the business label: this is a quirky, distinctive game, with an original style which really captures the spirit of that golden age.","PUBID":78},{"GAMENAME":"Myst CD","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"6","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Review to follow.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Navy Strike","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Navy Strike is a flight sim with a heavy strategy element and is set in the Middle and Far Easts. You fly F-18s and F-22s into combat against the evil henchmen of despotic madmen from the mystic Orient.\r\nThe first thing you always notice when you try to fly an F-18 or an F-22 is that it's bloody difficult. As you sit in the cockpit of your Navy Strike plane you very quickly realise that all that jolly joystick jerking that gets you out of so many scrapes and close calls in space sims like X-Wing and Wing Commander III is only going to get you killed if you try it here. You can yank wildly on the stick and chuck a pretend spaceship about the place when there are no control surfaces, no laws of aerodynamics and no gravity to worry about, but if you try it in a modern fighter plane, you'll pretty soon end up in the drink. You have to ease the plane gently into high-G turns and coax it lovingly out of gut-wrenching dives. If you try too hard, you'll lose it.\r\nIt looks good, too. The sea in the sunshine looks a welcoming blue, but it's not a patch on the majesty of one of those glacial fjord things in EF2000.\r\nNavy Strike pits you against the modern day Chinese and residents of the Gulf, and invites you to take part in a series of plausible, escalating incidents. \r\nYou control events as the commander of a fleet of aircraft carriers and their aircraft. Review incoming messages, issue flying orders (or not), join the missions which interest you, leave others to fly those which do not. The game tries to follow real world rules of engagement and you'll find yourself scrambled against targets about which you know nothing at all. It might be a Lear that lost its way or a Libyan MiG bent on shooting your wings off Ð you'll not know until you get there and you'll have to choose what to do when you find out. Should you warn it? Shoot near it? Shoot at it? Run away? It's much more varied and interesting than the traditional brief-mission-debrief format of most other flight sims.\r\nYou only need a 486/33 with 4Mb RAM and a double speed CD drive to run Navy Strike, unlike Ocean's EF2000, which needs at least a Pentium 90 with 16Mb of RAM and a quad speed CD-ROM drive. If you haven't got that kind of set-up (and let's face it, how many of us have?), then Navy Strike is more than worthy of your 45 quid.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"NASCAR Racing","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You can't buy a better racing game for the PC.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"NBA Jam Tournament Edition","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"An instantly playable basketball game with lots to discover, and its own built-in sub-culture.","PUBID":2},{"GAMENAME":"NBA Live 95","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is the only respectable, indeed mentionable, basketball game for the PC. Get it. Shoot. Score. It's great.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Network Q RAC Rally","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Well presented, challenging and there's a lot to it. It's just a crying shame that the vital 'feel' and sheer power of rally racing action has been left out of an otherwise high-quality program.","PUBID":49},{"GAMENAME":"NFL Coaches Club Football","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Detailed, clear and accurate sim which lacks some of the excitement of the real gridiron. Slightly dry, but healthily detailed.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"NFL Pro League Football","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Intensive and highly accurate American Football simulation with unfriendly interface and mostly dull gameplay. As much a statistical engine as a game, this feels too mechanical for its own good.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"NHL Hockey","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Although lacking some of the polish of NHL 95, and suffering from somewhat uneven controls, NHL Hockey is a good sports game, with the emphasis firmly on the 'game'. Unfortunately there's no fighting allowed, unlike the console versions which included a neat little beat-'em-up section, but other than that this is a fine ice hockey game","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"NHL Hockey 95","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The commentary adds to the feel of the original playability, but this CD version doesn't offer nearly enough new features. Slightly improved version of an already marvellous sports sim, then.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"NHL Hockey 96","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" This is the best ice hockey game the world has ever seen. Greatly satisfying","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Night Shift","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A cross between a platform and a puzzle game which is not particularly difficult but hard to see what is going on. Frustrating and pointless.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Noctropolis","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Point-and-click adventure that captures the strained humour of comics and the gothic ambience, but is a bit too easy and lacks animation for some character manoeuvres. Great atmosphere, presentation and ides, but too easy and linear.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Nomad","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Plenty of nice ideas, but let down by a distinct lack of atmosphere and poor presentation. A fun space exploration game, but no challenge to Frontier: Elite II.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Novastorm","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Excellent shoot-'em-up with gorgeous graphics and sound, but the slightly tacky plot-line seems at odds with the class of the presentation. All things considered, this is a top-of-the-range blaster with bags of action and staying power.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Ocean Trader","Percentage":32,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You take the helm of a shipping outfit. You start with a ship, $5 million and access to lots of banks who'll happily lend you more money. From this un-humble beginning you must turn yourself into the next Onassis and build a ship-trading empire that spans the world. Ocean Trader is a tedious game, completely unenlivened by any cleverness upon the behalf of its designers.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"Oceans Below CD","Percentage":33,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Multimedia diving 'experience'. Less fun than a verruca-packed sesh in a pool packed with jabbering schoolkids.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"On The Ball World Cup","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is one of the very finest football management games available. On The Ball takes the bald statistics that most footy games throw at you and wraps them up in proper descriptions, so you can relate to your team. And there's a strong running storyline in which your players will fall in love, scandals will break in the newspapers, and you'll get into trouble for staying at the office too late. It's a different sort of football game, but in a refreshing, enjoyable way.","PUBID":11},{"GAMENAME":"Operation Crusader","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Historically accurate and well presented with a short learning curve, but there's no 'reward' screen, not even a Hall of Fame. Unlikely to entice new recruits, but an excellent example of the genre nonetheless.","PUBID":17},{"GAMENAME":"Origamo","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Interesting and initially addictive gameplay, with plenty of options but some strange gameplay quirks. Potentially superb, but actually rather limited puzzle game.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Oscar","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A poor PC platformer with garish graphics and tedious and formulaic gameplay.","PUBID":51},{"GAMENAME":"Outpost CD","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Outpost is for hardened sim heads only. Sure, not very committed people might get a transient thrill without going too deeply into it, but in order to really get the best out of this game you have to really bury yourself in it, learn the strategies, earn the respect of your colonists, and most of all survive beyond the normal run of about 50-100 turns.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Overlord","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You're thrust straight into the action and are expected to unload all your weapons whether you're ripping up the skies or tearing up the turf. Graphically, the game is stunning; the representations of the planes are historically spot on and there's a gorgeous SVGA mode for faster machines. Overall, it is much more intense than its WWI follow-up, Dawn Patrol, and much more enjoyable to boot.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Pacific Strike","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"6","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the classiest historical flight sims yet, and Origin's best effort in the genre.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Pagan: Ultima VIII","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"6","GAMETYPE":4,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" A superb game that will appeal to all, regardless of taste or experience.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Panthers In The Shadows","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"60.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Wargame with details up to the eyeballs, three skill levels and a fair few scenarios. Unfortunately, it's annoying and laborious.","PUBID":64},{"GAMENAME":"Panzer General","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Brings SSI's traditional wargaming expertise band up to date.","PUBID":130},{"GAMENAME":"Paparazzi: Tales Of Tinse","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"By no means a world-shattering game, but it is fun in a relaxed kind of way. The game has a rather strange sense of humour, mainly based on parodies of real-life stars, and is quite engaging, if not exactly addictive.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Patrician CD","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The point-and-click interface moves things along smoothly enough and the graphics and sound are acceptable. However, it's unlikely to be of wide interest because of the highly esoteric subject matter: the history of the Hanseatic Trading League in 13th century Germany","PUBID":34},{"GAMENAME":"Patriot","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A straightforward Gulf War wargame that recreates the 1990 land battles between Iraqi and Coalition forces in Kuwait. Far less sensational than something like Desert Strike, it's also far less involving.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Perfect General","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"20","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This can be recommended to all sorts of people but especially to those with computers. And if they happen to be looking for either an introductory strategy game or a stern cerebral challenge, than the search stops here. A good wargame all round.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"PGA Tour Golf ","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This version is beginning to fray around the edges, with staid graphics and a time-injured interface. Being surpassed by numerous other golf sims, including its offspring PGA Tour 96, this has accumulated more than one dusty cobweb.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"PGA Tour Golf 486","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Lush graphics, testing courses and real PGA pros to play against, spoilt by the crippling access time on slower machines and a hasty swingometer. A quality golf game that just gets better the more you play it.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"PGA Tour 96","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" An improvement on PGA 486 and therefore the most complete and playable golf game ever.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Phantasmagoria","Percentage":12,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The acting is abysmal, the story is drearily predictable and the game has all the atmosphere of an American television movie 'Also Starring Cheryl Ladd'.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Picture Perfect Golf","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A reasonable enough but uninspired game, but because of the realistic nature of the courses and the digitised photos, it will probably appeal to hardened golf fanatics. However, for the more general gamer looking to play a breezy 18 holes before lunch, it lacks playability and lasting appeal.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Dreams 2","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A great game, but the four samey tables aren't really that different to those in the original.","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Fantasies","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"37.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A flipper frantic pinball simulation that's got the guts as well as the looks. Does the one, most important thing a good pinball game should - it feels and plays like a real table","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Fantasies Deluxe","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As pinball games go, this isn't bad. The flippers are responsive and the whole thing chugs along at a fair old pace, but the ball does have a slightly floaty feel, seeming to lack any real weight. None of this has changed in this Deluxe version, and although a couple of the new tables are quite good, the game continues to suffer from trying to stick too closely to 'real' pinball.","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Illusions","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"37.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Pinball simulations on the other hand, have always struck me as completely daft. What is the point of taking a glorious, exciting, tactile three-dimensional game and removing the 'feel'; the most exciting element? It's not as if you can't find a real pinball table to play on, so why simulate it?\r\nI suspect that computer pinball has come about because programmers find it interesting to try and accurately recreate the movement of a ball, and from this mathematical intrigue a whole legion of games has been spawned.\r\nThat gripe aside, Pinball Illusions is one of the best pinball simulations I've ever seen. There are three tables (plus a bonus one on the CD) and each has its own charm. Law 'n' Justice is a very modern feeling table with lots of features and combination shots on a fairly crowded table; it's very like Judge Dredd pinball. Babewatch recalls the classic tables of the '60s with long ramps, a two-level table and an open playing space. Extreme Sports is an ultra-modern table with hideous music, an enormous open space at the bottom of the table and long, and very fast, loops to be made. The bonus table, Vikings, which is only available on the CD version, is a bit of a mess frankly with too many features and objects cluttered within too small an area.\r\nThe tables all play well, there's a multiball feature on each, the screen scrolls up and down tracking the ball very smoothly and every effort has been made to bring you pinball on your PC. I just can't see the point.","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Mania","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"37.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Really rather good, although perhaps not quite up there with Psycho Pinball when it comes to PC pinballing fun.","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Special Edition","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Pinball Special Edition has half the tables of a good pinball game, and half the tables of an old, bad pinball game. Why not get all the tables of the good game, Pinball Fantasies, instead?","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Pitfall: The Mayan Editio","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"23","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Pitfall The Mayan Adventure is the first commercial Windows 95 only game. It's a platformer in which you play Harry Jnr, an all-swinging, all-whipping Indiana Jones type bloke determined to save his father from the evil clutches of Zakelua, a despicable warrior spirit. The graphics are superb and threaten to put the consoles to shame with their stunning speed and colour. The quality of the animation leaves even the most recent Disney games looking prematurely dated, and the scrolling is second to none in terms of smoothness and ease of play. There's no complaints in the sound department either, with each level sporting its own soundtrack and a huge variety of jungle-like squawks, squeaks and slithers.\r\nThe only spanner in the works is the relative ease with which you can complete the levels. Pitfall isn't half bad, and it's far and away the best platformer for the PC. \r\nPitfall: The Mayan Adventure is the first commercial Windows 95 only game. It's a platformer in which you play Harry Jnr, an all-swinging, all-whipping Indiana Jones type bloke determined to save his father from the evil clutches of Zakelua, a despicable warrior spirit. The graphics are superb and threaten to put the consoles to shame with their stunning speed and colour. The quality of the animation leaves even the most recent Disney games looking prematurely dated, and the scrolling is second to none in terms of smoothness and ease of play. There's no complaints in the sound department either, with each level sporting its own soundtrack and a huge variety of jungle-like squawks, squeaks and slithers.\r\nThe only spanner in the works is the relative ease with which you can complete the levels. Pitfall isn't half bad, and it's far and away the best platformer for the PC. \r\nPitfall: The Mayan Adventure is the first commercial Windows 95 only game. It's a platformer in which you play Harry Jnr, an all-swinging, all-whipping Indiana Jones type bloke determined to save his father from the evil clutches of Zakelua, a despicable warrior spirit. The graphics are superb and threaten to put the consoles to shame with their stunning speed and colour. The quality of the animation leaves even the most recent Disney games looking prematurely dated, and the scrolling is second to none in terms of smoothness and ease of play. There's no complaints in the sound department either, with each level sporting its own soundtrack and a huge variety of jungle-like squawks, squeaks and slithers.\r\nThe only spanner in the works is the relative ease with which you can complete the levels. Pitfall isn't half bad, and it's far and away the best platformer for the PC.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Pizza Tycoon","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"16","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There is so much to Pizza Tycoon that it is difficult to outline all the little features that make this so entertaining and complex to play. This addition to the Tycoon theme is as in-depth and well thought out as its forebearers, but it won't knock Transport Tycoon of its pedestal.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Planet Football","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Planet Football does just enough to scab its way thorough the early option stages, but when the pressure's on, when it really counts, it fails miserably. A dodgy game that suffers from over-ambition.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Plumbers Dont Wear Ties","Percentage":3,"ISSUEDATE":"8","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"34.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"An irksome and yobbishly executed pseudo-pornographic photo-story with the wit and charm of an elephant's arse.","PUBID":143},{"GAMENAME":"Police Quest 1","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"4","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Only for real police sim fans. Any takers?","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Police Quest: Open Season","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you have an abiding fascination with the drudgery of real police work, and don't mind spending ages wondering how to find the form you need, then this could be for you. Ultimately, though, it's an extremely frustrating police 'simulation'.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Populous","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Nothing more than an extension of the original game and would have been more suited to an expansion disk rather than a complete game in its own right. It remains a hit, but lacks any lasting features that will give Populous fans an incentive to buy the sequel. A classically playable and innovative game, but it's all be seen before, literally.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Positronic Bridge","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Plays a good bridge game, but not as deep as the real thing. What more can we say?","PUBID":112},{"GAMENAME":"Power Drive","Percentage":51,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"There's nothing outrageously bad about Power Drive, but then again there's nothing really original or addictive about it either. The multi-player option may add a little extra life to the game or it may lose you a few friends, it depends on how easily please they are. Overall, though, Power Drive simply doesn't provide enough incentive to keep playing, and that's probably the worst criticism you can level at any game.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Power Game II","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"35.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's a simulation-based pack, bringing together EA's Indianapolis 500, MicroProse's Gunship 2000 and Velocity's Jetfighter. A well-balanced mix but not too hot for non-sim fans.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Powerhouse","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Powerhouse offers all the options you'd expect from a modern business simulation, and is actually quite absorbing in its own way, but it fails to deliver any real excitement or tension. The whole process is rather abstract, and offers few hooks to maintain your interest beyond initial curiosity. Hardcore strategy gamers may find something of interest here, but that's about it, unfortunately.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"PowerPOKER","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Packed with features that will set a poker player's heart a-flutter, but then it's hard to get much excitement out of no-stakes poker. All in all, a comprehensive and educational sim, and an exciting time-waster.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Premier Manager 2","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fast, intuitive and very deep, but with poor quality match display. The management bits are the best thing about it.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Premier Manager 3","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"What starts off being a click-happy and rather dispiriting game turns out, in time, to be an exciting and seemingly accurate football management sim which will keep you at the screen for 'just one more match' long into the evening. One for the serious football fan only.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Primal Rage","Percentage":44,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Time Warner's previous attempt at a beat-'em-up was, of course, Rise Of The Robots. Primal Rage isn't a Rise Of The Robots, but it's not a Super Street Fighter of Mortal Kombat 3 either.","PUBID":138},{"GAMENAME":"Prisoner Of Ice","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"20","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A point-and-click graphic adventure which suffers badly from its linearity and only the superb graphics, exotic locations and engaging plot save it from consignment to the dustbin. As a game it's pretty terrible; as entertainment it's passable.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Privateer","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Superb graphics and music (and some slightly bonkers dialogue) make this the perfect sequel to Wing Commander. A good balance between strategy and action.","PUBID":100},{"GAMENAME":"Privateer CD","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A lot more convenient than the floppy version, but it's just as poor. An average game that's aged quite badly.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Privateer: Righteous Fire","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This adds nothing important to Privateer, except a new plot, a few bits of equipment and a couple of missions. It's neither any better nor any worse than the original game - it's simply more of the same. Privateer fanatics only need apply.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Protostar CD","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Bright visuals, good sound. A nice try, but you'd be better off with Frontier or Privateer","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Psycho Pinball CD","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Plenty of action, blanketed by brash sound effects and music.\r\nPlenty of action, blanketed by brash sound effects and music.\r\n Plenty of action, blanketed by brash sound effects and music.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Pyrotechnia CD","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Extremely fast gameplay, outrageous graphics and excellent handling, but sadly no network mode.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Quantum Gate CD","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Big, professional 'interactive movie' that is full of atmosphere yet slow, deep and occasionally far too plodding.","PUBID":86},{"GAMENAME":"Quarantine","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"13","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Doom in a taxi - what more could you want?","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Quest & Fun CD","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This compilation pack includes Red Baron, Kings Quest V and Leisure Suit Larry 5. Not essential, unless you really want Red Baron.","PUBID":142},{"GAMENAME":"Rags To Riches","Percentage":47,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Make your fortune in stocks and shares in this visually interesting game from Interplay. There are a lot of good ideas in here, but it's too shallow and glib to offer any lasting appeal.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Rampart","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Rampart is great fun, mixing variety with just enough mindlessness to be entertaining. It's a bit too difficult (just like the original), and lacking in long-term appeal, but still a cracking good game.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Ravenloft: Strahds Posse","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"7","GAMETYPE":4,"COST":"45.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The last of SSI's official AD&D games. Lots of nice features in a unique and interesting setting that's poorly implemented and soon begins to drag. Not a bad game - just not one with anything to really recommend it.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Ravenloft II:Stone Prophe","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"19","GAMETYPE":4,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This may be SSI's last official AD&D licence, but with Stone Prophet the developers have definitely decided to go out with a bang rather than a whimper. The combat and magic system is logical and easy to use, if not massively enthralling, and a flexible movement system combines the traditional 'one square at a time' approach with the more free-flowing form of the Underworld series. Overall, Stone Prophet is characterised by a lovingly crafted approach. Adventure games largely depend on creating a believable, credible world in which players can immerse themselves and Stone Prophet succeeds admirably in providing this.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Reach For The Skies","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Packed to the brim with white-knuckle dogfights, tactical missions and breathtaking graphics while offering the player historically correct plane handling and uncomplicated gameplay. The only real downfall is that Rowan Software keep correcting the faults and re-writing the game engine, and when comparing this to the likes of Dawn Patrol it is clear to see that this is already painfully dated.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Realms","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Divide your time between protecting and developing your cities and managing your armies. It looks very simple compared to the dated PowerMonger, let alone more impressive modern fare like The Settlers, and it's not that easy either.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Rebel Assault CD","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Cosmetically impressive. Looks and sounds just like a movie, but, unfortunately, it's about as playable as a movie, too. Don't let the superficial beauty fool you - this is not a game you'll want to play.","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Rebel Assault","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The game that launched a thousand CD-ROM drives, Rebel Assault is strictly for Star Wars fans only. The game looks tremendous, but the repetitive blasting and woeful lack of interactivity will leave most people cold.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Red Baron","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"This game goes back to basics and concentrates on the pleasures of flying, with the emphasis placed on close-combat dogfighting and skilful handling. Consequently, rather than bore you with limitless options and key functions, Red Baron succeeds in being quite a nice addition to your collection, if you're getting bogged down or just plain bored with the complicated modern flight sims.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Red Hell","Percentage":23,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"What looks like a promisingly polished piece of software at the outset is so utterly crippled by its hostile controls that not even the most ardent adventurer would consider it worth grappling with.","PUBID":33},{"GAMENAME":"Renegrade: Battle For Jac","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Stunning graphics and challenging gameplay let down only by limiting mission structure.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Retribution CD","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's Magic Carpet. It's got a different plot and in many ways is an entirely dissimilar game, but one which also builds from a 3D flying foundation... a superior one in fact. Retribution just doesn't quite match the berugged world's smoothness, variety or speed.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Return to Ringworld CD","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Huge, sprawling point-and-click adventure, which can be a bit too big, a bit too difficult and sometimes frustrating. A game for fans of science fiction and hardcore adventurers alike.","PUBID":138},{"GAMENAME":"Return To Zork CD","Percentage":53,"ISSUEDATE":"1","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Great movie-style looks but much too repetitive. Like watching a very bad movie, basically.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Reunion","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Mine ore, make machines, wage war with alien races and manage an entire planet in this unusual but effective strategy game. The gameplay is excellent but the linear storyline might not appeal to all strategy fans.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Rise Of The Robots CD","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Kick-arse graphics - some of the best we've yet seen on the PC. Shame, then, about the kick-the-bucket gameplay. Very pretty indeed but by no means the definitive beat-'em-up we were promised.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Riverboat Poker","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Windows poker is hardly going to set the world alight, but Riverboat Poker is a tidy little game and about the only thing missing is that you can't point a derringer and accuse someone of cheating.","PUBID":148},{"GAMENAME":"Riverboat Solitaire","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Riverboat Solitaire is hardly going to push back the frontiers of game design, but it's a nicely presented and well-executed Windows card fest.","PUBID":148},{"GAMENAME":"Robinsons Requiem","Percentage":40,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fails to grab your attention and hardly gives you any incentive to play. Surviving on a hostile alien planet's not meant to be easy, true enough, but when you're hampered by inadequate controls and faced with screen after screen of dowdy graphics you really want to end it all.","PUBID":34},{"GAMENAME":"RoboCop 3","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"When viewed as the sum of its parts, RoboCop 3 is a better-than-average 3D arcade compilation. Not crap, not brilliant, just quite good.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Rorkes Drift","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Seen the film Zulu? It's about the defence of Rorke's drift in 1879 by a regiment of Welsh guards who were outnumbered massively by an army of Zulus. Well this game enables you to re-enact that battle. The game is not, unfortunately, up to the standard of the film.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"Rugby World Cup","Percentage":52,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Rugby World Cup 1995 goes to great pains to realistically simulate the game of rugby union, rather than simply creating a fun rugby union-based video game. But it messes it up. It concentrates on realism at the expense of gameplay, but doesn't make a very good job of either.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Ryder Cup Golf","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Loads of options and pretty graphics, but perfectly average in every other way. Ryder Cup Golf is nothing to get excited about. Dull, basically.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Sabre Team","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A tactical turn-based game that offers a good challenge, but the interface is poor, there is a lack of realism and there are not enough scenarios. Not bad, but there are better games of its type around.","PUBID":79},{"GAMENAME":"Sam & Max Hit The Road","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"42.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Brilliant characters, gags, graphics, music, puzzles, etc. One of the wildest, funniest, bestest adventure games you'll ever play.","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Scottish Open Virtual Gol","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A well-executed, good looking and ferociously playable golf sim.","PUBID":31},{"GAMENAME":"Screamer","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not that original (it's a racing game after all), but it's good looking and fast. Really, really, fast.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Seal Team","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The first and only attempt to simulate accurately small-unit warfare from a first-person perspective, Seal Team casts you as a special forces type during the Vietnam war. Despite a wealth of good ideas and an innovative design, it doesn't quite work. It's overly complex, there are some blindingly obvious omissions and the graphics are less than stunning.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Secret Of Monkey Island 2","Percentage":93,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This boasts a highly intuitive point-and-click interface which allows you to easily recognise objects by scanning the cursor across the screen. You can talk to everyone you meet, pick up useful items and use them at the correct point in the game. Graphically this is rather juicy. There are plenty of pirate jokes and clich?d mannerisms as well as the old parrot-on-the-shoulder routine. When the original Monkey Island surfaced it seemed as if LucasArts had reached a peak and things just couldn't get better, well they did","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Secret Weapons Of The Luftwaffe","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A comprehensive WWII flight sim that, although quite something back in 1991, now fades into the background when compared to the more recent flight sims. Nevertheless, it still remains highly entertaining and it is more the fault of the basic bitmapped graphics that causes this one to fall by the wayside.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Sensible World Of Soccer","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Bigger, but not wildly different from the other versions. That's SWOS. A rendered intro, the odd animated sequence. Mere unnecessary finery. We forgive it, though part of the intro includes a 3D soccer match which looks uncannily like Actua Soccer. It doesn't look that impressive in these motion-captured times, but SWOS is a huge and playable sports game.","PUBID":153},{"GAMENAME":"Shadowcaster","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Underworld fans will lap it up - as should anyone thinking of toying with the genre.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Shadowcaster CD","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Virtually the same as its floppy-based ancestor. Fast-moving hack-'em-up with slightly dated 3D graphics. A fun and gentle introduction to the RPG.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Shadowlands CD","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is still quite a good RPG despite its age. The control interface is easy to use and the action is unleashed on the player from the off and it remains constant throughout the game - there's a distinct lack of mindless wandering. If this were released at full price today, Shadowlands would no doubt get slammed for being too basic in its design, but coming on CD for a paltry tenner you can't really go wrong.","PUBID":105},{"GAMENAME":"Shadows Of The Comet","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"10","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Excellent speech, a nice plot and, that old chestnut, good gameplay. But the music is terrible and the controls are annoying. All things considered, a nice clean and ultimately satisfying adventure game.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Shadows Of Darkness","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A good combination of RPG and graphic adventure, with great presentation and plenty of replay value. A pleasant enough jaunt.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Shanghai Great Moments","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A collection of interesting tile designs and a few new game variations. Good fun, and the FMV movies you get as a reward for clearing a screen are nice enough, but for £39.99 you could get a PD Shanghai and then take yourself out for a few real movies instead.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Shanghai II Dragons Eye","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Accessible and engaging. A rewarding alternative to playing solitaire with a pack of cards.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Shockwaves Express","Percentage":10,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Shockwaves Express is, apparently, the game of a range of hair conditioners, cleverly integrated into the design by having characters with wavy locks and an energy meter shaped like the company's logo. It is also entirely dispiriting, for, after enduring the dreadful, unskippable five-minute intro Shockwaves Express turns out to be an 8-bit Ocean film licence from 1986. Gruesome.","PUBID":73},{"GAMENAME":"Sid & Als Incredible Car","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Original, challenging and very funny. Can you scratch your head and laugh at the same time? This puzzler will teach you how.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Silent Service II","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Complex but surprisingly friendly, and the underlying air of military accuracy adds heaps to the overall atmosphere.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Silent Service II CD","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Dated, frustrating, limited submarine sim that's horribly out of place on a CD.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Silverball","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A varied choice of tables, but the ball feels like it's floating around the screen rather than cannoning from bumper to bumper in true steel ball fashion. Not bad, but definitely no Pinball Dreams.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Silverload","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An adult-orientated adventure which bridges the horror and western genres. Overall, an adequate but uninspired adventure, which is let down largely by its extremely basic interface.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Simon The Sorcerer II","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Although not a classic, this is pleasing to play and interesting with it, and it will undoubtedly give the old grey matter something to think about. Unfortunately the humour quickly begins to grate, and if the dialogue weren't so essential to actually getting through the game, you'd find yourself turning it off altogether. Sadly, the sequel to the classic Simon The Sorcerer is something of a disappointment.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"SimFarm","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A sophisticated game, with considerable attention to detail. One of the better economics sims around, but the farm setting won't appeal to everyone.","PUBID":52},{"GAMENAME":"SimCity 2000","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Looks beautiful, and plays even better. This is a game you'll never leave alone. Ever.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"SimCity CD","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Still an all-time great, but we don't need yet another rehash. All the fancy film sequences in the world can't make up for the fact that the game's already been superseded by SimCity 2000.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"SimCity Classic","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Wonderful city simulation, but still not as good as SimCity 2000. A superb game that's a real joy to play.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"SimIsle","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The aims of each of the scenarios (attract tourists, make life better for the natives, build industries, etc.) are easy to understand, it's just that the methods all seem a bit arbitrary and lack the intuitiveness of SimCity. The interface is a bit tedious, too, and the overall result is a technically competent, eco-aware 'software toy' that keeps track of huge numbers of variables to produce a convincing model of a tropical island which isn't at all fun to play with.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"SimTower","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Flawed but essentially lovely Sim game. A few problems with balance, but probably the best Sim game after SimCity 2000.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"SimTown CD","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not to be dismissed as childish, SimTown is just as enjoyable as SimCity, only a little simpler and a lot more colourful.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"Skins Game At Bighorn","Percentage":9,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A truly appalling golf game. Look elsewhere.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Sleepwalker","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A platform game where you control a dog whose owner makes a habit of sleepwalking into all manner of dangerous places. More of a puzzler than a platformer, it's harmless enough but nothing special.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Slipstream 5000","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Simple, quick and fun - Slipstream 5000 is exactly the kind of game that we need more of on the PC.\r\nSimple, quick and fun - Slipstream 5000 is exactly the kind of game that we need more of on the PC.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Soccer Kid","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Good graphics, sound gameplay and lastability. Solid platform fare but there's just nothing excellent about it.","PUBID":79},{"GAMENAME":"Space Ace","Percentage":22,"ISSUEDATE":"60","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is the full-blown coin-op incarnation of Space Ace, with all the bits of the original intact. The control repsonse is very forgiving and the game makes a mockery of its own five-lives structure by giving you infinite continues. Basically, as a game it's rubbish, but it's still quite a nice thing to have.","PUBID":112},{"GAMENAME":"Space Federation","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Some clever features and nice graphics, ruined by incoherent presentation and awkward gameplay. A disappointing mishmash of conflicting ideas and styles.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Space Quest Collection","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Here you get the five Space Quest games on one CD-ROM together with a VGA version of Space Quest I. Not a bad package by any stretch of the imagination and it's a good compliment to the outstanding King's Quest Collection.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"SimAnt","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"17.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An interesting and unique idea which gets a bit repetitive. Still one of the better simulation games though.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Spaceship Walock CD","Percentage":42,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Tongue-in-cheek space adventure with great graphics, comicbook-style characters and '50s-style ships, but there's not actually that much to do. If you want great special effects and need to sit down for a while, rent a video instead.","PUBID":142},{"GAMENAME":"Space Simulator","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A gargantuan task, and successful attempt all the same.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"Space Quest 6","Percentage":53,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The first Space Quest talkie, this maliciously pokes at the funny bone, but is ultimately more frustrating than funny.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Speed Racer","Percentage":27,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Quite possibly the worst full price PC game of 93. Need we say more?","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Speedball","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Everything the original was, and much, much more. Offers a gigantic eight-way scrolling play area, no end of neat extra features and power-ups, full management and training sections, plus more violence than any sane person could imagine possible","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"SSN-21 Seawolf","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"6","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Accurate yet playable simulation of submarine combat. Can be a little too methodical and will bore some people. However, a first class, incredibly detailed simulation that remains an enjoyable game.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Star Control/Star C II","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This CD is worth buying for Star Control II alone - in particular the two-player SuperMelee mode, which is great fun and endlessly replayable. The one-player options in both titles add adventure and strategy elements to the proceedings, so they're more like grand campaigns of galactic exploration and conflict than just a string of meaningless battles.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Star Crusader CD","Percentage":47,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Nice animations and very slick presentation, but it's annoying to use, not very addictive, and bland. It contributes nothing to games history, and really shouldn't have been made in the first place unless it was going to knock all the other space combat games on their butts. Unfortunately, it doesn't even come close.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Stardust Super Editon","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"25.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An Asteroids clone which is great fun. There are plenty of meteors and bad guys to blast as well as three tunnel sections which are akin to a 3D shoot-'em-up, where you scream at a surprising velocity through lengthy tubes while dodging asteroids, mines and the obligatory enemy.","PUBID":34},{"GAMENAME":"Star Trek:25th Anniv CD","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An enhanced re-issue of the original game - the sound effects and speech really work wonders. Still a darn fine adventure game, if a little on the short side","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Star Trek:Judgment Rites","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"1","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Great atmosphere, challenging gameplay and brilliant storylines. It's deep, funny and involving - everything it should be.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Starlord","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"5","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Huge and highly replayable strategy game with some interesting ideas, but let down by a pointless 3D section and high initial difficulty. If you're willing to put in the effort, it's a good game. Otherwise, forget it.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Steg The Slug","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Loads of levels to explore, but dull, dated and very average. Pretty lacklustre arcade puzzler.","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"Star Trek: The Next Generation","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"19","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not simply an excellent translation of the show, but a great game in its own right. Highly recommended.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Steel Panthers","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"24","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is a great game, which is recommended to both experienced wargamers and those who've flirted with games like Command & Conquer.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Street Fighter 2","Percentage":39,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Does a good impression of the arcade game, and everything looks as if it'll be all right, but the gameplay just isn't at home - it's jerky, sluggish and almost unplayable.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Street Fighter II","Percentage":46,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Just like the original except it lacks the fast action. A predictable result, but a shame all the same.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Strike Commander CD","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The flight sim that the original floppy version of Strike Commander should have been. A classic of its time.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Strike Squad","Percentage":37,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A great idea for a futuristic wargame, but the implementation is appalling. Left standing by Space Hulk et al.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Striker","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Neat, smooth graphics, but with no element of excitement. Gets the red card for lack of playability.","PUBID":109},{"GAMENAME":"Striker 95","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A conversion of the successful Super Nintendo release, Striker 95 is a football game from the arcade action school of thought; heavy on speed and frantic play, low on realism. What you end up with, then, is a football game that's fast and slick, but nowhere near as much fun as it could have been","PUBID":138},{"GAMENAME":"SubWar 2050","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Looks and moves like a dream. More action than in most other sub sims. SubWar 2050 is good enough to convert even the most ardent of sim haters.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Summer Challenge","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Events include archery, equestrianism, kayak, 400 metre hurdles, pole vault, high jump, javelin and cycling. Some require delicate control, others simple button-pummelling action. Not outstanding or special in any particular way, just fun.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Subversion","Percentage":6,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"10.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There is a startling moment in Subversion when, despite having declined many other equally plausible moments to do so, the game suddenly bellows, 'Aye-aye, sir.' (Except because of the terrible recording it sounds like 'Aye-ayesh, her. Buzz.') This is the only point of interest in what is, at weak, fibrillating heart, a pencil-and-paper Battleships variant.","PUBID":60},{"GAMENAME":"Superfrog","Percentage":42,"ISSUEDATE":"18","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A platform game, pure and simple, in which you guide the aforementioned heroic amphibian over a variety of colourful landscapes, each populated with a range of bizarre nasties. Superfrog's responses are sluggish, the controls far from responsive, and the whole thing becomes frustrating all too quickly.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Super Karts CD","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Network mode and difficulty curve generate plenty of longevity.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Superhero League Of Hobok","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A jokey adventure game that is dead easy to play. It's consistent, clever and funny, but you might decide otherwise. Imagine a cross between Emo Philips, Steven Wright with a hint of Denis Leary I-told-you-so and you wouldn't be far off the mark. Good, but if you don't like the surrealism, you'll soon get bored.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"SuperSpace Invaders","Percentage":37,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Domark's meagre attempt at bringing the classic Space Invaders theme into the Nineties is a perfect reminder that perhaps the past should remain lost in some dusty vault. The graphics are bright, detailed, and colourful, making this a pleasure to look at, but the gameplay has been lost in this revamp. The old magic just isn't there, neither is the same forbidding 'dun-dun-dun-dun-dun' sound effect which steadily speeds up as the few remaining aliens creep down the screen.","PUBID":105},{"GAMENAME":"Super Street Fighter 2 T","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A great sequel and one to square up to Mortal Kombat II (and win, in fact), as long as you've got a big PC.A great sequel and one to square up to Mortal Kombat II (and win, in fact), as long as you've got a big PC.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Super-VGA Harrier","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The SVGA version of the old Harrier sim AV-8B. The graphics still look pretty good, and if you have a fast PC, then the action can be very slick and absorbing. The only problem with this game is that there are so many bigger and better flight sims on the market, not least amongst them the classic Strike Commander.","PUBID":104},{"GAMENAME":"Supremecy","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Build your own empire in space in this appealing strategy game. Covers the same ground as Reunion.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Syndicate Plus CD","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"8","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Syndicate is a stunning piece of software which serves up arcade blasting and strategic depth in equal measure. There aren't any CD-specific enhancements, but Syndicate Plus doesn't suffer for that. A great game.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Syndicate: Americal Revol","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"3","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"More isometric 3D gunplay and carnage in the Syndicate mould. If you're an addict, then you can't possibly sit still until you have this.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"System Shock","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"11","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Good story, challenging gameplay and first-rate graphics","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Tactical Manager","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"In terms of hands-on control it's the most comprehensive football management game on the market. With a lot more care, though, it could have been the BEST management game ever. As it stands, learning to play is a chore because of the inadequate documentation. Also, the presentation is terrible, all glaring pink and green screens.","PUBID":78},{"GAMENAME":"Tank Commander","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Tank Commander is built to last, and with serial options, Virtual Reality headset drivers and the option for up to four players to participate simultaneously on a network, this is a game that will run and run.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"Temptation","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Featuring: Lands Of Lore, The 7th Guest, Hands Of Fate and IndyCar Racing.\r\nThis is a superb compilation with each game appearing on its own CD and accompanied by its own manual and instruction booklet. \r\nFeaturing: Lands Of Lore, The 7th Guest, Hands Of Fate and IndyCar Racing.\r\nThis is a superb compilation with each game appearing on its own CD and accompanied by its own manual and instruction booklet.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"X-WING Collectors CD","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"In the wake of the excellent TIE Fighter, LucasArts has repackaged \r\nand revamped its predecessor. But can the older game still compete?\r\n\r\nPublisher: Virgin\r\nDeveloper: LucasArts\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 386DX, 4Mb RAM, VGA & MPC1\r\nRecommended: 486DX & MPC2\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: Out now\r\n\r\nUntil 1993, LucasArts was best known among PC gameplayers for its consistently excellent graphic adventures. All that changed, however, with the release of X-Wing. A space combat 'simulator' set in the Star Wars universe, the game casts you as a young Rebel pilot, flying a variety of missions against the overwhelming forces of the Empire, and was simply superb. Effortlessly capturing the feel and excitement that Origin's Wing Commander series had been desperately scrabbling for, X-Wing became the biggest seller of the year.\r\nThe game has now been overhauled and re-released as this, the X-Wing Collector's CD. For your money you get a nice shiny piece of plastic containing both X-Wing and the two add-on disks, Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing, all integrated as a single game that runs almost completely from the CD itself. But this isn't just another compilation. The original game's graphics and sound systems have been replaced with the ones developed for the technically superior TIE Fighter, six new missions have been added, and several of the original ones redesigned. On top of this, there's a whole load of new speech provided by the actual actors from the films.\r\nSo while the basic game is still X-Wing, there have been a lot of improvements. The new graphics are lovely and the new crisper, sharper sound is stunning. Most important, though, are the changes to the gameplay. One of the few criticisms levelled at the original game was the incredible toughness of some of the missions. To succeed at some of these challenges you needed to show more skill than Luke and Han displayed in all three films put together, and have the force (or luck, at any rate) with you. In response to this problem, the offending articles have been altered in the Collector's CD. The masochists and die-hard fans needn't worry, though Ð the original versions have also been included, and you have the option to toggle between the two sets at will. \r\nThe only real problem is the in-mission map, which now takes ages to load. Considering the frequency with which you have to use this, it can get\r\na bit frustrating. Any other quibbles are more to do with what could have been done Ð there are several aspects of the game which might have been\r\nimproved, but weren't.\r\nDespite this, the X-Wing Collector's CD is very good indeed. If you've never had the pleasure of playing the original, this is a must, and previous fans would be well advised to take a look. It may not be quite as polished or user-friendly as TIE Fighter, but it's easily as satisfying, and with over 160 missions, it'll keep you busy for months.\tANDY BUTCHER \r\n\r\nPCG Rating: 90%\r\nHighs: Lovely new graphics, improved gameplay and crisper sound.\r\nLows: Experienced players may find themselves wanting more.\r\nThe Verdict: A great re-working of the classic space combat simulator.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Tesserae","Percentage":21,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A tedious and worthless puzzle game that must have taken ten minutes to design - and you'd be doing well if you were still playing it after half that time.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Test Drive 3","Percentage":44,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Were the Test Drive titles any good, even when they were first released? A boring, uneventful driving game with a choice of several dashboards from supercars.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"TFX","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Superb 3D, great atmosphere and a top mission-building option. The OTT presentation occasionally grates, but it's still one of the best flight sims of its time.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"The 7th Guest","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The original pioneering CD-ROM game, The 7th Guest is a magnificent looking pre-rendered haunted-house puzzler, with enough substance to keep you interested for ages. Of course, the interactivity can be limited and the puzzles swing wildly from incredibly easy to maddeningly hard, but you'll be too busy showing this one off to your mates to worry about that. Gorgeous graphics and an engaging, if somewhat linear, plot make this well worth a tenner of anyone's money.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"The Big 3","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is a strategic wargame recreating the events of World War II in Europe and North Africa. The Big 3 does was it's intended to do reasonably well and given an hour or two of play it's actually quite absorbing, and wargame or strategy fans will find it to be an enjoyable little game. However, what it's not going to do is change the face of computer games forever","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"The Clue","Percentage":25,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Nice idea - who wouldn't like to have a crack at being a crim? But it's all very unconvincing and more than a touch dull. Good in theory but looks dated, and the game interface is too basic.","PUBID":78},{"GAMENAME":"The Journeyman Project Tu","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"15","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Massive improvement in playability over the floppy version. However, it can be laborious slogging around the landscape one move at a time. It'll take you some time to get the hang of but is ultimately absorbing. No instant gratification to be found here, though.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"The Jungle Book","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"22","COST":"24.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Exactly what you'd expect. It's fun and very Jungle Booky, but won't last long.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"The Last Dynasty","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"22","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Another 'interactive spectacular' with good ideas and good looks, but frustrating gameplay coupled with dreadful video footage make this a no-no.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"The Lion King","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Typical Disney charm with oodles of lovely graphics, but the linear gameplay holds few surprises. A cute and fluffy licence first, and a platform game second.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"The Need For Speed","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An excellent, graphically gorgeous game, which needs an extremely serious PC to perform at its best.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"The Orion Conspiracy CD","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A well-presented adult science-fiction game with a strong storyline, but you may find the usual point-and-click adventure interface a bit tedious.","PUBID":39},{"GAMENAME":"The Premiership","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"9.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Cheap and cheerful football management game with threadbare presentation and nothing that special gameplay-wise. Like a penny chew, it doesn't cost much but doesn't last long either","PUBID":29},{"GAMENAME":"The Settlers","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A high quality god sim - but not self-indulgent or unnecessarily complex.","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"The Terminator: Rampage","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Good, solid shoot-'em-up fun, but you'd be mad to want this if you've already got the likes of Doom II and Descent.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Theatre Of Death","Percentage":30,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not even Norman Wisdom could have made a clumsier job of Theatre Of Death. Not offensively poor, not even laughably poor - just plain poor.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Theatre Of War","Percentage":48,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A real-time board-game played on squares. It looks very pretty, but as with any game that tries to 'improve' or 'update' chess, it really suffers in comparison to the original game. It may find a special place in a few gamer's hearts, though.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Their Finest Hour","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Technically showing its age, and the graphics have dated badly, but the game's still genuinely exciting. The historical detail can't be faulted, and it's nice to fly clumsy, venerable bombers for a change.","PUBID":76},{"GAMENAME":"Theme Park","Percentage":95,"ISSUEDATE":"7","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"An immense, gorgeous and stunningly involving game - a true work of genius.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Three Worlds Of Advanced","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse.\r\nDespite their individual weaknesses, all three games together represent a huge chunk of gameplay and excellent value for money. None of the games will convert anyone to RPGs, but those who are already hooked will find a lot to enjoy\r\nContaining Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse.\r\nDespite their individual weaknesses, all three games together represent a huge chunk of gameplay and excellent value for money. None of the games will convert anyone to RPGs, but those who are already hooked will find a lot to enjoy","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Thunderscape","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A completely fresh new RPG world - but with all the same basic monsters, plot and, sadly, gameplay. Competent enough but just not very exciting.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Ticonderoga CD","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"17","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A very dry, abstract piece of work, leaning far more towards a simulation than a game. The high-res screens and level of detail make this a class act, but one that should be approached with caution. Old salts will be better off with Great Naval Battles, but technocrats who feel at home with the de-personalised style of warfare should look no further.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"TIE Fighter","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"9","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":" A more than worthy sequel - and one of the best games of 1994","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Tornado CD","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"2","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A massively complex flight sim with lots more music than the floppy version. Tough to get into but a smooth and professional sim.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Total Carnage","Percentage":14,"ISSUEDATE":"42","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"32.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fans of Total Carnage in the arcades might like this version. But anyone expecting to be converted from interesting and exciting strategy games to interesting and exciting arcade games will have to wait for something else to come along.","PUBID":66},{"GAMENAME":"Tower Assault","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The sequel to Alien Breed, this is great fun, in a mindless kind of way. It's one of those games that requires very little thought and is a great way to switch off for an hour or two. However, it can get tedious as you battle not only the bad guys but the collision detection as well.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Transport Tycoon World Ed","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"13","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The best business management strategy game for the PC","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Transport Tycoon World Ed","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"18","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The main purpose of this program is to allow Transport Tycoon fans to edit their own worlds. You can create the exact terrain that you desire, place industries and towns wherever you fancy, and so on. This package also adds a modem play option to supplement the original's serial link support.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Troddlers","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"As a product of the Lemmings school of brain-bogglingly frustrating arcade-puzzle games, Troddlers will do your mental health no favours at all. It's simple, varied and addictive but not as absorbing as Lemmings.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Turrican 2","Percentage":51,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This kind of platform shooter just doesn't cut the mustard any more, and looks incredibly amateur when compared to the likes of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure and Jazz Jackrabbit 2.","PUBID":52},{"GAMENAME":"UFO: Enemy Unknown","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"5","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Great alien-kicking fun for everybody.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Ultima VII","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"13","GAMETYPE":4,"COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Despite its enormous game-cape, this adventure never really becomes tedious or long-winded to play. In fact, it is the complexity of interactivity, conversation and plot-line that makes this so damn enjoyable. The controls are fool-proof, with a basic point-and-click command system which makes both movements and communication extremely swift. The sound effects and speech also add to the captivating atmosphere.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Ultimate Body Blows","Percentage":57,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It looks good, it feels good, and there's a little imagination thrown in, but in all these areas the game just isn't quite good enough. All the features of the classic beat-'em-up, but when push comes to shove, it just ain't that much fun.","PUBID":133},{"GAMENAME":"Ultimate Domain CD","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"12","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you were asked to jot down the essentials of a god sim on the back of a beer mat, you'd certainly find them all here. But beyond that you'd be hard pushed to find anything much to shout about. Not a dreadful god game, but it's just ANOTHER god game.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Ultimate Doom:Thy Flesh C","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"21","GAMETYPE":1,"COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The fully registered version of id Software's classic blaster, plus an extra nine-level episode designed by the original programmers themselves. It's still just as great as it was over a year ago, and the extra episode is pretty damn good.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Ultimate Football 95","Percentage":17,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"This plays exactly the same as every other American Football game, and while you CAN go into enormous depth - studying your opposition, reorganising your underlying strategies, making carefully though-out substitutions for crucial plays and using cunning triple-bluff fakes and so on - you'll only be footing yourself. It's all pointless.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Ultimate Soccer Manager","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Ultimate Soccer Manager's secret lies in its attractive presentation and solid engine. In matches themselves you've got a fine degree of control over the players, with a display that lets you see clearly what's going on and adjust your tactics accordingly. All this is presided over by a splendidly polished interface which allows you to slip easily from one section of the game to the next. There are dozens of alternatives to Ultimate Soccer Manager, but with its reassuring feel and comprehensive innards it would be a fine choice for anyone with a nose for sheepskin coats.","PUBID":68},{"GAMENAME":"Under A Killing Moon","Percentage":30,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":7,"COST":"59.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A simple text adventure dressed in K-Mark clothes, except that moving around a textual world doesn't require time-consuming walks through bland, non-threatening environments. Any fool can use technology to store and display millions of bytes of digitised imagery and sampled sound. Not everyone can create an engrossing storyline and relate it effectively. Not everyone has the vision or programming skills to utilise the technology to create a believable environment. If the developers wanted a urine sample, all they had to do was ask. Don't pay them any attention; it only encourages them.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Universe","Percentage":49,"ISSUEDATE":"14","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":" lovely looking game, which makes it all the more disappointing that it's such a struggle to get through. Adventure games should be as simply to play as possible, and should rely on the cleverness of the puzzles to make them addictive. This game fails to get that balance right","PUBID":31},{"GAMENAME":"Unnatural Selection","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"29.95","ReviewBodyCopy":"Assume the role of top scientist Dr Ted Jackson, and breed and mutate your Theroids before sending them into battle. Original concept, great graphics and challenging gameplay, but it takes time and effort to get into, so can be frustrating.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"Unnecessary Roughness","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Stunning graphics and an accurate simulation model, but not that accessible for American Football novices. Realistic, fun and very playable.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Unnecessary Roughness 95","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"18","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A thoroughly enjoyable American Footy sim that is a joy for fans of the genre, but a possible nightmare for the uninitiated.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"US Navy Fighters CD","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"13","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A slick flight sim that will appeal to the part-time fly boys out there.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Utopia","Percentage":52,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"11.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not a bad introduction to strategy games, but you'll probably get bored of it long before you're anywhere near exhausting every level. SimCity in space, basically.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Virtuoso CD","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A diverting game with a nice strong style of its own (albeit in a Doom kind of way), but it's perhaps a little poorly put together. It all looks a bit too chunky, like it was carved from a block of pixels. If it were a little bit slicker in the presentation department, it would have got a much higher mark.","PUBID":44},{"GAMENAME":"Virtual Pool CD","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A comprehensive, nay definitive, pool sim that's good enough to help your play in real life.\r\nA comprehensive, nay definitive, pool sim that's good enough to help your play in real life.\r\n\r\n\r\nA comprehensive, nay definitive, pool sim that's good enough to help your play in real life.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Vortex: Quantum Gate II C","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"This was clearly never intended to be a game. It is an interactive movie in every sense of the phrase, and should not be confused as being anything different. It has a very adult theme and in places the language is shamelessly severe, but in its execution it can be quite funny when playing with a friend. It is by far the best interactive movie so far, in that it doesn't pretend to be otherwise, and for that it should be commended.","PUBID":153},{"GAMENAME":"Voyages Of Discovery","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"13","COST":"25.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Simple to get into strategy game that's quite fun but limited in scope and ultimately unsatisfying. A poor man's Colonization, basically.","PUBID":78},{"GAMENAME":"Voyeur CD","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Billed as a 'political thriller', it's actually more of an interactive soap opera. Ironically the secret of its success as an 'interactive experience' is the lack of interaction - the player adopts a much more passive role than in must games of this type, simply by observing rather than taking an active part in the proceedings. It's got an intriguing storyline and innovative gameplay, but after the first couple of viewings the appeal soon wears off","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Warcraft: Orcs and Humans","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"12","GAMETYPE":2,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Grasp your sword and lead your men into the white hot furnace","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Wargame Constuction Kit I","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Visually and aurally superb with good opponents. However, the manual is poor and the interface is less than perfect. Despite these faults, this is still a very good wargame.","PUBID":130},{"GAMENAME":"Warriors CD","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"19","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Can not open file","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Werewolf vs Comanche","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"23","GAMETYPE":3,"COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A great multi-player game, but should you not have the advantage of a fast modem, or an adjacent PC, then you're doomed to playing something that is little more than a souped up mission disc for the original Maximum Overkill - complete with many of the original flaws. Still it's not a stuffy, overly technical sim, and it should be enough, in either mode, to satisfy an itchy trigger-finger.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Widget Workshop CD","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"20","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Like Sim Town, this scientific/educational title is primarily aimed at kids, but that's not to say that us adults won't get some enjoyment from it. Thrust into the laboratory of one seriously nutty professor, you get to muck around with all his gadgets and widgets, in a series of scientific experiments. This is an excellent educational tool that succeeds in being fun too.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"Will-Bridge","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"23","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Will-Bridge gets pissed off pretty easily, though, its once-friendly demeanour changing quickly when you bid incorrectly, yielding a hurtful 'Are you kidding?' or even a shockingly forthright 'No! No! No!' Learning with friends is nicer, easier, and much, much cheaper.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Wing Commander","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fast action, fab atmosphere, but shallow gameplay. A classic in its time, but PC games have moved on a lot since then.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Wing Commander III: Heart","Percentage":95,"ISSUEDATE":"15","COST":"54.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The Verdict: Believe the hype Ð the most cinematic game ever.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Wing Commander Armada","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"11","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"As a two-player game this is superb fun. With ten spaceships in the game there are many combinations with which to work. What really makes this one of the best two-player games around, though, is the strategy element. Although simple, when playing against an unpredictable and intelligent human opponent it reaches a whole new level, and is incredibly addictive. Unfortunately, it's next to worthless without a human opponent.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Wings Of Glory CD","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"16","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Origin has chosen to follow a winning formula and continue with the linked storyline approach, which will be familiar to anyone who has played Wing Commander. Unfortunately the control system is terribly; extremely sluggish and completely unresponsive. Get Dawn Patrol instead.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Wipeout","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Psygnosis have changed their name, but they've also changed their game, as you can see from Wipeout.\r\n\r\nPublisher: Sony\r\nDeveloper: In-house\r\nFormat: CD-ROM\r\nPrice: £44.99\r\nMinimum System: 486/66, 8Mb RAM\r\nRecommended: P90, 16Mb RAM\r\nSound Support: All major cards\r\nRelease Date: November\r\n\r\nThe adrenaline is coursing through my veins and making me sit bolt upright. I rock to the left, curse and bounce off the railings as a missile screams up my tailpipe and detonates. I flip through 360 degrees, and the competition skims by as I floor the accelerator, desperately trying to regain the lost time. I chug sluggishly up the hill, searching for a speed-up grid but knowing full-well that there isn't one. And then I realise that I'm sitting in front of a PC and not in fact, in the R3600 racing dome fighting for my life. But sometimes it feels like it and that's what counts.\r\nWipeout is a standard racing game to look at but, upon picking up the joypad and playing it, instantly becomes something more. Your hovercraft has momentum, inertia, friction, balance and torque, and is affected by gravity. Playing Wipeout feels like you're driving a vehicle that exists in the physical world rather than some talentless programmer's physical model of a Ferrari he once walked past. Everything has been painstakingly coded to make the sled feel exactly right. It really does sit on a cushion of air, and not just as an excuse to avoid the hefty processor demands texturing those fast moving circular things called wheels. This guarantees that Wipeout will play well, and everything from here on is just a bonus.\r\nThe track design has been cunningly worked through to provide the maximum thrills at the least cost to speed. Each course twists and bends through the scenery, cleverly negating the need to draw to the far horizon or resort to a 'mist' effect. This not only maintains the frame rate at a healthy figure, but forces you to stay alert at all times. The corners are themselves cunningly designed with a mixture of sweeping shallow bends, sharp banking wrenches and, worst of all, the horrible double apex twists at the end of long, quick straights. These are before you even consider the vertical drop-offs, huge jumps and claustrophobic tunnels that are scattered liberally around the tracks.\r\nThe course locations are fairly derivative (industrial, canyons and ice-worlds) but the towering buildings, slab-sided gorges and crisp blue ice tracks lend an air of chic originality that never emerges in Screamer or Fatal Racing. On each track there are various power-up squares that either supply you with a new weapon or speed you up by 50% or so. Once you've mastered your craft's controls, targeting these correctly is the key to your success. Some are placed in simple-to-collect locations, while a few are just traps to lure you into the barriers and cost you time.\r\nThe programmers' guile extends to the seven computer opponents that you can race against in the championship. They're never unfairly tough but are sufficiently intelligent to weave and block your path. It's particularly infuriating when they lay mines at the mouth of a jump and you just plop over the edge. In this instance you are hoisted back onto the track by a Stunt Car Racer-style floating crane. Time is what it costs, but you don't have much to play with if you're going to qualify in the required first three places.\r\nAlthough Wipeout is certainly one of the fastest games on the PC, it's the sound that really puts it ahead of the pack. When you play a game with various techno-tracks from current favourites Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers and Orbital, you realise for the first time that you'd like a better pair of speakers. (I rather think not. Ð Ed) The atmosphere that is established by these tunes is perfect to race to and the sound effects themselves are properly infrequent.\r\nAnd now we come to the bit where we say that it runs just great on a P90 and you think, 'That's no use to me with my DX2/66.' Well, fret only slightly, because Psygnosis have thoughtfully included just about every graphics option you could hope for. Should you wish, you can transform the smooth, textured, beautifully-drawn world into a blocky polygonal affair that would look primitive on an 8086. But it's there if you want to play with it. Or need to. \r\nDepending on what you're looking for, Wipeout could be nigh-on the perfect game. But it could have been even better with a few tweaks. The most annoying in-race flaw arises when you shoot the other craft Ð they stop moving. There are two types of firing weapons in Wipeout: those that target and those that don't. Those that\r\ndon't must be fired when the enemy is directly in front of you. Assuming it hits him, he tends to stop directly in front of you, and you plough\r\ninto the back of him. This is far from being a crippling defect but it's annoying to be punished for your accuracy.\r\nStructurally it's less than ideal and consequently the incentive to continue","PUBID":127},{"GAMENAME":"Wizard!","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"3","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Good-looking RPG, and the combat and exploration are well handled. An accomplished romp, but just a little too bound by convention.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Wizkid","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"4","COST":"12.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A classic of post-modern game design. It's almost impossible to define what makes it such a rare gem, but it's fair to say that in this increasingly commercial market, we may never see its like again.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Woodruff And The Schnibble of Azimuth","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"17","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Colourful and intricate graphics with quirky character animations, but there's no text to accompany speech, leaving the game unplayable for the deaf. An entertaining adventure game but ultimately riddled with too many annoyances.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"World Cup 94 Challenge","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's about the World Cup and it's not very atmospheric or realistic. Tactically strong, but too expensive for a revamped title.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"World Cup Golf CD","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"17","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Impressive graphics all round and neat gameplay, but it's all a bit fiddly and tough to master. Rubs shoulders with the best golf games on the PC, though.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"World Cup USA 94","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"8","COST":"32.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A fast and fluid football game with options galore. There are no real player names and nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it's a worthy World Cup spin-off.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"World Cup Year 94","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A compilation of four footy games to tie in with the World Cup: Sensible Soccer (the pick of the bunch), Goal! (not that far behind), Striker (poor effort by comparison) and Championship Manger 1993/94 (a little out of place).","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"World War II: Battles Of","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"2","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Addictive, and good strategy, but may be of limited access. Achieves what it sets out to do with some panache.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Worlds Of Legend:Son of T","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"9","COST":"16.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A light-hearted RPG with neat isometric graphics, it puts you in command of a party of four characters. The gameplay is standard role-playing fare, but it's an absorbing and satisfying game all the same.","PUBID":4},{"GAMENAME":"Wrath Of The Gods","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"10","COST":"44.95","ReviewBodyCopy":"A big adventure game crammed with facts about Greek myths, but the full-motion video is atrocious. If this game is meant to be funny, it's not. And if it's not meant to be funny, it's laughable, so it fails either way.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"Yo! Joe!","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"1","COST":"25.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Meticulously designed platformer that doesn't last long but is fun right up to the end. Not brilliant, but its good humour will definitely rub off on you.","PUBID":65},{"GAMENAME":"Zig Zag","Percentage":41,"ISSUEDATE":"21","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A cross between Mastermind, the game of coloured plastic pegs in holes, and Hangman. If you're incredibly patient and keen-witted, you may well get some fun out of this, but it's the sort of game shareware authors turn out by the score, and the thought of playing £35 for it may make your teeth chatter.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Zool 2","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"9","GAMETYPE":0,"COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Bright, busy and accessible, but lacks solidity, variety and novelty. Inoffensive formulaic platform fare.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Zoop","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"24","COST":"24.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Play it because it's strange and mildly addictive, but don't expect it to change your life. A fun and original attempt at a puzzler.","PUBID":150},{"GAMENAME":"Zork Anthology","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"14","GAMETYPE":6,"COST":"14.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Containing Zork I Ð III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero and Planetfall.\r\nExtremely primitive text adventures, with a frustratingly hindered vocabulary. There is also an unnerving feeling of disorientation when playing, something which fails to resolve itself even with the maps Ð you feel completely blinkered. However, this package offers an extensive number of gameplaying hours, but it will probably be too basic for those other than the Zork players of old Ð the nostalgia factor is huge.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"A-10 Cuba","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's downright sneaky. Just when every company under the sun seems to be desperate to release a texture-mapped SVGA flight sim, with realistic topography and breath-taking scenery, Activision have come up with a game that looks about as cutting-edge as a tangerine. While sims like F-22 Lightning II, Jetfighter III and EF2000 continue to show off advanced 3D engines that can generate snow-capped mountain peaks with nonchalant ease, A-10 Cuba shuns fancy shading and ignores multiple campaigns. Like Mindscape's Su-27 or Digital Integration's Tornado, just playing it is like stepping back in time. As such, A-10 immediately has a lot of persuading to do. Is it a believable flight simulation? In its defence you could say that, graphically, the game favours a minimalist approach. It has a raw, clean simplicity and will run smoothly on anything from a low-spec 486 to a Pentium. But while texture-mapping has been sacrificed in favour of a high frame rate and a target-rich environment, the more cynical amongst you might be thinking that the game looks like a load of old tosh.\r\nThe biggest mistake you can make with A-10 Cuba is to judge the game by its graphics. Admittedly, it's never going to take your breath away, and it's not exactly a game that will have people crowding around your PC uttering whispered 'wow's and 'blimey's. But appearances can be deceptive. Does Peter Beardsley have to look like a male model to be a brilliant footballer? Of course he doesn't. So despite the fact that A-10 Cuba has all the things that reviewers usually whinge about, like a flat, green landscape and triangular hills, it's still a lot of fun to play. Whether you'll ultimately like the game, though, depends entirely on what sort of flight sim fan you are. \r\nIf you're a casual flyer, impressed more by pretty visuals than mathematically correct airflows, then Sierra's lavishly drawn A-10 game Silent Thunder is probably a much better bet. But while the terrain graphics in Activision's effort are drab and dull, with a huge side-order of bland, developers Parsoft haven't skimped on the realism. The Warthog is one of the most agile aircraft in the US Air Force, a versatile weapons platform that can operate from short runways, fly at night and deliver a lethal array of weaponry. Just a tap on the keyboard, a flick of the mouse or an over-zealous tug on the joystick is often enough to send your multi-million-dollar aircraft spiralling out of control. Imagine the sensitivity of Flight Sim 5.1 mixed with the destructive power of a modern warplane. The A-10 is a fantastic and exciting aircraft to fly. \r\nAs with any flight sim, it's also difficult to criticise A-10's realism unless you've actually sat inside the titanium cockpit of one of these monsters and flown one for yourself. If anything, at least everything 'feels' right and\r\nA-10 Cuba's saving grace is that it simulates the plane in exhaustive detail. For starters, the dynamics of the A-10 are very different to a modern jet's. Weapons are allotted various 'stations', and to fire them in the heat of battle you have to arm them and then select the appropriate station before tapping the right mouse button to watch the Maverick or MK82 bomb slip from its pylon. As the A-10 is a ground-attack aircraft, you rarely stray above 1,000 feet and, lacklustre ground graphics aside, it's still exhilarating to charge in low towards a phalanx of T-62 tanks, firing bursts from your cannon, especially when half of your wing is missing and you're frantically hitting the 'Z' key to activate the fire extinguishers on a flaming left engine. \r\nRealism is very much the watchword in \t* A-10. For example, there's no handy quickstart option, and so, as with DID's EF2000, you have to taxi your aircraft from the hangar to the runway at the start of every mission. While to some this may seem a little tedious, it's at least tediously real. If anything, A-10 manages to give you the feeling that you're sat in the middle of a fully-operational airbase. F-15s trundle along the apron towards the runway, small red trucks dart along roads; the whole world has life to it. The only thing that's missing is some digital chatter between tower and pilots. If Parsoft had managed to get this in there, the atmosphere would have been almost perfect.\r\nStrangely it's the little things in A-10 Cuba that impress you the most; the minute attention to detail that every flight sim should have as standard. In EF2000, for instance, your wingman is liable to taxi his aircraft straight through you if you dawdle at the airbase. In A-10, however, the other planes in your flight will slam on their brakes and wait patiently for you to sort out your aeronautical arse from your elbow. Ailerons and rudders are tested in the hangars and smoke trails billow from B-52 bombers as they perform fly-bys, while any tanks that are unlucky enough to stray into your gunsights explode in a satisfying shower of metal and flame. Even the front wheel on the A-10 turns as you move the joystick. Okay, the world might look like a ten year-old has built it out of Lego, but it's a fully functional, finely\r\ndetailed Legoland.\r\nBut while you can ignore the retro ground graphics, it's a bit harder to overlook the fact that A-10 Cuba has a limited number of missions. There are a few training missions to get you started, and a network mode so you can indulge in a little A-10 Deathmatch action. But once you've mastered getting your flying gun up into the blue, cloudless skies, just 12 missions doesn't seem like much of a challenge. They're varied enough, with tankbusting missions, raids on bridges and attacks on shipping, but A-10 lacks anything vaguely resembling a campaign. There's nothing about one in the manual and nothing about one in the README file, so we can only assume that it doesn't exist. Twelve missions and that, flyboys and girls, is your lot.\r\nWith all this in mind, it's difficult to look upon A-10 Cuba with generous, admiring eyes. If you're a true-blue flight sim fan, it's easy to ignore the limited graphic detail, and with increasingly difficult missions to complete, the game is a huge amount of fun to play. The aircraft are beautifully drawn, the attention to detail is superb and although the famous 30mm cannon sounds just like any other flight sim cannon you've heard, it's still a thrill to swoop low over the landscape, strafing tanks, trucks and ammo dumps. The music, on the other hand, is terrible, and A-10 needs its funky, techno soundtrack like a walrus needs a subscription to the Radio Times. This and the glaring lack of a campaign structure to jack up the longevity are the only things that really let it down. Su-27 proved that you don't have to stuff your game chock full of FMV sequences, whizzy front-ends and shaded phongs to create a realistic flight sim. A-10 is good, but you just wish that there was much, much more to it.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Abuse","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Abuse has been available in various shareware incarnations since sometime last year, and is famed for its involvement of id Software's Dave Taylor. (He's working on the sound for Quake, but runs Crack dot Com in his spare time.) The full version of the game has been rather trickier to track down, however, but its potential has now been talent-spotted by Electronic Arts, who're publishing it in this country.\r\nAlthough seemingly an ordinary platform game, Abuse has a number of features which have endeared it to serious PC gamers. The control system and expandability we'll come to in a moment. Most interesting as far as I'm concerned is the way Abuse can easily be transported from the PC to other platforms, owing to its engine being written in LISP. LISP, if you're interested (which, I agree, is unlikely) stands for LISt Processing, and is the child of that great computer programming institution the linked list. Suffice to say that if you have a sufficiently abstract mind, preferably along with bare feet and a beard, then linked lists are gorgeous, especially where artificial intelligence routines are involved. You probably haven't, though, so I'll return to the task in hand.\r\nThe first thing you'll probably notice upon starting Abuse is that it's dark. Now, I'm not just talking a bit dark here. If Doom to you means dark, then you've clearly spent most of your life in a chandelier shop, and Abuse will come as a shock. All is not lost, however. Rummage around in the game's menus and you'll find one which solves the problem.\r\nPlot-wise there's something to do with ants taking over the world, the upshot being that you're meant to shoot everything you see. And, darkness problems aside, you'll have no trouble seeing them because Abuse will support every resolution your graphics card can cope with, right up to 1024 by 768 pixels (which is clearly silly).\r\nAbuse's unique control system requires some dexterity on your part. The arrow keys move your character using your left hand, while your right works the mouse to aim his gun and fire. It works brilliantly, the only snag coming when you have to change weapons, which involves moving the cursor off the screen and clicking on the appropriate icon with the right mouse button. This isn't easy when you're busy running away from an ant armed with a rocket launcher.\r\nAlthough the difficulty level is pitched about right, the point may come where you find yourself wanting to put your own levels together. What luck, then, that Abuse comes with its own level editor. To use it, though, you'll need a grasp of LISP, an idea which for some of us will evoke memories of evil computer science lecturers from deep in our past, and to most will mean nothing. But, as with the likes of Doom, other people's levels are already appearing from all around the world - Abuse is building up an enormous following - and PC Gamer will be putting the best of them onto our cover CDs.\r\nYou might be wondering, though, why Abuse appears to have bucked the trend and lost a dimension, when everyone else is moving into 3D. Is it just Doom in 2D? Well, you're on your own, and there are lots of baddies with big guns, and, believe me, there's little to beat Abuse for fun. The 2D graphics are, in their own way, terribly attractive, and the sound effects are suitably creepy. It's true, though, that those who enjoy running around in the dark will pretty much have settled into Doom's 3D environment by now. 2D is now generally the preserve of cute platform games like Rayman, reviewed on page 82 of this month's PC Gamer. Abuse ends up out on a bit of a limb, aiming to be dark and aggressive but lacking the graphic violence of 3D shoot-'em-ups and failing to compensate with anything in the way of furry animals.\r\nIt's hard to imagine Abuse catching on in quite the same way as Doom - it's just not the huge step forward that Doom was when it first appeared - but the way it can be transferred from platform to platform is sure to make it an enduring success. I loved it, with its weird control system, and, from what I've been reading on the Internet, so do thousands of others. I encourage you to seek it out.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Afterlife","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Afterlife. All the skill, authority and brilliance that is LucasArts. Arguably the world's most respected development house takes on an entirely new genre, just like they did with Dark Forces and the 3D action game. The Dig followed, and, while being a solid fun game, failed to recreate the magic that was present in Sam & Max. Afterlife. SimCity 2000 all over again and complete with that feeling of 'you can't win' pointlessness from the year dot.\r\nThe idea behind Afterlife is perfect - take the mickey out of the humourless strategy genre while still producing one of the best games within it. The irreverent approach is no sooner impressing you than it's depressing you. Afterlife is a confused SimCity 2000 clone. It's taken all the really tedious ideas from Maxis's classic and thrown them away, but in the process has failed to realise that it was these elements which made the game such a free-roaming challenge. \r\nArranging the residential, industrial and commercial zones was SimCity's fundamental strength. It was up to you to plan ahead, but also to be able to meet sudden changes in circumstances. Afterlife all but removes the need for this zoning - as long as there's space for a soul to slot in it doesn't really matter where it goes. A sudden influx of dead sees you haphazardly throw down some Red for Lust area and off they trot. It's irrelevant if the Lust is next to envy or pride or sloth. So the core element of skilful forward planning is gone. Yes, it would have been too complicated to cope with the interaction between seven types of zoning, but removing this also removes a large part of Afterlife's potential fun.\r\nThe zoning system becomes even more complicated when you consider that you have both Heaven and Hell to supervise. The idea is to maintain the celestial status quo and you need control of both sides of life to achieve this. In practice it's just an irritation scrolling up and down and around to look at both. Zoomed out the display is useless but for the most strategic of planning, and zoomed in it's a pain to move around.\r\nAfterlife has an attractive and novel appearance. Every one of the buildings within the game is superbly drawn and brilliantly conceived. Unfortunately, after an hour or so of playing the screen is so cluttered with toy-town structures that it's impossible to play the game with them turned on. The buildings \t* * themselves don't convey what type of zone there is underneath. Huge skyscrapers tower over half the screen, obscuring everything behind them, and swapping the view 90¡ to see round is always more confusing than helpful. Roads disappear, selecting buildings for examination becomes ever trickier, and scrolling around slows right down.\r\nThe underlying economics seem suspect at times. As the number of souls under your control increases you get paid more for each one, resulting in a huge positive cash flow. It quickly becomes a case of being easily able to afford most of the required infra-structure improvements. To compensate, the structures you have access to when your soul count reaches a billion or so are mind-blowingly expensive. They cost so much their price has to be abbreviated to C1,600.000K, which is a lot of C's no matter how you look at it.\r\nMany of these criticisms are a matter of personal opinion - the game works much better than most as it is, but they're nevertheless irritating. However, there are some elements that are plain wrong. This may seem like a strange thing to say, but it really doesn't seem to matter if you're very good at the game. If the two planes are completely out of kilter, and Hell is swarming with people and Heaven isn't, there's no really obvious penalty. As long as you don't expand too fast (your helpers tell you this) it's relatively tricky to go broke. Take it steady and you're headed toward success. Obviously you can make a complete mess of things and attract the attention of the four surfers of the Apocalypse, but once you know roughly what's going on this is tricky.\r\nThe biggest criticism of Afterlife, though, is that there's a predefined path to success. You first have to construct a gate, then a karma portal, then a karma portal anchor, then some fate structure zoning, then some ad infinitum siphons, then a bank, then a training college, and so on. You can't play effectively without all of these in place first, so it's impossible to experiment with radically different tactics like you can in Civ. You end up deciding where you plonk everything down rather than when or what. In every game there are naturally right and wrong approaches, but they're too rigid in Afterlife. You have to use every tile in the game, and although there's variation you're endlessly reacting to outside events and never making them happen yourself. All the positive aspects are watered down because you're following, not leading. Interest levels wane after a while.\r\nSimCity 2000 never converted me to the free-form, almost infinite version of the strategy game. I need to win, to lose and be judged accordingly, in both the short and the long term. I don't want life to bumble on uncontrollably, and result in various indefinable concepts of 'success' and 'failure' as defined by a decimal point. LucasArts have created a game I can see some people killing to play but which unfortunately does very little for me.\r\nMany American Eskimos believe that Heaven is in the Earth's caring innards, while Hell is the icy outer environment. Either way I wouldn't like to spend a gaming eternity here.","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Albion","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"I've always wondered how the Germans do it. That is, watch superb films dubbed with wholly inappropriate voices to ruin the atmosphere. It's even more of a mystery having played Albion, a German game where all the dialogue has been translated into what can only loosely be described as 'English'.\r\nIt's a shame because, after a slow start Albion isn't actually that bad a game. It is, however, extremely dated, appearing significantly more primitive than Ultima Underworld and exiting the ark just ahead of Ultima VI. The problem is exacerbated by the way it's chosen to make use of so many different views. There's a top-down, zooming, Zelda-style mode in which the bulk of the game operates, which has irritating scroll points but works okay. This is complemented by a Doom-style first person perspective view. The final view is used for combat, and closely resembles a board game. The idea is ambitious, but it smacks of indecision rather than cleverness. The perspective and character identity changes are confusing, and while far from ruining the game they add nothing to it.\r\nBeneath the language the story itself makes fairly compulsive playing. The inventive combination of having you (pleb Tom Driscoll) starting off aboard a spaceship and then descending into an alien fantasy world makes a change. The use of weapons, spells and additional party members constantly reminds you of old RPGs, but at the same time the comparisons become uncomfortable as it doesn't really offer anything, apart from the changing views, that we haven't seen before. The story is linear, compared to many of today's games. And it's huge. Even after an extensive delve into the game there's once again no sign of really being all that near the middle, let alone the end. Perhaps not up to the Ultima VII standards but certainly approaching them, then. \r\nThere's been a notable of absence of good RPGs for the PC recently. The days of endless Ultimas, Eye Of The Beholders and SSI games have gone and been replaced in the meantime by a temporary glut of interactive movies and a score of Doom games. The situation recently corrected itself thanks to Bethesda's Daggerfall, which, although it wasn't perfect, was a hard game to beat. It offers infinitely more, better executed and with fewer frustrations. Albion promised much, and I'm sure that there are many intricacies and cunning devices that are lost in the English version, but it has ultimately been let down by inconsistencies, the translators and above all, a lack of style.","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"Alien Trilogy","Percentage":53,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you think about it, the Alien films and the first-person action game seem made for each other: a match made in deepest, darkest space. Take the films. Apart from the obligatory cannon fodder, all you've got is one unfeasibly tall and seriously hard woman, miles and miles of dank, claustrophobic corridors, a cool arsenal of weaponry and those things: the Xenomorphs. The first instalment, Alien, is one of the scariest films ever made, so what's it going to be like living the nightmare through 34 rip-snorting action-packed levels?\r\nEr. A bit disappointing really. Alien Trilogy was a success on the PlayStation - but now it's starting to show its age. We've come a long way since the giddy, heady days of Wolfenstein 3D. The flat levels of Doom have admitted defeat to Duke Nukem, which in turn has bowed down to the seminal 3D inner sanctum of Quake. Realism is everything. You can run, jump, look up and down, change your trousers. I don't need to tell you because you've played it for yourself. Alien Trilogy is a backward step into those long gone days of 2D and it feels restricted and boring. \r\n'Yeah but what about the cool weapons?' Not present or correct. Apart from the shotgun, you've got a smart gun (a pretty cool rapid-fire piece), a pulse rifle (a less cool rapid-fire piece) and an unimpressive flame-thrower (which you never want to use, by the way, because it's accompanied by some God-awful speech, supposedly from Ripley herself). Save on the grenade launcher - just put your finger in your cheek and make that popping sound. There's no difference. Oh and there are a few seismic charges lying around that aren't much cop either. Nothing explodes as it should or where it should. You get more menace from a plate of macaroni.\r\n'Okay, but the aliens are really scary aren't they?' 'Fraid not. In the films they fly around with the sort of speed and ferocity that Geiger intended. The creatures in Alien Trilogy have got more in common with the cast of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, tending to shuffle around in an aimless fashion, sometimes stopping altogether. Blood curdling screams? You're pulling my leg. The warriors sound like neighing horses, the face-huggers are a laugh and the chest-bursters open their mouths and say 'fluffffff' in a not very menacing fashion. At the end of each episode you get the 'hardcore' mother alien bitch-type things, but unfortunately they're easily dispatched and cunningly similar to each other. It's frightening stuff - if you work for Acclaim that is.\r\nIt's not all bad. Had it been released 18 months ago, Trilogy would have been a very respectable game. To its credit, the radar system works well and goes some way towards emulating the atmosphere of the film. When it starts telling you that you're surrounded by a gang of aliens and you don't know whether they're behind locked doors or about to slam (sorry shuffle) towards you, the old heart rate does begin to rise a bit - it's just a shame that they don't burst out or drop from the ceilings. \r\nIn fact the best bit about the whole game is the music, which is absolutely stunning, generating the sort of atmosphere that's lacking elsewhere. The end-of-episode screens are packed with exactly the right sort of full-on sounds and the general ambience added to each level is spot on. In fact the music's put me in such a good mood that I'm going to be a bit kind to Alien Trilogy and say that if you really, really like the films (and this game is loosely based around elements from all three), then you'll probably get something out of this game. \r\nIt's got a multi-player option, but, rather strangely, this is restricted to Network only. And how many hard working, honest people have access to one of these without a satanic boss breathing over their shoulders brandishing an Instant Dismissal notice? It's not even worth connecting a mate's PC up as the levels aren't best suited to frenetic action anyway, with too many similar-looking maze-like tunnels to lose yourself in. And, of course, it's not open-ended, so there are no wads to add on or tweaks to tweak. Once you've finished, you've finished. \r\nNow Quake on the other hand... Okay, I suppose comparing this to one of the best games in the world is a trifle unfair, so I won't. Duke spits on it from a great height. In fact the game engines of Rise Of The Triads (remember that?) and Dark Forces would get my vote over this game, and both of these are now available as budget buys.\r\nIn the films, Ripley builds up an intense hatred of the Xenomorphs: 'I've known you so long I can't remember a time when you weren't in my life.' After playing 34 levels of this game I know how she feels and remember - in a review, no-one can hear you scream... with boredom.","PUBID":2},{"GAMENAME":"Allied General","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The successor to SSI's Panzer General, Allied General uses the same game mechanics but transports them, hexes and all, to Windows. The other big departure, as you've probably guessed, is that this time you control the Allied forces. You can opt to play a single battle or embark on one of three campaigns - in Europe, Russia or North Africa. \r\nThankfully, one quick read of the manual is all you need. There are complex rules lurking beneath the surface, determining the outcome of your attacks by considering such factors as entrenchment and experience, but all you need to worry about is the result. And, because everything works so straightforwardly, the skill comes in deciding where and when to make your attack rather than mastering the mechanics of the system. \r\nEach scenario takes place over a set number of turns and has a victory objective. During the campaign you retain your core units from battle to battle and they gradually build up experience. Despite the game's simple appearance, though, it's by no means easy to win your first battles. You need to play each scenario at least a couple of times before you're able to get a grip and avoid getting toasted. \r\nTactics-wise, you'll find you can use all the skills and tactics you've honed in previous wargames to bear on your opponents. They're good, too, retreating to reinforce, then making sneak attacks to your rear. But the random element in deciding results seems just a little too random at times. Realistic perhaps, but infuriating when you lose a valuable unit in an attack that most of the time would only have damaged them.\r\nApart from a few frills, Allied General is basically the same game as Panzer General, right down to the icons used. The switch to Windows has brought one unwelcome change, though - the screen display has slowed down significantly. There seems to be no real reason for this, as Allied General isn't exactly taxing graphically. It's also more cumbersome in operation than the original. The main map no longer scrolls when the mouse reaches the edge of the screen, and you have to click on the scroll bars instead, which is frustrating.\r\nI found playing the Allies somehow less rewarding than playing the Germans. For a start the Allies won, which takes away some of the glory when you manage it. It would also have been nice to have seen some action from earlier in the war. By 1942 there was little chance of the Germans winning anything above a minor battle. It would have been interesting to see if the British Expeditionary Forces could have held back the invasion of France, for example. \r\nBut Allied General is utterly engrossing. It's not the most in-depth of wargames - there are no night attacks, smoke screens or the like - but if you rise to the challenge of battle, it grips as well as the best of them.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Amok","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Amok. It sounds good. It sounds like gratuitous violence. Which is just fine. Nevertheless, it all seems to have got accidentally mixed up with somebody's plot, so here's what you need to know. It's 47 years after some war but nobody seems to have noticed that it's finished, because this is a shoot-'em-up and everyone you meet insists on attacking you. \r\nYou are some kind of ED-209 battle bot, but just to prove you're not the sort of killing machine to be foxed by a flight of stairs, you demonstrate your versatility by performing the first mission underwater. Your legs tuck in frogman style, and handy little propeller attachments speed you through the deep. Infested sharks float amusingly to the surface as you pop them, and other pleasingly violent touches are scattered throughout the game.\r\nEvery mission starts with a minimalist briefing, which, while hardly luxuriating in the latest special effects, at least indicates what your objectives are. These are relatively varied and challenging and generally involve eliminating key installations (by filling them full of missiles), lowering the heart rate of all enemy soldiers to zero, rescuing prisoners and the usual sort of thing. They also offer handy advice like, 'remember not to tread on any minesÓ. The tools of your trade are missiles, lasers and bombs and an extensive additional armoury if you root about the level for power-ups. \r\nNow, there's nothing wrong with blowing everything to kingdom come and collecting power-ups, but once you've driven the Dodge Viper of violence that is Quake, it's hard to go back to the Datsun Cherry we have here.\r\nLike our aforementioned Japanese warrior, it seems that Scavenger have been spending too much time on remote islands lately. Amok is just so dated. Two years ago we tipped our caps respectfully to it and were grateful for the chance to play, but now we expect more from life. These days such Legoland graphics just offend the eye. Normally a criticism of bitmapped games is that they pixellate up close but here they just pixellate. Mountains look like 3D bar charts and the backgrounds remind me of painted Dr. Who backdrops with their poor attempt at creating depth and no parallax.\r\nIt's odd because certain elements are extremely well implemented. The big incandescent flaming gas explosions and the little ape-like soldiers who mow each other down when under pressure, for example, are always a joy to watch. Despite these saving graces the whole the game lacks those special heart-warming little touches throughout. It's hard to be excited about power-ups which have no instantly apparent special effects, and it's even harder to immerse yourself in a game where goading the enemies into a fight is a hassle. They frequently refuse to chase you beyond their allotted zones no matter how many of their mates you kill ,and if you keep strafing around them, they often fail to pivot fast enough to hit you anyway. Such things make for dull missions, a tired game and pinning up our 1997 calendars will just make Amok another year too late.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Battleground Ardennes","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A potted history of the Battle of the Bulge: Stretched Allied army (mostly American) meets ambitious Germany counter-attack in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg during December 1944. Germany makes enough headway in the front-line so as to cause a 'bulge' in the American defences. A big battle ensues, both sides lose loads of men and the German army is effectively crushed as the battle costs them their entire strategic reserve.\r\nRight, the box and manual both state that Battleground Ardennes runs in Windows 3.1 and it does. I've tried it and had problem after problem - admittedly I've installed Win 95, chucked it off again (without using the uninstall program so my config.sys and so on are all shot to pieces), then put it back on and taken it off a couple more times - but the game did run. Sort of. What you really need to get the most from this game (and from life if you're to believe everything you read) is Windows 95 (which sounds old fashioned already). Make sure you've got that installed and the whole Battleground experience is a lot more rewarding.\r\nEverything's just as you'd expect from a wargame, with the usual hex-based landscape, number of phases per turn, enemies remaining invisible until you receive information that places them, and so on. But there's one big difference, and it's one that TalonSoft are right to trumpet. As is normal for games of this ilk, you can elect to play the game viewing the map and units from straight above, so that units are represented by small coloured squares, and what you're effectively doing is playing a table-top wargame with cardboard counters on your computer. Or you can switch to the 'revolutionary Battleview system' - their words, not mine.\r\nActually it's not that revolutionary, it's just that you view the action in a sort of isometric 3D. The cardboard squares are now replaced by little plastic men and machines, and you're watching the table-top battle from above and to the side. I don't know why no-one's really done this as effectively in the past.\r\nThe game system follows the familiar pattern: phase one for your side, then phase two, then phase three, then end the turn and the computer has its go (or, indeed, another human, either sat beside you or playing remotely via a \t* modem). There's a flashy and fun-for-five-minutes feature that occurs at the end of each phase whereby a video window pops up and shows WWII footage of troops moving around, firing artillery and so on, along with accompanying sounds of all that incoming and outgoing ordnance. But once you're into the game, and are more concerned with moving towards your specified objectives, you'll probably switch this off to speed things up a bit.\r\nSpend 15 minutes getting to know the system (really just a case of learning that a left click on the mouse selects a unit or action and a right click gives the orders or executes the action) and it all becomes straightforward to use. There are lots of scenarios to play through (as either side, naturally) and a full-feature scenario editor allows you to play around with the maps to your heart's content. Useful but non-essential features are included - like something that shows which units have fired this turn - which are accessed using the toolbar. Accomplished though the game is, the main niggle I had was that you can't stack more than four units in any one hex. I'm well aware of the reasons for this (it would be absurd to allow the player the chance to stack five panzer and thirteen infantry divisions all within one hex representing 250m of land) but it can be particularly annoying when you're trying to move troops (which may be no more than a platoon) up to the frontline, as it usually means you have to move units out of position simply to allow the reinforcements to\r\npass through. This is something you learn to live with, but it reminds you that you're only playing a computer game, which is programmed with certain parameters to obey.\r\nBattleground Ardennes hangs together well, and is immense fun to play. That's the important thing. Wargames are still perceived as being a bit heavy and specialised, but this game and others like it (Steel Panthers and the Battle Isle series spring to mind) are helping to prove that the whole genre has evolved. I reviewed a game called Panthers In The Shadows a couple of months ago (PCG 24, 40%) and the main difference between that game and this is one of accessibility - there's no need to swamp the player with reams and reams of essentially meaningless statistics to make the game fun.\r\nThat doesn't mean the game system needs to be over-simplified or reduced to an absurd level to enable novice players to get into it. All it means is that you can take away the boring bits and give the player the chance to enjoy the fun features of the game. This should apply to every game in the world and I'm delighted that wargames and wargame designers are waking up to the idea that it's the challenge of the game - Can you reach the objectives in time? Can you cut the enemies' supply routes? Can you capture and hold this strategic town/hill/bridge? - that is really important and not whether your infantry platoon is wearing sub-standard fatigues.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Greg Norman Golf","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Greg Norman shuns the traditional golfer's garb. Not for him the wind-filled hoover-bags of the plus-fours, nor the flag-like bloom of the pink flares. No, for this Australian golfing legend, only a cowboy hat and a silver belt buckle will do. Something of an individual, then, is our Greg. And so it is with Grolier's first attempt at a golf sim which has, according to Grolier, taken 'over 20 years' to complete.\r\nSo, what is it about this game that has taken 20 years to get right? The answer, it would seem, is the 'Sim Game'. As well as the usual swingometer-clicking bits, you can now play using nothing but statistics to determine the outcome of your shots. Before you begin, you must give yourself a score for no less than 40 different skills on a five-point scale. Divided into Full Shots (with all clubs), Short Game, Sand, Creative Shots, Putting, Difficult Lies and, mysteriously, Weather, your ratings are fed into the silicon brain of your PC, which does a bit of maths, adds a bit for 'randomness', and comes up with a shot result, all without you even seeing the traditional swingometer. So now you know what I mean when I say that this game is something of an individual. It's also a bit puzzling as to why they've bothered to do this at all. You see, I actually like being in control of my shots. I like clicking once for back-swing, and then again for accuracy, just as I like to actually play Doom rather than watch a rolling demo of someone else's antics.\r\nOnce you get the hang of ignoring this pointless gimmick, you can actually have a pretty good game of golf. Simply choose Arcade Game rather than Sim, and you're away. You can marvel at the gorgeous graphics, which present themselves in no less than 64,000 colours - complete with photo-realistic texturing and multiple viewpoints. You can doff your cowboy hat at the impressive number of shot options, which include the incredibly useful 'loft' control, enabling cunning low shots, and bunker-beating extra-high ones, with added back-spin. You could even write to Greg Norman to tell him how great he is at designing courses - The Medalist course is enjoyably tough, with plenty of trees and lots of watery bits - which remind me of that old 8-bit classic Leaderboard on the Commodore 64.\r\nThe water isn't all that takes me back - the ball does too. One of the first things you notice about golf is that the ball is always round. This has always been so, and just about every golf game, from PGA to Links, agrees. So why is the ball shaped like a bar of soap in Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf? You may also find yourself stomping on your hat in frustration at the sluggish re-draw times, which average about 15 seconds - even on our Porsche-like Pentium. \r\nGrolier haven't done a bad job with this. Greg Norman Golf is only a few shots behind the competition, and, although it's not as perfect as PGA 96, nor as quick as Microsoft Golf, it does look and play like a winner. Even with the silly hat.","PUBID":57},{"GAMENAME":"Assault Rigs","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Assault Rigs: It's Doom - but in a tank. Which, on the face of it, sounds like a perfectly splendid idea. And, indeed, after considerable play I find that Psygnosis have created a well-crafted and considerably absorbing game.\r\nAssault Rigs is, with commendable irony, a computer game of a futuristic computer game, and I can recommend the introduction, which charts the progress of games from Pong through current Virtual Reality games (featuring boxy polygon men staggering about shooting each other) to Assault Rigs, which supposedly involves sitting inside a huge machine that spins you around and shakes you about as your tank absorbs laser bolts. Your PC won't be doing any of that, of course (although a couple of ours sometimes come close), so we're left with, as I said, Doom - but in a tank. The manual blathers on about The Net, and sport being replaced by 'jockeys' guiding 'Rigs' into 'cyber-oblivion', and I was driven to hurl it from the window.\r\nThe Assault Rigs environment is fairly sophisticated, with ramps to drive up and down, lifts, sliding blocks, and a variety of opponents including other tanks and static guns. It all works in proper, Descent-style 3D, so when you're playing from the first-person view the screen tilts when you drive up hills and flips over altogether if your tank catches a ramp at the wrong angle and flops over onto its back. The early levels have a simplistic appearance, and I was reminded of Spindizzy on the Spectrum, but later on things get a bit more rugged and metallic.\r\nAssault Rigs makes much of its multi-player mode, so that's how I tried it out to begin with. I was disappointed. No matter how much you practise with them, the tanks are never as easy to manoeuvre as, for example, the characters in Doom. They rotate just a little too slowly, they strafe even more slowly (although a strafing tank is an impressive spectacle), and they're forever overshooting the edges of ledges and falling off.\r\nWorst of all, some chump has decided that, whenever tanks collide with a wall, however gently, rather than just stopping dead they should spin through a seemingly random number of degrees. So you can be engaged in a ferocious exchange of laser fire with your enemy, side-stepping and backing away slowly in an attempt to dodge his bullets, when you'll nudge a wall and suddenly flip around to face in another direction, instantly becoming a sitting duck and dying. As a result, Assault Rigs deathmatches tend to degenerate into face-to-face slog-outs, with players driving around until they find each other and then sitting still and firing a lot until someone dies. Having regenerated, the loser will then most likely go off in search of his debilitated opponent and kill him back. And so it continues. Simon and I rapidly tired of this, and decided that you'd be much better off playing Doom or Quake.\r\nLuckily, though, Assault Rigs seems to work much more successfully as a one-player game. You've still got the randomly-spinning tank to contend with, but without the pressure of other players bearing down on you, you can take the time to avoid walls. I was also riled by missile launchers that fire guided missiles at you from right across on the other side of the level EVEN WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE THEM; I tried eliminating them at the beginning of the game, but was then further disturbed when they regenerated a minute or two later, like a dreadful platform game. Apart from that, though, Assault Rigs is a compelling game of against-the-clock exploration where you've got to track down a certain number of crystals and make it to the exit before the timer runs out while collecting extra weapons. The level design is reasonably intriguing, with power-ups placed at the top of tricky-to-reach bits, and amusingly sloped surfaces that your tanks can barely scramble up. There's a range of five different views, but most are completely useless owing to a tendency for the camera to keep zooming sickeningly in and out whenever your back's to a wall, so the first-person one is the only feasible option. Passwords allow repeated access to later levels, and the played-from-the-CD music is fitting if stridently modern.\r\nWhile I can't imagine enticing anyone into further Assault Rigs deathmatches, I'll certainly be returning alone to investigate the later levels. The quirky controls irritate me constantly, but I'm keen to see how the rest of the levels pan out. There are only 40 or so, though, apparently, and the ones I've played aren't exactly huge, so I wonder how long it'll be before I've conquered them all.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Jane's Advanced Tatical Fighters","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"50.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the perennial faves of software houses and certain developers is the flight sim. Every month another one pops out to be gobbled up by a seemingly insatiable public. Indeed, this month we've got two of the beasts competing for the hearts and minds of the sim-loving public (not to be confused with the Sim-loving public, who like building little towns and tower blocks).\r\nSilent Thunder from Sierra is the follow-up to the solid-but-unspectacular A-10 Tank Killer, and Jane's Advanced Tactical Fighters (to be called ATF from here on in) is the first EA game to wear the Jane's badge, and is based on the US Navy Fighters engine. It should perhaps be pointed out here that the Jane's Information Group is a sort of library of all the world's fighting machines (well, the ones the world is allowed to know about) and as such is a worthy licence to add to any combat sims you have in development.\r\nSeemingly the best thing to do, then, would be to compare the two games and see which one's best. But, as it transpires, that's not such a good idea because actually the two games are different sorts of flight sim. Silent Thunder is a close-to-the-ground, support-your-troops kinda game while ATF is more get-up-to-30,000-feet-and-intercept bandits, so the flavour's entirely different.\r\nThe games do have some common ground, though: graphics and sound. Both have 'em. Silent Thunder's graphics are better than ATF's because the ground is so pleasingly texture-mapped - a good thing considering you spend most of your time flying just above it. ATF, on the other hand, has nice(ish) ground but you don't get to fly so close to it so often. You do get to look at more clouds, though, and there are good sun effects whereby the screen whites out. Explosions in both games are tremendous, smoke trails from launched missiles are equally impressive, and both games' front ends and menus are of the standard that today's flight/combat sim fans expect. I would say, though, that the A-10's cannon fire is more impressive than any of the cannons in ATF, and you get to give it plenty of use strafing targets on the ground. On the other hand, ATF is slightly smoother on the whole than Silent Thunder, which does tend to freeze the screen or chug slightly every now and again.\r\nAs for sound, both games have excellent in-game speech. Silent Thunder's is sort of matey and chummy - 'We've got friendlies pinned down up North, let's see if we can't help 'em out some' - while ATF's is more formal and clinical - 'Vector to Angels 20, Intercept Bandits'. Sound effects of guns being fired, missiles being launched and all the various warning beeps and buzzes you get when missiles are about to slam into you are good in both games, although there are more of them in ATF.\r\nIt's when you knuckle down and start flying properly that the two games move apart. \r\nSilent Thunder provides 24 missions rolled into a continuous campaign taking \t the player to three theatres of war: South America, Persian Gulf and Korea. You get the chance to play missions individually in any theatre if you so desire, but then you do lose some of the atmosphere and involvement - Silent Thunder makes good play of the 'do something on this mission and it'll have an effect on a later one' feature of good campaign design. There's not too much opportunity to personalise things, as even after you've entered your name and call-sign the game insists on calling you Haggart all the time.\r\nThe missions start with your primary and secondary targets being given to you, and then the missions tend to expand once you're playing. For example, you're told to take out some reinforcements that are arriving at position X. You take 'em out, and suddenly you're told to go and do something else. I like it when games do this, as it gives an impression of a real world going on outside your cockpit.\r\nThe tactics are simple in that all you really have to worry about is what weapons to carry and how to go about taking out an enemy tank/building that's in a particularly awkward spot.\r\nATF again gives the player the chance to play single missions or take their created pilot through a campaign. There are two theatres - Egypt in the near future or Russia a few more years after that - and there's a variety of planes to choose from, beginning with cutting edge ones like the F-117, extending towards experimental planes like the X-29, and throwing in the B-2 and the gunship version of the Hercules for good measure. ATF responds well to your personalising the game in that it uses whatever call signs you've decided on and you can see the nose and tail art you've picked when you call up one of the out-of-cockpit views.\r\nMissions are given to you straighter, in that the mission objectives are clear - 'Keep all the invading Chinese planes out of Russian airspace at border Y.Ó Then it's a case of the player deciding how best to tackle the three waves of Chinese planes that come flying in during the patrol. (ATF gives you a wingman who you can tell to do things like 'Go and engage those planesÓ.)\r\nSo which is more fun to play? Silent Thunder is simpler, the plane's easy to fly and the missions are fun. ATF is more high-brow in that combat at 30,000 ft can be very tactical, and you'll need to know your Immelmans from your Split Esses if you're to shake that AMRAAM off your tail. You've also got the chance to choose from several aircraft for each mission (every time you prang one, though, it has to undergo several hours of refitting before you can use it again). This can be quite fun at first, until you realise that choosing to fly a B-2 (that great big black radar-invisible thing you see in books) against some Islamic Egyptian M-2000's (I'm not even going to start on EA's religious and political ethics...) is not such a hot idea as the thing can't carry air-to-air missiles.\r\nAs for which one to buy, well, if you've got a recent combat/flight sim like EF2000, then Jane's offers essentially more of the same. Silent Thunder has more of that down-in-the-dirt feel as it's more about flying the one plane on support missions - very much like Core's Thunderhawk. If I had to choose, though, I'd go for ATF as it's got more depth (multi-player option, ability to design and fly your own missions and so on).\r\nBoth games are worthy and fun to play, but neither is head and shoulders above any of the competition that's already out there.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Silent Thunder","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"See Jane's ATF review.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Bad Mojo","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As a game developer attempting to be noticed in the teeming streets of the Tokyo-like world of PC games, you're at an immediate advantage if you manage to create an unusual-feeling world in which to set your game. An elaborate and brightly coloured hat, if you like. Adeline succeeded with Little Big Adventure's sinistery-occupied cities; the cartoon pirates of Monkey Island remain imprinted on the minds of those who've met them; and James informs me that Star Control II managed the same sort of thing, somehow. Bad Mojo does too.\r\nStart up Bad Mojo and you immediately become a realistically animated cockroach walking around the photographed-and-then-digitised rooms of a house. It's kind of like a realistic version of Micro Machines, expect with a cockroach, and puzzle-solving instead of racing. And no other cars, obviously. And it looks absolutely fantastic - you really are a cockroach, scuttling across piles of mouldering food, around ashtrays, and through the innards of a radio, attempting to find out how to get turned back into a misguided scientist, or something. The house is owned by a fat old bloke in a vest whose wife has died, so it's all gone to pot rather, making it both ideal cockroach territory and exceedingly unpleasant - you'll encounter bleeding rat corpses and a fish on a chopping board that's about to be cooked but is still gasping for breath. \r\nThe world flip-screens rather than scrolls, and the great majority of the screens are empty. A bed, for example, is comprised of 48 screens, only two of which are significant. Much of one's playing time is therefore spent scuttling across vast tracts of floor and wall to find the, maybe, four or five puzzles that each room contains, and I soon found my eyelids growing heavy. There are only four control keys - left, right, backwards and forwards - reflecting the fact that you're a cockroach and can't really do much. All the puzzles therefore involve nudging razor blades off shelves or touching bits of wire together by walking into them, which makes a change, but scarcely quickens the pulse.\r\nDespite its wonderfully-crafted environment, Bad Mojo is, basically, desperately superficial when compared with its adventure game peers like Zork Nemesis and Normality. Its fate seems assured. But wait! Who is this, swinging in at the last moment from a nearby rooftop? No! But it is! It is, of all things, some pre-rendered video sequences, played in a small window in the middle of the screen. And, unbelievably, they appear to have rescued Bad Mojo.\r\nYes, readers. Bad Mojo is elevated from 'ferociously dull' to 'actually quite intriguing, and possessed of significant must-find-out-what-happens-next powers' by some beautifully-produced video clips which are activated by walking over special secret symbols, and in which fellow creepy-crawlies like slugs and ants give you clues in Rupert Bear rhyming couplets against swirling backgrounds and strange music. Thank goodness.\r\nOh, except I've just remembered. It's got unanticipatable deaths and gives you three lives. In an adventure game. Tsk.","PUBID":2},{"GAMENAME":"BakuBaku","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the more bearable weeks of my life took place a couple of years ago, upon the release of Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Sega Mega Drive. It was a game in a similar vein to Tetris, both in the way coloured blocks rained down from above and in the way these coloured blocks would then invade one's central nervous system until it was impossible to do anything - sleep, watch Casualty - for little imaginary coloured blocks.\r\nBakuBaku Animal (subtitle: World Zookeeper Challenge) is therefore welcome. It's Dr Robotnik again - which itself started life as Columns - except with a couple of twists.\r\nFor those who've played Dr Robotnik, then: Pairs of coloured blobs fall down the screen again, except this time they're either food or animals. You've got to make rows and columns of food, and then slot in the appropriate animal next to them to make them all disappear. Pandas eat bamboo shoots, for example, and monkeys eats bananas. And the sound effects are different, so when you scatter a few blocks onto your enemy there's a cry of 'More!', a good sprinkling is greeted by 'Motherman!', and a thorough hammering earns a jubilant 'Manito!'. Rather than the useless grey boulders of Dr Robotnik, though, in BakuBaku you shower your opponent with food and animals, which can occasionally work to your disadvantage.\r\nAnd for those who haven't played Dr Robotnik: Pairs of blobs fall down the screen, and can be moved and rotated like Tetris blocks until they reach the floor. The whole screen will eventually fill with blobs and you will lose - unless, that is, you can make blobs disappear by placing identical ones together, as described above. The real fun comes when you're playing against a chum (the screen's split down the middle so there's no need for a network). Then, every time you make a series of blobs disappear, some extra ones appear on your opponent's side of the screen. And the more you can make disappear at once, the more your pal suffers. So you're constantly trying to strike a balance between stopping the blobs filling the screen too much and setting up fiendish chain reactions whereby a collection of bananas disappearing causes a dog to fall down and eat a load of bones, and that allows a panda to scoff some bean shoots, and so on, until - 'Manito!' - your foe is vanquished.\r\nIt's also, as I've perhaps failed to make clear so far, fearsomely enjoyable. As with the finest two-player games, practise and you'll uncover more and more fiendish tricks, although try too hard and your plans will almost certainly backfire embarrassingly. The zookeeper thing adds a welcome twist to the original Dr Robotnik - you actually get to see the animals eating the food - without corrupting its simplicity too much. And it's got a bizarre Japaneseness that'll be familiar to console gamers but that's rarely seen on the PC.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Bedlam","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Stop me if you've heard this one before: unregulated corporate interests have created a whole new range of biomechanical 'appliances' (or 'biomex'), that have (tch, wouldn't you just know it?) only gone and run amok, slaughtering customers in true unrestrained PR disaster fashion. So, Sinister PLC have called you in, as the sort of hard hitting operative who plays by his own rules but gets results, to clean up the mess.\r\nYou're the best in the business, largely because you're adept at freelancing out the tricky bits of your ops to some gullible dupe who takes all the physical risks. With the personal risk element factored out, you take the command hot seat making all the tough calls and big decisions from Tahiti or somewhere while your three stooges are plugged into RATs (Remote Control Tanks) and dropped straight into Blendersville to knock out vital biomech installations in predictable covert surgical strike team style.\r\nHowever, Bedlam is anything but covert. Giving you control over multiple units in industrial combat zones rendered in isometric 3D, its Syndicate pedigree is unquestionable and it's your guarantee of gratuitous violence. The boot camp - a vegetable's guide to Bedlam - attempts to familiarise you with the non-violent principles such as running over switches to trigger elevators, but the only code understood in this game is the Way of the Rocket Launcher. \r\nEach combat zone is a tortuous madhouse of homicidal maniacs and highly combustible scenery. As soon as you land, the screen erupts into a furious firefight as you lay waste to all in your path - animal, vegetable or mineral. Everything blows up and soon the screen is a holocaust of flame as you scoot your RAT about the maze-like zone, torching ghoulies and searching for big tankers marked fuel - just add ammo and they go KABOOM! Bedlam's designers have evidently taken maximum advantage of this feature by incorporating it into every mission objective and sub-objective; the aim is always the same: blow away the relevant installations to complete the level, evacuate the RATs to the extraction point and bug out to the next mission. You navigate through the zone by disarming laser fences and triggering switches and along the route replenish ammo and energy levels with the obligatory power-ups. There are five themed combat zones, each with a slightly different graphical look - there are office blocks in the Central Business District and aeroplanes in the airport - but they're all mazey and essentially play the same. Along with the mission objectives, this keeps things simple but lacks something in variety.\r\nOnce you've accepted a mission, you tool up with weapons of mass destruction in the armoury. Although, at the beginning of the game, the juicier items are classified and can only be accessed by discovering blueprint weapon power-ups in the field. There are even a couple of non-lethal items of hardware to consider like shield packs and scanners, but real RATs wouldn't be caught dead with them. Your cash flow is limited, however, so some agonising decisions will have to be made about whether homing missiles or bouncing bombs would best offset your plasma cannon. Fortunately, fattening your wad is possible by earning mission completion bonuses and picking up cash power-ups. \r\nControl of the RATs is handled via the rather nifty Cannon Fodder mouse system. Use the mouse to place the cross hair cursor where you want to go and click the left button to trundle off in that direction. Meanwhile, replacing the cursor at incoming nasties and clicking the right button sends a hail of hot lead to their general vicinity. With just a small amount of practice you'll quickly be performing triple axles and skid turns while laying down a curtain of fire in the opposite direction. \r\nThe graphics are dashed attractive and the biomex are all nicely animated. My particular favourites are the stealth mex: translucent killers which are almost impossible to see until they start blasting. The sound, too, is splendidly atmospheric, barraging you with a concussive wall of explosive effects punctuated with the guttural howls of the dying. Particularly well done are the 'personalities' of your RATs. number 1 has an Arnie style accent and a paranoid obsession with people crawling over his rear end, while number 2 is a street jiving, wisecracking mouthy git who instantly irritates. The point being that when one of your parked RATs comes under attack you immediately know which one it is and can jump straight to him to bail him out. \r\nBedlam is nothing if not frenetic; the biomex throw themselves at you in endless waves, forcing you to constantly switch between RATs, the weapons are reasonably exciting, there are 25 missions which should take ages to play through and it offers bucketloads of blasting fun pure and simple. \r\nUnfortunately, however, it is perhaps too simple. Whereas Syndicate, at least, threw in a modicum of strategy and atmosphere with its ultra-violence Bedlam fails to provide anything substantial beyond blasting. The plot is risible and despite all the dressing up of the mission objectives, there is never a feeling that you've affected the game beyond reducing yet another building to rubble. Considering that's all you're doing, it's easy to become blase about the missions and feel no real sense of satisfaction upon completing them. Also, Bedlam commits the cardinal sin of continually regenerating monsters in exactly the same spots, shortly after they go offscreen. This completely eliminates the tactical element from the game as there is no point planning to clear key areas of enemy forces if they're just going to reappear. In the end this only serves to make the game unfair and frustrating. Unfortunately, as the over-complicated zones are so hard to navigate you end up running round in circles for most of the game, and so without this device you'd mostly find yourself travelling through areas devoid of life. \r\nSo, what we have on our hands here is an attractive, enjoyable game that appeals to the base instincts of scorching earth and mass slaughter. However, it lacks originality and variety and woefully under employs the mental faculties. If humanity had to adapt to survive by solely playing Bedlam, we would all become one enormous auto-responsive trigger finger with a dull nervous system.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Hind","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"At first glance, it's easy to dismiss Digital Integration's new flight sim, Hind, as just 'Apache Longbow with a different helicopter'. The two boast the same simplistic visual style, which falls short of the texture-mapped glories of some recent simulations but excels in creating a large, target-rich landscape with hills, valleys and small, Lego-esque towns. But Hind is more than just another outing for DI's 3D engine and a chance to add some new object graphics. Flying this antiquated beast of a helicopter is a challenge in itself, and even if you consider yourself something of an aerial veteran, piloting an Mi-24 Hind after the computerised luxury of the AH-64 Apache is like driving a Morris Minor after a weekend in a Ferrari.\r\nDeveloped by the team behind the popular sim Apache and the hyper-realistic Tornado, Hind is a rivet-perfect simulation of Russia's famous helicopter gunship, the Mi-24 Hind E. Recently on show bombarding separatist rebels in the satellite state of Chechnya, the Hind is a formidable and effective attack helicopter able to carry a wide array of weaponry ranging from rocket pods to devastating fuel air bombs and 'Spiral' air-to-ground missiles. It can also carry soldiers into battle, and this multi-role aspect is what gives the Digital Integration sim a new and interesting slant. Unlike Apache, Hind introduces the idea of ground troops, individually animated soldiers that stride across the battlefield carrying assault rifles, surface-to-air missiles and large AA machine guns.\r\nWhere Tornado was 'simulation first, game second', DI have made an effort to keep their new breed of sims highly playable without losing any of the realism. For the impatient flyer, for example, there's a useful Quickstart option, which gets you up into the air and into the thick of the action with unlimited fuel, unlimited weapons, simplified arcade-style controls and lots of things to shoot. The presentation is exquisite, with beautifully drawn menu screens and animations, not to mention an on-line manual where every panel, dial, rivet and lever is explained in exhaustive detail. So, if you want to know why the Hind cockpit colour scheme is blue, you can look it up here.\r\nLike Apache, Hind is extremely comprehensive and caters for every sort of flight-sim player. A set of gentle training missions slap a large 'L' plate on your aircraft, take you by the hand and lead you through the Hind's handling, its weapons systems and the air-support/troop deployment role that it was designed for. After this, the single missions take place in three very different scenarios. In Korea severe weather has affected the grain harvest in the North and the government is preparing to invade the South in search of food supplies. You must aid the North Korean offensive providing battlefield air-support for the ground troops. In Afghanistan, five years after the Russian invasion, the second Kunar offensive aims to pick up where the first one failed Ñ opening the vital Jalalabad to Chagha Sarai road, cutting enemy supply lines, destroying Mujaheddin resistance and establishing garrisons. And finally, in Kazakstan elements of the Kazak army have mutinied in response to financial and social pressure from Russia, and as heavy fighting breaks out in the capital city the government requests assistance from the Russians to defeat the rebels and restore control.\r\nAs you'd expect, there are a wide variety of tasks for the fledgling Hind commander to get his/her tactical teeth stuck into, from battlefield support and troop drops, to dramatic rescue missions and full-on aerial assaults. But obviously, the real meat and two veg of the sim are the campaigns, three multi-level, multi-mission story lines that link together the single missions. Finally, there are extensive multi-player options which allow you to fly head-to-head, to fly any of the single missions cooperatively or to pit the Hind vs Apache (if you own both games). Again, like Apache, there's also the option to let two players crew the same Hind, one player acting as the pilot, the other as the weapons officer. There's a network mode too, which allows up to sixteen chopper enthusiasts, flying a mix of Hinds or Apaches, to fight for their lives in the ultimate aerial deathmatch.\r\nIn fact, the two games (Hind and Apache) link together in what DI are calling its Virtual Battlefield. One of the newest features, apart from the introduction of ground troops, is the 'Silicon WSO', an intelligent crew member who performs the functions of the weapons systems officer who sits in the front cockpit. So that players can fly the Hind single-handedly, the WSO can take care of the basic gunnery duties (i.e. the aiming) so all the battle-stressed pilot has to do is press the space bar to fire the selected weapon.\t\r\nThis is just one of the options that makes the Hind a joy to fly. At its simplest the complicated helicopter controls - the cyclic, collective and tail rotor mechanics - can be mastered even by the flight sim novice. The 'Q' and 'A' keys take care of the altitude, 'Z' and 'X' control the tail rotor while the cursor keys look after the flying. There are three different flight models to cater for both the cloud jockey and the confident sim veteran. Novice is the flying equivalent of slapping an L plate on your Hind, the Stable mode is more representative of real helicopter handling, while Realistic is, as you'd expect, as real as it's likely to get. You can use a joystick (or two, and a set of pedals for the ultimate ride) but to be honest, it's just as easy to fly the Hind with the keyboard.\r\nImagine flying across the plains of Afghanistan, attacking Mujaheddin rebels who hide in the sand dunes with SAM missiles and heavy machine guns. Hind is a helicopter game unlike anything you'll have played before, an intriguing mix of traditional air-to-ground interdiction and battlefield support duties that include troop drops, pilot rescues and dramatic medical evacuations. With a wide range of weapons packages, Hind has the excitement of Apache with the added dimension of its role as a front-line troop carrier. The mere sight of a Hind hovering on the horizon is usually enough to put the wind up any ground forces, but judging by the number of times my terrifying helicopter exploded into a cloud of shrapnel, the Hind is only a fearsome opponent if I'm not actually flying it at the time. My wingman (who you can give basic orders to) didn't seem to fare much better either. He'd obviously been to the same flying school as me.\r\nIt really sends the heart racing when you have to charge into a hot-zone, dodging enemy ground fire to pick up a squad of wounded, out-gunned soldiers. The ground detail is still a little uninspiring by modern standards, especially as you spend so much time 30ft away from it. But it's an effective simplicity, allowing Hind to have a 'target-rich environment' and a battlefield that's full of independent action. Thankfully, though, gamers shouldn't be disappointed because Hind provides a stiff challenge with a wide range of missions and campaigns to keep even the most demanding flyer interested. Even veteran pilots should find the Hind a draw. DI's commitment to producing top-quality simulations that behave and handle like the real thing is unquestionable. Before Apache, their Tornado flight sim was even snapped up by the RAF as a training aid. It didn't make the greatest of games, but its recreation of the Tornado's flight model was nigh-on perfect.\r\nWith its excellent presentation, multi-player options aplenty and a wide range of missions and campaigns, Hind is a superbly comprehensive and playable flight sim. The troop transportation aspect of the game adds a whole new dimension to the tired old helicopter sim, and as it can also be linked up with DI's previous game, Hind's mix of ageing technology and involving gameplay is an irresistible prospect for flight sim fans. You might say that it's the Quake of old Russian helicopters. Basically, it's great; in the same way that watching missiles drop from their pylons and streak away into the distance or the glint of sunlight on an Su-27's wingtips is great. If you don't like either of those things, you won't like Hind.","PUBID":37},{"GAMENAME":"Blue Ice","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you were to put a Dalek or a similarly wheeled logician in front of Blue Ice and tell it that its destiny as master of the Cosmos could only be fulfilled by completion of this highly eccentric adventure, it wouldn't be long before it was spinning around on its little castors, pounding its sucker arm on the keyboard in frustration, smoke pouring from its grates, while screeching 'Does not conform! Malfunction! Malfunction!' For the conventional rules of logic simply don't apply to Blue Ice.\r\nEach of Blue Ice's locations is a visual riddle fusing graphics, photographic images, incidental music and the odd animation to form the sort of surreal dreamscapes that more traditionally belong to a disturbed nights sleep than a PC adventure game. Whether Blue Ice will keep you up at night, however, rather depends on whether you enjoy hours of quietly probing locations with your pointer and gradually coaxing sense out of the myriad of visual, aural and text-based clues that you unearth. If you're a disciple of instant gratification, Blue Ice is not the game for you. Its closest PC relative is the venerable Myst (PCG 6, 59%), suffused as it is with an eerie atmosphere and complex puzzles.\r\nThe game revolves around events in the fantasy kingdom of Icia, a world crushed under the weight of its own body of law. Countless rules and regulations have destroyed all individual expression, turning Icia into a land devoid of music, love and everything else that makes life bearable. It is your task to convince the young king to repeal these oppressive laws by manipulating events and characters so that he is exposed to life's delights.\r\nWorking that much out is easy, as initially Blue Ice is gentle on the old grey matter. However, all too soon it harbours its secrets with miserly intent, and progress is painfully slow. The arcane and multi-layered nature of the clues means that you often miss something vital and end up spending hours sitting in a mental cul-de-sac, searching the screen for divine inspiration or just clicking randomly hoping for a lucky break. Often the reward for solving a puzzle seems pitiful when you find yourself constantly hitting dead ends after every inch of progress. \r\nAnd yet, if you're in the right mood, the complexity of the game and the fact that it actually makes you think works in its favour. At times your head feels like an internal combustion engine with little ideas constantly exploding inside your brain as you unlock further secrets that prompt you to try a different approach to problems that previously had you stumped. The locations beguile and intrigue with optical illusions, and as you probe deeper into the game the clues force you to be constantly inventive. \r\nBlue Ice is a challenge, and like any challenge the pleasure, for those with enough resolve, is in being its equal. Don't expect too many visceral kicks, but for anyone who delights in the art of lateral thinking Blue Ice will give weeks if not months of hardcore puzzle pondering.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Robert E Lee: Civil War General","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"38.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you fancy re-enacting historical battles in this country the chances are you'll find yourself, sooner or later, taking part in the Civil War. And the same, it seems, is true of the USA. Except that there you'd find yourself re-enacting their civil war. Which was different. I mention this because when you play Robert E Lee: Civil War General you'll be treated to a great many video clips which seem to have been shot on battle fields during the American Civil War, but which must, upon careful reflection, have been filmed much later; say, during re-enactments of the battles.\r\nThese clips, though by no means essential to the game, do add a little extra atmosphere and excitement to what is, at first glance, just another wargame. Ah, but after the first glance I noticed that my 'troops', rather than being merely numbers or badges on a hex field, are little men. And slowly, as I tried to re-enact specific historical battles, or take command of one side for a whole campaign, I found myself becoming increasingly involved in their fate - when they charged I believed it was ragged bands of Confederate or Union soldiers who charged, not a few blobs on a map.\r\nThere are plenty of pre-set historical battles for you to choose from (can you, for instance, reverse the Confederacy's fortunes on day three of the Battle Of Gettysburg?) and several levels of difficulty.\r\nIt has, for all its clever little enticements and its apparent historical accuracy, all the faults of a lesser, not the least being that by the time all the units have arrived on the battlefield it can take the computer many minutes to complete its moves, leaving you with nothing to do but hum marching tunes and other rousing songs as you wait for your turn. \r\nWhen it comes, though, your turn is packed with the sort of drama I never thought I'd find in any wargame. I'm so taken with it I'm off to do some historical research.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Time Warp Of Dr Brain","Percentage":22,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"28.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If I told you to put your hands on your head, and then asked you for £28, you'd probably assume that I was mugging you, rather than trying to sell you a computer game largely based on variations of Simple Simon. And if I was Sierra's marketing division, you'd be right.\r\nDr Brain is an appalling collection of puzzles that doesn't even deserve the half a CD-ROM it comes on (the other half is the Mac version of the game, always a sign of a sure-fire winner). There are ten different puzzles, three different difficulty levels and a rather novel intro screen where you choose the option you want by playing a game of Space Invaders and shooting flying saucers representing 'new game' or 'quit' or whatever. This intro screen is easily the best bit of the game and is where most of the marks have been awarded.\r\nThe ten puzzles are:\r\nl Primordial Soup. You control an amoeba, so does the computer. Eat food and the amoebas multiply. And they can fight (this involves directing them towards each other). The best puzzle.\r\nl Spelunking. Guide a lungfish through an underwater labyrinth before it runs out of oxygen. Avoid monsters! Collect oxygen!\r\nl Lizards and Eggs. Keep your eggs on hot, er, holes in the ground by running around hilariously. When the hole goes cold, click on it and watch as your lizard runs over and picks up the egg. Click on a hot hole and the lizard runs there and puts the egg down. What a hoot!\r\nl Beaver Dam. Build a dam across the river. Avoid logs. And turtles. And fish. And rats (or whatever they are). Collect twigs.\r\nl Caveman Rock. Simple Simon with music.\r\nl Monkey See, Monkey Do. Play a simple word game by placing letters on a grid to spell words, half of which the computer won't recognise.\r\nl Alchemy. Simple Simon, again. Only made complicated.\r\nl Gridlock. Set the switches to guide the car through the maze.\r\nl Spaceshop. Copy the picture. Essentially Simple bloody Simon again.\r\nl Brainwaves. Discover the logic relationships by listening to twaddle like 'Sonia is older than Keith', 'Bill's favourite animal is the rhino'. And the like.\r\nSo, awful puzzles, pleasingly presented it must be confessed, that seem too simplistic for an adult audience, yet are explained in such a way by the computer's voice that it took a fairly literate team of journalists several minutes to work out the instructions for each puzzle, something that would have any child under the age of 20 wandering off to the kitchen in search of crisps. Or Smarties.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Bud Tucker In Double Trouble","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There comes a time in any point-and-click adventure when you have to sit back and contemplate exactly what you're doing, and exactly how it's helping you in your quest. For me, while semi-immersed in Bud Tucker In Double Trouble, this point came as I edged closer to discovering exactly where the evil madman was keeping my kidnapped mad scientist friend, The Professor. \r\nHow the devil did I manage to find him, you ask? Why, by simply picking up a sawfish I found at the docks, using it to saw a branch off a tree at the park, finding a piece of string at the museum, attaching it to the safety pin I picked up at the hotel, then attaching that to my newly-sawn branch to create an impromptu fishing rod, of course! This, combined with the membership to the Fisherman's Guild I'd managed to secure but an hour earlier, earned me a much-coveted security pass, with which I was able to pass unnoticed into the lair of the terrifying megalomaniac so intent on stealing my crazed Germanic friend. Sounds obvious now I say it. And what's stranger is that, though it may sound as if I've given slightly too much away, I really haven't. The game, in the fine tradition of the point-and-click, is packed with nonsensical solutions to never-in-a-million-years problems. Levels vary intensely from the brilliantly designed and well thought-out, to the overly frustrating, and what's more, Bud Tucker is - and I apologise for this - a cocky little American git.\r\nIt's heavily, heavily billed as a 'comedy' adventure, y'see. Bud Tucker is yer wise-cracking, sarcastic and loveable rogue, always ready with a cheeky wink and a knock-knock joke for all. The thing is, though, that Bud Tucker is not a funny puppy. He is, as I say, a cocky little American git. The point of point-and-clicks, it seems, is to try things out; to learn through failure. How you're supposed to manage this when there's some baseball-jacketed, quiffed-up teenager ready to criticise your every move with an achingly witless, pointlessly sarcastic comment, is beyond me. \r\nUnderneath its obvious cosmetic 'difficulties', however, it's a likeable enough adventure, with more twisted cliches than you could shake a battered hattersly at. It's stylishly designed, with a range of well-drawn characters and backdrops to fiddle around with, but in the end, you've got to seriously consider whether you can possibly bear to spend money just to spend time with Bud bloody Tucker and his rent-a-quip stupidity. Guybrush Threepwood, however... such a nice young man. I think you know what I'm saying.","PUBID":24},{"GAMENAME":"Bug!","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"In terms of media interest and (much, much more importantly) consumer spending, there's now really only one videogame console in Britain: the Sony PlayStation. A couple of years ago, in the days of the 16-bit Mega Drive, Sega was king, but their new console, the Saturn, has so far been beaten all-ends-up by the Sony new boys.\r\nThe main reason the Saturn initially failed to sell (despite a head start on Sony) was the line-up of games available on launch. Virtua Fighter (pre-remix) looked dated next to Sony's Tekken and Toshinden, Daytona ran with huge screen borders and just didn't compare to the PlayStation's Wipeout and Ridge Racer, and Clockwork Knight was rubbish. The only game that really set the Saturn apart was an unheralded title from Sega US, a platform adventure called Bug!\r\nSet in an insect themed world, Bug! casts you as a little green insect with a jaunty walk and bouncy antennae. The idea of the game is to progress through the six differently themed levels (each with two sub-levels and a boss) avoiding a variety of nasties and collecting blue crystals. There's a background story about an evil insect queen kidnapping Bug's mates for vile lunch purposes, but it's all mixed up with a movie star theme. As usual, with platform game stories, no one bothers with it much. \r\nAll very cliched then. But the game's main innovation lies in the way the levels are designed. Traditional platform adventures have usually been dependent on a strictly two dimensional, side-on view of things. Bug! was the first to introduce a real 3D element, allowing movement into and out of the screen, meaning that much more of the level could be seen on screen at one time. While the levels are still very prescriptive, being labyrinth-like in their construction, in the days before the complete freedom of games such as Mario 64 and Tomb Raider they were a big advance.\r\nThe first thing to note about the PC version of Bug! is that it's a port of original Saturn code rather than a complete rewrite specifically for the PC. This has had two effects. Firstly the game suffers badly from pixellation, especially on the game characters, which lose a lot of their charm in the process. Secondly, all the glitches and faults that afflicted the Saturn version make a second, more exaggerated appearance.\r\nYou see, in the early days of 3D landscape programming (especially on the Saturn) no one was really quite sure how the computer should draw 3D landscapes as they moved relative to the viewer. In Bug! they got it horribly wrong. For instance, if Bug stands looking towards the horizon he'll probably only see a short length of platform stretching into the middle distance. However, if he takes three steps into the screen along that platform, the computer will suddenly draw in a huge section of the level all in one go. Now, while this is only mildly annoying (it's nice to know where you're going, after all), it does rather spoil the look and feel of the game. A similar glitch is the way moving blocks (a staple of the platform game) work, ignoring the laws of perspective, making them very tricky to jump on.\r\nNone of this is to say that Bug! is a bad game. Far from it: it's big, difficult and funny in places, and imagination aplenty has gone into the game characters. The way the 'Badass' Daddy Long Legs bug must find and pay to enter the bonus levels is funny, as is the bizarre giant snail, the boss of the first world, who opens a hatch in his shell to spray Bug with fuse-fizzling bombs. Bug's life gauge is a can of juice which can be replenished by finding replacement cans (usually guarded by angry insects) or topped-up via blue hearts. The game is peppered with amusing samples and, while Bug himself sometimes strays into the American side of annoying, as a concept the whole game is genuinely engaging.\r\nThe major gameplay criticism of Bug! the first time around was that the difficulty level was set far too high. This is partly a fault of the unforgiving collision detection (when Bug jumps on his enemies to kill them, the timing must be more-or-less perfect), partly the sheer difficulty of the level design (the bubble obstacle on the second part of level four has been known to kill people with frustration), and partly the lack of passwords and a limited game save. The PC version is no different, so if you do buy the game you might lose hair/sleep/grip on reality, but you'll definitely get your money's worth.\r\nSega made a fantastic debut in the PC market with Virtua Fighter, and with Daytona, Virtua Cop and Panzer Dragoon all due out before Christmas, they have at least three more sure-fire hits this year. Bug!, on the other hand, is more of an acquired taste - one which die-hard platform gamers will enjoy, and one which might convert a few more, but one many will find disappointing. As Sega are proving with the Saturn, they can't have it all their own way all the time.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Command & Conquer: Red Alert","Percentage":95,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"You know those pages in square arty magazines that merely say 'this page intentionally left blank' at the bottom? That's exactly what I feel like writing four times, in small letters, in black, at the bottom of each of the next four pages. \r\nNormally this would be because the game was of such an execrable standard that it would be preferable just to forget about it than try to explain the incompetence, and the resulting programmers' fate in the soup kitchen. With Red Alert, though, it's because every minute I'm typing, I'm not playing the game.\r\nI've now reached that stage where I can't go outside in daylight because my unblinking, hollow, red-veined eyes can't tolerate the sun. So I'll stay inside, prevent retinal damage and start to tell you about the game instead. If I seem occasionally distracted, it's because I have to destroy a bunker complex and I don't have enough cash to build any more V2 rockets.\r\nIt's when you play Red Alert that you realise (once again) that there can't be a future for any but the finest turn-based strategy games. They cannot compete for pure excitement with real-time games like this. And then you realise that only the best real-time games will come close to Command & Conquer. From the starting mission where the basic controls are re-introduced, to the later, almost suicidal, commando raids on enemy bases, everything simply gels together perfectly. Whenever you become stuck or frustrated you secretly know it's because you've missed something or been too hasty rather than because Red Alert is inherently unfair.\r\nBut is it just the same game again with a few new sprites for tanks? Yes and no. There are obviously instantly recognisable features, such as the spice that mutated into Tiberium and is now simply valuable minerals making another depressingly tedious appearance. The construction yard (which looks like a vacuum cleaner lying on its back) still kicks off most missions in one way or another, but it's usually far from a case of just being given one and double-clicking. Sometimes you'll have to capture it from the enemy, and on one mission it's your only method of attack when you start, as you have to run over enemy troops. \r\nThe ground units that've been changed most are probably the engineers. To capture a building in Red Alert it must have been damaged into the red zone by weapon assaults or previous engineers. It makes much more sense to regain control of a building in a virtually obliterated state, quite apart from the fact that it's more vulnerable to counterattack. Do you try to get another engineer in there, repair it and keep it going, or flog it immediately for half the construction price? This greater use of the Sell command becomes more important during the later levels (as it did in C&C: Covert Ops), and even more so when there are enemy ships floating around that can bombard areas from a huge distance.\r\nBoth ship and air power take on a new importance throughout the game. The third-party ships that were seen in C&C are still there, but as you move through the levels the chance to construct your own arises, and with them a whole new range of tactics, usually involving protecting the transports, built in your sub pens, that are packed with your own units. Air power comes into play even earlier. There now seem to be no pre-planned or triggered air strikes (unless I somehow missed them). Building an airfield grants you the ability to construct a Yak attack plane and also sets off the free construction of spy planes, paratroopers and parabombs. When completed each can be used once and then the construction begins again. Paratroopers are superb as decoys and for dropping behind the opposition in a co-ordinated attack (dropping them on their own normally brings the word 'Arnhem' to mind). Parabombs are elongated cluster bombs that are best used against turrets and bunkers, take ages to build and are the nearest thing to an airstrike replacement.\r\nThe spyplane, in conjunction with the fog of war, is probably the biggest difference. Whereas in C&C once the map was uncovered it remained 'live' and visible, it now re-fogs as soon as you've backed off a little. This is certainly better than having a carte blanche to plan attacks, but visibility is so restricted at times it feels like your troops are stuck in a cupboard. So you send out spy planes every few minutes that uncover a circular area on the map to help you plan. To be honest, the fog is the weakest part of the game. Why Westwood didn't just opt for a simple-but-perfect Warcraft II copy-cat technique is a bit puzzling, particularly as the radar is now completely useless - it only shows the areas where your troops are anyway.\r\nThe map design is, as ever, the most critical element in these games. As we'll see with War Wind in a few pages time, dull, boring and averagely designed sprawling maps do not entice you to go sleepless for a night. Red Alert's level designers challenge you from the start. When constructing a base you're rewarded/punished for bravery more than ever before. In the original it was tempting just to plonk the thing down and get cracking, but here (just like exploring for a prime city site in Civ) moving into the map does generally bring more rewards. And you'll also often find that the ideal spot, nearest the most ore, happens to be at the convergence of the enemy's pincer movement attack. \r\nAnd all this inevitably ties in to the computer's play. It's now more aggressive when you're looking vulnerable and less predictable when you're sitting pretty. It makes much greater use of two-pronged attacks and is nothing like as susceptible to one huge thrust up one side of the map. It uses its troops both to reinforce and to attempt breakthrough sabotage attacks better, and it lays down better covering fire with artillery on your infantry, while being more stout in defence. The only major flaw I've discovered so far is that there is rarely more than one ore truck working a field, and the maps pre-set the computer's base structure and defences; minor points compared to the overall improvements. \r\nThe graphics themselves are little changed from the original. If you play through DOS, C&C's VGA seems to be your only option, but Windows 95 users will find a whole SVGA world waiting for them. Here, everything looks so pretty as the tree covered scenery becomes pock-marked, little fluffy rocket trails streak across the sky and dinky puffs of smoke spiral upwards from knackered tanks, that you could almost be in some Orwellian Alice in Wonderland. The fact that the game - once you've become accustomed to clicking on the tiny units - becomes easier and more satisfying to play in SVGA sinks into the background. The radar above the sidebar becomes even more redundant on the smaller maps, because you can see so much more than before. Your assaults assume a new, momentous scale in SVGA, and the post-assault surface devastation puts Z's much vaunted effects into the shade.\r\nIt's also more varied than any other comparable game (including Command & Conquer). The trouble and temptation with having a winning resource management and wargame formula is that it's easy to design every mission to be essentially the same, so as not to upset the apple cart. Warcraft II for example, though essentially superb, only has one type of mission. Westwood have very clearly tried to make the running here with a variety of levels that require radically varied tactics. The majority are still of the traditional establish-a-base, collect-minerals and steadily-attack-the-opposition's-defences-while-building-advancing-and-falling-back variety. Dune II's influence persists. Then there are the Bond-style commando missions that see you with a virtually immortal young lady who single-handedly annihilates an entire continent. These are more reminiscent of Sensible's Cannon Fodder than C&C, but they're excellent escapism because they're used relatively sparingly. One even sees you inside a nuclear reactor in Moscow attempting to rescue some technicians and replace some cooling rods. Time limits are also used here, as with about a quarter of all the tasks. \r\nThe most necessary addition to Red Alert are the difficulty levels. Playing this game will be everyone from OAPs who've found it bundled with their PC to people who could complete Covert Ops with the monitor turned off. There are now five difficulty levels, affecting the damage units cause to each other, and although 'Hard' isn't as stupid as Covert Ops, it should keep most going until Tiberian Sun is released. 'Normal' seems around the same as C&C. \r\nI was so worried that I'd be here now writing, 'Well... yes... it's great, but we saw it years ago in Dune II,' just like I did with my C&C review. And this time I'd planned to swallow a cyanide pill. But I'm not. There are enough tweaks here to ensure it satisfies completely. It's about as different as Civ 2 was to Civ, but the differences are more exciting, if that makes any sense. The deeper you look, the more you'll find.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Chronicles Of The Sword","Percentage":28,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"How many people do you know who bobble about like nervous marionettes while they talk? So why do they do it in Chronicles Of The Sword? No doubt someone told Gerry Anderson that it looked natural when he was making Thunderbirds or Fireball XL5 or whatever came first, and the development team of COTS must have felt the same. What is incredible, though, is that no-one with any influence actually piped up and said, 'Um, excuse me, but that simpleton scratches his leg every four-and-a-half seconds, whether it itches or not. And Merlin just wobbles his shoulders at you like something from Top of the Pops.'\r\nChronicles Of The Sword is a typical adventure lark, at home in any period in time, and settling on this occasion upon the Arthurian legends of the 6th Century. It's all go in Camelot, a silly place by all accounts. In just the first two minutes of the opening sequence, you get knighted and the head priest is chopped into dog-friendly pieces by the evil Lady Morgana. Unlike all too many CD games these days, this introduction is blissfully short and you're soon into the game. The quietly understated plot runs thus: go and see Merlin, but don't take the mick out of his appallingly unconvincing Welsh accent or he'll zap you with his ray-beam eyes. Of course, finding the wizardly old devil isn't easy, but once you have, you receive another mission, the conclusion of which hides behind increasingly complex challenges.\r\nEach of the locations has been beautifully rendered in SVGA, and, when they're static at least, the graphics look impressive. But, sadly, the animation of your character is woefully inadequate. As the soppily-named Gawain, you seem to stub your toe as you walk up stairs, such is your disregard for the various surfaces underfoot. And the dialogue is of a similar quality. Click on a door in Merlin's Tower and Gawain stutters, 'I... It's... It's a door!'\r\nMore pressingly, though, the puzzles don't seem terribly cleverly designed either. Right at the start you're unable to enter Morgana's chamber until you've given the porter a drink. Despite finding beer aplenty and a lingerie-shop's-worth of cups, Gawain refuses to pick up any of the important-looking goblets. 'Just borrow it for a moment, you stubborn git!' you want to shout. With no way to skip past another slow, lumbering walk from one end of the screen to another, your mind soon wanders from goblets of ale to pint-glasses of cold beer at the pub.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Civilization 2","Percentage":96,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"How do you improve on perfection? How do you take a game that almost every programmer in the world would like to put their name to... and make it better? Do you return your baby to the cradle and start all over again - revolutionary concepts, untried themes and surprising settings in an effort to experiment with everything? Or do you look at your grown-up, successful, loved and prosperous child and try to imagine the few bits of it that you could have done just that little bit better? Civ all worked fine in the end, but was by no means perfect. And there's no mistaking that for its sequel, the father of Civilization 2, Sid Meier, has chosen the latter approach.\r\nAt first it's all very disappointing. Start the game up and, if you've played the original, you'll find it's all very familiar. You can use exactly the same tactics to get your first settlement up and running. Find a city anywhere half-decent, whack the science rate up as high as it'll go, build the basic military unit (now warriors rather than militia) to go exploring, follow it up with a phalanx and then a settler, see what advances you've made, and take it from there. But it's at about this stage that the subtle differences that now permeate the game start to become apparent.\r\nThe monetary system throughout the game is much more dependent on your governmental regime than it was in Civ. You start off with Despotism, the least productive but simplest form of man management. But as a despot more interested in barbaric suppression than enlightened thinking you can only allocate a maximum of 60% of all available funds to science. Technological advances come slower from the start, but you'll be making some money as compensation. On the harder playing levels technology is everything and so the incentive to change to a more civilised form of government, which can assign more resources to science quickly, is strong. Playing as Monarchy, now a more powerful form of government, the percentage rises to 70%, and as a Democracy it hits the magic 100%. The system works well and makes building the Great Library even more vital. \r\nPlaying around with your city production options also brings a major surprise. Now when you switch between Military, Civilian and Wonder production you incur a 50% penalty. No longer can you have hordes of almost-trained librarians taking to the battlefield as legions, presumably equipped with heavy books as weapons. Long-term planning becomes more important and the game becomes harder, and it's impossible to fault the improvement.\r\nIn Civ it was never long before you were in the grip of an uncontrollable bloodlust urge that compelled you to attack your friendly neighbours. This fact of life hasn't altered one iota, but quite how you go about it has. Every unit still has Attack, Defence and Movement attributes, there are also now Hit-points and Firepower. Each unit can sustain damage equal to its Hit-points multiplied by ten, and every time a unit wins a round of combat its Firepower rating is subtracted from the loser's Hit-points. Every unit also has a coloured bar overhead representing remaining percentage Hit-points, and they slug it out until one dies. This system not only eliminates all of the one-off absurd situations of trireme splinters sinking battleships, but it leaves victorious units vulnerable to attack if the fight was tough. You can partially repair units by resting them for a turn, and of course they recover faster in cities or in special bases. It's an excellent system, balancing the game perfectly, but still not totally removing the occasional surprise, but not stupid, success stories.\r\nBut what if you can resist fighting to win? Do the new diplomatic approaches work, or are the enlightened Egyptians as stupid as they always were? Well, they're not, but they're still hardly geniuses. The continuous double-crossing that has always been possible is gone forever, and it's been replaced by what could be known as loyalty ratings. Put simply, it doesn't matter how appallingly you treat someone as long as you never promise to treat them well. Seems slightly ropy logic to me, but I'll let the philosophers sort the question out. Particularly on the higher levels there's very little forgiveness, and treaties are meant to be absolute. No matter what improvements have been made, and they are considerable, I can't imagine how you can win on a high level with peaceful expansionism by building a spaceship and without attacking anyone. (I'll try it and let you know if it's possible in the next issue.) \r\nCivilization already had a huge number of possible military units and structures to construct, and now there are even more of both. This is one area which has been tweaked and expanded rather than overhauled radically. Paratroopers, fanatics, cruise missiles and stealth bombers all make an appearance and can now annihilate the 14 new Wonders of the World plus more common supermarkets, research labs, offshore platforms and coastal fortresses. To balance the new units, certain A/D/M ratings have been slightly altered for the military, and certain effects and prices of the city's buildings have been changed a little. Battleships have become less powerful and air attacks can be thwarted by SAM sites. The changes are welcome, and do nothing but add to the feel and depth of Civ 2 while remaining in keeping with the previously established structure.\r\nCiv's AI was great until you discovered how much it cheated. It's cleaned up its act to a huge degree (or at least cheats less obviously) and it makes you feel better about being up against the odds. Travellers report when a leader has started to construct, or is about to complete, a wonder so you no longer have the Pyramids spring out of a size three city you'd been intent on destroying for ten turns. It also makes a much greater use of fortresses, particularly on roads three squares out from the city. It makes them a git to get to, but I suppose it's sensible and you can do it too.\r\nBut undoubtedly the most obvious and radical departure from Civilization are the new graphics. Many people thought that if Civ had a weakness, it was its looks, but when it was released in 1991 the average machine was a 286/12MHz and they appealed to everyone. Today, it is obviously time to move on, but is an isometric 3D the right direction in which to have headed? In principle, yes, but when you sit down and have to play the game with the number pad, doubts quickly form in your mind. This sounds stupid, but often you don't know which key to press to move your units in a certain direction. It's not just me developing a squint over the past few weeks - other people send their catapults merrily off into the desert when they want to attack an enemy unit. It sounds ridiculous, but it doesn't seem to get easier with time. I never thought I'd like the idea of returning to a 2D display but at times an option would have been useful.\r\nThis isn't to say that the 3D approach is worthless, because for the most part the movement problem doesn't come into play (although it's a significant failing when you try to drown your rifleman). The multi-layered zoom facility works superbly and all the units are well-drawn, and when you're up close it's strangely pleasing to see them sitting there looking vicious. The varied city depictions on the main map that change as your city grows are a massive improvement over the bland boxes with numbers, and so are the fake 3D city close-up graphics, replacing those ever faker 3D graphics of the original. Civilization was never about its graphics and it's still not. It's just about the only gripe I could find.\r\nWhen I started writing this review I was determined to say that it isn't a big enough advance over the original, that it's more like Civ 1.5, that the improvements would have been better implemented in CivNet, etc. Now, 2,000 words later, I've completely changed my mind. It's been impossible to list all the major changes, let alone the little ones. Most are behind the scenes and only become apparent after weeks of playing, but you'll be able to discover and decide on all those yourself as you play it.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"CivNet","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you've ever watched an episode of the X-Files, you'll know that Fox Mulder can't seem to convince his partner, Dana Sculley, about the existence of extraterrestrials. Despite the fact that they've encountered an alien shapeshifter, seen an astronaut possessed by a space ghost and investigated abductions where the only documented evidence is a farmer who saw a bright light and suspiciously circular burn marks in the grass, Dana is still a UFO skeptic.\r\nAnd if you haven't played Civilization before, it's a game that looks like it's been knocked up in a couple of evenings for less than a tenner, and it's equally difficult to understand how it's become one of the most celebrated and popular strategy games ever. In fact, Civilization is a game that's universally regarded as one of the PC's greats. Even though it boasts the visual splendour of an Ordnance Survey map and the musical impact of a primary school recorder group, there's more gameplay crammed into this classic than all the Wing Commanders, Doom-clones and platformers put together. \r\nIf you're a Civ fan, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, so skip down a paragraph to the interesting bit about the multi-player options. But if you're completely unfamiliar with the game, Civilization is basically a top-down strategy wargame where you start with a wagon train and try to build the biggest, most successful civilisation in the world. What makes things interesting is that you can play against up to seven opponents, and, as you all rise to political greatness, the game becomes a Lebensraum quest, with sprawling empires led by legendary historical figures, each commanding vast armies\r\nof war elephants, tanks and stealth fighters.\r\nAlong with networkable X-Wing/TIE Fighter (go on LucasArts, you know you want to) and a PC version of Sega's Daytona USA, multi-player Civilization has long been one of the Holy Grails of PC gaming. Civ fans have long requested it, and now, at last, CivNet is the inevitable result, a Windows-flavoured revamp of the original Civilization that provides support for head-to-head modem play, not to mention Internet and network options for up to seven players. If that wasn't enough, you can also play it via a BBS or in Hotseat mode, where multiple players share the same PC and swap seats when their turns have ended.\r\nApart from this, the basic principle is practically identical. Each player starts off with a wagon of settlers and it's a race against time to found a city, build military units to defend it, construct the basic resources (for example, a barracks to improve your troops, a granary to store food) and to start some technical research. The basic aim is still to dominate the globe or be the first power to catapult its citizens towards Alpha Centauri, but while many Civ-vets have developed specialised tactics to complete the game against the computer AI, playing against human players is a completely different kettle of phalanxes altogether.\r\nIn a multi-player game, nothing is certain. You can mix computer-controlled opponents with 'live' ones, and the CivNet chat facility allows you to send messages to your rivals if you want to forge secretive, long-term alliances without the other players finding out. In many ways, a multi-player game of Civ soon takes on the characteristics of a game of Risk, with political backstabbing, betrayal and large-scale wars. \r\nWhen you do eventually chat to another player, you see a portrait of your character and, as well as your tribe name and title, CivNet also shows your character's mood, which should help you thrash out peace deals or bid for a rival's technology and advances. The moods of AI leaders depends on their personality. Abe Lincoln, for example, might be fairly laid back while Genghis Khan will probably be short-tempered and antagonistic. Unlike the original Civ, you can't just break treaties left, right and centre and if you do break treaties and alliances, your perfidy will be remembered by the AI powers, and negotiations will be more difficult in the future.\r\nBut the big thing about CivNet is that you can choose to play using either traditional turn-based or real-time movement. For multi-player games, CivNet divides each turn into two phases. The 'movement' phase begins each turn and this is followed by the 'production' phase. Whatever mode you choose, battles are still resolved on the spot, while the production phase is set aside for building improvements, new units and Wonders Of The World. User-defined time limits ensure that players don't dilly-dally unnecessarily and hold the game up, and a new movement phase can only begin when each player has read their reports.\r\nIf 1995 was a year of Full Motion Video clips, Gouraud shading, Phong shading and other graphical whatnots, CivNet doesn't just look dated, it dresses up in animal furs, carries a large spear and seems positively prehistoric. But, like Tempest 2000 and Defender, it's gameplay that catapults a game into the 'must have' category and CivNet has it in spades. In short, it's excellent, and although as a single-player game it offers nothing over Civilization For Windows other than some tidier graphics and some game tweaks, in multi-player mode it will be responsible for more lost hours and network crashes than Doom.\r\nAlso worth mentioning is that Civilization 2 is due out sometime in April. It's bigger, brighter and better, and, if you thought Civilization was good, you'd better get your spring living necessities in now.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"American Civil War","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The North/South divide is a subject we rattle on a lot about in this country. But despite all our talk of southern softies and cloth caps, we've never actually had a war over it. For that we have to look to our American cousins to see how it's really done. \r\nAmerican Civil War is a turn based wargame. A hex mesh covers the battlefield, which is rendered quite attractively in SVGA as a top-down map, and all the units appear as stacks of squares coloured in the favourite blue and grey hues of the combatants. \r\nArtillery, infantry, cavalry and fleet units are yours to dispose of. They're controlled via a series of windows, although, no doubt as in real war, your orders are liable to be creatively interpreted depending on the personality flaws of your commanders. The unusual movement system emphasises this aspect of the game as you don't move units one by one. Instead, you give them an objective and then activate the execute command. The week's campaigning then unfolds before you as all units move at once and chaos claims your battleplan. \r\nHowever, you're not just beset with military problems. ACW also deals with the economic, political and diplomatic aspects of the war. Thus players must maintain domestic support, supply their troops, manage their manufacturing base and curry favour with interventionist foreign powers.\r\nACW also adds a whole new dimension to the usual fog-of-war conditions. Americans hadn't had much practice at war by the time hostilities broke out, so your armies' capabilities and supply requirements are unknown until they've gained experience of being annihilated in the field. This means playing by trial and error, which may bear historical scrutiny but isn't necessarily much fun. I had no idea where to start, unaided by a dense and waffling manual, and thus found it very difficult to become involved in the game. \r\nPresumably the free multimedia disk, 'Fateful Lightning', is meant to put you in the mood for all this, but its historical account of the war is overwhelming. It should have provided edited highlights, not a cannon ball by cannon ball commentary.\r\nThis is a pity, because watching multiple blue squares converging on grey ones isn't really enough. The actual battles consist simply of a report detailing the outcome, which left me cold. The command interface is long-winded, with windows and graphics not being used efficiently enough, so that controlling your forces is a chore rather than a breeze. For example, it's very easy to forget who's already been ordered. Units should at least turn a slightly different colour so that you know at a glance. The same window may also be needed several times, yet you need to call it up again after every use. Furthermore the windows take ages to redraw even on a 16Mb machine. \r\nAlthough the multi-layered strategic approach of the game sounds great, I found it inaccessible, and ended up skipping most of it just to get things moving on the battlefield. Unless you're a hardcore wargamer prepared to experiment with and analyse ACW for hour upon hour, it's likely you're going to miss out on the subtleties of what is undoubtedly a complex and comprehensive Civil War game.","PUBID":71},{"GAMENAME":"Clandestiny","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Scotland seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment. Irvine Welsh, Braveheart and so on. They even qualified for a major football tournament, actually won a game and only lost 2-0 to the auld enemy. Ah, those halcyon days. This is too much though. What we're looking at here is enough to turn the stoutest Sassenach green... Scotland has just landed the lead role in the new Trilobyte blockbuster, Clandestiny.\r\nRemember Trilobyte? The people who shook the world with The 7th Guest? The same people who kept you hanging on for its sequel, The 11th Hour, until you were sure that it was going to deliver a similarly Earth-shattering blow. It didn't, of course. And, yep, this time around, surprise, surprise, they've followed exactly the same formula, complete with beckoning hand, pulsing brain and rolling eye. \r\nClandestiny is a cartoon extravaganza set in the mists and grandeur of Scottish folklore. Fresh from the safety of his sanitised American dream comes Graeme ('I come from a long line of very happy wimps'), to claim his rightful title as 13th Earl of MacPhile. Big mistake, and he knows it. Shame his wife doesn't: 'Do they call me Lady Earl?'\r\nThe attention to detail is immaculate. The graphics inspire lust and the accompanying score fluctuates with dramatic precision. Yes, it's the same as The 7th Guest and, yes, that was released five years ago, but what the heck? Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg? Certain elements have been tweaked: there are a choice of three different levels and a variety of ploys to speed up the plot. In addition to the usual gestures, the beckoning hand can now help you hitch back to the entrance of a room or spin you around 180 degrees. Most significantly, Trilobyte have dropped the smooth-scrolling graphics in favour of fast-wipe screens. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the map manages to keep you in check most of the time. \r\nIt might be a cartoon, but don't go thinking that Trilobyte have gone soft. This isn't the sort of fodder you want to be feeding your toddlers, unless snakes crawling through eyes and (literally) legless ghouls help them sleep at night. \r\nYou should know if this is your particular highland blend. There's nothing new and original about it, but it still works a certain charm. The presentation is immaculate, the puzzles are hard - without proving suicidal - and ultimately it's an enriching experience. Come and meet your Clandestiny.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Close Combat","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"It's a well-known axiom of reviewing that it's much easier to be negative about something than positive. After all, reviewers are universally known as 'critics'. And if you don't believe that it's true, try this little test for yourself: pick something you really detest, Jeremy Beadle, closing time or The Spice Girls, say, and think about what you hate about them. It comes pouring out doesn't it? That annoying 'really, really want' bit, that beard, those obnoxious bar staff whipping your half-finished drink away, the possibility of another record, his smug grin, the walk home in the rain - you could go on for hours, couldn't you? Now think about something you like. Tea, perhaps, or being in love, and try to think why you like these things. You'll find it's much more difficult to put into words. It, erm, tastes nice... I like the feeling... It's good... All much more difficult, you see?\r\nSo what has this to do with Close Combat? Well, I want you to understand that, even though I have many more criticisms of this game than I have favourable things to say in this review, it's still a good, entertaining game that deserves your attention.\r\nClose Combat is a wargame. It deals with the American liberation of France in World War 2. You're a unit commander on either the American or the German side, with the task of either liberating France or continuing to suppress it. The game uses an overhead view, displayable in three scales - overview, tactical view and close-up - and you issue orders to your units to move, fire, defend or hide. In a typical conflict you'll control about ten units, although this can vary significantly.\r\nBefore we get on to the criticisms, there are several good things to say about Close Combat. First, it looks great. The stone walls, the green fields, the sleepy French villages, all come alive on the screen. And as each encounter rages you see the damage being wrought by the soldiers. Buildings become battered and roads pock-marked with mortars.\r\nAs well as looking good, it plays pretty cleverly too. The AI's particularly smart on an individual soldier basis. The men in your unit (each one is detailed, although you can only command them at unit level) won't pass a crater, they'll jump in it and use it as cover, and they'll do their best to pick out the most important target if they're left to themselves - many times you're involved in a conflict in one part of the map and when you go back to another you'll find that your troops have made a smouldering mess of a tank. They know fear as well, and will disobey orders. Try to make them charge into a hail of enemy fire and they'll refuse, staying where they are.\r\nBut the really smart thing about Close Combat is that it works properly. If you send in a tank alone against the enemy it'll be destroyed by anti-tank fire. Instead you have to send in infantry with it to flush out any anti-tank capabilities that your enemy has. Similarly, you must provide covering fire and smoke screens if you want to advance your infantry across open ground, otherwise your troops will be massacred. This is the most accurate simulation of modern warfare I've seen on a PC: the combination of forces that you must bring to bear makes it a very difficult and intriguing challenge. And there's a good fun combination too, with everything from mortars to machine guns to snipers on the infantry front and half-tracks, artillery, scout cars and tanks for armour.\r\nHowever, while Close Combat is great fun (especially in head-to-head, played across the Internet mode), it's also packed with niggly annoying things. Here is a rather unimaginative list of them.\r\nThe control system is fiddly. After playing Warcraft II, it's positively neanderthal too - you can't even group units together. To issue a command to a unit you have to click on it (which can be irritating in itself as they're often so well camouflaged that it's difficult to locate them) and then hold the button down, at which point a menu pops up allowing you to select one command from a list of six or seven. No simple select-with-the-left-button-and-point-with-the-right here. This makes quick, fluid order-giving almost impossible, which in a game with as much going on as Close Combat can often mean the destruction of a unit as you fail to turn them around in time.\r\nClose Combat cheats to be true to history. The game is all about the American liberation of France, as I explained above, but this advance is inexorable. Even if you're playing Germans and you keep winning, the American advance happens anyway. One of the best battles is at a bridge across the River Aure, and with all the action focussed on the narrow bridge it's pretty exciting. Unfortunately it's also much easier to defend than it is to cross, with the result that any competent player, playing as the Germans, will hold it easily. Do it often enough and instead of driving the Americans back towards the sea, you get the message, 'The American army has crossed the river at an undefended location', which makes taking the German side pretty pointless and made me very frustrated. The fact that the Americans will eventually win is pre-programmed into the battles so that your success is only judged by how much ahead or behind of the real time-line you can make the liberation run. So a major victory for the German side will result in the American advance being slowed down by ten hours or so.\r\nThere's no resource management, which would flesh out the game. While it's true that soldiers stay with you and improve their leadership and experience as they go along, it doesn't matter how well you do in previous battles, you'll always be given the same, seemingly random, collection of units at the beginning of any particular level.\r\nFinally, and most annoyingly of all, there's too much table-top wargame left in the game for it to work well on the computer. Picture this: you're the heroic Americans advancing stealthily towards your objective (an iron cross symbol in the middle of a field, natch). After half-an-hour of heavy fighting you've finally broken the German resistance in this half of the map. Your men march confidently forward, when suddenly! The computer flashes up a message telling you that both sides are exhausted and that counts as a minor German victory because, on points, they've performed marginally better than you. Grr. That is annoying.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Conquest Of The New World","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Psycho killer. Qu'est-ce que c'est? It's a song by popular '80s beat combo Talking Heads. 'You're talking a lot, but you're not saying anything,' whines David Byrne, before uttering the undeniably profound line: 'Fa, fa, fa, faaaa, fa, fa, fa, fa, faaaaaa, faaa.' Had the creators of Conquest of the New World had either an ounce of originality or an iota of irony to rub together, they would have paid a lot of money to have Byrne's ditty as their game's theme tune. You see, no matter how many hours you spend slumped in front of your monitor, in an entirely appropriate paraphrasical way you seem to be playing a lot but not doing anything.\r\nThere is nothing wrong with strategy games - one topped the Top 100, after all. There is nothing wrong with turn-based strategy games - one topped the Top 100, after all. There is nothing wrong with turn-based strategy games that have separate combat sections (the game that topped the Top 100 didn't, as it happens, but it might have done). But there are lots of things wrong with turn-based strategy games with separate combat sections that have you playing for hours before you feel like you have accomplished even the most insignificant achievement. Slow just isn't the word for Conquest Of The New World. Well, it's one word, but not the only one. There are several other four-letter words beginning with 's' that would do nicely, but let's ignore those.\r\nEmpty. That's another one. It's not quite the right one, but it's close enough. You know that old line about how an optimist sees a half-full glass and a pessimist sees a half-empty one? Well, if you put Conquest Of The New World in a pint glass, it would struggle to get a quarter of the way up. Interplay are obviously so optimistic that they see the glass as-near-as-dammit filled by this paltry amount of liquor, whereas any realist will tell you that only Colonization or Civilization will have the glass full to overflowing.\r\nBut why? Why, why, why is Conquest Of The New World so woefully inadequate when it comes to slaking your strategic thirst? It's such an obvious reworking of Colonization's successful formula that something must have gone horribly wrong for much of the gameplay and excitement to have been lost betwixt cup and lip. In fact, most of it was lost betwixt barrel and cup, but let's not stretch the quaffing analogy too far.\r\nThe games start in an uncannily similar manner - a ship carrying a small group of travellers arrives on an uncharted shore. Stepping onto dry land after many months at sea washing their clothes in their own urine, the luckless chimps gradually explore the virgin territory, desperately seeking somewhere to establish a colony. When a suitable spot (near a river, near the shore and near a forest) is found after much tedious wandering around, the settlers (who perform much the same function as the settlers in Colonization, funnily enough) are called upon to found the colony. \r\nFrom those dizzy heights of excitement, Conquest Of The New World plunges directly into grinding rounds of resource management, with little in the way of inspiration. Your not-so-delicate balancing act involves juggling people, wood, crops, metal, goods and gold to provide a suitable environment for developing your colony. Different buildings (housing, mills, mines and the like) require different amounts of resources, so it takes you several dull turns of doing very little before you've amassed enough of each to construct more advanced establishments, such as a War College. As you gather more resources, you can upgrade buildings and produce new and better units, which in turn improves productivity in a not-very-vicious circle of colony development. Play long enough and you gradually establish an army which you can use to oppress the natives and take on rival colonies. Original it isn't. Uninspiring it is.\r\nConquest Of The New World has flaws that the simplest playtester could have pointed out. The box that you click on to close the dialogue boxes is far too small. Why do you have to click on tiny arrows to set the amount of a resource to be traded when you'd rather just type in a number? Why does the settler unit move only a few paces each turn, making it impossibly frustrating to get one to where you want to found a colony? And, worst of all, why does it take 90 seconds for the computer to work out what has happened after each turn? Too long to sit and do nothing, but not long enough to make a cup of tea. Gnnnnnhhh.\r\nOne of the game's few saving graces comes in its options, which give you half a dozen single-player environments, each with different objectives, or enable you to take on human opponents in masochistic bouts of multi-player tedium. Even so, Conquest Of The New World is destined to spend its short shelf life in the shadow of Sid Meier's classic - a real shame for the programming team, which has no doubt spent many hours labouring over algorithm after algorithm. And what about that name? It's so clumsy. Surely there's an easier way of describing what the game's about? Ah yes, that's it: colonization. Why use five words when one will do?","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Conqueror 1086 AD","Percentage":34,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Once upon a time there was a group of gallant game designers. Their sole purpose in life was to sit round a table and keep their lords and lieges happy and prosperous. One particularly sunny summer day the Lord of Logic realised that Americans are fascinated by ye olde British history and therefore a strategy action game based on this would be all-powerful and compel the serfs of the nation to visit their local vendors and purchase it. So they set forth on a mighty quest, to create Conqueror 1086 AD.\r\nThe Design Committee had heard about the Doomsday Book and sent Knight Incompetent to the local sage to seek and discover its contents. While he was there he did more than just this (for he was a young and ambitious knight anxious to prove himself) and randomly collected dusty arcane volumes on British history. Most seemed to be American popularist views of life in medieval England, but this mattered not to him. Little did he know that he had pillaged the entire local reject scribe's dustbin.\r\nBut the game went ahead. It was to be one part strategy, one part management and one part action. Several court jesters came and went, unable to control the pangs of laughter that gripped them when they thought about the development budget.\r\nThe Lord of Playability carefully considered classic games and real life and rejected them both as implausible. 'Why should you have to pay to build a structure in a management game?' he said, and promptly made it possible to construct an entire village for zero shillings (except the church which costs 600 for some reason). Pleased with this novel approach, he dismissed the pesky and unproven theory of supply and demand and decided to let me earn virtually limitless cash by planting half the country with vegetables for a one-off payment of one shilling each and then earning 168 shillings in a year. Nice man, I thought. This is only my first go and I can already buy anything I feel like, including the woman to whom I am betrothed but who forgets we've ever met and doesn't mind if I disappear for eight years to wander lonely as a badly drawn rain-cloud in the middle of Wales waiting for the dragon to appear.\r\nWhen the game had almost come of age, one young upstart knight felt it was his duty to mention that the game was complete rubbish 'What?' the Lady of Dialogue Writing squeaked frighteningly. 'Wherefore art thou gettesting\r\nsuch ideas? I vanquish thee to the depths of the abyss, where you will spend an eternity swathed in the dragon's breath. Ha, ha, ha.' 'It would be better than playing this game,' he retorted predictably, before leaving to work for a software house that didn't print the game's end-screen on the back of the box.\r\nTime passed, shop assistants dusted the Conqueror 1086 AD boxes and the Design Committee moved on to another project. They were pleased with their first effort. No-one who bought it lived happily ever after.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Virtua Cop","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Let's just bring the uninitiated up to speed, as it were. Virtua Cop is an arcade game. It's fourth in the Sega excitement stakes behind Daytona, Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter, but nevertheless it does have quite a following and it is great fun to play, thanks mainly to its curious control method. Rather than grasp a joystick or fumble with a joypad, Virtua Cop uses that old stalwart of the Grandstand TV game, the lightgun, allowing the player to aim at and shoot the on-screen characters much as you would in real life with a real gun, say. And that's about all there is to it. There is a half-baked plot in there somewhere, but it really is frighteningly simple to play: shoot all the baddies, avoid all the innocents. \r\nThe world of Virtua Cop is created entirely with polygons. It looks fantastic. But before you get carried away, wanting to climb over boxes, rampage down corridors or leap through third-storey windows, we have some bad news. You have no control over your travels whatsoever. It's as if you've been strapped into an electric wheelchair driven by an unseen henchmen, bent on getting you if not killed then at least severely grazed. So with the 'running about' bit out of your control, your job is simply to spot the bad guys and toast them before they toast you. Huge circular targets zoom in to highlight your next assailant as they take aim and fire. The three difficulty levels in the game alter the speed at which they begin firing back. And to make things a little more interesting innocent bystanders pop up regularly, flapping their limbs and begging 'Don't shoot me!' Take out a civvy by mistake and you lose a life.\r\nUp to speed yet? 'Cos here comes the PC version. When we heard this was on the way we cocked an eyebrow or two at a curious angle and puzzled over how on earth they were going to replace the games single unique gameplay feature - the lightgun. Well, your on-screen crosshair is now controlled by your choice of keyboard (hair-tearingly difficult), gamepad (a little easier) or mouse (a little, um, no, hang on a minute, this is actually quite good). Playing with the mouse is astoundingly comfortable. It's actually easier to use this method than waving some heavy bit of plastic around ever was. Reloading is a little cumbersome (requiring a double click of the other mouse button very time your six shots are spent) but it's possible to assign 'fire' to the right button, allowing you to double-click reload with your already 'click trained' index finger. A cunning two-player option is included too, where player two takes to the gamepad or keyboard and two crosshairs fly about simultaneously. The result of any competition is unfortunately a foregone conclusion. He who has the mouse wins, but it is great fun.\r\nAs you can see from these shots, Virtua Cop looks great. Very colourful, very stylised and very arcadey. And the good news is that after the disappointingly chuggy Daytona and Sega Rally (which require God on PC to run at anything remotely resembling greasy in SVGA mode), Virtua Cop is a revelation. It's lard smooth and weasel fast. Even in SVGA, high detail in 16 million colours it moves without a hitch on a reasonable Pentium. If you think about it, the scenery ambles by at little more than walking speed, after all, the only things moving quickly are the characters - all in all, not a tough task for a modern PC. \r\nIt seems that Virtua Cop's only flaws are that it's a little too arcade perfect. This is a game designed to be played in short rewarding 50p bursts. If you were playing in the arcades and you shuffled in a tenner's worth of shrapnel, you'd see the entire game. At home, of course, you're playing for free and with the generous lives and continues supplied (and the remarkably satisfying mouse control) I played all the way through the game on my third go. Did I want to play it again? Yes I did. Did I want to play it a week later? Hmm...\r\nIt's criminal when a game's major failing point is its longevity. Virtua Cop's size is fixed, in that it's a direct conversion of an arcade game, but there should have been some repeated play extras. The fact of the matter is that now that you can play it as much as you like for free you'll tire of it within a few days. \r\nSega's Saturn recently saw the release of Virtua Cop 2. If they'd bundled both games together for the PC version, then Virtua Cop would have been twice as tempting as it already is.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Command & Conquer: Covert Operations","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"15.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"This is a living hell. The rumours were that these missions would be next to impossible, and, having spent the best part of five hours on the first two alone, I would have to agree. Even with the original game's rather patchy AI still in place, the relentless torrent of units streaming towards your base is no laughing matter, especially when that Advanced Guard Tower is only half built. In Covert Ops, no quarter is given.\r\nDon't expect too much here in terms of originality. If CD-ROMs with phrases like '1,000 new Doom WADs' emblazoned across the inlay strike you as being cheap and tacky, then avoid these mission disks. Westwood have gone for the easy option and present a set of levels that, while deviously competent, are completely devoid of any new campaign initiative or central theme - the stuff that kept me playing the original Command & Conquer. Instead we have seven new GDI missions and eight Nod skirmishes linked with animations and video mostly half-inched from the original. Apart from the ten new terrains, which will prove invaluable to any multi-player aficionado, there's nothing here that, in essence, isn't available on the Internet.\r\nOnce again there are two types of mission. First is the 'build a base as quickly as possible, mine Tiberium with a fury and then go and dump on the opponent with Orcas or Flame Tanks' variety. And then you have the particularly irritating 'run around furiously with only three grenadiers, trying to rescue some partisan and then watch your last remaining midget hero get crushed or flamed as soon as he strolls into some enemy hardware' sort.\r\nThe latter crop up particularly frequently, and are clearly Westwood's way of making the game hard. It does prevent the C&C short-cut where, as long as you aren't a complete dolt, all you have to do is target the enemy's harvesters and starve them until you can build a massive array of weaponry and armament to attack with. With limited cannon fodder you have no option but to run at gun turrets and steam past Flame Tanks hoping in vain that they won't notice you, but with that ever deepening sinking feeling in your loins. \r\nNevertheless, for what amounts to the price of the new Ministry album then I'd buy nights of frustration, risk possible divorce and skip on Ministry. While the popular metal stars' latest creation may be similarly angst-ridden and aggravating, it won't last you half as long and it's crap.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Crusader: No Regret","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Just a minute!' eagle-eyed PC Gamer regulars will be crying. 'Surely they reviewed this a year ago.' 'Ah,' their even keener-sighted co-perusers will respond, 'but that was Crusader: No Remorse (PCG 23, 85%). This is Crusader: No Regret, clearly a sequel of some variety.' But yes, we did basically review this a year ago. Or, more precisely, a year minus - ooh - two-and-a-half weeks ago.\r\nLittle has changed in the world of Crusader. There are still the same devastatingly exploding fuel drums, the same little men running around in flames going 'Uhhhh! Arrrghhh! Uhh!' and dying, the same ED-209-style robots that you can 'jack in' to and take control of, the same red bloke somersaulting his way across rooms, the same cheesy video clips providing a semblance of a plot, the same brainless puzzles involving locked doors opened by keycards left casually lying on desks next to them, the same black-and-white cut-aways showing the effects of throwing switches, and the same red alerts that can be cancelled by endearingly trusting buttons placed on the walls.\r\nSo what we've got, basically, are some new levels. You're up against the evil World Economic Consortium again, but this time you're on the moon. The intro sequence shows the WEC picking up an escape pod and opening it to find a motionless, red-clad resistance fighter inside. Leaning over him saying, 'There's no way anyone could have survived that,' he is alarmed to be suddenly filled with machine gun bullets by the rebel, who isn't dead at all and proceeds to leap up and infiltrate the WEC base. At that point you take over the controls and it's ten more levels of Crusader.\r\nNow, even a year ago Crusader seemed a little 'retro', in that everyone else was developing true 3D engines and here was a game with sprites and isometric 3D of the sort that'd been around for years. It didn't even scroll. So I was fearful that, a year on, by playing Crusader I'd be making myself a laughing stock.\r\nBut no. While onlookers might initially scoff, it merely takes a sideways somersault into a room, the detonating of a pile of fuel drums, the setting alight of the WEC troops next to them by the ensuing fireball, the swift dispatch of a pair of security cameras, the gunning down of an innocent scientist bystander and the crushing of another troop standing inadvisably beneath a lift to silence their laughter. Crusader is just as much fun as it's always been, with the best potential of any computer game - including possibly even Fade To Black - for Professionals-style tomfoolery.\r\nIt is, however, harder than ever before. While Remorse was best on the hardest, No Remorse setting, try that now and you'll be lucky to last more than half-a-dozen picoseconds. Press Start and you walk straight into a room full of guards armed with deadly, one-hit-to-kill plasma rifles. So you've got to be holding the 'roll left' key to ensure you're safely ensconced behind some crates, and even that's only likely to buy you another couple of seconds. And, while it could be my imagination, the baddies seem cleverer too, somersaulting out from behind things and taking pot-shots at you rather than standing there dumbly. Crusader features the facility to save at any time, though, which is both good - it's the only way you'll get through the game before dying of real-life old age - and bad - you can spend more time staring at the options screen than the game.\r\nBut the baddies don't have everything their way. You've got a few new tricks up your armour-clad sleeve too, including the ability to freeze baddies (whereupon they go blue and just stand there for all eternity). And there's a great bit on the first level where you pick up a grenade launcher and go hunting robots.\r\nOtherwise, Crusader seems just as before, with the glorious high-resolution explosions I remember so fondly. Our 486 is broken, unfortunately, so I'm unable to determine whether Regret runs just as slowly on it as Remorse did. I expect it probably does, although it belts along on a Pentium.\r\nAnd it's a game that's made for having extra levels bolted onto it. Having completed each level of the first game on 'Hard' I had no real desire to play them again, but a load of new ones is a different matter entirely, and I found vital hours of PC Gamer's ever-tightening deadline disappearing as I was sucked back in.\r\nCrusader is, then, a great game. It's the modern heir to D/Generation.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Cyber Mage","Percentage":74,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"What's the marra? The Mara is the light, and is the source of my power. The Mang is the darkness and is the manifestation of my power. And I've got a special crystal embedded in my forehead, or something.\r\nAt least, that's according to David W Bradley's comic saga, CyberMage, which now finds itself huddling in a corner of PC-land in the guise of a Doom clone. The 3D environment's paper-thin walls and flimsy furniture, along with the baddies who seem keener on standing there grinning menacingly at you than actually getting stuck in, give off an atmosphere more akin to Dr Who than a spooky, futuristic cyber-world. But don't be put off - the action's smooth enough and reasonably varied, and there's a puzzle element strong enough to keep your brain as active as your fingers. \r\nOn your quest to find who-knows and who-cares what, you encounter a mixture of puzzles and straight-up, honest blasting action, and tackle the various humanoid or nasty creature baddies with a combination of weapons and 'magic'. Don't worry, though, Doom fans, we're not getting into dangerous RPG spells territory - the magic is a poor way of spinning out a mystic storyline about your powers, which become unveiled (the Dark and Light, Mana and Mang tosh that Earth Mother and Fire Mother drone on about) and manifest themselves as projectile weapons that blast forth from your pointy fingers, delivering a destructive force which correlates to the amount of your power resource each uses up.\r\nWhen you move on to the later sections, powers like the Lunalight and Prisma use up a third or half your current powers, so use them sparingly and always ensure that there's a safe place to go and hide to recoup your powers. It doesn't necessarily make for exciting combat, but this element of strategy drags a rather basic 3D Doom clone into the realms of 'Well, at least you have to think about what you're doing, before doing it.'\r\nThere's a decent range of weapons to be discovered, too, ranging from the hand-held Powerblade - a sword which, apparently, vibrates, allowing it to penetrate most armour - and the Razor Axe, which looks like, and is about as useful as, an overgrown pizza cutter, to sub-machine guns and plasma rifles, and ultimately to the vehicles - tanks, aircraft and jump-jets. While they all look the part, there's not much difference between each upgrade, and the function key toggle system involves a menu which needs okaying in real time, so that you're likely to get hacked to pieces before you've accessed, say, a hand-held weapon for close-up combat.\r\nThere are other features such as armour, the aforementioned Dark and Light magic power-ups, a personal recorder, and holo-vid discs which hold more secrets to your 'awakenings' and to tasks which lie ahead. There are also the usual regeneration and medi-packs and variants on keys like the SYP decoders outlined elsewhere on this page. Jumping, crouching, secret doors, lifts, switches and all the traditional post-Doom favourites are there in an amusing though never amazing game, which isn't elevated far by the cyber-future-magic nonsense. You'll also need at least a Pentium 90 with 16Mb of RAM to run the prettier SVGA mode.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"D","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Fully rendered 'interactive movies' may have wowed us with impressive visuals and atmosphere when The 7th Guest first appeared, but copy the game over two years on and you've only got yourself to blame when it looks a little dated. D has all the right ingredients when you scan the box: a large D on the front informs you of the title; trails of blood seem to start from a pouting girl's eyes; we are reminded that D stands for a large number of scary words, such as death, damnation, despair and daughter; and best of all, it has a 15 sticker. Oh yes, the way to play this interactive movie, the manual says, is to 'enjoy the game just like you would a movie, together with your girlfriend, boyfriend, or a buddy'. Just don't be surprised if they refuse when you ask them.\r\nD isn't dreadful by any means. It's certainly better than both The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour, but that's faint praise indeed. Plot-wise, there's been no improvement and it's deliberately vague. Doctor Richter Harris, your father, seems to have gone a bit mad and shot a load of people in the hospital he's in charge of. For some unexplained reason, the police are unable to enter the building, but they send his daughter (that's you) instead, following, no doubt, standard police procedure in such an event. No sooner have you looked at a few dead bodies in the hospital reception than a strange 'thing' happens, whisking you off to an imaginary world not dissimilar to the house in The 7th Guest.\r\nTo be honest, I'm embarrassed telling you this, it's so poor. You've got two hours, played out in mind-numbing real time, to get out of the other dimension before the gateway closes forever. And you do this by solving a few puzzles along the way.\r\nThe puzzles to untangle aren't The 7th Guest-style riddles, but standard adventure fare. Find the key in one room and it unlocks a door in another. Get a prop from a chest of drawers, add it to another prop in the dining room and it reveals a clue. It's far from remarkable, and lacks both the frustration and the desire to succeed that went with Virgin's original.\r\nWhere D half works, though, is in creating an atmosphere. If you ignore the fact that you've seen it all many times before, it's easy to be impressed by the construction of each location and some of the tense special effects. I genuinely jumped at one point when a spiked wall shot towards me Indy Jones style. But any director would tell you that you don't ruin film tension with actors taking half an hour to solve a dull puzzle, and everything that D builds up is destroyed by the 'been there, can't be bothered to do it again' design.","PUBID":2},{"GAMENAME":"Daggerfall","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you had to give a percentage score to your life to date, what would it be? Consider school, the worst ever jobs, parents, friends, sport, all the successes and failures that have been crammed into the past 25 years or so. Now imagine playing Daggerfall, and you'll probably have to use a similar process to arrive at a mark.\r\nI've been playing Daggerfall for about 70 hours now and have got absolutely nowhere. The feeling, as I have to say 'enough is enough', is one of those impossible-to-pinpoint ones of reward and satisfaction with a little frustration added to the emotional broth for good measure. It's the sort that wanders your way after a few days of real-life time that have been challenging and passed enjoyably but, well, have achieved nothing that you'd give yourself a self-congratulatory back-slap for.\r\nSo is it any good? Yes. Very. But it's also very, very slow. It's not quite as structure-less as Elite, but almost. At the start of the game you find yourself sitting in a dungeon and, you reason, Priority One must be escape. So, after duly hacking your way around dark corridors and large caverns for a few hours, the exit leaps out from a wall, and you emerge into the shining daylight. You look at your log book, that tome of events, quests and missions that Bethesda have kindly provided, and which will grow to a truly vast size within a couple of days of playing. And then you wonder if you just enjoyed yourself.\r\nThe answer would have to be yes. The combat you've just experienced is the same as in the original - to fight you hold the right mouse button down and swish the mouse around to move your weapon. The direction you swish in governs each blow's power and accuracy, and therefore damage. It's a system that works very well and keeps you in the midst of the action at all times. The scenery is varied and large, and the design of all the dungeons actually makes sense. Daggerfall is packed with monsters, items, interesting room designs, an auto-map and everything you could wish for to make a good Ultima Underworld style adventure.\r\nThe 3D Xngine technology is one of the best out there, giving full freedom of movement in a texture mapped world with jumping and crouching and a control method similar to Terminator: Future Shock's. The monsters are still bitmap based, and look a little dated next to Quake's polygons, but as you just want to kill most of them it doesn't really matter. These underground antics (which eventually comprise the majority of the playing time) are complemented by the city sections. Here the game assumes a more sedate pace. \r\nEntering a new city for the first time is a sobering experience. They're big and full of people. You have no idea were to go or what to do. Looking at your log book reveals the barest hint of the quest that presumably runs throughout the game and provides the main challenge. However, it's impossible not to become side tracked by the vast number of opportunities available. Join guilds and become a member of a temple for starters. Receive training and then undertake some simple quests for money, fame or plain experience. As you succeed your reputation grows and precedes you. If your kick is killing civilians (always a bundle of laughs in the original) then an assassin's reputation awaits you. It's also considerably harder to fight off the town guards that come to stop you, and now failure means prison (487 days seems to be the par for a first murder offence). \r\nBut, just like those old DOS-based text adventures and 'real' role-playing games, Daggerfall's heart lies with your character advancement. Your character has various physical and mental attributes, and 12 skills which are based on these. As you adventure and use them they improve, and you get better at them. Also, exploring, ransacking and general pillaging turns up new equipment that you can either sell or use. So, you progress along this path and, assuming you don't get killed, control a mega-powerful character. Looking after the character and building it up is what makes the game so enjoyable, and thankfully the save game facility is now almost instant so it makes cautious dungeon exploration an enticingly dangerous prospect.\r\nWhere Daggerfall scores so highly is the enormous scope of the world you can explore. The entire continent has again been created in mind numbing detail, with towns, villages, temples, and dungeons being listed all across it. Travelling around it, the people change to reflect the climate, and the whole experience seems even more authentic. Combined with the characters, this is what makes the game. Lords Of Midnight 3, Frontier II and Privateer have tried to created a free, yet structured world but none have come close to this.\r\nWhere Daggerfall has improved over the first game (which was largely responsible for putting Bethesda's name in gamer's mouths) is that it's a lot more varied. Whereas The Elder Scrolls: Arena was effectively a highly repetitive questing collect-'em-up, Daggerfall does have a greater supporting structure. The variety of people, quests, goals and paths your career can involve is larger and substantially more interesting. The old question-based character generation system remains, but has been supplemented by a fully customisable character class creator (although to be honest it's a tad long-winded and boring to play around with). The spell creation system is (I think) larger and more versatile. Fighters are better catered for, and thieves have more opportunities to excel in some of their quests.\r\nDaggerfall's only indisputable weakness is its presentation. With all the kit available to programmers and artists today, quite how they've managed to produce such an ugly grey look with Spectrumª fonts is a mystery. It doesn't affect the game at all - in fact all the buildings, monsters and equipment are drawn very well which just makes it all the more puzzling.\r\nDaggerfall's depth extends well beyond the 1400 words in this review. It's about as large and detailed as a game could ever become without collapsing under its own weight. Despite all this, though, as has been the case with just about every sequel I've reviewed recently, it does owe a huge debt to the original. But as Bethesda have one of the best formulas here that's no bad recommendation.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Daytona USA","Percentage":65,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Bad things happen in life. If bad things didn't happen, good things couldn't happen either. If there were no good or bad things in life, there would only be things. This would make life very dull, which would be a bad thing.\r\nDaytona USA (arcade) is definitely one of life's good things. Play it on a plain, upright arcade unit and marvel at the sheer sense of speed, the smooth graphic reality and the slickly realistic car handling. Play it on a cabinet with steering feedback, marvel at the above and sweat as you wrestle your car around the corners. Play it on a multi-link cabinet against up to eight like-minded souls, re-marvel at the above, continue sweating and get very triumphalistic as the 'Winner' screen flashes up and your defeated opponents start making their excuses. Play it on a multi-link cabinet with hydraulic-response seating, take marvelling to a professional level, gain sponsorship from Right Guard, attain Schumacher-esque arrogance and enjoy stomach-churning sensations only previously available in Italian taxis. Daytona is a landmark racing game. Words such as 'historic', 'inspirational' even 'paradigmatic' have their tracksuits off and are warming up on the touchline waiting for an appearance in conjunction with it. Daytona USA (arcade) is\r\na good thing.\r\nBut as we've already discussed, for every good thing, there must be an equivalent bad thing; for every Morecambe and Wise there must be a Cannon and Ball; for every Pulp Fiction there must be a Natural Born Killers; for every John Lennon there must be a Noel Gallagher. Up until now it was thought that the counterbalancing evil for Daytona USA (arcade) was Daytona USA (Saturn). As a conversion of the great game, the Saturn version boasted a screen size specially reduced by awful black borders, a dreadful graphic draw-in problem (see 'Day clipper' box), a complete absence of a two-player mode, the worst music in the history of humanity, no extra tracks, and a sickening absence of the sweat-inducing sense of speed that made its arcade forerunner such a hit.\r\nHowever, Daytona USA (PC) has affirmed that the measured evil of the Saturn version has not been sufficient to cancel out the magnificence of the original. For something really good, we have to have something really bad, and only two stinking home versions of Daytona are going to be sufficient.\r\nAnd Sega have made really sure this time. All the faults of the Saturn version are here in all their glory, plus, because the game has not been reprogrammed from scratch, a whole extra raft of despair has floated in as well. Gamers can either opt for a Gameboy-sized mini screen to peer at or a galumphing full-screen display moving at pensioner, frame-per-day speed. Somehow, though (and this was the real masterstroke), the PC game has managed to eliminate the one thing that the Saturn version had more-or-less right: the car handling.\r\nYes, whereas the original successfully convinced the player that: (a) travelling at 200 mph around a tightly twisting track was a VERY SCARY THING, and (b) you have total, if tenuous control of a very powerful racing car; Daytona PC only leaves you wondering: (a) if travelling at 200 mph is this sedate why aren't we allowed to do it on the motorway, and (b) what are the keys again, the set I'm using don't appear to work? Other distressing things happen. On the long straight sections of all three circuits, the track appears to stop and moonwalk backwards towards your car in a weird, almost stroboscopic effect. And other cars don't drive around the course, they float sedately past at ever-so-slightly the wrong angle. Unfortunately, you get a lot of time to look at things like this in Daytona PC because you're certainly not enthralled by the racing.\r\nYes, yes all the 'extra features' that Sega put into the Saturn version are included, present and correct. You get two additional cars for placing first in each of the three tracks. The dismal 'Time Attack' mode (race on an empty track to gain your best time) is there, as is 'Mirror' mode. They've probably also included the option to race as a polygon horse, without wheels and in kilometres-per-hour instead of miles. Why these titbits should have taken up valuable programmer time when a two-player, split-screen mode was what was plainly needed is anyone's guess.\r\nThe only improvement the PC game can show over its Saturn brother is its screen resolution in SVGA. However, to run it at full screen at anything like full speed, you're going to need a PC capable of defending earth from a full-frontal alien invasion. And if you've got one of those, there are lots of far more enjoyable things you could be doing with it than playing a version of Daytona that will make fans of the original cry.\r\nFundamentally, Sega have a problem with their entry into the PC market. On the one hand they don't want to discourage any potential console-buyers from buying Sega's own proprietary hardware (the Saturn). After all, Sega charge games companies to release Saturn software, and it's in their best interests to ensure that as many people buy into the format as possible. On the other hand, though, there are lots of PC owners who are never going to sully their hands with a console, which means that Sega can never make any money out of them. And Sega need money. With Daytona in mind, Sega's answer to this little conundrum seems to be to bang out Saturn-inferior PC software and market it on its reputation. The writing should have been on the wall with Bug!, a flawed Saturn game further flawed by its low-rent PC conversion. \r\nSo in two attempts, Sega have cancelled out the brilliance of their arcade racer. More honestly, they've buried it and held International Come Dancing on its tombstone. A few more PC conversions like this and Sega's reputation as a super-league software publisher will suffer the same fate.\r\nVirtua Cop, Panzer Dragoon, Sega Rally, I fear for your safety.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Deadlock","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Shakespeare - been done to death hasn't it? Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing! How many times are they going to regurgitate the tragedies or the comedies or the histories? How many times are they going to put the same old stories in all-new settings just to give some toffee-nosed, plum-voiced actors something to do? Verily wethinks Shakefpeare hath had his day. And in much the same way, science fiction strategy games are getting pretty long in the old tooth as well. Developers seem to have an obsession with picking up where Civilization left off, with a bunch of nomad settlers arriving on a distant planet (it was Alpha Centauri in Civ, it's nowhere in particular in Deadlock) which they then have to colonise. Utopia, Star Control, Outpost, Ascendancy and even SimCity 2000 have all been there before in one spaced out way or another, so do we really need to go there again? Yes. Just as Sir Ian McKellan's Richard III was well worth watching (if only to see the 'My kingdom for a horse' speech spouted from the seat of a Jeep) Accolade's Deadlock is well worth playing if only to log on to the Net and prove your mental prowess by roundly thrashing anyone in the world. It provides an added, if not particularly innovative, slant on the tried-and-tested strategy formula, with you controlling one of six species who are trying to conquer a planet by fair means (economic and cultural domination like what the good old US of A has done) or foul (military oppression and meddling in foreign affairs like what the good old US of A has done). Even a cursory glance through the manual reveals a game of frightening complexity, with resources to be produced, taxes raised, population controlled, armies recruited, research completed, buildings, er, built and enemies crushed. It comes as a relief then, and a blessed one at that, to find that Deadlock is equipped with one of the most instructive interactive tutorials to grace a game since, well, since Civilization. For once the multimedianess of a game is actually of some tangible benefit as a delightfully well-spoken young lady guides you through your first few turns, hinting at good moves here, warning against bad moves there, and actually making it easy and enjoyable to learn how to play. But the tutorial only scratches the surface of what is a deeply involving game, and the only way to find what secrets lie hidden beneath the game's shiny SVGA exterior is to peel back the layers by playing, experimenting and playing some more. And in this respect, playing Deadlock is rather like peeling an onion, except it doesn't make you cry - at least it doesn't if you're successful. Even though it isn't stacked with cute animated characters or endearing humorous touches, Deadlock still manages to make you care about your virtual colonies in a way that sterile games like Outpost didn't, which makes it all the more distressing when a colony starts to fail or you come under attack. One of your first problems, for example, will almost inevitably be over-population, and your colonists will get ever more disgruntled as their houses become increasingly over-crowded. While you sit there wishing you could instruct your university scientists to research a prophylactic sheath, people start getting seriously miffed and morale plummets causing no end of grief to your old grey matter. The game's artificial intelligence is good enough to thrash just about anyone on the higher difficulty settings, but good though it is as a single-player game, it's as a multi-player strategy fest that Deadlock really shines. For once, you donÕt have to have access to a local area network to take advantage of its multi-player capabilities; you can either hook up for a modem head-to-head (though some fiddling with modem strings is necessary) or log on to the Internet for a full-blown seven-player battle. The main difficulty with Internet games is that it can be hard to find players who have a similar ability (or inability as the case may be) as yourself, but as with all the best multi-player games, it's very hard to stop playing once you've found some decent opponents. Deadlock doesn't break any new ground as far as the basic gameplay is concerned, and nor does it provide much excitement in the way of star actors or fancy 3D trickery, but it is still an undeniably fine game. The marketing men in their cheap suits and loud ties will be keen to trumpet the SVGA visuals or the 32-track soundtrack (whatever that means) but we know better, we know that it's the mind-bending complexity of the strategy that will have you glued to your screen for countless hours. 'If gameplay be the food of love,' Shakespeare would have written had he had a copy of Deadlock to play on his quill pen, 'play on.' (We're not sure what he would have meant by that, but he definitely would have said it.","PUBID":3},{"GAMENAME":"Deadline","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"I really wanted to enjoy playing Deadline. I knew within an hour that it possessed a plethora of annoying features, but over three days it was offered every opportunity to prove that underneath its harsh, unforgiving exterior lay a heart of gold, a good friend that you could visit on a Sunday and with whom you could have serious discussions.\r\nI am bitterly disappointed. This so-called friend is argumentative and stubborn, and, despite having a few interesting stories up its sleeve, isn't very good at telling them.\r\nDeadline is a special forces simulator game - simulator in the sense that it has technical attention to detail, but game in the sense that when you enter a mission, the control system doesn't simulate anything. Each project involves a briefing from your boss outlining the latest contretemps, from hostage-taking terrorists to holed-up escaped prisoners.\r\nFrom here on in, despite the immense temptation to storm in and shoot some bad guys (expecting to lose, say, 25% of the hostages - I can live with that), you are forced to, gulp, prepare and plan every little detail. Pick your team (complete with some gruesome photos), select your weaponry and ammunition, get some background information on the situation, and engage in some negotiations (there's nothing so satisfying as deliberately winding terrorists up so that they shoot a hostage).\r\nIf Deadline has its way, you spend longer on each of these steps and in planning your actions than the actual shooting bits. In-keeping with real life, you often aren't supposed to kill anyone at all. But planning and executing such a rescue operation is incredibly stale unless you are deliberately aiming towards some real action. Devising pixel-perfect procedures is all very well, but unless you are on hand to interfere, the eight highly trained men that you have sent in ably demonstrate their lack of common sense. Depending upon their initiative, SAS trained killers either stand still until shot or blow out the brains of some relatively inactive baddy.\r\nUnderneath, Deadline's a decent game, and I did keep returning to it, but it needs a lot more work done on it. The graphics routines are ludicrous, with sections of houses suddenly disappearing as your man walks behind them. The criminals have selective bad hearing: after threatening to shoot hostages if you approach, they never seem in the least bit concerned that you are running past the window, kicking in the door or shooting their mates. And some sort of walk-through in the manual would make it much easier to work out what's going on.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Death Rally","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"20.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Way back in the mists of history, when state of the art meant an extra Meg on your Amiga, there was a cracking little racing game called Supercars. A top-down racer of little renown, its simplistic graphics nevertheless concealed some furious driving fun and it was positively fearsome in multi-player mode, allowing you to race around outrageous tracks, ram your mates off the road and snigger as you planted a homing missile right up their exhausts.\r\nIt was with some relish, then, that I anticipated the resurrection of this genre in the form of Apogee's Death Rally, which promises a welcome return to those heady days of top-down carnage. Starting your career with the predictable old banger, your aim is to compete in the World Death Rally Championship, slowly building your vehicle into a turbo-charged, high-octane killing machine which will leave competitors eating your dust.\r\nSuccess depends on winning races and accumulating prize money, which can then be spent in the repair shop souping up your current car or splashing out on a flash new motor. If you choose to delve into the sinister underground market, more devious accessories, including mines and spiked bumpers, become available, and you even have the opportunity to sabotage arch rivals before they get out onto the track.\r\nSo you hit the start line, you've got the green light and you charge furiously off into the lead, machine guns blazing. What next? Well, you'll find the usual collection of power-ups, ammo and extra cash scattered around the courses, and your opponents are quite capable of giving you a fairly decent run for your money. The ability to run down spectators provides some Death Race 2000 style amusement, there's some interesting weaponry to discover, and the mushroom power-up (down?) is truly psychedelic in its scope. However, with all that said, I've still got to confess that Death Rally is, frankly, a little disappointing. \r\nDon't get me wrong: for a cheapie it's entertaining enough in a shallow kind of way and will doubtless provide more than a few hours of mindless amusement. However, ultimately it lacks real depth and, in spite of the technology and management aspects, plainly fails to set the old pulse racing. \r\nWhat might just redeem Death Rally from being stuck in the slow lane altogether are its multi-player options. Ramming your mate's car into oblivion or just blowing it clean off the road is infinitely more satisfying than duelling with computerised foes. Modem and serial links are both supported, but if you've lugged enough PCs around to take advantage of the four-player network option, it probably won't be too long before thoughts of launching a Quake server enter your mind.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Deep Space 9: Harbinger","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Deep Space Nine uses the most evil gaming technology known to man: pre-rendered flick-screen scenery. You stare down corridors, unable to enter them because the cursor doesn't turn into a little green arrow when you move it to the top of the screen. You get horribly confused trying to explore 'Ops', because you're not allowed to step off the walkway around the edge. You spend hours wandering down pointless corridors. You try to turn to your left, except you can't because they haven't bothered to render the view from that angle.\r\nLuckily, though, it's based on Deep Space Nine, and highly-paid actors have been used to provide the voices rather than the programmers' mates or Christopher Walken. The dialogue is therefore pretty good, albeit with a few embarrassing pauses where rendered characters can't be moved at the same time as they're talking. We've got Sisko, Dax, Kira, Odo and Quark, creating a good Deep Space Nine atmosphere. (Almost everyone else has been evacuated owing to a plasma storm, and certainly not, for example, to make the rendering even easier. Oh, and the storm has - ahem - 'damaged the turbo-lifts', so much of the station can't be explored.)\r\nYou, then, are a visitor to the station who has been brought in to help with some negotiations with a newly discovered race called the Sythians. As you're approaching the station, however, your ship is attacked by some mysterious drones. You survive, but then the drones turn on the station. When they've been beaten off, it turns out that one of the ambassadors has been murdered, and you have to take his place while simultaneously trying to solve the crime. And so on.\r\nThe way this actually proceeds, though, is by a succession of conversations in which, although you're seemingly offered choices of response, it makes no difference which ones you pick. When, say, Sisko asks you to decide whether to go in pursuit of the drones or sit and wait, no matter what you reply he'll sit and wait, and the game will carry on regardless.\r\nYour playing skills are therefore required only for the arcade sequences and logic puzzles that accompany every pre-rendered game, and which, in this case, are even more fatuous than usual. So far I've moved some sliding blocks around, shot some drones Rebel Assault-style, sorted five words into a sentence, and spent about an hour listening to some garbled 'log entries', knowing full well that it would make no difference whether or not I bothered to try to work out what they said. And then the PC crashed when I pressed 'Print screen' before I'd had a chance to save, so I had to listen to them all again.\r\nDeep Space Nine is worth playing through to the end to see what happens, but not worth actually buying. For £12.99 you can get two episodes of Deep Space Nine on a video, with better graphics and no tedious logic puzzles to break up the action.\t\r\n45%\r\nDeep Space Nine uses the most evil gaming technology known to man: pre-rendered flick-screen scenery. You stare down corridors, unable to enter them because the cursor doesn't turn into a little green arrow when you move it to the top of the screen. You get horribly confused trying to explore 'Ops', because you're not allowed to step off the walkway around the edge. You spend hours wandering down pointless corridors. You try to turn to your left, except you can't because they haven't bothered to render the view from that angle.\r\nLuckily, though, it's based on Deep Space Nine, and highly-paid actors have been used to provide the voices rather than the programmers' mates or Christopher Walken. The dialogue is therefore pretty good, albeit with a few embarrassing pauses where rendered characters can't be moved at the same time as they're talking. We've got Sisko, Dax, Kira, Odo and Quark, creating a good Deep Space Nine atmosphere. (Almost everyone else has been evacuated owing to a plasma storm, and certainly not, for example, to make the rendering even easier. Oh, and the storm has - ahem - 'damaged the turbo-lifts', so much of the station can't be explored.)\r\nYou, then, are a visitor to the station who has been brought in to help with some negotiations with a newly discovered race called the Sythians. As you're approaching the station, however, your ship is attacked by some mysterious drones. You survive, but then the drones turn on the station. When they've been beaten off, it turns out that one of the ambassadors has been murdered, and you have to take his place while simultaneously trying to solve the crime. And so on.\r\nThe way this actually proceeds, though, is by a succession of conversations in which, although you're seemingly offered choices of response, it makes no difference which ones you pick. When, say, Sisko asks you to decide whether to go in pursuit of the drones or sit and wait, no matter what you reply he'll sit and wait, and the game will carry on regardless.\r\nYour playing skills are therefore required only for the arcade sequences and logic puzzles that accompany every pre-rendered game, and which, in this case, are even more fatuous than usual. So far I've moved some sliding blocks around, shot some drones Rebel Assault-style, sorted five words into a sentence, and spent about an hour listening to some garbled 'log entries', knowing full well that it would make no difference whether or not I bothered to try to work out what they said. And then the PC crashed when I pressed 'Print screen' before I'd had a chance to save, so I had to listen to them all again.\r\nDeep Space Nine is worth playing through to the end to see what happens, but not worth actually buying. For £12.99 you can get two episodes of Deep Space Nine on a video, with better graphics and no tedious logic puzzles to break up the action.","PUBID":150},{"GAMENAME":"Defcon 5","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"No, you're wrong. Despite the title, this is no long, drawn-out, campaign-based, prevent-the-third-world-war strategy title. It does feature a war, or the threat of one, and it does require a modicum of grey matter to battle through it (for it truly is a battle, in the arduous sense). But, at its core, Defcon 5 is a Doom clone, and not a terribly exciting one.\r\nBefore I start on why, beneath the layers of strategy, this is just another 3D shoot-'em-up, let me explain why it's not (or at least pretends not to be). First off we have a plot buried away in here, and for once it's a pretty decent (if not entirely original) one. Peace is reigning throughout the galaxy, and this, according to the companies that produce serious weaponry for the fighting of inter-galactic wars, is Not A Good Thing. Naturally, they're pretty pissed off when all their fancy gear is to be replaced with self-managing, fully automated defence systems (just in case aliens were to suddenly attack some remote mining colony or something). So, and you don't know this at the start, one major company has arranged for (get this) aliens to attack a remote mining colony just as its weapons systems are being swapped over (by you) to this new automated variety.\r\nSo, there you are, having just arrived on a small planetary body, thinking that all you've got to do is install the software which will make the weapons tick before leaving for home (or the bar, or whatever). En route to the mission control room where you're supposed to collect your orders, the intercom announces that the base is under attack. Cue action. Rushing as fast as you can through a multi-levelled, sprawling mining base to the gun turrets (which are un-manned and, because you've not installed the software yet, still not automated), it dawns on you that you're in trouble - it's you against them, and it's going to be a race against time to get the various parts of the defence software running before the base is overrun...\r\nThat's the premise for the game, and it's a pretty good one. The first blast of action you get is at gunning down the attacking alien ships, which is quite fun for all of about half-an-hour. After that, following constant reminders from the base's computer, you decide it might be an idea to check out your mission instructions in the mission control room. Now the real fun starts. Because there's no accessible map (other than occasional maps built into the VOS computer terminals on the walls), finding your way around can take a while, even when you know you're on the right level. Just finding the control room took me close to an hour the first time I played. Each level looks distinctly different, but each room and corridor within each level look horribly similar, and because each level is reasonably large, navigational problems soon arise.\r\nBy the time you've found the control room the base will have been breached. Aliens (which, as usual, closely resemble those from the popular movie trilogy) are in the service level and they're on their way up. Worse, they've done something to the air conditioning system so the base is running out of oxygen - fast. What should follow is a highly claustrophobic race against time as you fight off the marauding beasties, searching for and installing the defence software. That's what should follow, but, alas, it's not what you get.\r\nThe pace is too slow for a start. For someone who's in a hurry, the guy you control walks pretty slowly. The aliens are far from scary - they're too two-dimensional and far too, well, red. And drama is non-existent - far too often you're killed off by wandering into an area where the air's turned bad, only to discover that the doors have been automatically locked when you try to run away again. So, this is, in essence, just another Doom clone, but one where the tables have been turned - you're trying to avoid the monsters rather that seek and destroy them. Defcon 5 has the makings of an interesting game, but the execution is flawed.\r\nSaving graces, anyone? Er, well, the music's pretty jolly, integrating itself with the ambience of the game and complementing the action, and the way the computer grinds on about security breaches helps to slam home the urgency of the situation you're in. And, er... getting to grips with the VOS computer system (which accounts for a pretty large chunk of the game) adds an extra dimension. But not one of these aspects can make up for Defcon 5's pedestrian pace.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Descent 2","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Prologue: The image of a nondescript building fades up from black. The caption at the bottom-left of the screen reads: 'PC Gamer secret offices, Nr. Bath. 02:14.' A single window is lit up. The camera pans towards it. As we reach the window and look through we see a bedraggled and slovenly dressed youth hunched over a keyboard. The light from the screen is the only illumination in the entire room. The camera angle changes so that we see the poor wretch's face. He is obviously tired, and his eyes are bloodshot, yet he has an air of sophistication and intelligence. The shot changes to show the computer's monitor. The computer is obviously running some kind of word processor, but there is little text on the screen. While still focused on the screen we hear the sound of someone throwing themselves backward out of a third story window. \r\nCue Titles: Duddy-dee-dum, dum, dum, dum... Various unrelated items float across the screen, and images of press releases and magazine covers fade in and out. After about half a minute of this the legend 'When You're This Desperate You'll Trust Anyone' is displayed. The screen slowly fades to black.\r\n\r\nScene 1\r\n(FBI Headquarters, Washington. Agents (nngh) Mully and Sculder are sitting in wheely chairs. Occasionally they use their feet to spin themselves around.)\r\nMully and Sculder: Wheeee.\r\n(A bald man enters the office. He looks on disapprovingly.)\r\nSculder: Hello Director (nngh) Skimmer.\r\nSkimmer: Oh god. I have an assignment for you. I am going to leave before you can start\r\na conversation.\r\n(Skimmer places a folder carefully onto Sculder's desk. He backs out slowly. Sculder opens the file and looks at its contents briefly.)\r\nSculder: This is it, Mully. Aliens.\r\n(Mully raises her eyes and makes tutting noises.)\r\n\r\nScene 2\r\n(WH Smith's. Sculder is studying the rows of computer magazines. As\r\nhe progresses his expression becomes more and more concerned. His mobile phone rings. He answers it.)\r\nMully (muffled): Sculder? I've got something to show you.\r\n\r\nScene 3\r\n(PC Gamer secret offices. There are police men everywhere. Mully is staring intently at the same computer we saw earlier. Sculder walks in.) \r\nSculder: That looks nice. What is it?\r\nMully: We call it Descent. \r\nSculder: I heard a rumour that they were working on a follow-up.\r\nMully: That wasn't just a rumour, Sculder. This is the follow-up.\r\n(Sculder looks shocked. He pulls a pile of PC magazines from his bag.)\r\nSculder: Look at this. Almost every magazine has the shareware version on their coverdisks.\r\nMully: My god, Sculder. By now just about every PC owner must have played it, and, also given its similarity to the original...\r\nSculder: ...this game would be near-impossible to review. Right - conspiracy on a grand scale. Let's burst into someone's office.\r\nThe Editor: Stop this now.\r\n\r\nRight. Having concluded that there is a sinister plot to make my job difficult, I will now explain the basics of Descent for the benefit of the two readers who have never played it before.\r\nYou 'descend' into a mine, and before you can leave you must destroy the main reactor, and find the exit before it explodes. Otherwise you die. You can also be killed by the evil robots who guard the mine. They shoot you, ram you, and are generally a bit on the unpleasant side. This is where your arsenal of weapons (includes such delights as missiles, bombs, lasers, and chain-gunny things) comes in extremely handy. You can also rescue hostages and find secrets and fight bosses and stuff.\t\r\nDescent 2 is the same, but more so. It's so similar, it's uncanny. In fact, it's more like Descent Plus. There are more robots, weapons and other little bits, and the levels designs are all different, but underneath beats the same heart. Every level has essentially the same structure: kill robots, find reactor, run away very quickly.\r\nHaving said that, some of the new features are brilliant - the Guide-Bot, for example. Sort of a cross between R2-D2 and those little mouse-bots out of Star Wars. All you have to do is locate it and free it from its tiny cell, and it finds what you want it to, then comes back to get you. Chasing after it while frantically clearing away the baddies is great, and it's supremely useful for getting to the exit after the reactor has been defeated. The lighting techniques are also much improved, and the lights can be blown up, darkening corridors. There are loads of new weapons and robots, and there are lots of new multi-player features. Also you can now lay markers on the map. Nice. And save your game midway through the levels. Great. And choose to start on any previously-reached level from the title screen. Groovy. \r\nIt's all very exiting, yet, at the same time, a bit dull. If this game lacks anything, it's variety. It would have been fantastic if there were levels, say, set in a complex metropolis, or a space ship hangar, or even inside a giant robot. If only there'd been a bit more imagination in the level designs and structure, it would be incredible rather than just very good. Other moans: occasionally you get shot at while you are in a tight corridor, and the enemy bullets are very hard to dodge. If you get caught in the reactor explosion, then you lose all your weapons (normally you can go back to the spot where you died and they'll still be floating around). And worst of all, the boss robots are THE EMBODIMENT OF ALL THAT IS EVIL. They are very tough. When you shoot at them they disappear, and later reappear right next to you. They have magic bullets, and only die after unceremoniously stripping you of all your lives. I hate them.\r\nIn the full version, as opposed to the shareware version you'll already have played, you get 30 levels, fantastic SVGA graphics, multi-player games, and movie bits. If you didn't enjoy the shareware version, there's nothing here to change your mind. If you did enjoy it, then you'll be overjoyed to get more of the same high-quality blasting action. If you like shooters, then this is the game for you. In my humble opinion it trounces stuff like Duke Nukem 3D and Hexen, but I think those are two of the most over-rated games of recent times. If you want a more story-centred and varied 3D blaster, then Dark Forces is the obvious choice. But if frantic shooty shenanigans and multi-player larks are what you're after (and you have a suitably powerful PC), then you'll find nothing finer than Descent 2 at the moment. It's just a shame that all these elements couldn't have been combined for an all-conquering blast-o-rama. But, hey, that would be like asking for the moon on a stick. And that's just silly.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Deus","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"I get the idea that when the programmers got to the stage of adding detail to the embryonic Deus, they didn't stop until somebody prised their cold, dead fingers from their keyboards some months later. Deus is a game with rather a lot of detail.\r\nIt's a game where you don't just die: you die from something specific. Hyperalgesia, or sometimes dehydration. Or hypothermia. Or widespread gangrene, brought on by that wound you bandaged three nights ago but foolishly neglected to check for infection with the blood analyser in your medical kit.\r\nDeus is a game where at any one time you can expect your personal wardrobe to contain at least five complete changes of clothing, from viperskin briefs for tropical regions to heavy furs for the snowy mountains. And, if you forget your furs in the mountains, it's a game where you hear yourself occasionally cough, because you're now getting a nasty cold. \r\nDetail has always been part of RPGs, of course. It's part of what makes the game come alive. But the sort of obsessive attention to detail Deus exhibits borders on the neurotic. Or the hypochondriac, to be more accurate, since so much of the obsession seems to be medical. Ten different medicines in your first-aid kit. Ten. Another 16 pieces of medical equipment, from bandages to plasma. I mean, come on. It doesn't help that Deus also has an awful lot of keys to master, a fifty page manual, and a generally clunky interface. Not very surprisingly, the learning curve for this game is pretty alpine for the first couple of hours.\r\nAfter a while, however, Deus suddenly starts being fun. You begin to get the hang of the interface, and start to get into the plot. The year is 2164 and you're a bounty hunter who's tracked five deadly terrorists to the planet Alcibiade, where they've overrun a small scientific colony. Before you can even get close to the colony, you have to deal with the primitive tribal peoples native to the planet, as well as the hostile wildlife. There are open grasslands to explore, temples to roam, high security scientific installations to infiltrate and tunnels to tramp along, and all are represented in high quality, colourful polygonal graphics.\r\nOn the downside again, there's no interaction with non-player characters in Deus, which is something of a disappointment in an RPG because it reduces every encounter to a fight. But the other old familiar thrills are still there, and they still work: finding a new map, that vitally-needed component, a key to the locked hut.","PUBID":126},{"GAMENAME":"Discworld 2","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"50.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Missing Presumed...??!! is Discworld 2's subtitle. The joke being, of course, that Death has disappeared. Not the concept of death, you understand, but our scythe-wielding friend with the nice line in robes.\r\nThis may not be immediate cause for concern, but unfortunately the deceased are now unable to leave our dimension, and seem destined to hover in simultaneous life and death. Simultaneous oneness and difference. Acintya bheda bheda tattva. And so, to avoid a second Night Of The Living Dead (or did they already make a sequel?), in steps Mickey Mouse magician Rincewind to save the universe, by (amongst other vague tasks) intoxicating chickens to confuse vampires. As you do.\r\nDiscworld 2 is great. Sure, there are faults, but from the minute you set eyes on the dancing skeleton in the opening credits, strutting his stuff to a funky blues number ('That's Death'), you know that there's something special about the game. A great deal of effort has been put into making an entertaining and polished product. The voices are excellent, bursting with character, and Rincewind is always ready with a quick quip for whichever object you happen to examine. His gentle contempt of almost every other game character is always pleasing to behold, but while the witty wizard is amiability personified, the irrelevant tirades of the other characters can grow tiresome and you are forced to sit through them for fear of missing a vital clue (and there are plenty).\r\nCuriously, I've read every Terry Pratchett book apart from the Discworld ones, so I can safely say that while the game successfully conveys the author's mystical sense of humour, the characters and setting are still accessible to non-fans.\r\nAs a sequel, Discworld 2 will be lapped up by fans of the original. However, the game engine is slightly less solid than that of its predecessor, which can only be a bad thing. And although the new improved SVGA graphics are technically superior, I can't help preferring the look of the original, which had a charm all of its own.\r\nThe difficulty curve is about right, and there is leniency in the order in which you can solve puzzles, although the puzzles themselves suffer from an occasional lack of originality. Among the objects you collect, PickAxeª and Knifeª make their regular appearance, but while these puzzles are predictable enough to ease you into the game, the correct use for a hammerhead shark and some alcoholic popcorn will keep you occupied for many a head-scratching hour (or did I give that last puzzle away by mentioning the chicken? Already I've said too much).\r\nSo while Discworld 2 isn't going to win an SOS originality award, it's quirky enough to keep one entertained for a long while indeed. And considering the dancing skeleton is worth the price tag on its own, I can't fail to recommend it to you.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Druid: Demons Of The Mind","Percentage":58,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"A mystery has to be solved. Again. Mysteries crop up with alarming regularity in role-playing games, and it's always down to you to do something about it. This time the mystery is multi-faceted: primarily, you've been summoned to a strange land to find a missing person, one of the four druids who rule the land. Where has he gone? Why did he go? And where within the Islands and the Common Land are you going to find him? And as well as that, why have you been 'chosen', wrenched from who-knows-where to this land of mysteries in the first place? All, as usual, will eventually become clear.\r\nThe isometric view, la Crusader and Pagan before it, is becoming increasingly popular for RPGs, probably because of the success of the Origin classics. Druid uses it well, providing the artists with space to flesh-out the world you're exploring, and giving you enough space to see what's going on around you without having constantly to spin around in an unrealistic manner. The graphics, all displayed in glorious, highly colourful (to the extent of garish at points) SVGA, are at the better end of the RPG spectrum - fluidity of movement isn't a problem, and, despite the detail, Druid doesn't suffer as did Pagan (and certainly Crusader) with sudden jerks and stilted progress of the central character.\r\nAlthough not original, the story which links Druid together is intriguing - it draws heavily from Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series of novels, where a man is torn from one world to save another, and, because it starts off with the precept that you don't actually know why you're here, axe clutched in hand, it immediately manages to catch your attention. The problem is that, as the game progresses, it doesn't really make enough of this - the character you're playing accepts his predicament all too easily, even if you don't, and so, ultimately you become alienated from the your character, his opinions and presumptions incongruous with your own.\r\nCombat, on the other hand, features too heavily in Druid. While I can accept that this is an 'action' RPG rather than one which places high demands on your brain, there's a point at which combat becomes just too much; you can only take so much endless hack and slash before it loses all appeal. 'Oh not another Lizardman to reduce to a bloody pulp.'\r\nThe initial appeal of Druid is, then, something that fails to last. The puzzles are testing at times, though for the most part they simply consist of combining a number of items, which you get by beating people up. But it's too slow, mainly because death is frequent (all of those combat sequences take their toll), and ultimately unrewarding.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Duke Nukem 3D Plutonium Pak","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"20.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There're a lot of them about. New levels for Duke Nukem, that is. There're loads of them on the Internet, for a start. We put them on CD GAMER every issue. There're CDs of them available in the shops. And now there are some official ones. Of them.\r\nDuke Nukem 3D is one of the most popular computer games ever. It may not be as frightening as Doom, it may not be as sophisticated as Quake, but its toilet humour and sense of fun have endeared it to a huge swathe of gamers.\r\nSo, it's understandable that 3D Realms want to have a piece of the cake they, after all, created. Hence the Plutonium Pak; basically a new episode of Duke, featuring 11 new levels and some other stuff (detailed in the panel below), and costing £20. Except that it's a wee bit more than that. What this CD actually does is update your version of Duke Nukem to 1.4, identical to the new Atomic version which is probably in the shops by the time you read this. It only works with the registered version, of course. Once you've done the updating and you load Duke up, you'll see two new options. One is to play the game on Sierra's TEN network (providing you have the modem and all that) and the other is to play the new episode, called 'The Birth'.\r\nThe new episode features the return of the aliens, forcing a rather annoyed Duke to have to give up his vacation and go and sort them out. There're some really superb new levels in here, with lots of new artwork which immediately sets them above most of the MAPs available from elsewhere. They're the sort of levels that remind you why Duke is so much fun - Duke Burger springs to mind as an example of this. Duke's levels are like real places; you half-know the layout of this burger bar already, because it's like your local McDonald's. No other game seems to do this (have you ever been in a building that's anything like the first level of Quake? No, of course not). These levels are tough, too, packed with monsters and traps that are going to keep the best Duke player wondering what's coming next. And every level is good, it's not just some of them. And there's some great inventiveness shown, particularly in 'Babe World', which is filled with mechanical Mickey Mouse-alikes who scare the living daylights out of me, and in the climactic level 'Area 51' (in real life supposedly the secret USAF base where they store the aliens and machines that have crashed on the Earth).\r\nSo the Plutonium Pak's good, but it's not cheap (it costs just under two quid a level, after all). Buy it if you can afford it.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Archimedean Dynasty","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"With Creation, Sub-Culture and Aqua'Tak all on the way, Archimedean Dynasty is the first of a new school of 'commotion in the ocean' games which are exchanging the final frontier for the fluid frontier. Unfortunately, Blue Byte's solution is no more than a watery Elite, substituting the blackness of space with the blue of the deep, stars with bubbles, scanners with sonars and space stations with waterproofed Bladerunner style cities. There is no doubt that this trusty formula of missions, shipbuilding and dogfights is reasonably enjoyable, but Archimedean Dynasty is to Elite what Battlestar Galactica is to Star Wars. \r\nThe plot is your usual off-the-peg, post-apocalypse, you're-the-only-hope thinwear yarn. You're a mercenary called Deadeye, and you feel compelled to say things like, 'I'm Deadeye, I hit every time,' when you meet girls.\r\nAs is the way of such things, the whole soggy saga unfolds as you click on the parts of the little rendered bases marked 'bar', and click on text-driven dialogue. \r\nSoon everything is proceeding according to plan. You pick up jobs, sink a few bad guys and spend your booty upgrading your craft, which at the start of the game has all the potency of a rubber duck. \r\nThe story is not so much a web of intrigue as a string, frogmarching you from one plot waypoint to the next and rarely branching beyond a couple of missions at a time. \r\nAnd this lack of real depth also mars the all-important in-mission combat. Owing a rather large debt to Elite, these 3D dogfights have you twisting and turning through swarms of attackers, lining them up on your altitude scanner and dispatching them with torpedoes. However, the baddies don't seem terribly batey. Don't bother them and they won't bother you. Of course, such a neutral course won't get the mission done, but until you can afford the appropriate upgrade your ship doesn't regenerate damage, so once you're plugged you've got to live with it. What's worse is that there's no tactical-retreat-to-base option. So although you know you're going to die the next time somebody deflects a sonar ping off your bow, you have to carry on or restart the whole mission again. With the result that the tasks in hand become all too familiar.\r\nGraphically, too, Archimedean Dynasty is less than convincing. The ships and cities are passable, but the deep is simply a flat blue rather than a murky, particle-laden depth. And if you dive directly for the sea floor, you don't crash but just seem to go straight through it. \r\nUltimately, this sums up the problem with the entire game: it's got too many holes in it. You should be able to totally immerse yourself in games like this, but with Archimedean Dynasty you're merely paddling in the shallows.","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"EarthSiege 2","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"First, robot fans had EarthSiege. Then Activision brought them the fabulous MechWarrior 2. And now, to a steady 'phwee-chunk phwee-chunk', comes EarthSiege 2, with graphics that stun and enough firepower to knock your granny's thermal socks off.\r\nThis is just the ticket. Detailed visuals, growling servo noises and shiny polish smeared over all the parts, and all under Windows 95. Sierra have stolen Activision's thunder even before they've had a chance to release the Windows 95 version of MechWarrior 2 later in the spring.\r\nWindows 95? Indeed. And, despite the fact that you're probably already reaching to turn the page, thinking: 'Windows 95 games are so slow on my system. Even the cursor jerks about the place,' I implore you to bear with me. I've got some good news. Very good, in fact, for here is an action game, where the shifting of polygons and pixels and complicated stuff like that actually counts for something, that happily trots along under Microsoft's not-so-new operating system. With a speedy graphics engine, and the choice of playing in either 640 by 480 SVGA mode or plain old 320 by 200, you can be pretty sure that EarthSiege 2 is going to run quite merrily on your machine. (Providing you've got at least a DX2, that is.)\r\nWhy am I placing so much emphasis on EarthSiege 2's smooth running? Because when you're playing a simulation, where realism is one of the main factors keeping you progressing from one of the 50 main missions to the next, smoothness counts, big time. Try aiming your twin machine guns at a HERC (that's a very big armoured robot piloted by you, a friendly human or an enemy Cybrid) that's 250 metres away when the crosshairs are dancing about like a moth in the wind. It ain't easy, particularly when your PC-run opponent doesn't suffer the same disadvantage. So, as I painfully discovered with MechWarrior 2 (which was unplayable on my Pentium OverDrive-based system), if the frame rate's so low that you're forever overcompensating with the gun-sights, it doesn't matter how good the plot is, or whether the texture mapping is perfectly aligned - you want to be able to play the game, not bruise your fist hitting the screen in frustration.\r\nPlot-wise, EarthSiege 2's the same old, tedious story. Man created big computer which then turned against man. In order to aid itself in its nefarious ends it's created some enormous robots with even bigger guns. Man, not to be outdone, has made his own robots with which to beat up those utilised by his own evil creation. Dim lights, roll camera and prepare for some cataclysmic action.\r\nFirst impressions are that EarthSiege 2's too easy. You load up the Instant Action demo mission and you've finished it within 15 minutes (probably quicker than that if you've played the original EarthSiege or MechWarrior 2). You frequently hear your on-board computer telling you that shields are critical, but none of the half-dozen or so enemy HERCs that you battle it out against seem to be able to let off a missile. It's only after you've finished this mission and started on the training missions (of which there are ten) that you realise why the first mission is so easy in comparison: you've got invulnerability and unlimited weapons turned on by default.\r\nThe aperitif over with, the first course arrives. The training missions are essential playing if you want to get anywhere through the actual campaign missions which make up the meat of the game. These take you through the basics - actually moving around successfully, which is trickier than you may think, for it took me and James Flynn more than ten minutes just to work out how to make the HERC go forward thanks to the complexity of the controls - to the more complex principles of combat strategy (how to initiate successful flanking attacks, where to position yourself in escort missions and that sort of thing).\r\nYou also get your first taste of the flying HERC, a new feature in EarthSiege 2 that adds immensely to the variation of mission type in the game. Called the Razor, it flies just like a plane in a flight sim (only without all the complicated twiddly bits), and is kitted out with the same range of weapons that you enjoy when navigating the ground-based HERC variety. The graphics engine shifts along at an alarming rate, even with the staggering level of ground detail and object texturing, giving an impression of speed that is genuinely scary at low altitudes. The Razor introduces a new (possibly gimmicky) aspect to the robot sim - it gives you the chance to experience a game rather like Terminal Velocity, nestling within the main game. A nice touch, then, and certainly one which justifies the purchase of EarthSiege 2 even if you've already played through the original game and Mech 2 too.\r\nOkay, so you've completed your training session. Now onto the serious stuff, where saving the world is your top priority. The overall campaign structure, which takes you to a number of different environments, progresses at a sensible rate - you get a chance to get to grips with your enemy before you're thrown in with overwhelming opposing HERC fleets. The Cybrids (controlling the enemy HERCs) use strategies that force the very best out of you - go in guns-a-blazin' and you're not going to last long. You must use cover effectively, hiding behind mounds and within gullies, drawing your enemy into traps from which there is no escape. If you're heavy-handed, you rapidly get blown to bits, so you've got to plan well and then practise - few missions will be over in one shot.\r\nThe graphical advances over the original, and indeed over MechWarrior 2, do EarthSiege 2 more than proud. In the latter two games the terrain was rather too flat, and the lack of proper texturing emphasised this flatness. Likewise, the lack of texturing on the HERCs (or Mechs) themselves made them look like lego creations rather than 'real' robots. EarthSiege 2's detail level (presumably taking advantage of graphics acceleration techniques employed by Windows 95) makes the action so much more believable - especially the special effects such as fire and bullet impacts; there's nothing more satisfying that seeing a HERC you've taken out explode in a ball of flame and floundering about before falling down on its knees and fizzling out.\r\nWith 50 missions to play through (in addition to the ten training sessions), this isn't a game which you're going to be whipping through in a weekend. The missions get tough, real tough, requiring increasing numbers of replays, so even when you're halfway through the missions you're nowhere near being halfway through the game (if that makes sense). \r\nBut, although this is a demanding game, it's one which rarely gets inordinately frustrating. It's both better than the original EarthSiege and more enjoyable than MechWarrior 2. Control is tricky (you've got to use a joystick and at least ten keys on the keyboard to play efficiently, usually using both the joystick and the four directional arrow keys at once!), and it gets so hard later on that you'd benefit from having cut your teeth on something like MechWarrior 2. But, with such depth in its campaign structure, and such sheer graphical beauty, EarthSiege 2 gives MechWarrior 2 a thump in the face. At least, for now - remember the Windows 95 version of Activision's classic is due any time now.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"The 11th Hour","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"For the last couple of years you could have gone up to any PC owner and told him that aliens really had landed in America and were demonstrating the benefits of UFO technology, and he would probably have believed you. You could have bragged about how an English guy would one day win a heavyweight boxing title, and he might have offered you fair odds. You could even have told him that a networked game of Doom was about as exciting as watching paint dry, and he might have taken pity on you, and given you the benefit of the doubt with a knowing smile. If, however, you'd suggested that The 11th Hour, the mega-budget sequel to The 7th Guest, was about to be released, he would have accused you of taking the mick and punched you squarely on the nose.\r\nAdvertisements first started appearing for The 11th Hour about a year ago, and it's since become something of a joke. Hell would freeze over and id Software would stop doing Doom games before The 11th Hour was finished. The game is set 70 years after The 7th Guest and, the way things were going, it looked like it would be released 70 years after it as well. But someone has finally put their foot down and said: 'Enough is enough! Let's stop faffing about adding bits, and get the damn thing out there and make some money.'\r\nSo here it is, in all its four-CD glory. Better late than never, some might say.\r\nBut they wouldn't be entirely correct.\r\nYou see, while The 7th Guest sold in huge numbers, the incredible graphics and sound effects masked what was basically just a glorified puzzle game. Now it's available on budget and is selling phenomenally once again, but this time at an appropriate price. And The 11th Hour offers more of the same, albeit on a much grander scale.\r\nAfter all the weird goings-on in the first game, and your successful exposure of the culprits, the house of Faust is still intact. Which is odd. Wouldn't you have done something about it? Burnt it, perhaps, or let Michael Aspel wander around it making his Strange But True series.\r\nBut no. It's still there, and weird things are happening again.\r\nThe programmers' bold claim that they have crammed 134Gb onto the four CDs is quite possibly true. High-quality video footage pours forth throughout the game, the kind of video that makes games like Phantasmagoria look positively amateurish. But video footage alone doesn't make a game. Have Trilobyte managed to overcome The 7th Guest's shortcomings, and make it fun to play as well?\r\nThe 11th Hour still relies on you roaming around the mansion coming across puzzles that, when solved, allow you to see more. The further you get, the more bizarre the puzzles become, and the more annoying the taunting voice-over gets. But, having overcome the horror of the first puzzle looking suspiciously similar to one in the first game (only this time you move Knights around instead of Queens), you'll find there's more variety in the puzzles than before.\r\nAnd you'd have to go a long way to beat The 11th Hour's atmosphere, with its eerie music and effects (plus that really annoying voice). Graphically, too, it stands a long way above the competition (which consists mainly of The 7th Guest in this case). But there's only one way to play this game. On your own it swiftly gets boring as you get bogged down with the puzzles. So you need to get a load of mates round and all have a go together, throwing in suggestions and generally muddling your way through. When I tried it like this, suddenly it became fun.\r\nAlthough The 11th Hour is a better game than The 7th Guest, and is well-rounded and entertaining, it's not going to have the same impact as its famous predecessor. We've seen it all before, basically.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"ESPN Extreme Games","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Where have you been? No-one plays football anymore. Or cricket. No-one swims (except with a surf board) or plays hockey. Even tiddlywinks has become rather passe of late as the youth of today toss their Ludo boards skywards and buy a range of sportswear that can only be described as 'extreme'. Mummy's little baby this year insists on roller blades, a skateboard, a street luge (apparently nothing to do with a German World War Two pistol) and a mountain bike, and it's all because of those 'radical' people at ESPN in, yep, you guessed it, America.\r\nESPN Extreme Games, somewhat infamous on the PlayStation, has arrived on the PC via the wobbliest, most scenically unattractive route possible, with a stop-off at Dullsville for refuelling. Having chosen from 16 characters, many of whom don't appear to know the correct orientation of a baseball cap, and each with obligatory strengths and weaknesses, you can enjoy the views from five world courses: San Francisco (lots of annoying hills), Utah (lots of annoying rocks), Lake Tahoe (lots of annoying rabbits), South America (lots of illegal plants) and Rome. \r\nWell, Rome, but in the loosest sense of the capital, which has enjoyed some slight geographical anomalies, including acquiring the Leaning Tower of Pisa and broken remnants from the Coliseum, which, despite their age and obvious archaeological value, are left lying in the middle of the road. In fact, each of the courses is graced with a range of deadly obstructions, from rock falls through sliding rock doors and out of the other end of strange giant wheely bins. To be honest, the competition organisers ought to be ashamed of themselves.\r\nThe race begins after an encouraging pep talk from ESPN's Suzy Kolber, who is, I'm sure, quite lovely, but the poor quality of the video leaves her looking like a Crimewatch suspect. From that moment onwards it is finger on the accelerate button for a tediously long race of about 15 minutes (five is more than enough). As you charge forward (be that by bike, luge, etc.), you can choose to sportingly kick or punch your opponents from their particular vehicles in an attempt to gain some badly needed places. Also, you'd better pass through the occasional gates - they reward you with money (for purchasing better equipment) or league points, or open secret shortcuts.\r\nGame-wise, it sounds hopeful, but the action is too slow and dull. Obviously the nature of the sport dictates that you aren't going to be charging around a track at 300 km/h, but it's this relative sluggishness over something like Screamer that leaves you praying that the finish is around the next corner. Ironically, a decelerate button is provided, but is wholly unnecessary. The more you play it the better it gets, as improved league standings draw you in some more, but it never rises above the level of tame.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Euro 96","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As you read this you are almost certainly being bombarded by hour after hour of football. Even seemingly innocuous television programs will mysteriously inherit soccer-related aspects. Blue Peter will endeavour to make its own Wembley stadium from cardboard and sticky-backed plastic, The Bill will be required to police matches, and Wildlife On One will investigate a referee's natural habitat. If you don't like football, or you've had your fill by now, please stop reading. I'm afraid that this is a football game, and I just can't avoid talking soccer for the next two pages. There's a driving game on page 85. Read that instead.\r\nWith the less committed stragglers gone, it's time to begin coverage. Betting shops are offering evens on Euro 96, the subtly altered follow-up to Actua Soccer, being the best soccer game available for the PC. After all, big brother was highly regarded, usually achieving marks in the 80s or 90s. Somehow, though, Euro 96 has shaved a chunk off this mark to get the one given at the end of this review. Could Gremlin really have taken Actua and made it worse? Let the inevitably heated debate begin.\r\nIf ever a criticism was made of Actua, it was that it sacrificed some enjoyment, speed and downright fun in order to make a football game that looked just like a football game. Euro 96 achieves even more than this. Motion-captured players animate realistically and beautifully. A few more moves have been digitised to increase the capabilities of the players, and each of the seven competition stadia have been designed to at least resemble the real thing. Start spinning the cameras around the ground and the game looks fantastic. But this is where it all ends.\r\nWell, to be fair, Barry Davies' commentary has its moments, particularly when you play in the championships and he explains the background to each of the teams. But as with FIFA before it, the script comes around very quickly, and is, at times, wholly inappropriate. 'All in all a pretty poor performance from Spain' after they'd scored two goals in five minutes, and 'Clearly the movement off the ball isn't good' during a penalty shoot out.\r\nA new addition to the Gremlin engine is the 'one touch' feature. As the ball is passed to a player, his highlight changes to a flashing star. Various joystick combinations result in traps, shots or passes, which helps to keep the game flowing smoothly, and discourages the standard trick of running your defender all the way up the field. Naturally the teams have changed, or, rather, shrunk. Only 16 are available, and, according to Gremlin, Cantona and Ginola have been selected for the French squad. You heard it here first.\r\nLet's tot up here: graphically impressive, middling commentary, innovative one-touch system, genuine Euro 96 competition. And atrocious team mates. It has to be said that in a sport where it takes 11 players to be successful, there's nothing more annoying than having one good player and ten blind mice, as Ryan Giggs and Wales will testify. Euro 96 is frustration on a CD. You don't notice it at first, but as soon as you get the hang of the game, it becomes increasingly obvious that the rest of your team would definitely have been picked last at school. The goalie rolls the ball out to opposing attackers rather than your full back. Using the one touch system, players endlessly run alongside a ball without ever collecting it. When the goalie kicks the ball to midfield, the midfielders don't live up to their descriptions, and your attackers continually intercept the ball when you shoot. Conversely, the very same PC controls his team exceptionally, winning every challenge, controlling every ball and making every pass count. His goalie is even capable of snatching the ball from your feet despite being about two metres away. It smacks of lazy programming, when Gremlin settle for OCC (obvious computer cheating) rather than developing a decent level of intelligence. This is even used to add a 'challenge' to the final. Play Portugal in the first round and beat them comfortably, but meet them in the final and they've suddenly had some exceptional training over the last three weeks, nipping effortlessly past all of your players.\r\nIf you just can't stand playing against that cheating PC, get a few friends together and beat them instead. Definitely a feather in Euro 96's cap is its range of multi-player options. Up to 16 people can play on one computer using a combination of keyboard, joysticks and a mouse, but only five people can play on the PC at the same time. The network option allows you to have up to 20 players, but only one player per machine. Two footy fans can also have a kick around over modem or serial link.\r\nIt sounds good, but, predictably, it isn't. The network, modem and serial games have fixed options. Go ahead, select your teams, but you're stuck with the default referee, pitch and match time of five minutes, and only a friendly game rather than the full event. \r\nThese problems make no sense. I just don't understand it. Actua was similarly criticised, but Gremlin have done nothing to address these problems. It's also bitterly disappointing, because I can't help but think of what could have been. I'm going to watch Blue Peter.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"F-22 Lightning 2","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Crk. 'Captain Owen. This is your commanding officer. You've been testing this new bird for far too long. We want to know once and for all what you think. Should we cancel the order for the fleet of EF-2000's now?' Crk.\r\n'It's been a hard baby to test fully, sir. I wanted to make sure that the sleek, nay, beautiful body with its exquisite three dimensional engines don't slur my judgement. It's far too easy just to switch to an outside view whenever you get a bit bored, and just think, 'Wow, this is surely the best looking craft I have ever flown.''\r\n'Balderdash, Owen. I want a definitive answer and I want it now.'\r\n'Very well, sir. In the sense of assisting in a successful war campaign, the F-22 has it sussed. Almost every mission I flew involved climbing to 25,000 feet, switching off my radar until I got within missile range of my targets, popping the radar back on and then firing off a fleet of AMRAAMs from 25 miles away. Confident that they would almost certainly send my targets to their doom, I could turn round and fly away again.'\r\n'We don't pay you to be slack, Owen. Do you mean to say that we didn't send you into any real danger?'\r\n'Midway through the second of the four campaigns I was sent on a mission where my wingman and I had to shoot down about 17 aircraft with a combined total of 20 missiles.'\r\n'That doesn't sound so bad.'\r\n'But, sir, when I order my wingman to attack the enemy, he flies right into them rather than picking them off from a distance like I do. It frequently means that he is shot down before he gets to chalk up too many bad guys. Consequently, I need to clear out about 15 craft with ten missiles, six of which are Sidewinders and thus crap. I could fancy myself in a dogfight but the little swines pop a multitude of missiles at me.'\r\n'So are you trying to say that you didn't get past this mission?'\r\n'Not as such, sir. But it doesn't matter. The Quick Mission option allows you to play any of the missions in any order.'\r\n'Doesn't that rather spoil the point of going through the missions?'\r\n'Yes it does, sir. And that's the other problem. Although the missions themselves follow a great storyline, you never feel that what you've just achieved has made any difference to the global situation. You know in TIE Fighter how when you complete a mission you get a message saying how it has affected the situation, which makes the desire to continue very strong.'\r\n'Of course I don't. I'm a commanding officer. I don't play computer games. But what's it like to actually fly? Whenever we were watching you, it looked really boring.'\r\n'That's right, sir. Several people commented on exactly that problem. But when you play it, it's considerably more fun. Even without the essential requirement of actually being able to select your own weapons for the mission, like getting rid of those bloody Sidewinders and sticking a few more AMRAAMs on instead, you still manage to get really into the flight. And it's so immaculately rendered, with different territories and different times of day, that you can't help but be drawn in. Fly low over coastlines (but not too low, as they get horribly blocky), just below the cloud ceiling or even in the upper atmosphere and you'll be amazed by the effect.'\r\n'No I won't. I didn't get where I am today, etc.'\r\n'I was amazed, sir. Have a look outside your aircraft and watch the effect of flaps, gear, banking, applying air brakes. The free floating camera lets you look all round the plane, changing your aural perception of the engines in the process.'\r\n'But what kind of hardware do you need to fly the damn thing comfortably?'\r\n'That's the strangest thing of all, sir. I mostly flew it on maximum detail with a P100 and it moved forwards perfectly comfortably. But using full rudder or looking around the plane with the camera, the screen update was very slow, perhaps no more than four or five frames a second. But, in F-22's defence, the game wasn't sluggish, responding just as quickly as when you flew forwards. So, I tried it with a P166 and it seemed to go no faster. Bit puzzled by that one, sir.'\r\n'I've still not had a definitive answer, Owen. Should the MoD buy some or not?'\r\n'Well, thanks to the possibility of flying against some chums in either a co-operative or deathmatch fashion, and because it's still a lot of beautiful fun to play, then, yes, you could justify some budget expenditure here, sir. It's just not quite as good as I hoped it would be.'\r\n'But those photos you took are fantastic.'\r\n'Yes, that's because the F-22 has a built-in grabber, for which we are truly thankful.","PUBID":97},{"GAMENAME":"Fable","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"We always find it a little suspicious when a publishing company neglects to send us a game for review, but we find it considerably more irksome to be casually wandering around music shops at lunchtime and happening upon boxed copies of the very games that have kept themselves so quiet up until now. In some selfless attempt to provide an essential service to you, our readers, we forwent low pay and poor conditions to scrape together as many coppers from our threadbare pockets as we could find. By the time we had finished begging from little Jimmer, we had the £33 that the shop required in exchange for said software title.\r\nI'm fiercely proud of my impartial professionalism, so a quick cup of tea was required to soften the irk from earlier, before embarking on the epic journey of points and clicks that is Telstar's Fable.\r\nNot only French but Parisian, in fact. And the impression I get is that at the offices of Symbiosis, more weight is given to the early, simplistic, fly-on-the-wall adventures typified in Sierra's King's Quest series (mid to later episodes) than the plush artistic style that has made LucasArts so unfeasibly rich. Fable is, in this respect, unremarkable, unoriginal and uninspired. Graphically it's one of those, ooo, well, not bad; nothing to really moan about type affairs, but why release something so plain for the same price and at the same time as the astounding Broken Sword and Toonstruck?\r\nThe plot angle is nothing to write to your literary agent about either. Strangely reminiscent of King's Quest once again (that's the Sierra one), it's one of exploration and recovery of vastly important trinkets, the kind of story that leads designers neatly into a selection of bog standard puzzles, such as monsters to get past or doors to open. Stick a few annoying deaths in there to break up the pace a little, make things altogether slower with huge location descriptions and design an annoying click-click-click-click interface and you have what should be annoying.\r\nBut at the risk of sounding like I'm mellowing in my old age, it ain't all that bad. Fairly charming at times, humour hitting no less often than missing and mostly logical puzzles create an unimaginative game, but one that is rarely bland.","PUBID":134},{"GAMENAME":"Fantasy General","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Based on the same engine as the immensely popular Panzer General (PCG 15, 85%) and the more recently released Allied General (PCG 26, 72%), Fantasy General promises more of the same hex-based wargame fun but with a mythical twist. With a lengthy plot that concentrates on the usual driving-the-enemy-from-your-land theme and featuring more dwarves, elves and griffins than you can shake a lance at, Fantasy General sounds like just the sort of thing to keep you glued to your monitor for many unhealthily lengthy sessions. And it sort of is.\r\nFantasy General's a good fun, detailed, absorbing wargame with a large selection of unit types to choose from and consequently a wide variety of tactics to be tried. It has a pleasing campaign aspect that has you playing the role of one of four generals, each with their own, individual style. You hang on to the troops you start with, who become more experienced as time goes on, and constantly expand your army as the game progresses. So the outcome of early battles can crucially affect the way your campaign goes later.\r\nThe battles themselves are interesting to play. Movement around the field is easily mastered, basic tactics become quickly apparent and before too long you'll be moving your army about with all the grace of Alexander. The enemy's intelligence can be modified up and down and makes a significant difference to the challenge you face. And the battlefield is full of things to explore - shrines where you'll find items of power, magic stone circles and the like.\r\nBut. This is a turn-based hex wargame. On the PC. In 1996. It's a jolly good turn-based hex wargame, but that doesn't stop me from feeling that it's a little, well, dated. Only a couple of months ago I was playing the superb Warcraft II (PCG 27, 91%) for PC Gamer and in that same issue was the nearly-as-excellent Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat (90%). Both of those games use real-time simulation and animated graphics and are every bit as complicated and absorbing as Fantasy General while at the same time being a lot more fun to play. In fact, they both knock Fantasy General into a cocked hat.\r\nSo while this isn't in any way a bad game, it isn't one that I honestly feel I can recommend that you go out and buy (or even sit at home and mail order). It would have been great ten years ago, but the world has moved on and left SSI behind.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"F1 Manager","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Games reviewers say stupid things. One of the best - when confronted with a sports simulator, for instance - goes something like this: 'The problem with a game like Virtual Beach Volleyball is that you'll only like it if you like playing real Beach Volleyball.' No, really? Do you give advice for a living, by any chance?\r\nThe problem with F1 Manager is that you'll only enjoy it if you love Formula One. No, I mean really love. Love in an obsessional, Murray-Walker-and-Damon-Hill-are-the-twin-pillars-of-my-very-existence kind of love. If you don't know which rubber compound this season's Goodyears are made of and can't explain the rudiments of downforce in the time it takes for a pit stop, you will be a lost, confused and unhappy gamer with this.\r\nYou see, F1 Manager is less of a game, more a teaching aid for prospective F1 managers - to call it anything less than total simulation would be to do its German developers a disservice. With all the stats and drivers for the current championship, you get to handle every aspect of team affairs from negotiating sponsorship and selling merchandise, to hiring drivers, engineers and development staff to designing and modifying your car as the race season progresses. When you add to this a real-time race simulator where you can view your cars' progress from a driver's eye and 'TV' vantage points, change pit stop strategy to match race conditions and even carry out pitstops yourself, you have one of the most comprehensive management sims yet.\r\nThe game comes with a built-in difficulty setting which controls how hard you'll have to work to gain success. However, there are few 'skip' options, so to play at all you must play a pretty much full-on version of the game. Of course, this season's Formula One championship is drawing to a close, leaving a yawning chasm in the F1 fanatic's life. If you're going to play F1 Manager, you'll need it.","PUBID":49},{"GAMENAME":"FIFA 97","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The Bank of England, eh? License to print money. But, and this isn't something they tell everyone, even the Bank of England is bitterly jealous of Electronic Arts' FIFA tie-in. The Bank of England, for instance, has to consider market forces, inflation, the strength of the pound, dollar and yen, interest rates, even national debt, before deciding that, okay, go on then, they can pop a few million more quid out of the printer before going home this evening. EA, on the other hand, need only think to themselves that, yes, it's another year and, yes, why not come up with a new FIFA game, and, yes, let's warn our bank that we're about to be really rich again.\r\nYou see, as depressing as it is for me when I make my living from telling people whether or not they should buy a certain game, FIFA 97 will sell bucket loads whether I give it 2, 20 or 200%. So I bravely soldier on, play the game for as long as I can, and attempt to come up with a fair mark, knowing that there're enough football fanatics in Britain to make it a league champion by Christmas anyway.\r\nIt's so heartbreaking to review PC football games, because I look forward to every single one. Except perhaps Microsoft Soccer, which never looked good at any point. I love football, but there've only ever been two computer footy games that I've played months (or even years) after they first appeared. Boring as it sounds, Sensible is one (the other was on my Commodore 64, but I was young and don't wish to embarrass myself by digging up the past). Nevertheless, I still waited anxiously for the arrival of FIFA 97, especially after seeing how gorgeous it looked when I visited EA Sports headquarters back in August. Admittedly the last few years have spewed slightly ropy football games from the EA workrooms, but their answers to my searching questions assured me that, with this latest outing, there was hope.\r\nHow gutted was I within the first five minutes? Like a juicy new arrival of cod in Captain Birdseye's factory, that's how much. Everyone gathered around in mock concern as I clutched my head, rolled my eyes in a slightly over the top way, and moaned (proper horror film style moaning, not the complaining type) 'What have they done? How could they have got it so wrong?' It was a troubling moment, not least because my voice had that kind of annoying, multi-pitched, almost voice-about-to-break screech as I hadn't spoken for a couple of hours, and everyone was listening. It was late morning, you see.\r\nIn the first 45 minutes, I screamed in anguish that my player was running straight down the field even though my joystick was almost breaking, such was the power holding it quite clearly to the right. Or perhaps I couldn't believe that my player couldn't trap or control the ball, preferring instead to constantly dribble it five feet in front of himself until he ran off the pitch, vocalising my incredulity in no uncertain or polite terms. And maybe during this first three-quarters of an hour I was even beginning to laugh at how pathetic my goal attempts were, seeing as they always skimmed along the ground (with the goalie calmly punching or kicking them out), or were lobbed high in the air and clear over the bar. During this first 45 minutes, various magazine co-workers would come past and ask me what I was playing. Then they'd ask me what it was like, and I'd mumble angrily and incomprehensibly. And they'd mention how lovely it looked, and is that Andy Gray? I'd say yes, and they'd ask what happened to John Motson. I'd explain, as I had to all the other co-workers during this first period, that Motty was still there, but Andy helped out when he needed a break for a glass of water, and that ladies man Des Lynham introduced them. At first they sounded impressed, but then looked at me sadly, not quite understanding why I didn't seem to be enjoying myself.\r\nBut, as the cliche so rightly expresses, football is a game of two halves. With this miserable early performance out of the way, and knowing that it was my duty to play this game for considerably longer, I sucked on a quarter of an orange, criticised my ineptitude, and vowed that I wouldn't be beaten when I walked back onto the field. Now, I don't want to pretend that these early impressions were all my fault - after all, it was EA's own hype that left me so expectant. What I did realise is that it wasn't an irreparable flaw in the way FIFA 97 played that left me so distraught at first, but that I just didn't appreciate that it was something that, with a little bit of practice, was possible to predict and even control.\r\nYou see, your overwhelming first impression is that your player isn't doing what you tell him to. He runs where he pleases and seemingly kicks when and where he wants with no regard to your supposedly God-like control over him. What EA have actually done, though, is to develop a system whereby your player runs in the direction you're moving, but if you change direction on the joystick, he doesn't immediately follow. Instead he keeps control of the ball (provided your opponents haven't just made a crunching tackle), and turns when his dribbling skills allow. Alternatively you could transform the movement into a kick, which after a few hours of practice means you could run away from the goal, but pull back on the stick and kick. Your player turns on a sixpence and shoots, possibly throwing the defence completely. Likewise, although there are only two different kick buttons, you could press them both at once for a thundering shot towards goal. That's how you score.\r\nThe dribbling is still silly, though. If the ball was inches from the touch line I could only guarantee keeping the ball in play by running off the pitch. And whether this ball control thing is a good idea or not, you still can't spin on the spot, turn quickly or kick instantly. Instead you have to think some way ahead for every move, releasing the fire button half a second before you're tackled, for instance.\r\nThere's a very simple reason for these problems. EA have tried too hard to be realistic. They've become so obsessed about recreating football - motion capture, the blending of moves, proper TV-style commentary - that they've forgotten how to make a good, fun game. Football is great, but a football simulation doesn't seem to lend itself well to PC games. The good footy games of the past have relied on speed and simplicity at the expense of realism. All credit to EA for trying to recreate the Great Game so faithfully, but if football really was this difficult and at times this frustrating to play, no one would bother watching it anyway.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Formula One Grand Prix 2","Percentage":95,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"When a game you've been rabidly awaiting for months finally arrives on your desk, you tend to approach it steeped in preconceptions. In your desire to love it, the odd glitch is easily overlooked, and the normal 'I'd have done this bit slightly differently' comments tend to be muted. Initial, excited impressions can become everything, especially when you've got the first ever review and so much is expected of the game. Marks can spiral uncontrollably.\r\nAs far as I can see there are two ways to avoid this. First, never allow oneself to become excited about any game, and go around depressing one's friends. Or second, take a large step back and spend a couple of days in quiet contemplation, calming down a bit and putting things into perspective.\r\nGrand Prix 2 really is a 95% game, though. Like every other game that Geoff Crammond has programmed it looks fantastic, plays brilliantly and is more addictive than you can possibly imagine. And that's just for starters.\r\nI'm going to resist the temptation to drone on about how marvellous Formula 1 Grand Prix was and how I've been playing it on and off ever since it was released in February 1993. Grand Prix 2 (the 'Formula 1' part seems to have spun off somewhere in the intervening four years - something to do with 'branding', according to MicroProse) is a far superior game in every respect.\r\nThe first obvious evolution are the graphics, which have been completely updated and now look just incredible. Everything's fully textured, and every single object on the screen looks just like the real thing. They all zip along at unprecedented speed, all the more remarkable when you consider the level of detail and the number of polygons that are being displayed simultaneously.\r\nThe lighting algorithms on the cars are perhaps the most pleasing example of the assembly engine's power. As you turn in towards cars that are passing you on the inside, the sunlight glints off them just as you'd expect it to in real life. As they mount the kerb, their suspension rods dampening the jarring impact, the reflections move round smoothly until you're left staring up the rapidly disappearing exhaust pipe of the accelerating car. There is virtually no slow-down, even if you're surrounded by other cars.\r\nBefore you start, though, there's a choice between VGA and SVGA, and once again GP2 isn't like most games. When you're playing in VGA, everything on-screen is crisp and unpixellated (with the exception of a slightly bumpy edge on the cockpit) and looks almost as sharp as many SVGA games. It doesn't feel like you're getting second best if you haven't got the kit necessary to run the game full-screen in SVGA. If you have, though (and we're talking a P90 to get 25fps with lots of detail), you're in for a treat. Everything within GP2's world is super-sharp, and the track slides beneath you with all the tarmac detail intact. When other cars approach it's tempting to stop racing and try to get as close as possible just to admire them. Everything down to the sponsors' logos are spot-on, and you realise that already this is a racing game that has lapped every other competitor already.\r\nOnce you've had enough of drooling inside the car you can switch to the external view and view the world from whatever angle you want (even those great '70s French Connection cocked-head ones). You can replay overtaking manoeuvres or crashes immediately and gloat or wince accordingly, or save out hot laps for later proud analysis. \r\nOne of GP2's key strengths is that it re-creates the Grand Prix circuits of the world with forensic accuracy, yet remains fun to play if you throw your car around as if playing an arcade game. GP2 is the perfect combination of the two approaches to racing game design and it shows that both are possible together.\r\nThe game's structure is also as perfect as you could wish for, again catering for the tastes of both beginners and seasoned professionals (many of whom were rumoured to have used the original to learn the tracks!). When you start, there's a quick race option to get into the thick of the action immediately with a quick race, or you can practise a non-championship race or tackle an entire season. Trying to win the championship drives you to practice more, but you'll probably be playing for months before you even win a race unaided.\r\nEach competitive weekend progresses like the real event, with Friday and Saturday qualifying sessions and then a pre-race warm-up followed by the race itself.\r\nFriday should be used to accumulate racing data. As soon as you leave the pits, the data logger begins tracking your performance. You can return to the pits at any time to examine your stored data and tweak your car's gear ratio, wing angle and brake balance set-ups. The attention to detail in the pit lane, the ease with which you can tweak things and the immediacy of the results makes Grand Prix Manager look more than a little tame, especially considering you get to drive the race as well.\r\nTelevision dampens many of the sounds associated with hectic Grand Prix racing - noises you only normally hear if you attend the race in person. But there's no escaping them when you're actually sitting in the cockpit. As you change down for a hairpin, the exhaust backfires with raucous pleasure before you scream out on the other side, mounting the kerb and hearing the tyres rumble over it. And, of course, the whine of the engine accompanies you throughout, but never even thinks about becoming annoying.\r\nAll this realism could become totally overwhelming were it not for Mr Crammond's now-famous driving aids. In case you're unfamiliar with them, they encompass features like automatic braking, gear selection and spin correction, and one even plots the correct driving line to take around the track. If you want to play like a beginner, then simply turn them all on, but as you get the hang of the tracks you'll gradually want to disable them until you're on your own (usually in the sand trap after you've spun off, but there you go). You can experiment during a race as well, so there's no need to keep restarting.\r\nIt should be apparent by now that the one factor that's not going to let Grand Prix 2 down is the way it plays. The simulation data Crammond and his team have accumulated - the credits mention Damon Hill's Williams team as a source - has enabled them to re-construct a 700kg computer-controlled and millimetre-precise car for the small screen. You know that the game's never being unfair when you're racing, and if you're losing it's because the car's set up wrong or you're not very good, rather than there being some dodgy AI multiplier to make it harder. The computer-controlled cars crash, spin and break down as often as you do, and they all drive as if they're being driven by professionals, although you can turn them into rookies if you so desire. \r\nFrustration is usually a destructive emotion to be feeling when you're playing a game, but when a game is as fair and well-balanced as this, a fifth consecutive out-of-the-points finish is obviously your fault rather than the computer's. It spurs you on to do better rather than turn off and return to an old favourite. It rapidly usurps the old favourites and might even see F1GP consigned to the cupboard forever.\r\nIt's not often that you can't think of a single negative thing to say about a game, but that seems genuinely to be the case here. Grand Prix 2 is as near to gaming perfection as it is possible to conceive at the moment. The racing genre will only move forward again when Crammond decides what his next game will be.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Fire Fight","Percentage":76,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The similarities between Fire Fight and Desert Strike make themselves apparent within picoseconds of the ugly Windows 95 front-end being penetrated. Both games use an isometric 3D perspective. Both send you on a series of missions, blowing things up and picking up little people. Both tell a story as they go along. Both have you grappling with left and right rotational controls along with backwards, forwards and numerous other keys. And both are generally gripping, luring you onwards with promises of new scenery and exciting new baddies to blow up.\r\nBut in Fire Fight you're in a sort of Wipeout-style hover car spaceship thing, rather than a helicopter. And you'll notice that when you change weapons, your ship 'morphs', growing a gun turret or whatever. Rather like Fire Fight itself, in fact, which began life called New Order and has since gradually acquired its current name, like one of those puzzles where you've got to turn LOVE into TEAR only changing one letter at a time.\r\nFire Fight is also set in the future (obviously - they haven't invented hover cars yet), and sees you fighting on behalf of the sinister Phantom Council, taking orders from an angry-looking bald man. He pops up in the corner of the screen from time to time and lets you know what's going on. Listen, because if you miss anything there's no way to recap. Occasionally you'll also hear from a girl with red hair. She seems to be some sort of intelligence officer, and I prefer her to the angry man.\r\nThe main departure from Desert Strike, though, is that Fire Fight looks like a PC game of the late 1990s. It's not true 3D or anything, instead occupying your processor's clock-cycles with hi-res SVGA backgrounds and sprites that draw gasps from all who lay eyes on them.\r\nTrees, first of all, look exactly like trees that've been miniaturised and secreted into your PC. They work on several levels, thanks to some cunning parallax, so you can fly over some and under others. James, to my right, finds this annoying, because your ship is often hidden from view, while Steve, to my left, considers it to be a marvel of the information age. I can take it or leave it.\r\nThen, lurking within the trees are buildings which are so detailed as to be a delight to blow up. They explode satisfyingly, belching forth flames and sending minuscule fragments spinning across the screen. As do trees, in fact, much to Jimmer's delight. The price you pay for this visual splendour is jerky scrolling - even on PC Gamer's SkyNet-rivalling P133 it's far from smooth, and it would seem that, even with all Windows 95's promises, scrolling is an area the PC has yet to master.\r\nAnd there are, of course, baddies to shoot. These are hover cars like you, but employ varying tactics including standing back and shooting at you and ploughing towards you and relying on their spiky armour to destroy you. And they're backed up by gun turrets on the ground, many of which are virtually impossible to approach without a hail of laser fire. Luckily you're provided with a number of weapons to combat them. There are Swarmers, which are clusters of missiles that home in on anything they fancy, grenades and a plasma gun, along with five others including my personal favourite the cannon, which is slow to reload but just, sort of, shoots things. You can't even see the bullets. And then you can pick up things like mines, shield-restorers and cloaking devices to use at your leisure.\r\nAs with Origin's Crusader: No Remorse before it, Fire Fight is elevated from a so-so kind of a game to a thoroughly enjoyable one by the carnage you can wreak everywhere you go. Strip away the big explosions and it'd be fairly ordinary, without the resource-juggling that turns Desert Strike into more than just a shoot-'em-up. It does seem a little uneven difficulty-wise, though. Level 1 is a doddle, while Level 2 held me up for some time as I grappled with the somewhat-fiddly controls. Having mastered them, however ('strafe' being the sticking point), I proceeded to romp through levels 3, 4 and 5, and am currently well on my way to the end of Level 15, the last one.\r\nWe played it in network mode too, of course, where you get arenas around which to chase your opponents, but no computer-controlled baddies to worry about. Matches are very much a race to see who can accrue the most power-ups, with not a great deal of room for cunning tactics and nifty manoeuvres.\r\nOnce again the cannon is my weapon of choice here, taking most challengers entirely by surprise. Network games are blighted, however, by some terrible stops and starts, even when only two are playing. The 'Readme' file suggests turning down the detail to cure this, but it seems a shame.\r\nWhile not being swept off my feet by Fire Fight, I was greatly amused by it, and would be surprised to find anyone whom it disappointed.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Microsoft Flight Simulator for Win 95","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"50.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"In the newsgroup rec.aviation.simulators recently, someone said they'd spotted 'MS Flight Simulator for Windows 95' in an ad, and excitedly asked: 'Is this the one we're all waiting for?' The answer came back quickly - 'Probably, but I take exception to the characterisation that we are all waiting for it'.\r\nAnd that's always been Flight Simulator's problem - it's too serious for its own good. As dedicated gamers you'll have flown everything that flies (and a few things that don't), but be honest, have you ever been seriously tempted by Microsoft's worthy flight-sim? Course you haven't. It's the sort of thing your grandfather would run if he had a PC. Hour after hour of watching little dials move imperceptibly, and about as much chance of a close encounter with another aircraft as you have of winning Anthea Turner in the National Lottery.\r\nSo, now the venerable FS has appeared for Windows, is there any reason to take a closer look at it? Well, yes, there is, in fact. Before we get into whether you can actually have any fun without turning anyone else around you into a molten pile of debris, let's look at what the move to Windows has changed for the better. For a start, there's absolutely no faffing about with VESA drivers, sound card environment variables or optimising start up files/creating boot discs. As a proper, grown-up 32-bit application, FS6 runs straight from your desktop in Win95. Unless you've got one of those graphics cards that falls over at the mere sight of DirectX, that is.\r\nNext, the Windows game includes a lot more decent scenery than the DOS one, where the real world disappeared almost as soon as you'd cleared the runway at the famous ex-airport, Meigs Field in Chicago. Now, you'll find masses of impressive locations including New York, Paris, and even London. It's all accurate stuff, too - a flat spin over our capital from 10,000ft looks just like the opening credits for Eastenders. There's masses of tutorial-type help on general flying principles as well as the FS world, and as before, you can use all the modern electronic navigation aids to assist you. Unlike in most games, navigation doesn't just entail turning the aircraft until the next target appears ahead of you in the radar.\r\nPerhaps best of all, though, is the chance to fly something with a bit more sky-cred than a Cessna, a glider or a LearJet. Unsurprisingly enough, there's still not the option of wasting Baghdad in a Stealth Fighter, but at least the Boeing 737 is the aviation world's equivalent of a Toyota Landcruiser, not a Ford Escort. And it flies like a Landcruiser, too, until you realise that the flight model is pretty close to what you'd expect from something that weighs 136,500lb. The performance of this virtual aircraft, like all the others in FS, is frighteningly realistic, which is more than can be said for the inevitable crashes. They're still pathetic, and frankly a text listing of all the passengers you've just killed with your incompetence would be more fitting than the silly graphics and cracked windscreen you do get.\r\nWhich is a shame, as the rest of the graphics are really rather good. The rendering of the aircraft is well done, and there's an impressive amount of detail in the cities, too, even down to the colour coding on the districts that Bill Gates owns. The instrument panels, as ever in FS, are a model of realism, and therefore very confusing for beginners. And clouds don't look like white balloons any more, either. \r\nYou might think that this graphical prowess is at the expense of performance, and you'd be right, up to a point. FS is optimised for 256 colours, but many recent cards (and drivers) work much better at higher colour depths. At the recommended number of colours, there are some horrible palette changes every time you open a dialog box, too, which looks pretty feeble, and the occasional 10-second delays while the CD is thrashed are distracting. You'll need a hot PC for this sim, as on a 16Mb, 100MHz Pentium you're looking at pretty dismal frame rates of around 2-3fps with full detail. Running the DOS version on the same PC doubles these figures, which just goes to show that using lots of technology with X in the title doesn't guarantee good performance. A spot check on a faster 166MHz Pentium revealed some much healthier figures, with between 9 and 10fps, even with multiple windows on screen. The whole flight experience took on a new realism as everything became much smoother and more fluid. If you've got a 200MHz Pentium Pro on your Christmas shopping list, underline it now! Bizarrely, for a 1996 Microsoft product, there seems to be no Internet connectivity, so you can't fly with others across the Net - yet.\r\nThe crucial question remains, then. Can you have more fun with this than reading the latest issue of Private Planes Fortnightly? Yes, you can, and if you doubt this, ask your granddad for a go on his copy, and see how many goes it takes you to fly from Heathrow out over the Channel. At under 100 feet. Navigating visually. In a thunderstorm, and in a 737-400. (Clue: flying down the Thames helps, although the bridges are a real challenge). Once you get a feel for the plane (and this takes some time - so you'll have to stick with it), you'll be lost in the experience, and as large chunks of the rendered world are your oysters, you can create your own challenges.\r\nUnlike a combat sim, Microsoft Flight Simulator's all about having control, not how fast you can do things. There will be many, many times at first where you're sitting at the controls feeling utterly helpless, but this is because you're not competent to fly the aircraft, not because the simulation is poor. If you're not still flying this game at 3am, then you're the sort of person who drives an automatic car. Badly.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Fragile Allegiance","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Playing Fragile Allegiance - which is well worth doing, as it's brilliant - involves remembering the following things simultaneously: the mineral content of 20 or 30 asteroids; the levels of your building, vehicle, missile and personnel budgets; the positions, destinations and armaments of up to 10 fleets of spaceships; the capabilities and salary levels of any number of colony supervisors; the extent of each asteroid's stockpile of minerals; the state of construction in each asteroid's shipyards, missile silos and space dock; the diplomatic status of up to 6 races of competing aliens; the arrival date of the Federal Transporter; the nature of any blueprints for new devices on order from the Sci-Tek corporation; the functions of hundreds of ridiculously-shaped icons; the locations and orders of any agents you've engaged; the state of the defences of each of your asteroids; the completion dates of any new buildings you're constructing; and the amounts of each of 10 minerals that are required to build each of 17 types of spaceships and missiles.\r\nAlthough you can find out this information by clicking on things to bring up lists of statistics, having it all in your head at once is the only way you'll be able to plan what needs doing next.\r\nIt's almost - but not quite - impossible.\r\nNot quite impossible until, that is, the phone rings. Or your PC crashes. Or someone shouts across the room for you to write some captions. Or Fragile Allegiance starts loading in one of its wretched 3D animations causing the PC to hang for a couple of seconds. Or a car blows its horn outside the window. Or Mrs Brown comes in with another cup of her infernal tea. Then, suddenly, the whole thing collapses. What was a thriving colony of asteroids, with thousands of colonists busily bustling about, suddenly becomes nothing more than an impenetrable splattering of red dots on a black background. Which one's the base again? Why are those spaceships going over there? Which asteroid's got the transporter on it? It's no good. You've either got to try to piece it all back together again by clicking on everything to see what it's up to, or start again.\r\nBah.\r\nYou see, Fragile Allegiance is kind of like SimCity 2000, Civilization and Risk all rolled into one, and is therefore alarmingly complicated. It's possibly the most complicated game I've ever played, in fact. Even after a week, on and off, at its controls I'm still only just at the stage where I'm starting to think about expanding into enemy territory.\r\nYou start off with an asteroid, floating in a sea of blackness. On its surface is one building - a sort of colony starter pack - and hovering above it is a single transporter ship. You've also got 1,000,000 credits to get you started.\r\nWithout delay, then, you'll need to start building stuff. Somewhere for your colonists to live, to start with, along with a leisure centre, an oxygen processing plant, a food production centre, a medical centre, a security centre, some solar panels, a power store, and a radiation filter. It doesn't matter where you put them, as long as they're there.\r\nBut pretty soon you'll start to run out of money. And the answer to that is to start digging. A geological survey will reveal what your asteroid's made of, and you can then install some mines and some storage vats. Then, eventually, the Federal Transporter will turn up from the sinister TetraCorp organisation (who've sold you the mining franchise), and will take away everything you've mined in exchange for credits.\r\nSounds simple enough, eh? Ah, but no. You see, out there are hundreds of other asteroids, all brimming with exciting mineral deposits. Except you can't see them. So what you need to do is build a shipyard and a landing pad, construct a couple of scout ships, and send them out to explore. They'll either find nothing or discover another asteroid, which will appear in grey on your map.\r\nAnd then your expansion can begin. While your scout ships go off exploring elsewhere, and your colonists continue to dig for minerals, you can send your transporter off to set up a new colony on the new asteroid. This will then be able to start churning out ore as well, which you can load onto your transporter and ship back to your first asteroid to be sold to TetraCorp.\r\nAs you discover more asteroids and earn more money from TetraCorp, you'll probably start to feel a little limited by the equipment that's available. Luckily, though, the equally sinister Sci-Tek corporation is on hand to sell you the blueprints for better stuff. In exchange for large sums of money they'll provide the blueprints to more efficient mines, better power generators and so on.\r\nAnd it's about this time that it'll all start to get a bit much. Setting up one colony is pretty good fun, and a second isn't too much trouble, but by about the third you're starting to get a bit fed up with building all the same buildings on every new asteroid you discover. But what also happens about now is that your message indicator will beep, and it'll be a colony supervisor offering his services. Colony supervisors can be employed for a monthly fee to overlook the construction and running of one of more colonies, and are one of the features that make Fragile Allegiance great.\r\nSo then. You've got colonies being set up, scout ships exploring, miners mining, and colony supervisors supervising. It's probably about time you discovered that you're not the only one who's been sold a mining franchise\r\nby TetraCorp.\r\nThe precise number of alien races that are out there depends on the difficulty level you've selected at the start of the game. And your first contact with them could come in one of three ways. (a) One of your scout ships might discover an asteroid that isn't grey, but another colour. You can then send a spy satellite to peek at its surface. (b) You might receive a communication from another race's leader, offering to establish a treaty or something. He'll appear on the screen fully motion-captured and rendered, which has obviously taken Gremlin ages. Or (c) you might suddenly find missiles raining down on one of your asteroids, and fleets of enemy spaceships approaching it.\r\nYou see, as well as everything we've already gone through (and sorry about all this lengthy explanation, by the way, but there's no escaping it), Fragile Allegiance is a game of war.\r\nYou can play defensively, peppering your asteroids' surfaces with lasers and shielding devices. Or you can get your shipyards to start building attack ships. There are various types of these, and you can specify them with a range of weapons. As usual, the better ones are more expensive. And these can then be assembled into fleets to be given collective orders. As well as that you can construct missile silos and load them up with missiles ready to launch against the enemy.\r\nBut, as always, there are problems. While you're putt-putting around in little fighter ships, the baddies seem to have huge destroyers and special lasers. So it's just as well, then, that the impartial Sci-Tek are on hand to help once again. As long as you've got the money they're just as happy to sell you the plans to nuclear missiles as advanced mining equipment, so you can have big spaceships too, right up to the desirable, Super-Star-Destroyer-scale Command Cruiser. To build the larger ones, though, you'll need to construct a space dock above your base. And then, as your ships and missiles launch their attack, you can cut to the view from your spy satellite and watch spaceships wheeling through the air, laser bolts criss-crossing the sky, and buildings erupting in flames. It's great.\r\nSo you're searching for new asteroids, mining, ferrying ore around, constructing colonies, bartering with Sci-Tek and TetraCorp and fending off attacks from baddies. And it doesn't stop there. There's diplomacy, whereby you can negotiate treaties with other races and make pacts, calling upon the Federation to mediate when necessary. There are agents, who you can send to spy on and sabotage competing asteroids. There are natural disasters, like diseases and equipment break-downs. There are traders who'll call in from time to time. There's the fact that the asteroids are actually moving very slowly, which means that as well as new asteroids sometimes floating into range, you've got collisions to worry about. There's the steady depletion of each asteroid's supply of ore. There is, in short, enough to fill an entire issue of PC Gamer, let alone four pages.\r\nWhich doesn't leave much room for the 'how good it is' stuff, so it's to be hoped that, in explaining the game's immense scope, I've somehow managed to convey just how absorbing and enjoyable it is. \r\nMuch about Fragile Allegiance is maddening. The hundreds of icons, for example, which are labelled with silly pictures rather than the English Language which we've taken centuries to develop for this very purpose. The Control key can be held down to give a description of their function as you pass the mouse over them, and I found I was still having to do this after a week playing the game. It's also annoying the way you can only access certain functions from certain screens - for example, you can only look at your budgets from the 'asteroid surface' view, while you can only juggle colony supervisors from the 'map' view. Icons have just been placed wherever there's room for them, rather than where actually might make sense.\r\nRather more fundamentally, there's the time you have to spend shuffling ore around. Pretty soon it becomes clear that the way to succeed is to concentrate your mining efforts on the asteroids with the most valuable minerals tucked away on them, and then have another asteroid with your command centre on it along with spaceship construction facilities and some huge storage containers. Ore teleporters can then be set up on the mining asteroids to transport ore to this central asteroid to be made into spaceships and sold to TetraCorp. But that means that every few minutes you've got to do a tour of all your asteroids, clicking on the ore teleporter on each one, clicking on teleport, clicking on 'Select Destination', selecting your central asteroid, clicking on OK, and moving up and down the list of minerals teleporting them over before moving on to the next asteroid. When you've got ten or so asteroids this rapidly becomes tedious, and really needs some way of automating it, or at least for asteroids to remember where they're meant to be teleporting to.\r\nBut because there's so much else going on - because as soon as you finish one thing then something else starts happening - Fragile Allegiance is virtually impossible to stop playing. You're always just seconds away from colonising a new asteroid, or being able to afford a new sort of missile, or your fleet arriving at an enemy asteroid, or the Federal Transporter arriving to give you loads more money. It hooks you in just the same way as Colonization or SimCity, but is a very different game to play with its fleets of spaceships and alien races. Ridiculous icons aside, the interface it uses is wonderful, making the sort of chirpy beeping noises that all computers ought to be emitting by this stage in the 20th century. And even days into it you're still discovering new ways of playing, new weapons, and new little tricks.\r\nIt's been a dreadfully tedious review, I know. But imagine the exact opposite - something really exciting and gripping - and that's Fragile Allegiance. Very few PC games can honestly be said to be worth the money, but this one definitely can, and will give you more hours of fun per pound than just about anything else Western culture has to offer. Just ensure you find a secluded spot to play it in.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Gearheads","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Even if you've sent M1A1 Battle Tanks rolling across the desert to clash with antiquated T-72s, commanded a Ticonderoga-class frigate in the Gulf or fought a squadron of TIE Fighters in a fragile A-Wing, nothing quite prepares you for the clash of plastic skulls, bulldozers and large, inflatable poultry that makes up a game of Gearheads.\r\nThis strange puzzler from Philips is a game of battling wind-up toys where the first person to move 21 playthings from their side of the board to the other wins the game. Depending on the level you play, you can pick a number of different 'toys' from the toybox to use as ammunition. There are 12 toys to choose from and each has a different weight, speed and style of movement. UFOs, for example, are weak but nippy, while huge, lumbering robots like the impressively named Disasteroid, are extremely powerful but slow-moving.\r\nWhatever quirky toys you select, the idea is to wind them up one by one (courtesy of the small red dial at the bottom of the screen) and to drop them anywhere on your side of the board. You have an unlimited supply of toys, and once a toy is released, it will automatically head for the other side to score a point. However, as you release toys onto the board, so does your opponent and soon Gearheads becomes an elaborate game of 'scissors, paper, stone' as toys of different sizes, strengths and speeds clash head-on in the centre. \r\nIt may look shallow and simplistic, but Gearheads is fairly tricky to play. It's a subtle game and to win you've got to rack up the points faster than your opponent. To achieve this, you could send out fast toys, like the UFO, but although they can be wound up quickly, they won't be able to get past some of the bigger robots. Likewise you could send out huge robots, but these are slow and take longer to wind up. The ideal strategy is to strike an uneasy balance between the quick, point-scoring toys and the larger ones that have the power to stop or delay your opponent's advance. For example, just as 'paper wraps stone', the Disasteroid will stomp all over the boxing kangaroo. But equally, as 'scissors cut paper', it be turned around by the wrestler dressed as Santa Claus.\r\nIt would be nice to say that, despite the simple, childish nature of Gearheads, there's a cool, unexplainable addictiveness that draws you back to Gearheads time and time again. But there isn't. The SVGA graphics are pretty, it's Windows 95-compatible and there are options to play a single-player game or against a human opponent. The one glaring problem is that Gearheads just isn't sufficiently interesting. On later levels the boards feature obstacles and teleports, but it's like trying to light a fire with a box of damp matches. It's fun to play for a while, but then so is Minesweeper. You wouldn't pay £30 for it though.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"The Gene Machine","Percentage":39,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Let's pretend. I'm The Gene Machine, you're the main character, it's the beginning, and you have to instruct me in such a manner as to find some money on your person. You're holding a wallet. Mull it over for a minute.\r\nIf you said, 'Open the wallet,' bad luck, there's nothing to be seen. But it is a wallet of fine but battered leather bearing your initials.\r\nIf you said, 'Search the wallet,' you're worryingly well-informed about the approach of the game, but still, will find only your calling card.\r\nIf you said, 'Search the wallet three times,' we've flushed out one of the designers, and these brutish henchmen will now administer a severe beating and throw you into the street.\r\nThis, then, is The Gene Machine, a point-and-click game that takes the fantastically rich idea of a Victorian-age gentleman agent and by dint of great effort turns it into a competent, mediocre and pointless game that seems to really enjoy COMPLETELY WASTING YOUR TIME.\r\nFor example: Items only appearing when you need them, so you have to walk back and forth tediously revisiting locations in case something's suddenly turned up. And, indeed, empty locations to pad things out.\r\nFor example: Screens so cluttered with incidental characters and background objects (which serve no purpose but can still be clicked upon to be told they serve no purpose) it's a job to find enough space to make your character walk across the screen because the game keeps thinking you're pointing at something. And you can get stuck behind exits.\r\nFor example: Although puzzles can be tackled out of order, the game doesn't consider you doing it. At one point, after lengthily and complicatedly winning a bet, I had the means to charter a vessel and dashed to the harbour, only to be told there was a shipping blockade and I'd have to appeal to the authorities. Why not, for instance, have the docker mention that in the first place, or the bettor point it out, or at least have a congratulatory animation so I felt I'd achieved something? Instead of COMPLETELY WASTING MY TIME. Say.\r\nFor example: Puzzles so thoughtlessly constructed you end up trying to use everything with everything, and a script so poor you can't be bothered trying all the questions so you hear all the jokes. (The script really is extraordinarily miserable, with a plot that's just a lot of feeble contrivances hung together, and an atmosphere that's consistently off. In the 1940s-set Flight of the Amazon Queen, say, which this curiously resembles structurally, the writers had obviously done their research. In The Gene Machine you get the feeling the writers have sat down with a history book and picked a period with amusing names. Then concentrated on vomit jokes.)\r\nI finished The Gene Machine in three days, becoming stuck once, but losing interest before even the halfway mark. The handful of neat touches ' the splendid character animation, the polished interface, the reasonable voiceovers, the three funny lines ' are squandered in an adventure that can't even be bothered spelling 'its' correctly. And has a spinning CD when it's loading a new scene. It must be really annoying for publishers to hear how their latest point-and-click adventure isn't as good as Monkey Island, which is five years old. Perhaps almost as annoying as being sold a point-and-click adventure that isn't as good as Monkey Island, which is five years old. For example.","PUBID":94},{"GAMENAME":"Gene Wars","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Many videogames offer you the chance to take part in Interstellar war, but few actually begin when the war has ended and involve you cleaning up the mess. Gene Wars is one of those few. \r\nThe idea is initially unpromising - it's almost as if the designers have asked you round to their house after a really great party (which you weren't invited to) and are now expecting you to scrub the red wine sick off the carpet. You can't help but think that the fun has already happened. In the case of Gene Wars, though, you'd be very much mistaken.\r\nPlot-wise Gene Wars is pretty simple: it's the future and four warring factions - Earthlings, Saurians, Schnozzoids and Bohemians - have invested many years engaging in bloody war across the cosmos. This is much to the annoyance of an ethereal group of highly advanced aliens, helpfully called the Ethereals, who live in the same galaxy and are, quite frankly, sick of the place looking like a pig sty. One day they confiscate the tribes' weapons of mass destruction and tell them all they must now work together to repair the battered eco systems of 25 planets. As you may have already guessed, it's the player's job to command one of these tribes. \r\nRepairing a planet sounds easy. When you land, you get a selection of 'specialist' workers with different skills: some build your base, some herd animals, some harvest plants and so on, and they're all moved around in the standard PC way (click on them, then click on where you want 'em to go). The thing is, though, whenever you're dropped on a planet to clean it up, one or more of the other tribes are put there too. And the spirit of cooperation rubbish doesn't last long, with one of the best aspects of the game being figuring out ways of using each of your specialists' legitimate skills to wreak illegitimate havoc on rival tribes. Except unfortunately they can do the same to you. You win if you're the first to carry out the wishes of the Ethereals - then it's on to the next planet to start again.\r\nAlthough to begin with Gene Wars looks like a strategy game in the Civ mould (carry out your own plans and agendas in a totally free-form manner), it's actually a strictly regimented puzzle game. At the beginning of each mission the player receives a set of specific instructions from the Ethereals as to what must be accomplished - this can be anything from herding a certain animal onto a certain part of the planet to growing certain plants and then recycling them - so Gene Wars is more a kind of a Populous meets Lemmings: you get all sorts of powers and tools to play with, as in the former, but then have very specific problems to solve, as in the latter. \r\nIn many ways this is a great idea - the game slowly introduces you to all the different tasks you can complete, so you're never expected to know everything at once. Also, attacking other tribes is a vital part of the game, but it's something that has to be done sneakily, when the Ethereals aren't looking. This makes a change from having combat as the central theme.\r\nAlthough Civ fans might find the rigid puzzle structure a little stifling, if you can accept it, Gene Wars is immensely good fun and, if you're in the right frame of mind, annoyingly addictive. After the early levels, which are just there to teach you essential skills, the problems get much more tricky and you find yourself having to think in a mind-bending lateral way to get the given tasks accomplished. \r\nThe graphics, although by no means innovative, are detailed and amusing, especially the little workers who are full of character despite their diminutive stature. Best of all though is the game's self-consciously tacky '50s feel: the Ethereal's space ship is a tinny Ed Wood-style saucer which hovers like it's on a bit of string, and the music is that weird synthesiser noise beloved of early sci-fi films. \r\nThere are down sides. Gene Wars can get very hectic - plants and animals keep dying all over the place, enemy tribes keep destroying your base buildings, your specialists keep getting eaten - and unless you get on top of things quickly, it's very frustrating. Furthermore, the objectives can get a bit samey after an extended session of play. Once you've discovered a few animals and a few new plants, you may feel as though you've seen it all before and yearn for the strategic complexity of Sim City or Civilisation\r\nGene Wars, like Populous, is ever so slightly limited. Yes, loads of new plants, animals and buildings pop up in later levels. But some gamers, looking for more tactical scope, may be disappointed. Most, though will find it a quirky, stylish point-and-click puzzler, with lots of character and much to offer the intermediate strategist. Bullfrog know how to make an addictive and individual game, Gene Wars is no exception.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Microsoft Golf 2.0","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The screen flickers futuristically. Deckard leans forward. He squints at the blurred photograph. \r\n'Enhance 34 to 56.' Chikk-whirrr chikk. \r\nHe stares. He can just make out the blurred face of the suspect. He's wearing dark glasses and has a funny handlebar moustache.\r\n'Computer: Enhance 22 to 66. Increase resolution. Tidy it up.'\r\nChikk-whirrr chikk. Beep.\r\nHe takes the photo from his pocket and compares the two. They look vaguely similar. Hang on a minute.\r\n'Computer: Remove the glasses and the moustache and give me a hard copy.'\r\nChikk-whirrr buzz. Beep.\r\nBryant leans over his shoulder. 'Looks like the same guy, pal. Links 486 and Microsoft Golf Version 2.0 are the same guy. Let's bring him in.'\r\nOnce at the station, the confession reveals all. Microsoft Golf 2.0 not only looks like Links 486, but you can even use the Links course disks with it. The courses that come with it are the same ones that you get with the old Links games, Torrey Pines and Firestone South. And the player sprites are the same as those that beam out at you, in SVGA, from the Links 486 box. Not only that, but the suspect also confesses that even the twittering-birds sound effects have already appeared in the Access titles. The evidence seems overwhelming. Then the attorney arrives.\r\nDressed in a sharp suit, with patent leather shoes and a hideous tie, he sits down at the table and opens his briefcase with two sharp clicks. He puts the case for the defence. \r\nIt would seem that, on closer inspection, there are a number of differences between the client and the Links titles. For starters, Links is not Windows 95 compatible, which means it can't take advantage of the rather excellent PlayerNet feature. This allows you to play golf over the phone lines using a modem, as well as over a network, with up to eight players. You can even use the new 'chat' facility to send glib comments to your opponents during play. \r\nThe Windows 95 environment and CD-ROM based nature of the game means ultra-fast redraw times after each shot - even faster than the much-loved PGA 96, which isn't even a Win 95 game. The graphics, though allegedly 'similar' to the Links games, are actually incredibly detailed and slick, with beautifully blue water and lusciously green, erm, greens. You also have video fly-bys and FMV tips from real pros, and the whole thing is fully customisable, allowing for custom-shots, saved shots, weather, and green elevations - you can even choose the colour of your trousers (they're still flares, though). Add to that a familiar, but still user-friendly, control system and I think you could say that this game is refreshingly good, and a million times better than the old Microsoft Golf for Windows.\r\nWith that, the lawyer closed the briefcase, grabbed his new client by the arm, and stormed out of the building. \r\nDeckard winced. Bryant collapsed in the leather chair and poured himself a whisky. \r\n'You know, pal, we almost had him. That lawyer had enough to appeal, but we'll get him if it goes to trial. If not, who cares? We'll get him next time. I think even his attorney knew that they were one and the same. Not a bad game, though. Fancy a round?'","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"Grand Prix Manager","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Playing Grand Prix Manager for the first time is a little like walking into a lamppost. You breeze through the Windows-only installation procedure and watch a rendered tour of the pits while exciting music plays. You then set up your team, either jumping straight in with Williams or Bennetton or picking an 'up-coming' team like Simtek and, if you like, changing their name and logo, and then-\r\nSPLANG-G-G-G!\r\nOne minute you were Gregory Finch, aluminium extrusion salesman. The next you're Frank Williams. And you're smacked in the face by every facet of Formula 1, from supply contracts to car design to pit crews, from finance to rear wing settings to sponsorship, from merchandising to tyre pressures to driver aids.\r\nReeling backwards, coloured flashes dancing before your eyes, you clutch at the nearest icon. You recruit a couple more technicians, arrange a bank loan of £270,250, adjust the tyre pressures a bit, make some T-shirts, and then collapse in the gutter and black out.\r\nGrand Prix Manager is, as far as can be ascertained, an entirely accurate simulation of the behind-the-scenes workings of Formula 1. It's presented much like a football management game, except with cars instead of footballers. From the main menu you can access your office (where you can read e-mails from your team, sponsors and so on), read newspaper headlines (which seem to restrict themselves to the obvious), investigate the internal and external design of your cars (which is a complex business involving wind-tunnel testing, finance and hundreds of mechanical tweaks to engines, transmissions, spoilers and so on), sign contracts with parts suppliers, put money into R&D (or spy on other teams), visit the bank, check up on your personnel (including the drivers), and test and race your cars.\r\nThe races are shown by an overhead-view of the whole track with microscopic cars moving around it. Although you can skip straight to the end and see the result, it's best to follow them through, giving orders to your drivers over the radio ('Driver harder', 'Conserve fuel' and so on) and calling pit-stops. For some reason the track is wider than it ought to be, so the cars appear to be moving too slowly. While this doesn't really matter - the lap times are accurate - it doesn't make for an exciting spectator sport, and the rendered cut scenes aren't terribly exciting. There's a fast-forward option, but some sort of event-based system - skipping the dull bits and cutting in whenever something important happens - would have been handy.\r\nGrand Prix Manager operates faultlessly, masking you from the tedious mathematics which are undoubtedly at its heart, and making it as straightforward as possible for you to 'manage'. The brake balance, for example, is illustrated by a little slider which you can move backwards and forwards over a picture of the car, and to buy a new engine you click on a picture of it.\r\nBut it's not how I'd have done a Formula 1 management game. \r\nI can't imagine that, before each race, Frank Williams has to sort out all the tyres and fit them onto the car. I don't believe that he, personally, has to decide on the angle that the cars' front wings should be set at on each circuit. I'd rather have had the option to leave all those decisions to the rest of the team, perhaps initially just concerning myself with race strategies, and leaving everything else switched to automatic. But you can't. You're thrown in at the deep end, with dozens of decisions to make before your first race.\r\nAnd that's another thing: race strategy. When you're watching a Grand Prix on the television, Murray Walker's main concern after the business of driving is that of race strategy. There are frequent shots of Frank Williams' impassive face as Murray speculates about how many fuel stops Damon and David might be making and when they'll be coming in for new tyres. You can imagine the meetings that take place before each race, where computer simulations are run, the drivers throw in their suggestions, and everyone wonders what Bennetton will be doing. There's none of that here - you simply choose how much fuel to put in the cars and send them on their way, and one of the most interesting aspects of Formula 1 is glossed over in an instant.\r\nOr what about after the race? You won't get it right first time and, assuming you've taken command of Williams, you'll be lucky to keep Damon and David in the top six. But after reading the results you're dropped straight back to the main menu, ready for the next race. Eh? But hang on. Surely the drivers would be furious. They'd come running up to you and say: 'What are you playing at? The suspension settings were all over the place' or 'You had us on three stops when everyone else was on two.' So you'd go straight to the workshop and begin testing some new settings. Instead you're left to work out what went wrong for yourself, out of the hundreds of possible causes, with no sense that the rest of the team actually care what's going on. The 'advice' buttons are a start, but you have to search hard for them, and the comments are terse.\r\nBut anyway. While it's possible to envisage a much more involving, more exciting, more 'directed' Formula 1 management game, Grand Prix Manager achieves what it sets out to do perfectly and is attractively presented. And, in its (gulp) 40-season guise, it will keep management game enthusiasts (rather than, I think, merely Formula 1 fans, who are likely to remain unconscious in the gutter) occupied for a long\r\ntime to come.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Grand Prix Manager 2","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you're a Grand Prix fan and you haven't discovered the original Grand Prix Manager, then you should scourge yourself mightily and don the sackcloth of despair, because you've missed out on a cracker. A comprehensive, if slightly academic, strategy simulation of Formula One management, it was rightly awarded a commendable 80% in PCG 26. Hot on the heels of a fascinating racing season and a new British world champion in Damon Hill, comes Grand Prix Manager 2, and the chance for GPM veterans to flex their management muscles all over again. \r\nEven for someone new to the game, it shouldn't come as a shock to discover that GPM2 puts you in charge of one of this season's eleven Formula One teams. However, what will perhaps surprise you is the astonishing breadth of your new responsibilities. Whether you choose one of the big guns like Williams or one of the minnows like Footwork, you'll find yourself in complete control of your team and able to influence every aspect of its operation as you seek that elusive constructors championship.\r\nYou'll soon discover that everyone knows the winning driver on race day, but few people realise the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to forge a successful Formula One team. You've got to keep at the forefront of R&D, marshalling your engineers, mechanics and designers to constantly improve the car, choose your best driving team, negotiate sponsorship deals, manufacture parts, sign maintenance contracts, invest in testing facilities, keep track of rule changes... I could go on, but you get the idea. It's a very demanding job, and GPM2 certainly paints a comprehensive picture of what it must be like to be in Frank Williams' position.\r\nBut then so did the original game. GPM2 needs to improve over its illustrious predecessor. Well, slip on your overalls, slide it over an inspection pit and you'll soon discover that GPM2 has undergone a thorough image overhaul and has emerged, waxed and gleaming, into pole position. The graphics have been tuned to perfection and the background screens feature some sumptuous F1 pictures, courtesy of Autosport magazine. You'll also find the interface has been radically improved and GPM2's new, refined presentation really does enhance the atmosphere of the game.\r\nOne of the problems in the original GP Manager was that although you could gather a veritable wealth of data on your team's performance, you often struggled to find the best way to implement it. GPM2 really distinguishes itself with an improved level of feedback, both in general team management and out on the track. Now you can see exactly how your decisions affect the performance of the team, and this additional responsiveness substantially improves the feeling of being in control. Without sacrificing authenticity, GPM2 dispenses with some of the more annoying and fiddly components of the first game and introduces a more realistic financial structure, which provides a better balance, while still proving a testing, strategic challenge. \r\nOut on the track and the race format retains the same perfectly adequate overhead view, but adds quite a few tasty options which appear as separate little windows, enabling you to closely monitor your progress. Sterling Moss provides a decent, varied commentary (although he's not as excitable as Murray Walker) and there's improved telemetry and TV coverage and an authentic big race feel, which is complemented by a good soundtrack and effects. \r\nAs the racing weekend begins, a real sense of tension develops as you wait to see if all those weeks of testing and preparation have paid off. You hone your car to peak efficiency for qualifying, which is bad enough, but the race itself\r\nis an utter nail biter, as you experiment with the full range of set-up and pit strategies. You'll experience intense nervousness as the cars sit on the grid, utter despair as your lead driver spins off the track with two laps to go and, eventually, smug satisfaction as you achieve a one-two combination on the winner's rostrum to clinch the constructors championship. Strategy games which grip you in this way are a rare breed indeed, and there's no denying that GPM2 is compulsive stuff.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Games Workshop began life by ferrying American role-playing games - the real pencil and paper type, not computerised versions - across the Atlantic. But it wasn't long before they started putting together games of their own, the most successful of which has been Warhammer. A fantasy wargame, Warhammer is played with mighty armies of lead and plastic miniatures battling each other on your kitchen table. Considering just how popular the game is (you'd be hard pushed to find a major town in the country that doesn't have a Games Workshop store flogging copies of Warhammer), it's perhaps surprising that it's taken so long for a computer version to appear. It has, however, been worth the wait.\r\nIn Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat, you're the leader of a small band of mercenaries in the war-torn and dangerous Old World. Your objective (to start with, at least) is simply to gain as much fame and fortune as possible by selling your services. You begin with two units at your disposal - your personal cavalry and a squad of infantry - and others will follow along later.\r\nThe game itself has two main sections. The first is centred around the caravan of your advisor, Dietrich, who acts as a kind of combination agent and accountant. From his screen you can see how much money you've got, peruse detailed listings of your current forces, read up on the various races, magic items and spells that you have come across, and save your game. Most importantly, though, Dietrich keeps a list of any contracts being offered to you.\r\nSelecting this last option moves you to a map of the Old World, showing your current location. From here you can hear briefings for the various missions on offer and decide which to accept.\r\nOnce you've agreed to perform a mission, you've then got to choose which of your available units you wish to use. Each unit you take with you must be paid a 'mission fee', while the rest are paid a smaller retainer to keep them from deserting. You have to balance your current funds against the payment for the mission and the cost of your forces. Not taking a large enough army with you will make the mission tougher to complete, but taking too many soldiers will drain your funds at an alarming pace.\r\nWith your forces selected, you then choose the order in which they march to the battlefield - important in case you get ambushed along the way. Finally, you watch as your army moves, via an Indiana Jones-style dotted line, across the map. \r\nThen it's into the main section of the game, the battle screen. Unless you're ambushed or otherwise attacked along the way, you first have a chance to deploy your troops on the battlefield. You have a limited area in which to place your units, and can give them initial movement orders if you like. Once you're happy, the battle begins.\r\nThe battle screen is divided into several sections, some of which give you information about what's going on, while others are used to control your army (see 'War is hell' over the page).\r\nOnce the dust settles and the battle's over, Warhammer moves to a series of summary screens, detailing which objectives were achieved and any losses you suffered. Then it's back to Dietrich's caravan, where you may be able to recruit reinforcements to bolster any damaged units before selecting the next mission.\r\nSimply put, Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat is a superb game, offering many levels of play. The battles alone have enough depth and complexity to match most strategy games, but when you throw in the management aspect you end up with one of the most challenging and absorbing releases for ages. And as if all that wasn't enough, the missions that you choose to accept have a direct bearing on the course of your career. \r\nAs the game progresses, you're forced to make tough decisions about who to help, and it quickly becomes apparent that your simple goal of attaining riches and fame is going to be complicated by the hatching of an evil plot by the forces of Chaos, dedicated to overthrowing the Emperor and destroying human civilisation. By ignoring a call for aid from a Dwarven fortress and rescuing an Elven noble, are you doing more harm than good? \r\nDespite all it's got going for it, though, Warhammer isn't without its problems. Although a real effort has been made to make the game as simple to control as possible without sacrificing any of the key elements of the table-top game, the battles themselves can be frustrating to start off with. Selecting units in the main view is something of a hit-and-miss affair, and often the map window becomes so crowded with overlapping banners that it's difficult to see what's going on.\r\nLikewise, it's very easy to be overwhelmed by everything that's going on, and early mistakes can be hard to recover from. Warhammer's depth and complexity, its main strength, can also work against it here, and in order to get the most out of it you have to be prepared to spend a fair amount of time learning how to play and experimenting with different approaches.\r\nBut if you've got the necessary stamina, Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat has so much to offer that it's more than worth the effort required, whether or not you're a fan of the table-top game. And even if you manage to finish the whole thing, you can keep going back and making different choices, which will result in an almost completely different game. This isn't for the faint-hearted, or those who want instant gratification, but with a little perseverance you'll find yourself so hooked that you won't be able to stop playing.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Sherlock Holmes: Case Of The Rose Tattoo","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The commendable features of Case Of The Rose Tattoo include: a chemistry set, with which you can conduct experiments on evidence by clicking on letters and dragging them over steaming flasks of iodine solution and things; a journal in which Watson automatically records all the conversations that occur with other characters in case you miss anything; convincingly English characters rather than the Dick Van Dyke types who infect the likes of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective; a huge number of delightfully atmospheric locations in Victorian London that you can travel between at will via a central map; and a wealth of examinable and fiddlable-with objects in every location, with even the irrelevant ones being fun to investigate.\r\nAll these ideas are pleasingly fresh and invigorating, and would benefit most of the weaker point-and-click adventures we've played recently - games like The Gene Machine and Fable. And yet, curiously, all were present in the original Lost Files Of Sherlock Holmes: The Case Of The Serrated Scalpel, which EA published about four years ago, and the CD version of which attained 80% in\r\nPCG 8. Despite merely being an update of Serrated Scalpel, with video-based characters and recorded voices, Rose Tattoo is a thoroughly enjoyable game - testament to the quality of the original.\r\nIt's also woven around an intriguing mystery that's clearly been constructed by a great fan of the books. The game begins with Holmes being summoned to see his brother, Mycroft, at the Diogenes club, but the building being destroyed by an explosion just before Holmes and Watson enter. Mycroft is hospitalised and Holmes locks himself in his room in despair, and, although the police blame a gas leak, Watson (played by you to begin with) does a bit of initial sniffing around and uncovers evidence of a bomb. Holmes then takes over the investigation and, with Watson in tow, sets off around London, analysing and deducing.\r\nMost of Holmes' conversations seem to involve being appallingly rude to the inhabitants of London, which doesn't quite seem right, and solving many puzzles seems to involve chatting to Watson until he basically tells you what to do, which he never did in the books. For example, while you're trying to get past an obstructive matron to visit Mycroft, it rapidly becomes apparent that the solution involves a nearby patient on a trolley, but the relevant option doesn't become available until Watson's explained in detail what you must do. The puzzles generally, though, are pleasingly Holmesian, with plenty of searching for clues and chemical experiments - apart from, perhaps, a wearying proliferation of trying-to-talk-your-way-around-obstructive-matron-type-characters - and shoals of red herrings, and the accompanying clue book suggests a game that will go on for many days longer than the time I had available.\r\nEven the video characters are perfectly acceptable, with phantasmagorisms kept to a minimum (except, perhaps, Holmes' insistence on laboriously changing in and out of his smoking jacket every few minutes) and some truly lovely backgrounds. And the voices work perfectly.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Space Hulk 2","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The image of a man being shredded by an inhuman fanged monstrosity is a difficult one to forget. That's why the bug hunt scene in the film Aliens has had such a dramatic impact upon our disturbed imaginations ever since 1985, when a squad of gung-ho marines set out to 'kick bug-eyed monster ass'. Jauntily they descended into the bowels of a labyrinthine hellscape, only to be promptly chewed up and spat out by lethal alien predators. Of course, we all know how we would react in similar circumstances - with blind panic and an urgent request for mummy - and Space Hulk 2 captures this adrenaline-pumping atmosphere brilliantly, using a compelling blend of strategy and first-person-perspective blasting mayhem. \r\nIn the Space Hulk universe, the ecological niche of Quintessential Alien Horror is occupied by the 'genestealers', who infest derelict wrecks known as space hulks. They must be exterminated with extreme prejudice, and in order to do just that, you take charge of a squad of terminator space marines, humanity's finest pest control experts. Armed and armoured to the teeth, these chaps are mustard keen to purge alien abominations, even though they'll almost certainly be torn to bits in the bloody process.\r\nThe action in Space Hulk 2 comes in two distinct flavours: first-person perspective and strategic overview. It's the first-person mode that really gives the game its atmosphere. Here, you control one of your squad members via his head-up display, primed to blow the head off whatever lurks in the enveloping gloom as you manoeuvre through the claustrophobic labyrinth. The tension escalates as you hear distant clangs echoing eerily around the corridors and an increasingly urgent pinging sound as your radar registers contact. You scope about the corridors trying to gauge the direction of the attack from the bestial growls of the 'stealers, then it's time to back off into a corner panic-firing as your scanner is filled with hordes of incoming aliens. In combat, the action is fast and desperate as waves of 'stealers attack and you drill them with satisfyingly cacophonous blasts from your bolter. Terminated 'stealers explode messily, littering the place with limbs, but inevitably they close in, and then you're dogfood as a razor-sharp claw punches through your helmet. \r\nThis is where the strategic option comes in handy, as you take the role of co-ordinating commander directing up to ten terminators. Thus you can formulate a vague plan to ensure that your men support each other and don't get picked off one by one. In this mode, you view the entire level on the mother scanner, which shows the positions of all your troops, as well as enemy concentrations. By means of a slick system of icons, you cycle through your terminators and give them a series of orders, which they follow automatically. You can then watch events unfold from the planning screen or switch back to a squad member, knowing that the rest of the team aren't just standing back applauding the heroics. \r\nThe best way to play Space Hulk 2 is to constantly switch back and forth between these modes using 'freeze-time'. This is basically a time-out which enables you to pause the game for a limited period, switch to the strategic view and re-issue commands to repel the coming onslaught. Freeze-time adds dramatically to the tension. It runs out rapidly, pressurising you to think fast - if you dither, the game recommences before you've instructed your men and 'stealers will be at their throats while you watch helplessly. However, pitching back into first-person mode for a while enables you to replenish freeze-time and gain another strategic respite. \r\nIt's this clever interplay between strategy and shoot-'em-up action which gives Space Hulk 2 an extra dimension compared to Doom-style affairs. Sure, the action isn't as fast or as smooth, but that's partly due to the nature of the beast - having terminators bounding about at the speed of pumas would have destroyed the sense of claustrophobia. In any case, with lightning-fast 'stealers swarming in from all directions, the whole experience is disorientating enough already. \r\nGraphically, Space Hulk 2 is good rather\t* than awesome, but you become so engrossed in keeping the 'stealers at bay that you just don't notice the occasional pixellation. There are also lots of nice touches: for example, every time you plug a genestealer, its brains redecorate the walls, and after a while you find yourself wading through corridors knee deep in alien corpses. \r\nOn the atmosphere front, however, speech is where Space Hulk 2 really scores. As your men advance, they keep up a constant nervous chatter on the com-net. Sometimes, when you're in the thick of it, their battle cries and death rattles are the only way you can gauge how well things are going. Even better, these messages often save your life, as nearby comrades in arms warn you of the direction from which an impending attack is coming. \r\nThe scope of Space Hulk 2 is vast. There are plenty of missions to play through, each one offering fresh objectives and putting new forces at your disposal. Particularly well done are the linked missions, which form an entire cleansing campaign. In these campaigns, your surviving terminators gain experience, so as you progress you can send the most combat-hardened terminators into the thickest fighting. \r\nYet it is my solemn duty to inform you that Space Hulk 2 suffers from two flaws which may mar your enjoyment somewhat. The first is that, initially, the game seems overwhelmingly hard. The control system is rather complex and your foe implacable, so don't expect to just slip comfortably behind the keyboard and master everything immediately. Prepare to persevere. \r\nThe game's other problem is that it can seem repetitive. The missions are often formulaic, feeling like a race in which cunning tactics are redundant and it's simply a question of managing to dash terminators to the objective before they're all minced. Moreover, scything down endless hordes of 'stealers can feel like mowing the grass after a while. There are other foes in the game, but there should be more variation and they should appear more frequently to provide a steady stream of fresh challenges to the player. The various weapons, too, are all a little bland, without enough imagination to enable the player to become fully immersed in the Space Hulk experience. \r\nBut my bug-hunting pleasure was undiminished by these quibbles. Space Hulk 2 is a fine game with stomach-knotting tension and blasting kicks aplenty. It forces you to identify with your terminators, and the fear is palpable as your carefully conceived tactics unravel and you watch, frozen, while all your men meet gruesome ends. A refreshing change from all the recent Doom clones.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Hunter Hunted","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Remember 486s? State-of- the-art super PCs once upon a time. Now, though, it's Pentium this and Pentium that. And, of course, the games have improved enormously with all that extra processor power now at their disposal.\r\nExcept they haven't of course. When it comes to memory requirements and processor use, PC games designers have become, if possible, lazier than ever. Wipeout 2097, Tekken 2, F1 - beautifully slick and sickeningly playable PlayStation games have a maximum of 2Mb of screen memory to play with. How come a game as stultifying average, as black cab hackneyed, as just plain tedious as Hunter Hunted requires 16Mb of memory through a Pentium 90? \r\nBy making games Pentium-only, of course, games publishers hope to give the impression that their little baby is in some way state-of-the-art. Any takers for that theory concerning Hunter Hunted should acquaint themselves with any platform beat/shoot-'em-up to have appeared on the Mega Drive, SNES or Amiga in the past couple of years. You walk, jump, crawl and climb around a bland, two-dimensional set of platforms. You shoot, punch, bazook and grenade an unconvincing set of Christmas decorations masquerading as enemies. You collect such exciting power-ups as food (extra energy), medical kits (extra life) and armour (er, extra armour). You fight an unconvincing set of badly animated boss characters. You die of boredom.\r\nYes, there are two different lead characters to play (a human and a minotaur-esque beasty type) but, no, there aren't really any differences between them. Yes, the game is network compatible but, no, you're unlikely to find anyone willing to give up valuable Command & Conquer, Quake or Doom time. Yes, there are 100 levels but, no, none of them show much originality, sound design or even reasonable size. Poor? Hunter Hunted makes Bob Cratchitt look like Ivanna Trump in flat shoes.\r\nIt's hard to find anything positive to say about the game. 'It works.' 'After opting for the full 72Mb install it wasn't as criminally slow as it was with the 'minimum' and 'recommended' options.' 'If you've been living on planet No-Computer-Games all your life you might get some enjoyment out of it.' Those are about the best I can manage. Suddenly a recuperative play of a proper Pentium game seems in order and Time Commando looks more appealing than ever.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Hyper Blade","Percentage":36,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Imagine that the teenage Monica Seles had mastered darts, not tennis, before suddenly finding herself at Wimbledon. The rackets, the ball-boys and the distinct lack of dart boards would bewilder her. Similarly, HyperBlade - with its hurdles, rollerblades and curved playing surface - is unlike any game you've ever met.\r\n'Wow,' you hypothesise. 'Just imagine the bloody, frenetic yet deceptively subtle sport ahead, once I've negotiated this seemingly nonsensical learning stage.' Like our Monica dreaming of three treble twenties on the centre court, you fantasise about riding up the arena walls, catching a sly pass then shredding an opponent through the cutters before scoring from mid-air. This isn't going to happen.\r\nInstead, you're in for the most frustrating and nauseating experience you can buy outside of Moss Side. To start with, you never really know where the rok (ball) or the other players are. Sure, an idle bystander might figure it out. He could check your rear view mirror, study the ominous radar and, using complex trigonometry, just about plot everything's instantaneous position. But he isn't trying to score.\r\nAstonishingly, if you wisely decide to ignore the game and instead amuse yourself leaping over the hurdles, nothing stops you. These sojourns are possible because when the other team member gets the rok, you don't get control automatically. Even though you have no idea what's happening beyond your vision, you manually switch between players. Incredible.\r\nEventually you'll be passed the rok. Will your bloodthirsty opponents now shatter your lazy reverie? Alas, there's no blood, not even a hint of cheap blood effects. Instead my team-mate and our opponents (members of the elite Moscow T-34s) circled around the player like demented Torville and Deans. Seconds passed. A minute passed. One minute and twenty seconds later the AI finally kicked in and my player lost the rok. Would the T-34s now exploit the advantage inherent in having half your opponents standing on the spot? No. My pesky team-mate passed the rok back to me and there it stayed until the end of the 'third'.\r\nHyperBlade, rather than being a complicated yet ultimately rewarding game, is a complicated and completely skill-less game. While the rollerblading motion is rather lovely, the rest is superfluous, chocked full of redundant power-ups and obstacles. Every time you switch between players you're treated to stomach-turning camera changes. And there's no atmosphere.\r\nIt's not inconceivable that somewhere in the world a couple of desperate individuals will find two copies of HyperBlade in the bin and, playing each other, become the undisputed world champions. But no-one will care less.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Indycar Racing 2","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"34.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"When you look at the race between MicroProse and Papyrus to develop the most highly-tuned, highly-developed, highly-realistic high performance racing sim on the PC, you can't help but draw a comparison between the two of them and the Formula 1 teams Williams and Bennetton. (Oh dear. - Ed) Both pairs of teams are looking for the technological breakthrough that will give them an advantage over their opponent and allow them to reach pole position, be it on the grid or on the retailer's shelf. \r\nHistorically it's been a close-run thing. Each team has raced ahead of their adversary only to find themselves caught and overtaken at a later stage. It happened to Indianapolis 500 - Papyrus's first IndyCar-based racing sim - when Sir Geoffery Crammond's Formula 1 Grand Prix appeared. And the tables were turned again with the release of Papyrus's IndyCar Racing.\r\nWhen PC Gamer reviewed the first IndyCar over two years ago, editor Matt Bielby liked it so much he awarded it 93% along with a coveted Game Of The Month award. Comparing it directly with F1GP, he found that IndyCar's graphics were more realistic and helped to make it 'the best driving game ever seen'. PC gamers agreed with him and bought the game in herds. No-one on the planet, as far as we know, was disappointed.\r\nThe arrival of IndyCar 2 at this particular moment in time could be seen as a move to pre-empt and deflate the excitement surrounding the imminent release of F1GP2. But you can't help but feel that this time, maybe, Papyrus haven't done enough to beat off the determined challenge of their deadly rival.\r\nIndyCar's look has now been boosted into the heady world of SVGA, but the old problem of not being able to see most of the corners until you've crashed into them still exists in all its painful concrete-barriers-almost-the-same-colour-as-the-road-surface glory. Both Formula 1's (I played a preview version of F1GP2 at the ECTS, which is why I can say 'both'.) offer the driver a visual cue that a corner's coming up, in the shape of raised platform chevrons and prominent countdown markers. These give the driver that extra second to react before spinning out and crashing. IndyCar offers only the latter of these aids, and even then they feel in short supply.\r\nIt could be argued that IndyCar 2 is being more realistic by restricting the number of countdown markers and bend indicators. Realism, after all, is what you want most from a racing sim, and IndyCar Racing is certainly the most rigorous in its demands on the driver. Having such graphically indistinguishable bends ensures that the driver pays attention to, and memorises the location of, every corner. If they don't, they can expect to crash and never win races. Simple as that. But, inevitably, this also means that the Formula 1 games are accessible more quickly to the player. Aside from the cornering aids, F1GP also provided learners with a dotted 'best approach' line, and would even suggest a gear for them if required. These features are being carried over into the sequel, and will allow you to ease yourself into the game while enjoying high-speed racing at the same time. In IndyCar, though, you have to spend ages learning the rudiments of accelerating, braking, and cornering before you can truly start to push the car to its real limits.\r\nOnce you've mastered IndyCar's handling, though, you can then confidently tinker with the car's set up. And it's here that the fusion between man and machine is truly harmonised. It's also in this area that the real battle between IndyCar 2 and F1GP2 is going to take place. While F1GP2 will probably end up looking better by stint of its much-vaunted light-sourcing, Indy does now offer SVGA, and looks much better for it. To achieve anything like a decent running speed in this mode, though, the driver is going to need a Pentium. So we'll discount that for the time being.\r\nNo, the real strength of the IndyCar games has always been in the way you can optimise the car set-ups for each racing circuit. Everything from the compound and pressure of the tyres to the angle of the aerofoils, to the stiffness of the shocks is adjustable in IndyCar 2.\r\nIf you're a big fan of the original IndyCar, you'll find just enough differences in handling and the intelligence of the computer cars to make the sequel worth purchasing. It offers 15 tracks (almost double that of the original, and including proper, wiggly, non-oval ones), and sounds better too. But you will have to be a true fan to really notice the difference, and to most eyes IndyCar 2 isn't going to look like much of an advance.\r\nWe'd be tempted to suggest you wait for our F1GP2 review (which should finally appear in next month's issue) before committing to a purchase of IndyCar 2. If you really do want an instant, rather premature verdict, though, we reckon F1GP2 will look better and be more accessible, while IndyCar 2 will be the game with which real tough-nuts can prove their driving superiority.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Cyber Judas","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Rumour has it this game was originally going to be called Cyber-John-The-Baptist, but the developers reasoned that a game in which the sole aim was to get your head lopped off and stuck on a plate was a bit of a non-starter. Instead they went for another biblical character and worked him into a futuristic political thriller, although curiously the game takes place in 1993.\r\nYou play the part of the President of the United States Of America, and it's your job to, well, preside over the entire world. However, rather than the traditional Presidential offices, you have a Virtual Reality office from which you can call up all the necessary data and interact with your cyber colleagues via a very snazzy computer interface. All very efficient, one would think, but unfortunately one of your colleagues is a bit of a rotten apple. Not content merely with pilfering the odd envelope or packet of paper clips from the stationery cupboard, this particular fiend has decided to go the whole hog and upset the political structure of the entire planet. So twisted and egotistical is this villain that he (or she) appears before you at the start of the game and announces his (or her) plans. The trouble is, because this person is a cyber traitor, they can appear in the form of any one of your advisors, so you're stuffed from day one.\r\nAs the game progresses, you need to listen to your advisors, find out what's happening in various countries across the globe, and act upon the information. By constantly monitoring the political climate through these advisors and the information from your CIA interface, you can try to maintain stability and popularity by means of investment in the military and economic sectors of these countries. And, of course, you can increase or decrease diplomatic relations as the situations dictate. So there you are. President of the USA. Job description: 'Run world.'\r\nBut then there's that Cyber Judas character to tackle. As time passes by, so your various political decisions and plans come to fruition, and you can keep track of the progress of events using a thing called the Event Horizon Vortex. It sounds and looks very technical, but it is in fact just a glorified scheduler which lists global events in the past, present and future. Fortunately, it also marks up the planned attacks and terrorist plots of the Cyber Judas. You also have a Virtual Host, who effectively acts as a spy. This invisible character can monitor your advisors, but more importantly the host informs you of information regarding the Judas. As more information comes through, so the location of the next likely attack becomes more apparent. You can then enter the Event Horizon Vortex, highlight the suspected country which is to be attacked and take counter measures. If successful, you'll hear the spooky old voice of the Judas congratulating you on your cunning while adding that it ain't over yet. I hope you're not getting bored, because there's a lot more to come.\r\nPreventing the Judas from carrying out his plans is one thing; actually identifying the slippery blighter is entirely another. It's for this task that your Virtual Reality interface really comes into its own. To do a spot of spying, you enter your colleagues' offices and, before they come on-line, click anywhere in the room. This kicks off an intrusion sequence during which you can zoom in on the advisors' office furniture (desks and files and so on) and take a look at their stuff. This can provide useful insights into their activities. However, you only have 30 seconds to do this before the security system kicks in. After a few preliminary searches of an office you gain enough insight to be able to log onto an advisor's computer. At this point you have to figure out their password (your initial searching will give you an idea of what the password will be) and then you can glean some more meaty information about the person. While all this is going on you can get the Virtual Host to carry out an investigation and his findings will periodically be placed in a folder for your perusal.\r\nAnd that pretty much has the ground covered. If, as I hope, that all sounds fairly exciting, that's because it is, after a fashion. But this has more to do with a cleverly-constructed plot and some neat use of atmospheric storytelling. The problem is that the player interface does make the scope for real excitement rather limited. Apart from a few rendered sequences illustrating the occasional world event, the entire game is played out at your desk with regular visits to the advisors' virtual environments, which never change. This means that any tension or drama is generated entirely by moody graphics, spooky voice-overs and the occasional conspiratorial revelations of the Judas and your Virtual Host. At points throughout the game this is enough, but for the most part you simply have to keep flitting between advisors to make mundane decisions, the results of which don't become apparent until much later in the game, and it's during these quiet periods that the game becomes tiresome. The environments you play in look good, and the various interfaces and reams of menus and information services are all very well realised, but it can become claustrophobic.\r\nOne other thing. If you don't fancy the Judas scenario too much, you can simply play the President simulator, in which you simply try to be as good a world leader as you can. But this rather removes the only excitement in the game - that of having a traitor in your midst.\r\nCyber Judas has a great plotline, then, and some moments of great atmosphere and tension, but it's just a shame that much of the challenge sinks into tiresome and repetitive executive decisions that no-one likes making in the real world, let alone a virtual one.","PUBID":45},{"GAMENAME":"Virtual Karts","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"If Manic Karts was an afternoon of bungee jumping, then Virtual Karts from MicroProse is more of controlled couple of hours of abseiling. If Manic Karts had you diving from the Fourth Bridge, then Virtual Karts has you attempting a descent of your neighbours' garden wall, in one of those platforms window-cleaners use in the movies. In short, it tries to do the same thing, but does it in a rather dry sort of a way.\r\nVirtual Karts is a simulation of karting, rather than any kind of attempt to do an arcade racing game on the PC. The manual is detailed, and full of factual information, such as 'International Karting' by Tom Argy Jr. There are diagrams to show you the correct way to turn into a bend, how to take a 'fast corner', a 'chicane', a 'tight corner after a fast bend', how to corner in wet weather, and how to wet shave without cutting yourself. This is serious stuff. \r\nThe game has less tracks than Manic Karts, and many of them are road races, with you bombing around the streets of various US cities such as LA, New York and San Francisco, desperately trying to beat the incredibly tough opponents. For some reason, they take about two minutes to load - even on a quad speed drive, which is great if you feel like making a cup of tea, but terrible if you just want to race. The course designs are a little unimaginative, though probably true to life, and the engine classes as they would be in real life. With all this detail, you might expect to have one of the best karting games around, but something has gone awry.\r\nOne of the most important aspects of any kart game is the sensation of speed - of feeling the pull of the acceleration as you floor the pedal on the straights. Here, though, the sensation of speed is the same as any other racing sim - not nearly as fast or as scary as a real kart.\r\nThere's another problem too. Every racing game in the entire world gives you the option to use keys. Not this one. Virtual Karts, for some unfathomable reason, limits you to either the mouse (!), a 'steering wheel' or a joystick. Driving with the mouse works fine, but it's just not much fun. Joysticks are okay, but they too fail to inspire the budding Schumacher, as you instinctively try to shoot the driver in front - forgetting for a moment that it's a kart you're driving, and not a fast-jet. \r\nThere is, however, some light at the end of the tunnel. If you have access to a network, you can play head-to-head against your mates, which, as with Manic Karts, adds immeasurably to the fun - injecting a much-needed shot of adrenaline into a detailed, but dull, racer.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Manic Karts","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"19.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"'Ihad forgotten all about it until this game came in.' \t\t \r\n'About what, Grandad?' said the small child with very clean teeth. \t 'About an old arcade game called Super Sprint. Heh, Heh. Ah, yes, those were the days'. \r\n(Hands a wrapped toffee to the child, who waits and throws it to the dog.)\r\n'It had this great feature. This is before I met your Grandmother, now. You could modify your cars at the end of each race. New tyres, better engine, that sort of thing. Yes, it's all coming back to me'.\r\n(The dog looks suddenly desperate, then keels over in front of the three-bar fire.)\r\n'Grandad! Everything is going misty'.\r\n'That's okay, child, it's just old Father Time. One of his less spectacular special effects. We'll be back in 1995 in a second'.\r\nManic Karts is a 3D racing game from Manic Media, and it does indeed remind me of Super Sprint. It has a similar structure, with the player gaining cash for each win and using it to beef up the car. After that, it's on to the next race to try out your Carlos Fandango Extra Wide Wheels on those tricky bends. And it's a lot of fun.\r\nSuper Karts, its predecessor, was nowhere near as much fun as this. The graphics have been greatly improved, as has the sound, which, in keeping with games such as Wipeout, sports a number of dancey tunes to get you in the racing mood. It's not so good that you'd listen to it at home, but it adds a great deal to the standard 'engine noise and skids' of most driving games. After all, nobody drives fast without loud music, do they?\r\nAt the start of the game, you can choose between two race modes: Merit Cup or single race. The Merit Cup is a championship and puts you in for the long haul, competing over 16 different tracks in 8 different countries. And that's when you have the most fun. Here, look, I've kept a racing diary for you. You don't have to do one, of course, it's just that I'm reviewing it, so I thought it might help.\r\n\r\nBritain: London\r\nMy first race. Didn't go too well. I raced over ten laps, and managed to completely ignore my fuel gauge, and ran out near the end. I was winning and everything. The sense of speed was tremendous, as the kart pulls away into the screen - just like the real ones! I didn't win much money, but I did have enough for a bigger fuel tank.\r\n\r\nFrance: Mt Blanc\r\nAn ice course. There was snow and ice everywhere. The ice was slippy, but didn't seem very, well, icy. Still, it was fun. I did pretty well and came third, which meant enough money to buy yet another fuel tank. Yes, I ran out again, but this time I found the pit lane. All you have to do is drive through it, and your fuel gauge creeps back up. Simple, really.\r\n\r\nGermany: Hamburg\r\nArmed with my extra-big fuel tank (i.e. larger than a lawnmower's), I had high hopes. This course was my favourite, with its wide sweeping bends and decent straights. I still had to go in for refuelling at the end, though, and lost a couple of places, but managed to pull them back by overtaking and then blocking the enemy cars. Placed second and bought new tyres and some Nitrous Oxide canisters (just press 'space' to use).\r\n\r\nUSA: Detroit \r\nThe new tyres seem to be working. Each upgrade adds another level to your tyres' grip curve, which can be clearly seen on the special graph provided. Mine was now at Compound 'C', which is average. This course was hell on earth for the first few laps, with tunnels and tight bends. As soon as I found the straight I hit the Nitrous Oxide, and ploughed at light-speed into a wall. I lost.\r\n\r\nBrazil: Corumba \r\nBefore the race I invested in some special tyre-glue. Each canister lasts for only a few seconds, but gives you the ability to pull outrageous cornering manoeuvres. I improved the tyres again (now compound 'D') and added an even bigger, oil-tanker-size fuel tank. The course had the worst bends yet, and I used up all the glue in the first couple of laps. Nitrous Oxide is useless here because of the short straights. The red kart is really starting to annoy me.\r\n\r\nMexico: Tijuana\r\nAt this point, I was in fifth place overall, and in desperate need of an easy course. I was in the lead all the way until the red kart caught up with me and I lost my nerve. I hit the barrels on the bends, got stuck behind what looked like a WC, and once again managed to punch the Nitrous Oxide at precisely the wrong moment. I will have my revenge!\r\n\r\nUSA: New York\r\nIt all went like a dream! I got the hang of refuelling (even the Exxon-size tank needs a boost), and lost no places coming out of the pits. I knew the course had some good straights, and bought plenty of Nitrous Oxide and paid $2,000 for a couple of engine tune-ups, which gave me greater acceleration. The red kart still finished first, but I was close behind him. A great little game.\r\n\r\nAustralia: Gold Coast\r\nThis was the best! I spent all my money before the race on extra grip (now at compound 'F'), loads of Nitrous canisters and another tune-up. The kart is now approaching Bat-mobile class, and proved it with a devastating win over the red kart (and his chums). The beach bits were great. Pity you couldn't run down the odd Home And Away actor, but you can't have everything.\r\n\r\nAfter that, you race all eight countries again, but this time on different tracks. Manic Karts certainly lives up to its name. It runs quickly, even on a 486, and although the graphics won't blow you away, they do give a sense of speed and atmosphere. My only real gripe is that there's no two-player split-screen mode, so if you want to race another human, you need a network, and the loading times between races are inordinately long - about 60 seconds on a double-speed drive. Anyway, any game that reminds me of Super Sprint has got to be good.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Kick Off 96","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"'Well, Brian. Way back in the mists of Amiga history, Anco were a legend among footie enthusiasts and Player Manager and Kick Off 2 were two of the finest footie games to grace its clunky old floppy drive.'\r\n'Yes, Brian. And now, amidst the feast of football that is Euro 96, what should come winging its way onto the PC but Kick Off 96, a souped-up version of that timeless classic. But as we all know, it's a game of two halves, and things have moved a long way since those heady days, with the likes of FIFA and Actua Soccer now gracing the park. In short Brian, will KO 96, like Gazza, still have the legs?'\r\n'Well, I'd have to give you an emphatic 'Yes', Brian, for what greets us as we stride boldly out onto the grass is a good-looking 3D footie fest, with realistic players, authentic movement and four nicely judged views of the action. From the off, KO96 really does strive to promote the feeling that you're involved in a real game of football, and although there's an appreciable learning curve, control via the keyboard or joystick is not half bad. You can build up intricate passing movements and execute sweeping attacks, but you'll need a joypad to utilise all the flash backheels, deft chips and overhead kicks required to play total football. Although you'll find KO 96 is more than adequate on its minimum system, you'll probably need a Pentium to appreciate its full silky smoothness. And underneath the main 3D engine there's a nostalgic and lightning-fast 2D version, ˆ la the original Kick Off 2, for players who still pine for those old Amiga glory days.'\r\n'Options, Brian?' \r\n'Well, Brian, as you'd expect, KO 96 comes with comprehensive coverage of all the modern European international and domestic teams (Premier leagues only, though) with authentic player names and ratings, and you can even select all-star XI's to create your ultimate dream team. Players are rated according to the usual staggering array of stats, but KO 96 adds an interesting variation with new specialised categories like the Libero, Playmaker or Target Man, and these, combined with the exhaustive list of formations and tactical nuances, should be more than enough for even the most demanding coach. You can indulge in league and cup competitions across the whole of Europe, and there's also a timely simulation of this summer's European Championship in case things should go badly for England.'\r\n'Give us a summary, then, Brian?' \r\n'Well Brian, what really characterises KO 96 is a deep and abiding love of the game and an appreciation of what the home player demands. It comes as no surprise to find that Steve Screech, one half of the Dini-Screech dream ticket, is the main man behind this latest rendition. You'll find players whipping off their shirts and belting up the touchline when they score, squaring up to each other after a particularly vicious hack and waving their arms in exasperation at the myopic ref. All in all, it's chock full and replete with all those deft little touches that really enhance the whole frenzied football experience.'\r\n'Well then, Brian. Is it fair to say that if you're looking for a bit of light relief from the serious business of Euro 96 this summer, KO 96 could well be one of your more talented transfer market acquisitions?'\r\n'Exactly, Brian. Now over to you, Trevor.'","PUBID":9},{"GAMENAME":"Kingdom O Magic","Percentage":37,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Brian Conley. He isn't even remotely funny, and, in fact, is so terrible that you can't even laugh at him for being terrible, leaving you stranded in some awful no-man's-land torn between the urge to cry at yet another Barbara Windsor joke or just curl up and die. Kingdom O' Magic is the PC equivalent of Brian Conley.\r\nThe idea is a good one - a comedy adventure giving you a choice of two characters to play, bundles of pre-rendered characters, multiple storylines, and enough scenery to hold it all together. Unfortunately the 'comedy' lets it down. It's not that it's irredeemably poor throughout - in fact the occasional line was quite chortle-inducing. For example, you're talking to a drawf and you say 'War - what is it good for?' and he replies 'Absolutely everything.' (Erk. - Ed) But then there's the 'day break' gag (the game runs in real-time with night and day) where a big ball and chain swings down and smashes the sky. The first time you see it you know what's going to happen but laugh anyway, but then it does it over and over again until you're clawing at the walls in an effort to escape. Basically, if you edited out all the weak stuff, you'd have enough of the script left for about two minutes of Freddie Starr. The inn keeper is called Bum Holio, and is 'made in Hong Kong'. See?\r\nHumour - and I'm about to indulge in some trite philosophy here so forgive me - is an individual and indefinable a concept as 'gameplay' is. As much as I disliked The Terminator: Future Shock, Simon loved it. So maybe if Brian Conley is your idea of a great Saturday evening in, then you might enjoy Kingdom O' Magic. I'm judging every comedy adventure by Sam & Max standards, so it's not surprising that this falls short.\r\nIf you can bring yourself to ignore this critical failing, then Kingdom O' Magic isn't half as bad. The puzzles are nothing special and the 'humour' destroys any potential for tension or excitement, but the interface is excellent, albeit in a Full Throttle rip-off kind of way. The range of props, items to collect and characters to interact with is extensive, and some of the inhabitants are even worth speaking to, if you can ignore their generally irksome voices. The fact that the text scrolls up the bottom of the screen as opposed to just appearing is a bore but it's a minor point. The scenery and characters are competently designed, although the 3D Studio look is never really something to get worked into a frenzy about. The overall feeling is that beneath the surface there's a big, well-conceived adventure game that's had an enormous amount of effort put into it.\r\nI'm loathed to condemn a game simply for not being funny, but it's a comedy adventure - it says so at the beginning - so I have to. No-one in the office even laughed once, let alone collapsed in hysterics, and that's probably reason enough to steer clear.","PUBID":118},{"GAMENAME":"Krazy Ivan","Percentage":52,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Krazy Ivan stands uneasily at the edge of the robotic exoskeleton genre. Its complement of giant metal warriors suggests it should be judged alongside the likes of Mechwarrior 2 and Shattered Steel, but in fact it's a rather shallow shoot-'em-up that merely looks like something more.\r\nOn the good side, there's an excellent intro which sets you up as some sort of exoskeleton-equipped Russian special forces operative. Actors effect convincing Russian accents while rendered planes and vehicles zoom excitingly about. You're then presented with a series of missions, beginning in Russia and moving off around the world, each of which consists of killing three or four large robots dotted about on a map before destroying a large boss-style target. The robots all look great, like huge Transformers, and each has a distinct fighting style, some relying on heavy armour while others fly up into the air to avoid your shots.\r\nBut after initially seeming quite exciting, Krazy Ivan quickly proves to be Tweaky next to MechWarrior 2's Maximillian.\r\nThe middle-distance is cloaked in that type of dense fog which always seems to close in around suspect 3D engines. Hills loom up suddenly in front of you, some of which your robot can climb over and others which he just stops in front of, forcing you to have to backtrack. And while your head-up display frequently flashes 'Fire!', it's not until you're about a stone's throw from your target that it finally becomes visible through the mist and you can be sure your missiles won't be wasted. By that time he's started firing at you, and your robot's not agile enough to avoid his bullets (in reverse, particularly, it seems hopelessly slow to those used to dashing backwards and forwards in Quake), so battles degenerate into Mexican stand-offs, the loser being the one whose shields crumble first.\r\nAnd that can often take a while, because the baddies are so thinly spread it's necessary for each one to last for ages. Having to shoot the same baddy more than two or three times is always tiresome, and I tended to find myself wishing I was just playing Doom or something instead. Smaller cannon-fodder-style baddies do appear randomly from time to time, but these, on the other hand, are too easy to kill, and become irritating rather than entertaining. If you do run out of shields the game's over, and it becomes increasingly difficult to summon up the enthusiasm for another attempt.\r\nAnd, staggeringly, somebody thought it would be a good idea to include a reverse-the-controls power-up.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"Leisure Suit Larry 7","Percentage":23,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The cheap, slutty, sexist filth that is Leisure Suit Larry has always managed to somehow drag its shabby, flabby frame through the murky waters of just-good-enough-to-warrant-a-sequel-city, with only PC Gamer ever realising the true, truly horrifying reality: it is rubbish.\r\nIt is rubbish for one soul-shattering reason: it appeals to fools. If that's you, I heartily apologise, but the fact remains: you are a fool. If I had gone to school with you, I would have thumped you. Then I'd have pulled the bandaged specs from your cold, unconscious face and hosed you down with chilly, cleansing water to try and rid the classroom of that strange, TCP-like smell you always carried around with you. WHY wait eagerly for each and every sequel? WHY rush out and buy the things from gleeful shop owners? WHY play the bloody game in your sordid, rancid, darkened back-bedrooms at all? Tschah. Fool.\r\nThe seventh in this most banal and grotesque series does little to complement the quite-okay, reasonably-funny-if-you've-been-at-your-mate's-mum's-sherry-and-you'll-be-thirteen-next-July memory of the first. Larry is on a boat. Larry walks around the boat looking at breasts. But is it funny? They say sarcasm is the lowest form of humour. It isn't. It's puns. And the game is full of 'em.\r\nAnd is it any different? Well... a bit. The designers have decided to liberally scatter certain... um... 'objects'... around the game to thrust you into a computerised version of those Where's Wally? books you can buy for considerably less money and have considerably more fun with. If that's not patronising enough for you, you also get a Scratch 'n' Sniff card with the disc, which allows you to immerse yourself in that leisurely Larry ambience you'd really rather do without.\r\nBut - hey! - it's all good, clean, harmless fun, isn't it? I mean - ISN'T IT? Eh! EH? Nooo! It is not good, clean, harmless fun. It is grubby, barely-veiled sexism where all women are called things like Captain Thigh and all feminists are lesbians. Cheap, easy jibes and jabs and some of the most uneventful adventures since The Moomins only drag the lovely graphics and the sparky, crisp sound riiiiight the way down to the bottom of the barrel, where they're free to grate and scrape to their heartless content. Please. I am begging you. If you only buy one game this year, make sure it's better than Leisure Suit Larry 7. It is a pointless mountain of toss.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Lighthouse","Percentage":52,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"I've been playing Lighthouse for five days, and have kept a diary of my experiences with it. Read it out in a mysterious Middle European accent, if you like, as does the narrator of the diary whose pages you'll find inexplicably scattered throughout Lighthouse.\r\n\r\nDay 1\r\nLighthouse opens amid flurry of thunder and lightning and much exciting music. Am in a sitting room. Immediately set about collecting objects at random - a cigarette lighter, some keys, an umbrella - in case they come in handy later on, having played Sierra games before. Eventually reckon have got everything that's not screwed down, and have listened to phone message from strange man who lives in lighthouse down road asking me to come and see him immediately. Click on front door. It opens and... don't seem to be able to go outside. Click on door again. It closes. Gagh. Click on it again and it opens again. Click 'outside'. Nothing. It's raining outside, so try putting umbrella up. Nothing. Click on door again and it closes. Mouse falls from hand and I retire for the night.\r\n\r\nDay 2\r\nHow could I have been so stupid? Consultation with Sierra (which will cost PC Gamer readers 39p a minute) reveals that, obviously, while standing in sitting room, I'm meant to select keys and click them on the car, part of which can just be seen through door. Car starts and, bizarrely, drives off without me. View switches to eponymous lighthouse a little way down road. There's a mailbox outside, in which I find a letter. Don't seem to be able to open it, though. Go into deserted house and collect some more objects at random - some stones, a model bird, a compass. (collectable objects, incidentally, don't light up or anything when I pass cursor over them, so must click on every square inch of every screen in case I miss something essential.) Eventually chance upon letter opener that's necessary for opening letter, and discover combination for safe: 5-18-28. Safe has rotating numbered dial, which I turn to each number of the combination in turn and... nothing happens. Try several more times and go to bed.\r\n\r\nDay 3\r\nFurther communication with Sierra establishes that, of course, I must turn the dial clockwise at least two times until it reaches 5, then, anticlockwise past 18, and then all the way around again until getting back to 18, and then clockwise to 28. Safe opens, and I click on document inside. Game crashes. Reload from saved position, repeat entire process, game crashes again. It crashes twice more before I go to bed.\r\n\r\nDay 4\r\nToday am able to pick up documents. Proceed to professor's machinery (which involves several hours of clicking randomly over pictures, and much frustrating fumbling with the ridiculous movement system), create wormhole to alternative dimension as professor had been describing in diary, and step through into another world. If the puzzles are mad, I've decided, then at least the graphics are pretty, and Lighthouse really does reward you for persevering with it. Stumble across a sort of maze, with a hook-shaped thing that's presumably moved about using the joystick-like lever on the left. I move the joystick about. Nothing happens. Bed time.\r\n\r\nDay 5\r\nAm sent the complete solution by Sierra, which sheds no light on the matter. Take both Lighthouse CDs, fling them frisbee-like through window, and go to bed.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Links LS","Percentage":94,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Access are the daddies of computer golf, creating the superb Leaderboard for the Commodore 64 during the last decade. Arguably their Links range has been just one step behind Electronic Arts' PGA series on the PC, but this month this has all changed. I'm glad.\r\nJust when you thought golf couldn't get any better than PGA European (PCG 29, 91%), Access, whose Links lads have been surprisingly quiet for the last few years, come up with what is undoubtedly the most phenomenal sports game since, oh, Grand Prix 2. Ignore GP2 and Links LS is definitely the best sports game since... since... F1GP. Of course, you'll have to enjoy, or believe that you can enjoy, playing golf on a PC, but if you've never rollicked in the green fairways of virtual golf before, save up the necessary £45 and blow the lot on this beauty.\r\nYou can see for yourself that the game looks absolutely fantastic. What these shots don't demonstrate is that if you own God's own computer, or expect to over the next few years, you'll appreciate that Links LS can handle any graphics resolution at 16.7 million colours (1,600 x 1,200 tested, although Access claim that theoretically it could go higher). Naturally, you need an elephant's worth of RAM to get the very best graphics possible, but Links' beauty makes you feel warm inside. Where this game really wins over is in the extraordinary effort the programming team have made. So many options cascade from the main menu that it's easy to get lost, but only in the sense that you can get lost in somewhere as exciting and complete as London.\r\nEach of the three wonderfully illustrated and well chosen courses is awash with add-ons, such as video tours of the area, walk-throughs of the holes and even an almost pointless Virtual Reality wander of the clubhouse. Of course, after a certain amount of exploration, the urge will become intolerable and you will just have to take the clubs to the fairway. Links has suffered from a lack of play options in the past, but LS easily deflects this allegation, offering skins, match play, stroke and best ball, the subtleties of which are hardly appropriate at the moment. Provided you've opted for suitable detail, a fairly lengthy initial screen draw illustrates rolling greenery and large, immaculately animated characters (including inevitable game big name, old man Arnold Palmer), and if you're really blessed with power, the most convincing clouds and shadows ever ever ever.\r\nThe screen looks so beautiful and uncluttered that one's loathed to move the mouse to the bottom and bring up the control panel. But do so and it's now that LS's subtleties take their hold. By all means, begin your golf career with straight whacks down the centre of the fairway, but as you watch the tough computer-controlled Arnold, or a pal (sitting next to you, at the end of a modem or elsewhere on a network), go for the risky hole-winning swings, you'll be moving to the shot control buttons that are just as customisable as the wings on a GP2 car. Shift your feet, change the point of impact on the ball, over swing, deliberately hook or slice, and you'll soon swerve the ball around the tree that frustratingly planted itself in front of your ball.\r\nAnd how do you know the best way to hook this shot? Aha, that's where Links LS's finest feature shows itself off. A range of special camera windows can be sized and positioned around the screen to show almost any area of the course, be it a representation of the ground between ball and pin, an actual side-on view of the hole, overhead representation, reverse view or custom position. Each of these screens is updated when you play the shot, showing the ball in its hopefully graceful and perfect flight or a reconstructed parabola in the case of the profile view. It means all when you play a good shot, and adds to the understanding when you (frequently) get it wrong. Of course, good shots can be viewed again, saved to disk and used to taunt golf-inadequate chums. It works so well.\r\nMaybe it's golf games, or maybe I'm just not writing well today, but having read the review again I can't help thinking I haven't done this game justice. As an alternative to the adrenaline rush of Quake, Links LS is a superb single-player or social game, with the very best graphics to ever be seen on a PC, options that will have you customising longer than Windows ever did, and an installation routine that is actually polite to you rather than blasting up a series of inexcusable meaningless error messages. Access, you are gods.","PUBID":42},{"GAMENAME":"Janes AH-64D Longbow","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"50.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"I think helicopters are great. Planes are fun, specially fast ones painted black. Cars can be entertaining unless you're stuck behind a Volvo, and space hoppers feel comfortably bouncy for a few minutes. Helicopters, though, are the best. You can't soar to 30,000 feet and turn upside down, drive into a car wash or bounce a helicopter indoors, admittedly, but just think about its unique features: very large rotors that whizz round and round, enormous windows on some models that let you see the ground, and best of all, complete freedom of movement.\r\nThe problem I have with aeroplanes is that you can't zoom just above the ground, because at 700mph not only do the neighbours complain about the noise, but if you happen to rub the sleep from your eyes, you inevitably fly into a building that was out of sight a moment ago. Helicopters, on the other hand, can be pulled into a hover when that sleepy gungy stuff starts to well up in the corners of your eyes. A good thing, I'm sure you will agree.\r\nHad this been yet another aeroplane simulation, I might have crumpled my nose in a most unattractive manner as I was handed it. As it is, AH-64D Longbow is yet another helicopter simulation instead. EA once again proudly brandishes its Jane's licence, representing a heavyweight flirt with the compiler of the definitive library of weapons and vehicles of war. The previous dalliance between the two companies spawned the slightly disappointing Advanced Tactical Fighters, as technically impressive as you would hope, but with the essential element of fun gone AWOL. ATF had a plane, you see, not a helicopter - a fatal flaw if ever there was one.\r\nEven to the casual observer, it must be obvious that zipping along ten feet above the ground in an attack chopper, popping over the brow of a hill and wiping out a column of tanks with a spread of Hellfires is considerably more exciting than climbing to 30,000 feet in an ATF, releasing a rocket at an unseen adversary and going home again. The Longbow has it all: high manoeuvrability, virtual radar invisibility, awesome weapons and the kind of looks that would make a female helicopter's heart flutter.\r\nHighly hard drive hungry (96Mb recommended), the game opens with the most exciting battle animation since MechWarrior 2. A line of tanks trundles along a desert road as casual as yer like. A pair of Apaches hides behind a hill, poking their radar mountings (situated above the rotors) just over the brow. With missiles locked on the radar views, the choppers rise over the hill and unleash a volley of missiles at the front and back tanks. Escape routes blocked by burning vehicles, the rest of the line are picked off with little effort, and the Longbows fly into the sunset without having a single shot fired at them. If this video doesn't get your heart thumping, then don't bother playing the game.\r\nThe simulation is a genre that is traditionally hard for the newcomer to break into. With a tree's worth of manual and almost every key and combination used, these aren't the kind of games that can be picked up in ten minutes. I'm not suggesting that Longbow is, but even the absolute beginner is catered for. An hour-long tutorial walks you around the Longbow, teaching you instruments, basic flying, navigation, defensive moves and weapons. It's a little simplistic, repetitive and insulting at times, but if you require full training or a refresher course, it's necessary. \r\nOnly the most patient will sit through this, because everyone wants to go out and blow things up, via one of the 12 historical missions, a randomly generated single mission, or a futuristic campaign in the Balkan states. I'd recommend starting the Balkan campaign, which is sensibly designed with some easy early missions to ease you in gently. In fact, four or five missions in and you really want things to hot up a bit, but no-one seems that keen to shoot you. I think we've found the first flaw. The AH-64D is such a good helicopter that life is just too easy. Just fly along ten feet from the ground, occasionally rise to get some radar locks, dip down and then pick everyone off. They don't even see you, let alone fire at you. Even ten missions into the campaign, I am returning home satisfied, perhaps even a little excited, but totally unscathed. In fact, US Army engineers are more likely to be repairing damage I caused by flying into the ground accidentally than bullet holes. \r\nYou know how in Star Wars the trained stormtroopers are really bad shots, but Luke the farmer picks up a pistol and never misses? It's just like that here. Your weapons are so good that you rarely miss, but avoiding any stray rocket aimed at you involves simply dropping out of the sky, something that a novice finds perfectly natural. Even your chain gun is impressive, destroying targets over two kilometres away before they can even send a man out to shoot at you with a rifle. \r\nI'm not sure if you are aware, but I didn't fly the Longbow during the Gulf War, and for all I know this is exactly the advantage it has in real life. After all, even the historical missions are this easy, just as long as you don't go charging like a nutter into the middle of a SAM site. If you like winning, this is still an incredibly exciting simulation.\r\nThe landscapes often look impressive, rolling and undulating as necessary thanks to real height surveys, but although some of the buildings are detailed, many of the missions are set in very dull areas, with just the odd farm or road to liven up the sandy, grassy or woody acreage. Despite this lack of detail, the ground still drops far too many frames and jerks frighteningly as it chugs past you, and this is on a P133. Stick a few tanks or buildings in the way and you can't even turn comfortably. Fly full-screen through some Panamanian skyscrapers and you barely manage more than five frames a second, while towers appear over the top of each other and disappear again most disconcertingly. If EF2000 runs smoothly on your PC, then this just might. There's a low-res VGA mode which helps, but it seems a shame to resort to such Legoland visuals.\r\nLongbow claims over a hundred different missions, but these soon merge into only a few distinct types. The campaign in particular is mission after mission of night-time sorties over enemy lines, without the distinction of the involving storyline in, say, TIE Fighter.\r\nThe weirdest thing, though, is that even these elements aren't enough to stop this being a thoroughly entertaining game. It's every bit as absorbing as any aeroplane flight sim, and more technically detailed than most. Within a few hours you've got your helicopter's control system sussed and find yourself zipping through canyons and down valleys. Promotions and medals ensure that you experience a warm, smug feeling at the end of yet another highly successful mission, and the desire to keep going is immense. In the end it's just so frustrating that such a potentially excellent simulation has been soiled by dodgy 3D programming and the lack of a compelling mission structure. \r\nIf you love the clinical, sniper approach (the Longbow is unlikely to survive in a dogfight), or have yet to play a good helicopter simulation, give some thought to AH-64D Longbow, because it's still one hell of a way to spend an evening.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Lords Of The Realm II","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The year is 1268, and the place is a 'Merrie Englande' divided into a patchwork of petty baronies, where you and the rest of the nobility are playing at 'I'm the King of the castle and you're the dirty rascal'. In Feudal England there's only one approved way to settle this and that's with a bloody war of succession. Rule is by divine right and the grace of God, who, curiously, seems to bestow his blessing upon whichever noble is best at slaughtering the rest and pinching all their land. And that's hopefully you, the player of this comprehensive but flawed strategy contender.\r\nAs the scene-setting intro of peasant toil and battlefield butchery fades away, your immediate instinct is to adopt a persona combining the darker sides of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Ivan The Terrible. The great rulers of the middle ages were hardly noted for their sympathies towards human rights or welfare reform, and so with this in mind I proceeded to get medieval on my peasants: keeping them half starved on any manure left over from the spring muck spreading, flogging them to death in the quarries, introducing taxes on everything from bearing children to not bearing children, and herding every able body into my arrow fodder 'volunteer' force.\r\nDespite my treating them like dogs, my peasants failed to admire my resolute leadership and most emigrated, while the revolting little bunch of Wat Tylers that remained formed themselves into some sort of clod-hopping Bolshevik Party - waving their pitchforks disrespectfully at me. Deciding they needed to be taught a lesson in discipline, I sent in my elite regiments of heavily armoured knights and slaughtered the lot of them. Verily, the rebellious curs had been brought to heel. Except, this harsh medicine did have the mild side effect of completely depopulating the entire county and I was left to ruefully consider that proverbial pain in any despot's backside: the feel-good factor.\r\nIt's the usual story: make your people happy and they'll breed, slave and die to install you on the throne. But you'll have to be surprisingly liberal to keep their love.\r\nAs you begin your campaign trail, you are but the lowly ruler of a single minor county, which appears on the strategic map dotted with little graphics depicting your fields, villages, industries and armies (see boxout). From here you can spy on your rivals, order your armies into neighbouring lands and manage your economy as the game proceeds turn by turn; the land changing colour with the seasons - a bleak grey in winter, a burnished gold in autumn, etc.\r\nYour main instruments of economic policy are food, taxes and military service. Keep food in your people's bellies, taxes and conscription low and they'll reward you by multiplying. Once your population starts growing you can start thinking about expanding your power base by creaming off surplus labour into industry and the army. \r\nIn practice, this is done with all sorts of handy little slider bars which enable you to quickly balance the labour force between agriculture and industry, although if you want to, you can roll your sleeves up and get hands on - micro managing the distribution of your serfs in fine detail. If you rule wisely, you'll soon be bringing more fields into service to feed your burgeoning population, filling the coffers with tax revenue and turning the\r\nwheels of industry ever faster in order to equip the mighty armies you're raising with modern weaponry. \r\nRanged against you are the unholy forces of Sod's law and a Cluedo-like gallery of computer controlled opponents, namely the bishop, the knight, the baron and the countess. So-called random events like the black death, that decimate your population, and drought, that destroys your farmland, encourage you to diversify as quickly as possible, protecting your agriculture by maintaining a mixed economy of cattle and cereal crops while annexing neutral counties to maintain your labour supply. And having to deal with four opponents allows for some entertaining double-dealing with the diplomacy feature. If hostilities break out with one neighbour, you can often establish an alliance with another noble to prevent a disastrous war on two fronts. A quick complimentary bag of gold and a deferential message lauding them for being so masterful is normally enough, and then you can entreat them to attack your common enemy. Although, words of friendship are cheap.\r\nHowever, medieval political theory never advanced much beyond the principle of 'might is right', and so it's inevitable that you're going to end up living by the sword. Unlike the meticulous management side, battles taken place in real time, a la Warcraft, although they're short-lived set-piece affairs.\r\nProvided you've kept your blacksmiths beavering, you'll take the field with regiments of pikemen, archers, knights, macemen and others as well as your compulsory peasant rabble. Unlike with Warcraft, manoeuvring for position and the use of terrain prior to combat is everything, as you try to trap the enemy forces with peasants and pikemen at a narrow chokepoint, while peppering them with arrows and flanking them with knights. Yet it seems that this marriage of real-time combat with style turn-based management is at the root of LOTR2's major flaws.\r\nFor example, the piece de resistance of LOTR2's battle bits is besieging a castle. Enemy forces run around the ramparts chucking boiling oil at your forces while you assault the walls with rock lobbers and assault towers. It's an awesome idea, the ultimate in vandalism, but the troop classes aren't varied enough and after the novelty has worn off you realise that once you've seen one siege you've seen them all. From then on battles are a question of being increasingly irked by the slightly primitive graphics and two-stroke animation. \r\nHowever, if you walked up to LOTR2 and demanded to know why it isn't a great game, it would have to confess that it's because it shoots its bolt too soon. Unlike a turn-based game like Civ, it doesn't have endless technology paths to discover, or nations to be, or radically different ways to play the game. By the end of the first game you've toyed with all the weaponry available, and exploited all the resources; snaffling more land only bloats your existing forces, as at most there's only one new resource to be gained by expansion and there are no research outlets other than castles. Castle building is the only part of the Lords you won't have explored fully in the first few games. But there are only five, you can see the juicy Royal Castle in a single custom game, and they're simply not enough of an attraction, only intermittently appearing centre stage. \r\nNew levels only seem to offer bigger maps and don't require any major change in tactics. Sure, you can asset-strip the odd county instead of nurturing it, use merchants and mercenaries to cover your trade deficits, and conduct economic warfare by pillaging enemy fields instead of engaging their military forces, but such pursuits don't disguise the limits of a game that's closed the exploration and research paths. \r\nLOTR2 has made a courageous attempt to get a foot in both the Warcraft and Civ camps. Unfortunately its divided loyalties prevent it from committing to either side with any great conviction. The result, while atmospheric and absorbing, has neither the soul-swallowing depth of Civ or the all-out arms race fun of Warcraft.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Madden 97","Percentage":81,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As it turned out, 1996 was a leap year for the Madden series, a rare event for the chronologically consistent EA Sports range. Madden 96 did make a brief but ill-fated appearance, but chronic injury cut short its career. The development team was redeployed and Madden was sidelined, until now. The long wait is over and EA have obviously put the time to good use, as this is undoubtedly the most attractive American football game available.\r\nThe approach in Madden has, as you'll no doubt have foreseen, a lot in common with the NBA and FIFA formula, i.e. there's no arcade soft option in this game. It's a hardcore sim and only the self-reliant will progress. No allowance is made for novices as you're steamrollered by the brutal realism. \r\nThere's the complete collection of 30 NFL teams to choose from, plus more than 70 Madden dream teams, each playing like their real-life counterparts, so the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are everybody's favourite whipping boys while the Dallas Cowboys spend their time trouncing everybody else into the earth. There are I-shudder-to-think-how-many offensive and defensive plays which you can customise into your own playbook and there are, of course, the by-now obligatory audible settings. \r\nIn-game the beefcake, motion-captured sprites are the finest I've seen in an American football sim. They all seem to know what they're doing and, for once, actually look the part, braining each other with convincing bone-on-plastic oophs. And the control system is surprisingly sleek with a mere two joystick buttons needed to send you spinning, duking, passing and diving up field. Where Madden really scores, however, is with its blistering speed. No longer do players trudge about like deep sea divers, but instead blister about the pitch in the manner of athletes, no less. Press the dive button and your man goes ballistic, shooting about ten yards across the pitch, although the downside is that your quarterback spends a good deal of time face down in the turf. \r\nMadden 97 is not without its problems, however, not least the big man's cretinous commentary. For instance, it's just crying out for a training mode to acquaint the beginner with the fundamentals. Anyone with less than an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game will be left high and dry, their arcade skills of little use in a game that relies on reading the play patterns and a clairvoyant ability to know where holes will appear. \r\nNevertheless, when you pull off your first long bomb or fingertip interception the urge to exclaim 'Ooh yes!' while discretely punching the air will be difficult to resist, and red-in-the-neck American football fans couldn't hope for much more from 1997.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Magic The Gathering","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The largest club in the world is the Solitaire club. We're all members. You're sitting there in Windows desperately trying to avoid working, and all you can see is the icon at the bottom of the screen labelled Games. Five clicks later, seven columns of beach-scene backed cards are staring up at you and you're peering forward, fully conscious of the fact that this is not how you should be spending your life. The fact that Solitaire is the most crushingly tedious experience in the world is irrelevant ' it's better than work and you've finished Minesweeper. So, card games on a computer are things you play when you're bored, right? Not any more.\r\nMagic: The Gathering (hereafter referred to as MTG or Magic because I find typing colons absurdly irritating) has the potential to become the biggest PC game ever. This isn't some over-excited assertion, either. The card game formula is ideally suited to the PC and the game itself is extremely good. But before the elaboration we'll take a time-out to provide a bluffer's guide to MTG. If you already know how to tell your Shivan Dragons from your Sisters of the Flame you may want to let your eyes do the walking and skip on a few paragraphs to the bit that says 'hello again'.\r\nMagic is a turn-based card game set in the fantastical, fictional continent of Dominia. Normally a game for two people, the players sit on opposite sides of a table and try to score the most points by playing the cards off against each other (for simplicity's sake think 'whist' here). There are five suits which are known as colours: black, red, white, green and blue. Each colour represents a type of land that the continent contains, and respectively these are swamp, mountain, plain, forest and island ' see the boxouts for more details. Each player's pack (or 'deck' in MTG) contains a minimum of 60 cards but no upper limit, and at the start of a game you are dealt seven cards. There are thousands of individual cards available in packs in the shops, all of which 'belong to' one of the above colours and yours may comprise any number of any of these. When you start off you buy a plastic sealed deck that has 60 completely random cards within it.\r\nEach card has properties that make it useful to you. For a card to be active it must be played from your hand and laid on the table (sort of like Bezique), and to lay it you must pay a cost, loosely governed by the usefulness of the card. You pay this one-off fee using land cards that are themselves free to bring into play. Each land card generates one point of what is called mana that is the same colour as that type of land. This mana is your 'energy pool' that governs what you can lay and when. So (and it's about now I'm really wishing that the demo was on this month's CD) by playing one land card that you hopefully have in your hand onto the table each turn, you steadily build up your mana pool. \r\nNow the fun comes in. The non-land creature cards in your hand can be played by paying their casting cost using the land on the table. Each of these creatures may then attack (it makes it sound violent, which it isn't at all, but you get the point) the opponent and start to damage him. The opponent, who has been doing the same, can defend and attack you and, depending on the relative strengths of the cards involved, damage is dealt and each player's 'life' is reduced. You start off with 20 life and if you go to 0 it's all over. That's simplest I could make it. Sorry.\r\nI think you'll probably have to take the rest on trust. I've played just about every card game I know of for twenty years and MTG is, and I'm even including all-night bankrupting Poker sessions, the best. It has vast depth, subtleties, strategies and tension and is brilliantly balanced. It's often also called Tragic: The Saddening because it contains pixies and elves and things but we won't dwell on that.\r\nHello again\r\nSo we all know just how brilliant the card game is. The success of MTG's computer translation can only be measured by examining whether or not the subtleties of the card game come across. They do so splendidly, with only a couple of exceptions.\r\nMagic basically has two facets to it. There's the full-blown adventure that the game is centred around, and there's the peripheral, deck building, card sorting and simple one-off duelling fun. The main adventure (which is the element Sid Meier has been concentrating on) sees you placed in a section of Dominia with the long-term quest being to locate a major dungeon and destroy its guardian. To achieve this you must travel around defeating less important enemies, building your deck up and trading gold or cards with the land's inhabitants for clues as to the whereabouts of the final dungeon.\r\nThe ultra-basic isometric world that looks suspiciously like it uses Civ 2's engine is covered with swamps, mountains, forests and the like, but most important is its network of villages. Entering a village brings up a secondary menu where you can buy or sell cards and food, edit your deck and undertake quests for the inhabitants. These mini adventures are the soul of the game and usually involve defeating a nearby creature in a duel. By returning victorious to the relevant village you are then rewarded with special items, cards, money or information. The choice is frequently up to you.\r\nThe larger quest structure works so well because of the inherent desire to build your deck up. The only way to advance to the harder enemies is to defeat the weaker ones and gain the rewards. The variety of the cards out there makes it possible to build a custom deck that, after considerable attention, is almost as powerful as any paper tournament deck you could play with. The enemies you come across as you roam the worldare also excellent, and this stems from each one having their own characteristics, playing methods and cards. Duelling a Druid you can expect to find lots of green cards, with the emphasis being on generating much mana from fewer cards and casting Stream of Lifes. Fight a dragon and red's direct damage comes into play as Fireballs and Pyrotechnics are unleashed.\r\nThe high mark Magic has been awarded is linked almost exclusively to one factor ' the Artificial Intelligence. If the computer opponents had constantly been cheating to win, rigging decks and throwing games to advance the plot, this game would have been down in the 50s irrespective of the licence and the rest of the cleverness. Luckily that's not the case. We've been seeing various development versions of MTG for the last four months and the improvements have been startling.\r\nWith virtually no exceptions, it feels as if you could be playing a silent human opponent when in a duel. The differences, the tactics and the cards are so well executed. When in a duel, almost every time a decision is required the computer does precisely what you'd hope it wouldn't. When attacking it will hold back good blockers so as not to tap them, and preserve weaker creatures. When defending, the assigning of blockers is excellent, with an admirable balance of sacrificing creatures and taking the damage. Land is left untapped during the spell casting phase to re-generate creatures and use instant effects. Only once did the game do anything truly stupid as it unsummoned its own water elemental and promptly lost the game.\r\nEach computer player has differing amounts of starting life, making it easier to balance difficulty. Each duel is one round only with the usual one card ante resting on that. The four difficulty levels are good for beginners, but even after a few months playing you should be on the Wizard!! level doing rather well.\r\nI only have a few doubts we have about the way the game works, and all of them are more suspicions than direct failings. Many of the computer opponents' decks seem to be too centred round one colour, as if the AI can't cope with two or three different colours as the vast majority of traditional decks are. But just when you're convinced of the fact, along comes a troll with a strong red and black deck and plays with all the intelligence you've seen throughout. A vague confirmation of this single colour theory is the large number of artefacts in the decks. Artefacts (which are neutral coloured) would be the ideal way to get round this problem. \r\nAdd to this some opponents who seem to have too many of one card. Three Elven Rangers pouring out of a bush consecutively is not a good sign, but only a couple of lunch-times ago in a league Steve hit me with three Guerrilla Tactics in a row, so...? Unsummon spells also seem to crop up just when needed. I'm not totally convinced about any of these (and to be honest they don't really matter in the long term as it does balance out) but very occasionally you do get that distinctive Sid Meier AI 'rigging' feeling. Considering the range of cards and tactics the computer is generally brilliant, and could never really be expected to compete with a human, but generally it does very well. This is not chess.\r\nMagic's presentation is one area that some will find off-putting. Maybe the contract stipulated the computer version had to be as accurate a re-creation of the game itself as possible, but there is scope for a more layered experience. For example, when land is being played, what's wrong with having a backdrop representing the colours with which you're playing and then adding individual trees, mountains, islands (or whatever) to denote that you've played that amount of land? By the same token, summoning creatures could place them in the foreground with the enchantments, artefacts and the rest. As I say this there's this terrible picture in my head of how this idea could turn out... 14'' monitors cluttered with poorly rendered stick insects representing the mighty beasts, land obscured by land and no way to click on the opponent's cards. Perhaps I'm being a little ambitious and gratuitous. The game works so well as it is that the presentation isn't really that important.\r\nThe greatest disappointment that many will feel is the lack of a multi-player e-mail option. MicroProse, whose games appear to be about two years behind the rest of the world when it comes to networking, have opted out of the chance to widen the audience and make the game easiest to play. This is the greatest oversight missed opportunity and will undoubtedly reduce the game's attractiveness to many. Steve, Paul and I suspect in a paranoid way that Wizards of the Coast were behind this as it would surely hurt card sales.\r\nMicroProse have got a winner with this game. It plays so well, the structure works perfectly and the interest surrounding the whole Magic mythos will ensure its success. Inevitably, with as complex a game as this there are a few niggles, the occasional disappointment and one or two aspects that I'd have liked to be done differently. I'd be a red-faced liar if I said it was even remotely as fun to play against as a human. PCs are not good to talk to over a cold Grolsch, and they do not travel well. PCs are boring and people are not. \r\nThis is about as good a job as could have been made with the game. Beyond the inherent problems are an almost infinite number of highly intelligent, distinctive opponents with thousands of card combinations. And the bottom line is that's what Magic is all about.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"MAX","Percentage":61,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The moment you start playing MAX, you realise that war is hell. Picture the battlefield. You're lining up with your best square-jawed high school mates, being gunned down for a cause you don't believe in and then every three minutes you have to stand on the spot while the enemy has a go.\r\nOf course, it would be unfair to criticise MAX simply because real-time games like C&C, Warcraft II and even Dune II (not to mention a veritable army of clones) have demonstrated just what good fun war can be. Indeed, there may still be legitimate cases where the rigid structure of a turn-based game (or even a so-called simultaneous turn-based game) is demanded. But as we'll see, this isn't one of those cases, and I wanted to make that clear from the start.\r\nOn with the plot. You play the MAX commander and it's your task to colonise new worlds. Unfortunately, seven other MAX commanders and their clans have the same aim. Each has its own special attributes - faster planes, better defensive units and so on. There's no graphical diversification - just barely distinguishable colour differences mark your troops from your enemies.\r\nThere are custom games, single missions and a campaign game, but the basic aim remains the same. To win a planet, you must establish more eco-sphere structures than your opponents. Starting with a few seed units, you mine gold, raw materials and fuel to fund further expansion. There's an enormous number of buildings available, and each must touch power generators to work, making your base a sprawl of interlinked structures. Many of the buildings have specific material requirements, special manufacturing capabilities and some can even be switched on or off. Most buildings hum with their own distinctive menace, a neat touch.\r\nTo create a building, you use either a constructor or engineer unit, depending on the building type. You first load it with raw materials from the base, then move it into position and set it to work. While this has a certain (limited) charm, it scarcely justifies the effort. Imagine if SimCity 2000 had gangs of workmen roaming around (indeed, being ordered about turn-by-turn). Do I hear you argue that this isn't SimCity? You fell right into my trap.\r\nIt's quite overwhelming. Why, when all the recent classic action-strategy games enable you to build as you see fit, must it be such a chore in MAX? Every development team needs somebody who's able to distinguish between what's fun and what isn't, and MAX's was clearly somewhere else in the building playing C&C at the decisive moment.\r\nBut this construction business is realistic, someone mutters into their coffee. Sure, buildings sprouting effortlessly up isn't stunningly accurate, but what's next? 'Sorry, you cannot visit the little boy's room this turn, all your movement points are exhausted.'\r\nDespite these complications, you eventually determine what's relevant and ignore the rest (just as the design team might have). Running your base becomes a nuisance, rather than a curse, which is just as well, because it's boring being pasted by the enemy as you try to learn the ropes.\r\nThis brings us full circle. Combat in MAX is frustrating because it's so complicated, so laboured and so unspontaneous. Apart from your turn-replenished movement and shot points, combat hinges on two parameters: scan and weapon range. Enemies outside your units' scan range are fogged, or more accurately, they're invisible. No attempt is made to distinguish hidden terrain, which means you must rely on graphical circular range representations. It's war by Venn diagrams. Tanks sit between the intersecting ranges of other tanks, scouts skirt into view, you press F1 to see them and then they're gone.\r\nSimultaneously turn-based, MAX is annoying because the computer is much better than you. At least turn-based games balance out the inherent advantage the computer has in real-time scenarios, where it can move all its units concurrently. The average human has trouble beyond a couple. For instance, Warcraft II often degenerates into massive brawls, because it's so difficult to orchestrate anything else. But simultaneous turns destroy this one advantage; the computer is infinitely more aware than you and every turn begins with a wave of strikes from the enemy. You tend to spend your turn mopping up the damage.\r\nAnd as a pure turn-based game, the dull action MAX engenders is unjustified. Arguably, you need discrete turns to oversee your base, but that's because it's so unwieldy in the first place. In combat, all you really do is shoot and move. Mission Force: Cyberstorm, for example, justified turns because the terrain and the massive complexity of each individual Mech demanded each unit was finely tuned. But MAX's units are idiot affairs, and the resulting battles are like C&C with a stammer.\r\nWhy, considering the points outlined above, has MAX not got a spectacularly low score? Simply because if you persevere with it, you'll find there is a challenge there. MAX can boast plenty of nice touches - the sound effects and spinning 3D rendered vehicles are lovely. There are tons of unit types, and a real attempt has been made to provide a variety of single-player missions.\r\nThe trouble is, while MAX has been competently realised, another game altogether should have been made.","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Thud - thud - thud. Whir, click. 'Enemy located. Locking missiles. Launching.' Thud - thud - thud. 'Enemy mech destroyed.' Whir, thud - thud - thud. 'Enemy mechs converging on Nav Gamma.' Thud - thud - thud - whir, click. 'Squad leader to all units: Here we go, target their cockpits - aim for the flesh, save the metal!' \r\nThis could very well be a vintage year for big robot games. Not only have we seen the admirable Earthsiege 2 hit the shelves, but, hot on its heels, Mission Force: Cyber Storm has recently added a whole new strategic dimension to the genre. Now Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, the latest incarnation of the all conquering exoskeletal breed, has come stomping over the horizon on its large, articulated legs. And this is a fortunate thing, too, as I must confess to being more than partial to the allure of heavy metal mayhem.\r\nSet in the now well-established FASA BattleTech universe, Mercenaries' scenario predates the original Mechwarrior 2 by some eighteen years, and, instead of all that Clan-based, warrior caste brotherhood malarkey, you are portrayed as a newly commissioned mercenary commander, one of the original dogs of war, who owes their loyalty and allegiance to none but the highest bidder. Cold hard cash is the name of the game in this universe and it's your task, should you choose to accept it, to earn fame, fortune or indeed infamy as you aim to build from scratch the hardest Mercenary Lance in the Inner Sphere.\r\nYour career kicks off at the local Starport, where, beginning with a single weedy Mech, an ancient drop ship and a few inherited credits in the bank, you survey the local com-net for gainful employment. A quick scan of the classifieds, a mere click of your mouse later and before you know it, you're hitting planetfall and engaged in your first ever contract mission. \r\nAnd it's here that Mercenaries really begins to distinguish itself from all its predecessors. Each contract you take leads on to a well balanced mini-campaign, featuring a series of inter linked missions and battles which build up a credible story line as your career develops. Begin with a few low grade sorties to pick up some cash, and as your reputation grows you'll want to invest in new and bigger Mechs, more sophisticated weapons technologies and alternative, interesting ways of peeling the opposition apart. After a while, with coffers overflowing, you'll find it a necessity to employ extra pilots and Mechs for heavier duty scenarios, but all the way through, Mercenaries strives to promote the feeling that you really are in command of a Mercenary Mech Free Lance, and it's this open-ended, flexible approach to mission selection that adds considerably to the appeal of the game.\r\nMercenaries also adds a whole new strategic and managerial emphasis to the core of the traditional frenzied Mechwarrior experience. Instead of being safely hidden away inside one of the clans, you're very much in control of your own destiny and subject to a hard universe's commercial realities. This provides both a very different challenge and an intriguing perspective. Instead of worrying about Keshik codes of honour, you'll find that you'll be concentrating instead on planning forthcoming Mech deployments, checking weapons and spares and taking total responsibility for your unit for the duration of an entire campaign. In the rare breathing space between contracts, you'll work to upgrade your force, buy and sell Mechs, evaluate new pilots and constantly keep an eye on the steady flow of credits into your bank account. \r\nAnd never again will you blithely blast out into battle taking on all comers, then struggle home on a wing and a prayer and assume that some convenient technician will hammer out the bodywork for you. Now everything costs, from forking out for spare ammo, to grudgingly coughing up for maintenance and guild fees, and it seems the whole universe and his brother wants a slice of the action. Still, by way of compensation, at least there's the opportunity to salvage enemy Mechs and weapons on the battlefield and add them to your stockpile. Depending on your brief, you can also claim bounty for every confirmed kill, which is perhaps the ultimate form of performance-related pay and at the end of a successful campaign sequence, you'll receive a substantial completion bonus with which to re-equip and upgrade your Lance.\r\nIf all this sounds rather daunting, it is at first, but it's also strangely and utterly compelling and you'll soon be crying havoc and slipping loose the dogs of war with the best of them. Of course, it is possible to ignore all these extra features and play Mercenaries as a straight forward combat thrash, but that would surely rather miss the point, as this new integrated approach to Mech management really adds a whole new dimension to what was already a formidable game.\r\nBut what about where it really counts, out on the battlefield? Well, here Mercenaries still offers much to admire. Although the same Mechwarrior 2 engine lies at the heart of the game, there're some noticeable graphical improvements. The Mechs themselves look resplendent in their new liveries. Missiles sear across the landscape, while lasers carve the ether, and the wide variety of mission variables and combat environments will provide a constant challenge for even the most hardened Mechwarrior veteran. \r\nThe battlefield environment is rich, convincing and target heavy, and features the same pulsating, earth-shaking, heart-stopping, heavy metal malarkey that made the original such a success. There's enhanced weaponry and onboard systems, a wider variety of ground and air targets and a mix of old favourites and new and frightening Mechs to pilot and fight, amongst the thirty odd machines on offer. Although you feel Mercenaries may appeal primarily to established Mechwarrior players, pilots new to the FASA universe shouldn't take too long to feel right at home, and Mercenaries offers extensive and detailed training missions for the novice commander.\r\nMercenaries must also score heavy bonus brownie points for its eight-player network options. But perhaps most intriguing of all are its Internet aspirations, which will feature proprietary drivers to allow single players to host MercNet sessions live over the Internet. No more moaning about having to summon eight Pentiums for a multi-player fest, then, and a more than reasonable excuse to start some on-line gaming. \r\nBy combining a detailed, authentic and absorbing mercenary management sim with a searing, stand alone combat front end, Mercenaries looks to be the most complete contender in the current pantheon of exoskeletal warfare titles. In the heated competition for the coveted crown of big robot champion, it looks as if Activision's Mercenaries has nudged a length ahead of Sierra's Hercs (as most recently portrayed in Mission Force: Cyber Storm) once again.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Mission Force: Cyber Storm","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"From the team who brought you EarthSiege 2 comes Mission Force: Cyber Storm. A robotic exo-skeleton spin-off game, it features titanic chrome monstrosities scrapping each other over the fate of the human race, as usual. This time, however, Sierra pluck you from the confines of the cockpit and charge you with the task of commanding and managing an entire squadron of Hercs. Considering that piloting a single Herc in EarthSiege 2 requires more digits than Pi has decimal places, it should come as no surprise that Cyber Storm brings a more considered, chin-rubbing approach to the robo-stomp genre, eschewing real-time in favour of turn sequences.\r\nCyber Storm is, then, a strategy wargame: its battles breaking out over handsomely drawn hex-terrained landscapes. Slick mouse and icon controls set your Hercs pounding about the place and the turn system generously allows you all the time you need to plot your tactics. However, the management of your force is just as important as the action. Before you and your jumped-up zimmer frames are allowed near a war zone you've got to weld your 'bot force together from the range of models and configurations available back at base.\r\nAs a Herc commander you're an employee of the Unitech mega-corporation. Serving as a kind of galactic sales rep, your chief duty is to demonstrate the brand superiority of Unitech products by liquidating the Cybrid competition in a variety of different missions. Your pay is strictly performance related, so the dosh you need to upgrade and expand your Herc enterprise can only be earned through glorious battlefield success. Job security depends on the number of Hercs you have to enforce it; so if you lose them all and go bankrupt, Unitech paints concentric circles on your chest and posts you to a temporary position assisting on the Herc shooting range.\r\nAs this happens quite a lot, Unitech doesn't trust new recruits with any hardware more expensive than a 'speak your weight' machine. Thus you start the game on the lowest rung of the ladder, with a small business start-up loan and a couple of Hercs equipped for little more than traffic control. As such, it's best if you stick to mining missions at first to earn some easy cash. Later on, once you're conducting some heavier metal, you can pitch for a riskier 'seek and destroy' or 'secure installation' venture.\r\nImage is everything, and no game demonstrates this aphorism more effectively than Cyber Storm. Its lustrous presentation suffuses the game with atmosphere; to say it's polished would be an understatement, it's more like it's received a personal buffing from Mr Sheen and his magic turtlewax. Ambient animations augment each segment of the game; the on-line manual is presented as a series of Unitech training vids and the story line updates actually create a cyber-laden, techno conspiracy plot that is gripping. Whether it's relevant to the game is another matter, but it might be, so you take notice for once.\r\nEvery part of the game has been designed with great care. In your base, once you're flush, you can repair, upgrade and expand your fleet from a huge armoury of Hercs and other hardware. Rotating 3D wire-frame models accompany the Herc stats as you choose from little Shadow Ghost scout efforts all the way up to the awesome Juggernaut death engines. Every element can be adjusted as you add ECM devices and anti-gravity units while upgrading peashooting autocannon to rapid saturation missile launchers. Searching for the optimum doomsday configurations will keep tinkerers happy for weeks or months, especially as you are only gradually granted access to the really potent equipment as you progress through the tougher missions. \r\nAdding an even greater depth of cyber feeling to the game is the fact that your Hercs aren't robots at all. Technically speaking they're clones-in-chrome: metal suits piloted by genetically engineered organisms known as Bioderms. These Herc jockeys are dialled up like a 'choose your own topping' DNA pizza from the Biovat, which is beautifully animated as a sinister lab complete with soupy fluids bubbling noxiously in tanks. Here you can select the 'derms whose skills most suit the Hercs you have and upgrade their attributes specifically to deal with the missions you plan to undertake. Here you may also need to recycle 'derms who've reached the end of their useful lifespan or detoxify those you've combat drugged (see boxout).\r\nThe battles themselves are superbly handled, with the ease and speed of the control system combining with the fluidity of the animation to almost fool you into thinking you're playing in real time. You can actually see the missiles streak from their launchers and little plumes of smoke rise from the ground as explosions saturate the battlefield. \r\nThe turn system actually enhances combat as winning an engagement becomes rather more than just blundering in all guns blazing. With the time afforded, you can utilise the sophisticated on-board Herc systems to the full: distributing shield power, improvising battlefield repairs and performing precise terrain hugging manoeuvres. \r\nCyber Storm has its faults though. It would be more exciting if a time limit was imposed on turns, as in the multi-player version, pressurising you to act fast in combat. Also, the missions tend to be a bit samey, so the pleasure of junking Cybrids may quickly wear thin once you've battle-tested all the hardware available.\r\nBut the sheer customisable scope of Cyber Storm, along with the multi-player and single mission options, should ensure its longevity. It's superbly structured, tactically challenging, accessible and looks great. In any case, pounding big robots to scrap is fun.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Muppet Treasure Island","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Kids tend to get a pretty raw deal when it comes to computer games, having to settle for ones that look as if they've originally been developed for gamers generally, have turned out to be rubbish, and have been hastily repacked with some 'cartoon' graphics and an 'Ages 5-9' sticker on the box. If you've got kids, PC Gamer usually advises, give them proper games to play - they'll probably be better than you at them.\r\nBut Muppet Treasure Island hits such preconceptions over the head with a frying pan. There was a rush for the jiffy bag when it first arrived in the office, simply because it's got the Muppets in. And that was before we realised that, as well as being Muppet-filled, it's actually a very good game indeed. In fact it was necessary for me to employ my full editorial authority to assume control of the review, and to turn the key in the oaken door of my office to prevent ill-advised attempts to snatch it back.\r\nMuppets Treasure Island is a full-blown adventure game. It's an incredibly easy one, with very few puzzles and plenty of help from Stevenson the Parrot - a seasoned and embittered old hand like myself could romp through it in about an hour were he able to resist the temptation to fiddle with the amusing frilly bits - and yet it's saved from being yet another pointless 'kids' game by the loving care that's gone into putting it together.\r\nThe story at the game's heart is split into four episodes spread over three CDs. First there's a short bit where you've got to find the treasure map. Then, part two involves wandering around the town of Bristol, chatting to people with the most extraordinary alleged Bristolian accents and earning your passage. Part three is aboard the Hispaniola, the ship, where you've got to learn to be a crewman and then sail to Treasure Island. And finally you've got to fight off the pirates, locate the treasure and drag it aboard the ship.\r\nThat's the basic story, and there's not a great deal to it. What makes the game special, though, is the way it's been fleshed out along the way with characters, jokes and bits and pieces to fiddle about with.\r\nEach screen has been beatifully painted and digitised, and then specially-filmed Muppets video footage is superimposed seamlessly over the top. Some of this advances the story, but much of it's there simply for amusement value. Click on a moose's head on the wall, for example, and it'll sneeze. Click on a stone on the beach and the Swedish Chef will appear and perform a song. Click on a statue and it'll make a face. Click on a cloud and, for no apparent reason, it'll turn fleetingly into an octopus. Each screen is like one of those Fisher Price things that can be found attached to the side of cots, with sqeaky bits and bits that spin round.\r\nThe script's excellent, too. Although sketched out by Activision's people, it's been gone over by Jim Henson's folk to ensure that it's authentically Muppet-like. It probably sounds cheesy on paperÉ\r\nRizzo: That's the guy we were warned about. He's got one leg.\r\nGonzo: So have I.\r\nRizzo: But you've got another one next to it.\r\nÉbut spoken in a throw-away fashion by Muppets, and interspersed with suitable sound effects, it sounds great.\r\nAs well as solving puzzles - finding keys, building a model ship - there are little sub-games, like a Simon-style playing the piano one, and one where you fire pies at pirates, and one where you fire a cannon at passing ships. And there are 'educational' bits, where, for example, you get talked through the constellations, with Fozzie as the Great Bear, Animal as Hercules and so on, and get told what the various parts of a ship do.\r\nThere are features that would be unheard of in a 'proper' adventure. For example, you're meant to collect a special rock in each of the episodes and then fit them together at the end on Treasure Island to locate the treasure. Except, if you forget any they're all on Treasure Island anyway. And you can jump straight into any episode rather than play them in order. But it makes sense when you remember - and it's often difficult - that this is just meant for kids.\r\nDon't go out buying Muppet Treasure Island for yourself, will you? Not unless you've got a real weakness for expensive luxuries. If you've produced offspring, though, and they are still young, purchase it without delay, and see if you can elbow them out of the way from time to time to try it for yourself.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"The Muppets CD-ROM","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Who would have thought that if you stuck your hand in some cardboard covered in your mum's old coat one day, that the next, Kermit the Frog would be a household name wherever a television could be turned on? ThereÕs no denying that the Muppets are an institution, a growing-up memory you never grow out of. But when PC Gamer was sent The Muppets CD-ROM, a few puzzled looks were exchanged across desks so messy you could easily lose your train of um, well, whatever. Questions were asked. Is this a game? Isn't it just for kids? Did I leave the iron on? Has anyone seen my train ofÉ oh, what do you call it?Warily removing the vacuum-sealed shrink wrap, tentatively placing the CD in the drive and nervously drumming my fingers on the table, I was pleasantly surprised when the game started first time. The Windows 95 desktop shuddered into a lower resolution as Fozzy and Kermit parted the screen to introduce themselves and the excuse for a storyline.Believably the game pretends to have crashed your PC, utterly destroying your hard drive. Rather than curse in the most uncouth manner, chuckle knowingly to yourself as you realise that it is all part of the ludicrous plot. To recover your hard drive you must travel around the circuits of your PC, fixing damaged files by completing pastiches of famous games. Protect Fozzy from flung food, Missile Command style; run the Swedish Chef around the Kitchens of Doom, whisking vicious vegetables into various desserts; and reassemble Beaker's memories in Dr Bunsen's lab. There's seven games in all, none of them ever impressive, but they're usually fun.Your electronic adventures are interspersed and indeed combined with a large selection of video and animation, much of which has been recorded especially for the CD. This is a welcome touch, because the game would have hummed of rip-off if it was just old scenes from the show cobbled together.Basically, very basically, the Muppet CD-ROM is great: amusing, professional, entertaining, different, impressive. In fact, kids are likely to enjoy it, and adults will show it off to other adults. It all gets tiresome fairly rapidly though. After only half an hour you are playing through all the same games simply to watch a bit more video or get closer to completing your goal. It's the equivalent of a coffee table book - one for visitors to flick through while you make the coffee, but definitely not for the hardened games master.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"NASCAR Racing 2","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"A potted history of NASCAR Racing (PC style) in four brief steps:\tJanuary 1995: NASCAR Racing is released. Every magazine says it's absolutely brilliant.\r\nFebruary 1995: NASCAR isn't played any more. All of a sudden oval tracks are boring and no-one has the Cray PC required to make it run comfortably. This is known as a backlash.\r\nOctober 1996: NASCAR comes out on budget. It's still not that good, you know.\r\nThat explains at least why no-one wanted to review NASCAR 2. I used all the excuses I'd been saving up for months to fob the game off to some unsuspecting freelancer, but as is the case with such large titles, NASCAR's reputation was a crumpled bonnet ahead of itself. I could talk conspiracy theory here, I could claim that the CIA had something to do with it, I could even ask Dan Akroyd to explain how it all happened Sneakers-style, but everyone I asked mysteriously passed on the offer of work, leaving the CD in my ungrateful possession.\r\nBut then I remembered how much I really liked Grand Prix 2, particularly going the wrong way round the track and seeing into how many smaller sections your opponents can be smashed. Optimism and potentially misplaced confidence can be a wonderful drug, and I needed one hell of a score as NASCAR 2 installed. After smoking a salmon and doing a line of indelible marker, I was ready.\r\nOh look, it's in SVGA. Oh look, it runs very quickly for an SVGA racing game. Much quicker than Grand Prix 2 can manage. And there's quite a lot of detail beside the tracks, and even little touches like ovals being much quieter during qualifying or practice - no crowds, less trailers in the centre.\r\nWhat's foxed me more than anything, though, is what makes it so different to the original. A quick flick through the various menus trying the more unusual options reveals that most of the enhancements are about as obvious as Fergie's chastity. A visitor to our shores a few months ago, who claimed he represented Papyrus although we never rang the US offices to check, was excited to announce that the graphics engine was completely new. New it may be, but it is still displaying big cars driving around (mostly) oval tracks, so other than the fact that it moves at a decent speed it could still be the old one. You appreciate the realism when you flick other cars from the track, though, so this improvement, if it is one, is most welcome nevertheless.\r\nThe set-up screen I know for certain is a lot better. Whereas gear ratio settings involved a long trip down a series of menu pathways, stopping for a breather and a picnic about halfway down, all the set-up options are now \t* stored on one handy SVGA screen looking not unlike a piece of paper. Another splattering of applause for Papyrus. Of course the real-life players have been updated, but we are British and have no inkling of the sport in this country, so this aspect is instantly glossed over.\r\nThe last thing the potential impostor from Papyrus mentioned is one that is likely to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as if you were a tomcat and I was a small puppy that has just entered your home for the first time and am to be the new favoured family pet. Yes, NASCAR 2 has multi-player options involving plush teak effect networks and using Sierra's fancy new Ten Internet gaming site. Eight players could race each other, which, I'd be tempted to say, is where NASCAR 2 comes into its own, but on this occasion it would be a lie. Our fancy Internet connection couldn't get onto Sierra's site, and because the game isn't out yet, no-one would be playing anyway. But just imagine it. I did.\r\nSo those are the new bits, and with the best of the old bits NASCAR 2 is thoroughly worth playing. Simulation purists go for the anoraky realism and attention to detail, and yet even the most dedicated arcade gamer will find appeal. What makes this release so much fun is popping your car into indestructible mode, starting at the back of the grid and going all out to win, no matter how dangerously you have to drive to do it. And if you find that you just can't catch everyone up, because of some foolish car set-up, simply drive the wrong way around the track and destroy everyone else. (It's still not as much fun as in Indy 500 though. - Ed)\r\nAnd if all else fails... On one occasion I came second in a race, one second behind the front man, and after finding out his number I patiently waited for him to park up before SMASHING HIS BLOODY VEHICLE TO BITS. Hahahaha!\r\nSurprisingly, though, oval tracks aren't as boring as you might think. As well as two or three almost Grand Prix-style courses, you do actually notice the difference between the various ovals. In a flash of generosity, Sierra are planning to release free extra tracks using our cover CD in the future. In conclusion, then: don't be worried about the simulation side. Play it as an arcade game if need be. An astoundingly close challenger to the plush throne-like position inhabited by Grand Prix 2.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"NBA Full Court Press","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"No, wait. Although, with its 2D graphics and rudimentary animation, NBA Full Court Press looks like something out of the TV Boy II*, it's not a complete disaster. The commentator certainly does his best to dissuade you from prying beneath the surface, shouting things like 'He nails that baby', 'Ooh mamma' and 'Nobody voodoo like you do' (I think) seemingly at random, but perseverance is rewarded by a perfectly playable basketball game.\r\nFirst, though, you may be impressed by the vast array of management options, which allow you to choose any one of the NBA teams, customise it at will, and then lead it through a whole season. It might all seem daunting, but online instructions are available in true Windows 95 style. There's a glossary of basketball terms, in case you're not sure what a fadeaway jumper is. If you're on the Internet you can connect directly to a Full Court Press Web site to join in contests and download extra goodies. You can even assign five 'plays' (preplanned manoeuvres) to the number keys, and then initiate them during the game, but this didn't seem to work too well when I tried.\r\nAnd once you're actually playing, everything works just as it should. You've got four fire keys - shoot, pass, block and turbo - and it's possible to set up fluid passing movements with ease. Computer controlled players seem to spend rather a lot of time standing motionless, but otherwise put up a good fight. And, in a way, the weedy graphics work to your advantage by making it clear what's going on.\r\nBut, well, EA's NBA 96 does pretty much everything this does but with flashy 3D graphics and considerably more atmosphere. Full Court Press's ball looks more like something that might fall out of the bottom of a hole punch. And NBA 96 doesn't keep stopping awkwardly when you're moving from one menu to another, the music stuttering and strange corrupted graphics appearing. Still, you can't have everything.\r\nAnd most fundamentally of all, of course, it's a basketball simulation. Basketball just never seems to lend itself to computer games in the same way that sports like football, ice hockey and tennis do - even NBA 96 isn't actually much fun when it comes down to it - to really succeed you've got to go down the NBA Jam route, throwing in special moves and speeding everything up.\r\nWhile it's better than appearances might suggest, then, NBA Full Court Press was always going to struggle, now that PC basketball has grown up.\r\n\r\n* The TV Boy II looks like a joypad, but it plugs straight into your telly and, when switched on, turns out to be an Atari VCS with 126 mostly awful games built in. It's excellent, and costs about £30 from Argos.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"NBA Live 96","Percentage":77,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"If you were attempting to escape from an American prisoner-of-war camp, and you'd made it through the wire fence, past the dogs, between the search-light beams and through the moon-lit woods, and were boarding the train for the border, having successfully passed yourself off as a US citizen by using forged papers and a replica cigar, it's possible that the security officer hunting for escapees would, after a tense but sufficiently convincing conversation in your best American accent, attempt to catch you out as he bid you farewell with the question: 'Oh, and have you played the new 96 version of FIFA?' Were you to answer 'Yes' he would immediately handcuff you and have you shot. The correct response should, of course, be: 'No, but ain't NBA Live 96 just swell?'\r\nWhile we Brits propelled FIFA 96 to number one in the Christmas top ten amid a flurry of publicity, the Americans were buying basketball games with equal vigour. The delights of the New York Nicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves are largely lost on a British audience, so it's hardly surprising that the last of EA's Virtual Stadium games, NBA Live 96, has been released over here with no fanfare whatsoever.\r\nIt is, however, in its own way, a tremendously good game. It does for basketball what FIFA 96 did for football, and what NHL 96 did for ice hockey. The engine at its heart remains largely unchanged from the previous NBA games - that's to say, an entirely credible simulation of basketball - but now the court spins around freely in 3D as you press one of the six view keys, and the players all get bigger and smaller as they run into and out of the screen. Oh, and the stats have probably been updated, although it's hard to tell.\r\nOur Pentium 90 didn't seem entirely happy running NBA 96 in full SVGA. It managed a reasonable rate of frames, but in a game as fast-moving as basketball the ball can easily travel from one side of the court to the other in the time it takes for the screen to update. So, after toying with the curious stripy semi-SVGA mode, I settled for chunky old VGA, which gets confusingly muddled when the players are clustered together but moves perfectly.\r\nUnlike FIFA or NHL, NBA's very much a game of skill rather than tactics. What's important is what's happening now - do you pass or go for a shot? - and it's impossible to predict where the ball will be in three seconds' time and plan ahead. Who wins will depend on who's got the fastest reactions and who's more adept with the controls. As you get better you'll be able to anticipate just how\r\nlong you need to pause after receiving the ball before going for the net, and you'll learn to keep an eye on the letters beneath each player which indicate who they are and what they're best at.\r\nThe presentation, meanwhile, is superb. Between matches and quarters there are some excellent SVGA screens (which we are unable to show you because PCs are so awful) showing photos of the players and the locations they're playing at. You get impossibly detailed after-match statistics which highlight all the points on the court from which shots were taken and which shots went in. You get trivia questions at half-time. The game's even got its own built-in screensaver.\r\nBut it is, nevertheless, basketball. Ice hockey can make an excellent computer game whether you're interested in the sport or not, but I don't find that basketball quite has the same appeal. There's no puck zinging about or fights breaking out. Perhaps that's why games like NBA Jam and the PlayStation's Total NBA (which is superb, with smoothly-shaded Actua Soccer-style players) tend to fantasise a bit, adding in special moves and turbo buttons so they're more fun to play, or going for a fast-paced two-on-two game. NBA Live 96 is very much a straight simulation, and for all its merits I didn't find it nearly as entertaining as any of EA's other 96 games. Maybe it'd be different if I was American.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"NBA Live 97","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Never let it be said that the guys at EA Canada don't know which side their corporate bread is buttered. Their popular NHL Hockey, FIFA Soccer, Madden and NBA Live sports series look like they'll run forever and now, hot on the texture-mapped, Gouraud-shaded heels of the old 96 batch, has come the even more texture-mapped, Gouraud-shaded, Phong-tinted 97 line-up. The new NHL Hockey 97 is hotter than a swim in a volcano, NHL 97 is brilliant, while FIFA Soccer 97 isn't half bad. NBA Live 97 is pretty good too. It's not going to break the basketball mould, but it does chip a bit off and cause a fair degree of scratching.\r\nIf you've played an EA Sports game before, you'll know that the presentation (i.e. the menus, the music, the video snippets, etc.) is absolutely stunning. But basketball is just basketball. You run from one end of the court to the other, trying to throw a ball through a small, metal hoop, while the crowd cheers and the commentator shouts 'Boom Shakalak!' or something similar. All the new 97 version does is draw the action with bigger, better and altogether flashier graphics. Forget sprites, in NBA Live 97 you get to control a team of Quake blokes wearing shorts and vests. Ah, if only there was an option to give them rocket launchers...\r\nLike the old 96 version, in NBA Live 97 you can play a one-off exhibition match between any two teams, or choose to guide a team through an entire basketball season. To cater for the novice and pro-player alike, there are three difficulty levels and two distinct modes of play. In the Arcade mode, players never tire or get injured, while in Simulation every option in the game is switched on to create the ultimate digital jam. You can pick any one of eight different camera angles to view the action, adjust the graphic detail, change the controller set-up (you can use a gamepad, joystick, keyboard, even the mouse), as well as view a dizzyingly sad array of facts and information on the top NBA stars. If you didn't realise it already, NBA Live 97 is a stat-freak's wet dream. But the free encyclopaedia isn't the fun part.\r\nAs the funky soundtrack pounds away in the background, there's an agonising wait as the gorgeousness of EA's Virtual Stadium technology is shoehorned into every spare byte of your PC's memory. And if you've got a fast PC, the wait seems to be well worth it. NBA Live 97 looks fabulous; streets ahead of the old NBA Live 96 and dual carriageways in front of NBA Live 95. It plays a fun, frantic and worryingly realistic game of 'ball'. The superbly animated 3D blokes slam, spin and dunk their way through the four quarters. Ice-white sneakers squeak realistically on wooden floorboards that are so polished you can see the reflection of the spotlights in them. The crowd roars, intelligent and quick slow-mo replays allow you to relive spectacular scores, while the commentator urges the players on with a seamless stream of enthusiastic babble. This is as real as basketball on the PC is likely to get. At least until the inevitable arrival of NBA Live 98.\r\nA simple attacking control system (just click button A to pass, tap button B to shoot) makes getting into the action easy, while the half-time stat run-down lets you break down the number of assists, blocks, steals and turnovers that each team has had. NBA Live 97 is a hugely comprehensive game that takes the bare bones of the previous incarnations and gives them the equivalent of a weekend in an expensive health farm. Needless to say, if you're looking for a basketball sim that can give you all the fantasy excitement of NBA Jam, NBA Live 97 isn't for you, but for the more arcade sim fan this is as perfect as basketball gets.\r\nOr is it? If you haven't got a PC with the processing oomph to make the most of this graphically intensive game, then there's really little to recommend it. Admittedly, there's a network and modem option, but if you have to turn down the detail levels to bump up the speed, the 97 version has nothing over the old 96 flavour. Just as every new flight sim simulates the same planes with newer and prettier 3D graphics, NBA Live 97 offers a visual leap rather than enhanced gameplay. The rules of basketball don't change and so the way that NBA Live 97 plays is similar to 96 and 95. \r\nThe big selling point, as ever, is the game's graphics, and there's no denying that they're lovelier than a very lovely thing. But although the TV-style production (there's even a half-time show to watch, with dancing cheerleaders and a selection of impressive dunks and slams) should catapult NBA Live 97 up into the PC Gamer stratosphere, it doesn't have the same instant, 'let's crowd around the monitor', 'Hey, I want to play' type of appeal. Maybe this is because we're just not huge fans of basketball over here and maybe it's because this 97 version is a dolled-up rehash of 96. Basketball fans will doubtless ignore the criticisms, but casual gamers should try before they buy.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Duke Nukem 3D","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"25","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"You may be a little suspicious about the Duke Nukem 3D review that appeared in our December issue, considering that the shareware version has only just been released. Or you may not give a hoot because you know how good the game is now that you have had a chance to play it. But, whatever you think, the main reason for the delayed release was Apogee's final network compatibility testing. Checking different types of networks and ironing out consistency problems is a major job and one that took the team much longer than expected. But it's here now and, just in case you missed the review, a quick re-run follows.\r\nIt's incredibly quick, even in the high-res mode. It's so fast, by far the fastest 3D game of its sort around today, making Terminator Rampage look pitifully sluggish by comparison. It's the speed that's largely responsible for maximising all the exciting little playing touches that have been packed into the levels. Monsters fly high overhead forcing you to back off frantically while pointing your gun skyward. The scenery is fully reactive, with blood stains dripping down it, bullet holes staying etched into walls' surfaces and, of course, there are those gaping holes that you can blast in cinema screens, walls, doors and people.\r\nOh, and it's the first game of its kind to feature stripper ladies of disrepute. Pop into the bar, offer them a few coins and whoop with adolescent excitement as they annoy all the censors in existence. And this, incidentally, is the reason why we'll not be cover-mounting the demo for a while.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"The Neverhood","Percentage":29,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Not long after starting out with The Neverhood, and having 'solved' several 'puzzles' that mainly involved pressing buttons to open doors, I found my little plasticine chap (who I was already struggling to sympathise with on account of his charmless duck-like face and stupid walk) standing in a room with several columns of really small writing on the wall. I discovered that I could read the writing, one column at a time, by clicking on it to zoom in and then scrolling down slowly. This was seemingly meant to reveal some sort of story that gave the background to the game, but it wasn't in any way funny or interesting. So I walked into the next room.\r\nIt had several more columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nI carried on reading for a bit, feeling obliged to do so, but my eyes began to glaze over and I was unable to continue. So I walked into the next room.\r\nIt had several more columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nI paused for a moment, cleared my throat, and walked into the next room.\r\nIt, too, had several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nI walked into the next room.\r\nIt had several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nI walked into the next room.\r\nIt had several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nI walked into the next room.\r\nIt had several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nPerhaps I'm beginning to bore you, yes? Well, good, because The Neverhood was certainly beginning to bore me. And it continued to do so as I walked through five more rooms.\r\nAll with several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nAnd then another five rooms.\r\nAgain, all with several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\nAnd then another twenty rooms.\r\nAll with several columns of really small writing on the wall.\r\n Had I fallen for some sort of prank, whereby it was just one room repeating over and over again? Should I turn back? Or would the next room hold something of interest?\r\nThis continued until I had walked through 39 rooms, all with several columns of really small writing on the wall - and, I should add, nothing else of interest in them at all. By the time I reached the last room my forehead was resting lightly on my desk, my finger blindly clicking the mouse button every five seconds (which was how long it took for my hateful, stupid-faced Plasticine character to walk through each room), and I was hallucinating about The Neverhood's programmers lined up blindfold against a wall with several columns of really small writing on it and slumping to the ground, one by one, as I picked them off with a rifle.\r\nThe last room contained a button which, as it later turned out, opened a door elsewhere in the game. I pressed it, and then wondered where to go next.\r\nThere seemed to be no other exits. So I'd have to...\r\nGo.\r\nBack.\r\nThe.\r\nWay.\r\nI.\r\nHad.\r\nCome.\r\nNo game has ever brought me quite as close to killing myself as the Neverhood now did as I walked back through 39 screens with several columns of really small writing on the wall. And, although nothing similar happened for the rest of the time I played, the humour - and I'm assuming 39 screens with several columns of really small writing on the wall was meant to be some sort of a joke - rarely rises above this level.\r\nThe puzzles - this is a point-and-click adventure - are utterly tedious. You might have to, for example, press a large button on the wall to open a door all the way over on the opposite side of the room. Or you might have to repeat a tune, Simon-style, to open another door. At one point, even, I was appalled to find myself doing a sliding tile puzzle. To open a door, of course. If I had any desire to do a sliding tile puzzle, which I don't, I'd do the one that came free with my Apple Macintosh.\r\nIt's clear that The Neverhood's developers - who started life at Dave Perry's Shiny Entertainment, the creators of Earthworm Jim, but apparently had 'creative differences' with Dave over the future of computer games; I can see how that might have happened - had many months of fun building and animating the Plasticine sets and characters that have been digitised to create the game's graphics. And some of the cut-scenes are quite amusingly done, like when Klaymen, our character, is attacked, eaten and spat out by a giant spider. But, while The Neverhood (also the development team's name, confusingly) are clearly trying to build themselves into some sort of 'interactive' American rival to Aardman animations, they're relying on the surreal to get laughs rather than proper jokes, which stopped working about 20 years ago. It's impossible not to love Wallace and Grommit, but completely impossible to have even the slightest affinity with duck-face here. And with puzzles the likes of which would normally be confined to 'interactive movies', you'd have to be a very desperate adventurer indeed to invest in this.\r\nMonkey Island 3, then, The Neverhood 0.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"NHL 97","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Spatzinski picks up the puck. Passes to Klutzbukket. Checked by Pangswipe. Pangswipe with the long shot. Held by Heigelsberger. Face off. Killjoyski wins. Passes to Spatzinski. Spatzinski heads goalward. Passes. Yellowfeverski scores from the angle!\r\nHockey players have got very silly names. Indeed, 600 extremely silly names have been packed into a hidden location of the NHL 97 CD. But where EA might reasonably be criticised for signing up such a ludicrous-sounding bunch of geezers, they should be congratulated for producing one of the most playable arcade sports games since Sensible Soccer. And when one of the most playable arcade sports games is also one of the best looking, you know you've got something very special; something you should cherish and lavish with presents.\r\nUnlike its higher-profile (and inevitably better-selling) brother FIFA 97, NHL has an immediate advantage. Five burly guys charging endlessly around an almost zero-friction pitch, smacking a small disc at teeth-cracking speeds, lends itself rather nicely to a fast moving arcade game. Twenty two people jogging around an enormous pitch does not.\r\nBut that's not to undervalue what EA have achieved with NHL 97. Ignoring the stupendous graphics temporarily (don't worry visuals fans, we'll come back), NHL plays most satisfyingly. Whether you care to use joystick, joypad, keyboard or even mouse, your currently selected player glides smoothly across the screen, and his momentum is only reduced by a sharp jab in the opposite direction, or a gentle sweeping arc of your control device. If it wasn't for the crunching tackles and lamentable, if strangely appropriate, rock soundtrack, you could almost be performing a delicate ballet, albeit with a cast of fridges. It's the daintiness with which these sporting giants move that gives you so much satisfaction in sweeping down one edge of the rink and performing a swift twist to cut inside the opponent with the 'I'm about to smash you into the glass' look in his eyes. Use a joystick splitter, a few Microsoft joypads or one of those Gravis GRiP things we looked at a couple of months ago, and that opponent could be one of your mates.\r\nAt first, though, your jaw will be supported only by tarmac when you see the astounding graphics move. This is motion capture and polygon players the way HG Wells would have imagined them. They're stylish, lifelike and downright scary. Dean Evans seemed genuinely terrified when players looked at him and blinked during a paused replay. The reason they appear so real, not least when they lose almost no detail no matter how close to the camera they get, is because the NHL team have managed to map photos of all 600 league players onto their respective digital heads, complete with smiles, frowns, and, as already discussed, spooky blinking. Other polygon games make do with the one face and the one captured movement, which is as bad as the very first episode of Doctor Who with Daleks in it, where they built four full size ones and painted the rest onto the backdrop. Motion-captured 3D graphics aren't very interesting when there's no variety in the visual department.\r\nEA employed both hockey players and stuntmen in the capture studio, and the latter came up with a huge range of suitably over-the-top falls, trips, punches and somersaults. It looks to be a painful sport and not one you should take up if you find violence repugnant.\r\nWhen you play the game, you'll select the far-away view so that you can see just over a third of the rink at a time, and thus all the action. It was certainly true in our office, though, that whenever someone walked past, I'd call them over and replay the last few seconds with the floating camera zoomed right in. And, of course, I'd pause the replay and collar Dean Evans to make him look at the big bad blinking men.\r\nIt's an incredibly tough game. After playing NHL on and off for the last three weeks I've still only just moved beyond the Rookie level and felt I had at least a chance of winning. It's not because you keep losing 4-0 against the poor teams, but that it takes a while to deduce the best way to score. Because the game moves so quickly, it's tempting just to shoot every time you get near the goal. A better strategy is to shoot when your opponents least expect it, giving their goalie less time to react. You can do this by suddenly coming in from an extreme angle, or by using the football classic of crossing the puck in from the wing and smashing it in with a first-time whack.\r\nFast, furious and fantastic to look at, NHL 97 is a dream team combination of styles. There's a very talented team of programmers in one of the offices at EA Sports. And I just can't understand why they aren't being used to design the really big sellers. It won't, of course, but this game deserves to do much better than FIFA.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Nihilist","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As I lay here in the smothering darkness, I can reflect upon what brought me to the coffin's cramped embrace. It was the year 180, the result of some impertinent whimsicality on the part of the monarchy, and gentleman editor Jonathan Davies was pressing a copy of Nihilist into my hands as he tugged at his muttonchops and twiddled his tie; some fashionable callisthenic exercise, I believe.\r\n'Above all, No-,' he impressed upon me; the monarchy really was jolly whimsical that week, 'there must be no indulgent theme review.' I concurred - o, invidious vanity! - as he jostled a cummerbund he strangely kept in a valise. He then handed out rubber bulbs, which by a vigorous squeezing produced a passable fog through which the famous editor left unknowably.\r\n(Here Jonathan breaks off to manoeuvre evasively. Pirate lasers sear past as he barrel-rolls. With infuriating leisure a giant medical spacecraft approaches his beleagured coffin.)\r\nIn Nihilist, you must fight ill-bred space pilots for money in a variety of imaginatively befuddling arenas, using such eccentric weapons as a rocket that causes everyone to target the victim exclusively. Each opponent is named, and has just enough supplemental information and tactical individuality to engage your specific dislike. There are tremendous set-pieces, including a pool table level and a duel with a gigantic bulldozer which seeks to barge you into a whirling star mangler. You may prepare tracks from your own CDs to be played at vital moments. (I strongly suggest Berlioz.) The arenas themselves alternate between vertical tubes, horizontal discs and spheres, and occasionally contract unsportingly as you play. There is a four-player deathmatch. The game has an agreeable coin-op mentality, dispensing weapons and power-ups during a fight or throwing in time bombs if you're performing tardily, and awards sidekicks who gather money, evolve between levels and are inevitably blown up so catalysing you into revenge. You are permitted to choose the order of arenas within a world, provided you can pay the fees, and should you go bankrupt you face a swarm level against the dishonourable Vermin. The mouse-centred controls are satisfyingly fiendish to conquer. Particularly masterly, all pilots may eject from an exploding ship in a hopelessly underpowered escape coffin, which can then be shot for extra points.\r\n(The unhurried hospital craft is too late. Jonathan is shot up for extra points.)\r\nI vastly enjoyed playing Nihilist. The feeling of flight is convincing, and the novelty arenas prevent the format becoming stale. I find 3D space games unpleasantly disorientating but surprisingly quickly became an adept, perfecting an efficiently terrible broadside attack. Such faults as exist are largely minor. There's the occasional ninnyish mismatch, you're given no indication of your energy levels until you've entered the arena and the pilots' speech is a babble of dismayingly poor samples littered with contemptible innuendo. More seriously, despite the amount of action the game can be curiously unexciting. On occasion you're unsure whether you're jockeying skilfully or simply weaving around aimlessly while your opponents pick each other off.\r\nNonetheless, I unhesitatingly recommend Nihilist as a companion piece to Tempest 2000 and Super Stardust. It is a similarly uncomplicated game of immense destruction whose wealth of incidental detail and considered touches make playing a nasty, ruthless, spiteful coffin-killing delight.","PUBID":103},{"GAMENAME":"Normality","Percentage":87,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Adventure games, eh? They do seem to appeal to a, shall we say, 'special' type of PC gamer - people content to absorb page upon page of obscure background information: dictionaries for the mythical and ancient language of Flambrill, 'historical' stories of daring deeds by men with dangerously large swords and impractical pectorals, the whole lot packaged (with the meagreist of actual game instruction) into a manual rivalling War And Peace both in size and impenetrability. Unfair? No, not really. Adventure games, let's face it, are the weak lemon squash of the computer gaming world.\r\nPart of the problem is the total lack of imagination displayed when it comes to writing the background story. Rescue things, find treasure, kill trolls - truly you amaze me. Fortunately for the tone of the rest of this review, Normality is a welcome exception to that rule. Set in a totalitarian state not too far into the future, the inhabitants of Neutropolis are denied difference by their rulers. Everything must be the same, everyone must be normal, and the mysterious mood magnets are there to ensure that the norm police have only a minimum of idiosyncrasy to deal with. Into this Orwellian satire (and in a computer game too, mercy) steps our hero Kent. Only he/you/your mates/the inevitable tips book can restore some much needed deviancy to the world.\r\nThe trouble is, Kent's under house-arrest for crimes against normality. He has to watch the television 24 hours a day to instill the required level of conformity into him. It's not particularly nice in Kent's Flat - in fact, even an estate agent would struggle to find some positive adjectives to describe it. However, as the introduction to the game, it allows the player to explore the second of Normality's major innovations - its first-person perspective. Movement between and within scenes in adventure games has always been a bit of a problem. As the designers of Doom and its clones know, first-person 3D is easily the most exciting and immersive way to present a computer game. It's also the most costly when it comes to game size and processor power. Adventure games, which rely heavily on maximising size and diversity, have never been able to 'afford' this luxury and have opted either for a limited-freedom first-person perspective (such as Myst and the Zork series), or for a greater freedom third-person view (the Alone In The Dark approach). Normality is the first leap into a whole new world of adventure game style.\r\nThe 3D engine included in Normality is of enormous quality. In any particular game scene, the player is given complete control over Kent. With movement characteristics similar to Hexen, Duke Nukem and the rest, rooms can now be combed thoroughly, centimetre by centimetre. Unlike its shoot-'em-up 3D forebears, interaction with game objects in Normality is not as simple as walking over them to pick them up. The mouse pointer (without the movement modifier button clicked) is used to scan the screen (the scene within the scene) for interactive objects. When a label flashes up, further investigation will gain Kent a new item for his inventory or an oblique clue as to what to do next. With a game of this graphical quality, one could only expect all clues and information to come in speech form, and indeed they do.\r\nNot only is thorough exploration of each scene necessary (most items only become visible when Kent is sufficiently close to them) it can also be an amusing process. The programmers have included plenty of incidental humour (check out any of Neutropolis' posters, for instance) right down to the characterisation of the people with whom Kent comes into contact. Admittedly, Kent may well be a little too close to the Bill and Ted 'bogus, dude' Americana for some, but the brummie striker, the welsh window cleaner, the cockney bouncer and the many other colourful (if dodgily animated) characters are all well-observed, well written and genuinely amusing cameo roles.\r\nAs if all this technical accomplishment wasn't enough, major breakthroughs in the game - the solution of a puzzle or the discovery of a new game scene - are marked with short rendered animations. Leaving aside their decorational value these scenes act as an important game punctuation. As many of Normality's puzzles can be difficult and protracted (see 'Obscurity knocks'), this feature is an excellent way of marking progression and rewarding the player. Another feature worthy of praise is the simple way in which Kent is allowed movement between scenes. There's a fine line in adventure games between the preservation of the game's artificial reality and the maximisation of what games reviewers will still call playability. No matter where he is within a scene, Kent can still move instantly (CD access time considered) to any of the other available scenes. Reality is broken (Kent should really leave the scene via the front door, walk out into the street and be seen to catch a bus or something) but the amount of time spent in repeated and unproductive gaming is kept to a minimum.\r\nNormality is a master work, technologically superior to any adventure game currently available and a good deal more fun as well. The puzzles are difficult (maybe too difficult for some) and the size and detail of the game belie its single-CD status. Normality proves that adventure games do not have to be the po-faced boredom fest that we've been served up once too often before. Weak lemon squash? Gremlin have just added half a bottle of vodka.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Offensive","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"When a game is successful, about a year after its release you tend to see variations on the theme coming out which are generally worse than the original. Command & Conquer was last year's smash hit, so it's unsurprising that it has spawned a generation of play-a-likes. Offensive is one such game and although the programmers have made an effort to add a realistic slant to the proceedings, it's essentially another top-down point-and-click action game. Sadly, it's not one of the best.\r\nAfter I'd put decidedly unhelpful installation routines behind me, the game was remarkably easy to get into. The manual only needs a quick glance, which is an encouraging start for a game that has such a wealth of historical information in it. You initially have the choice of playing either Allied or Nazi forces, which obviously affects the units you have at your disposal and the tactics you'll use.\r\nThe main problem with Offensive derives from selecting units. It can be tricky pinning down one man, and choosing groups is even more troublesome. The situation is less than ideal when you are trying to issue commands when under heavy fire. However, when you do select a group, the real troubles arrives. Rather than clicking on the position to which you want them to move, another box appears which assigns orders to the troops. You can attack, hold a position or retreat, but when the units in question are being slaughtered there's really not much point in clicking elsewhere.\r\nYou do need to keep an eye on your troops' status as injured troops can be 'cured' using red cross parcels. Also, if you take too much collateral damage, as the euphemism goes, your troops will desert, or at least run off. You can avoid this by collecting the propaganda packages that are dropped to boost moral. Good touches.\r\nOne oddity is that when you choose more than one group to attack an objective, the other group will stop dead once it's destroyed. So if one group gets there first, then the other stops halfway and you have to go and find them. The reason is obviously to stop you sending troops across the screen and having to bring them back, but I suspect WW2 communications weren't that efficient.\r\nThe realism of the situation and the historical aspect add to the game, but as a whole it lacks the depth that makes a great game. The attempt to combine wargaming with the more accessible action style is a brave one, but it hasn't completely succeeded here.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Olympic Games","Percentage":28,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The centennial Olympics in Atlanta were marred by a series of misfortunes including terrorist attack, the taint of drugs, the lamentable performance of the British team and now, to top it off, the spectre of the officially licensed computer title from US Gold. \r\nBefore the Atlanta Games it all sounded feasible enough. A fifteen event finger pumper featuring all the usual digit mashing favourites, plus some new additions to the programme like pistol shooting, archery, weight lifting and fencing. With 3D polygonal graphics, alternative control systems, atmospheric pre-rendered sequences and commentary it seemed that US Gold were on to a winner. However, the end result is such an appalling travesty of a game that I can only imagine the real Olympic Games is bound and gagged in a locked room somewhere, while this implausible imposter has taken its place. \r\nIn the event, the game suffers from the delusion that it is some sort of simulation and in the process has sacrificed fun in its bid for realism. Thus, the field events are convoluted and marred by poorly thought out power meters, while the shooting and archery events are woefully slow and drawn out and provoke an instinctive exit key response. Even the traditional events, like the 100m, fall flat on their face, tripped up by laughable graphics and sound and the lame commentary of Alan (who?) Green.\r\nAt times, the graphics are so tragic they're almost surreal. The polygonal athletes remind me of the Easter Island statues (they're about as skilfully animated), being vaguely humanoid in appearance and grossly disproportioned. Luxuries like noses and eyes are either absent altogether or randomly distributed in the rough vicinity of their face, depending on the mood of the engine. Particularly curious is that, despite the searing sub-tropical temperatures in Atlanta, the athletes shiver and shake like they're in the latter stages of hypothermia. At distance, the integrity of individual objects disintegrates as the whole screen deteriorates into a hopeless clutter of clashing pixels and distorted polygons; it is, frankly, a mess. The use of colour is flat and lifeless, while the shading effects amount to covering the polygons in a rash of black pimples resembling tyre treads.\r\nThere is little respite from the shoddiness elsewhere. The sound of the crowd amounts to little more than bursts of white noise, while the commentary is the most inane and repetitive drivel that has ever blighted a sports game. The vocabulary loops before an event has even finished. Even the cut sequences, which the most criminal games in PC history have managed to pull off, are pitiful. \r\nOlympic Games has, quite plainly, been hastily cobbled together before the last opportunity to cash in on Atlanta disappears completely. Technically primitive and slow, it is finished only in the loosest sense of the word. Fortunately, Atlanta fever has abated, so nobody should end up wasting forty quid on this in a fit of overexcitement.","PUBID":42},{"GAMENAME":"Master Of Orion 2","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"In many respects, playing MicroProse's new strategy game Master Of Orion 2 is like building a tower out of playing cards. Getting things started is a delicate process as you slowly and methodically build up a foundation that's strong enough to support the rest of the structure. More and more cards are gradually added until, just when things are starting to look good, some bug-eyed alien nasty (who's been building his own card tower in the corner) comes along and tries to knock yours down. Lose just one card and the whole thing can soon disintegrate. Hours of work can collapse in minutes, and even if you somehow survive the onslaught it's nigh-on impossible to rebuild what you've lost.\r\nIn essence MOO2 is an elaborate game of intergalactic empire-building that boasts familiar features like technological advances, multiple races, colony management, production graphs and turn based combat. In fact, the two games are so alike that to win in MOO2 you can either (a) defeat all of your opponents or (b) research and create an interdimensional portal which you can use to meet the powerful Antarans. What is this but MOO2's equivalent of sending a spaceship to Alpha Centauri? \r\nBut while MOO2 can be criticised for its lack of originality and imagination, the drab-looking menus hide a strategy game of daunting complexity. Like the celebrated MicroProse games that end in 'ization', you start off by picking a race, each one of which has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. The Myrrshan, for example, are strong fighters who gain bonuses for ship-to-ship and ground combat. But on the downside, these over-evolved cats don't exactly excel in the intelligence department and subsequently their research takes a little longer. The Psilons, on the other hand, are brainy enough to conduct multiple research projects. But they lack the raw aggression and physical strength required to become an instantly feared fighting force.\r\nStarting with a barely equipped home world, a colony ship and two scout craft, the idea is to expand your race's influence throughout the galaxy. Your spaceships can be used to explore nearby star systems and colony ships, the galactic equivalent of the old Civilization wagon train, can then be dispatched to found and build new colonies. Back home, you can set your population to work in the three planetary categories: food production, industry and research. Unsurprisingly, the efficiency of these Colonization style departments can be increased by devoting more manpower to them, so if a planet has eight colonists, you can designate three of them as farmers, three as workers and two as researchers. Food keeps your population alive and industry builds new factories and spacecraft, while research develops new technologies and advances.\r\nThe colony management aspect of MOO2 soon comes to the fore as you not only try to produce enough food to feed your fledgling empire, but attempt to have enough workers constructing new advances and a scientist or two beavering away in the research labs. If you want to build something quickly, like a new spaceship, you can easily swap colonists between the different categories. Equally, if you stop construction for a while and devote most of your resources to research, you can discover vital advances (such as automated factories and fusion drives) much more quickly than your opponents. \r\nAs in Civilization, developing new technologies is vital to your race's progress, and the MOO2 research tree gives you specific goals to work towards. Each advance requires a number of research points to attain it, and so naturally the more colonists you dump in the labs, the quicker you'll generate the required points. Choosing research subjects can define the way that you play the game. Researching deuterium fuel cells early, for example, allows any ships you build to travel greater distances. Hydroponic farms enable you to increase your food production, while devoting your time to building space academies and automated factories ultimately makes your colonies more efficient. In all, there are eight main categories to choose from, covering everything from construction to force fields and power to advanced biology.\r\nGet 50 turns under your belt and things start to get increasingly complicated. Do you build a hydroponic farm to increase your food production by 2 or a biosphere to increase the population by the same amount? Do you devote some time to building a fleet of medium sized spaceships (even though you haven't developed any shield technology)? Or would planetary defenses like fighter garrisons and ground batteries take care of any alien incursions? And where in all this do you find the time and the resources to build colony ships so you can construct new bases and increase your population? MOO2 quickly becomes a frantic balancing act as you desperately try to keep the pace of research high, while providing enough food for your colonists and enough manpower to build new ships and defenses. \r\nIt gets even trickier to keep tabs on everything when you start to have multiple colonies, fleets, building programs and the prospect of combat on your frontiers. Leaders can be hired to increase the efficiency of your ships and colonies, while you can also venture into intergalactic diplomacy meeting the other races to have a chin-wag over a mug of chilled methane. Like Civ you can even send spies into enemy star systems, either to conduct espionage (i.e. steal technological advances) or on sabotage missions to destroy key installations. You can make and break treaties, swap research, demand tributes and declare war on anyone who annoys you. \r\nThankfully, menu options along the bottom of the main galactic screen provide a handy overview of your colonies, the planets you've discovered, your fleets, any leaders you've recruited and what the other races are up to. Random events are relayed via a news channel and small animated sequences illustrate key moments, like colony ships landing, troops invading and advances being discovered. MOO2 may just be a Civ clone, but it must be the only game where powerful, gun-packed fleets can be overwhelmed by a giant space amoeba. Who needs legions of traditional aliens when spaceships can be blasted apart by a single cell organism the size of a planet, that's evolved lasers and nuclear-tipped missiles instead of a brain...\r\nBut although the colony-building chunk of MOO2 offers nothing radically new compared to Civilization and Colonization, the tactical combat option is the one thing that makes the game worth playing. With this feature switched on space battles are resolved on an overhead grid map, rather than automatically calculated by the computer. As such, MOO2 becomes a longer, much more involved game, taking on a new and exciting aspect. Where computer controlled battles can be won by sending more ships and, indeed, bigger ships into an engagement with an enemy, tactical combat relies on the weaponry you have, what shields you've developed, the strength of your ship's hull and how you personally control your fleet in battle.\r\nInstead of mass producing off-the-peg ships, the tactical combat option allows you to design and outfit your own vessels; creating fast interceptor frigates as well as huge cruisers that carry complements of smaller fighters. You can choose which weapons you want to mount on which ship (nuclear bombs, missiles, fusion beams, etc.), whether they are forward or rear facing or are mounted in a turret to provide a 360¡ arc of fire. Better still, the turn based nature of the combat enables you to make better use of the military advances that you have developed like guidance computers and survival pods. Ships can be refitted at star bases as new technologies become available, while experienced crews can be assembled to fight wars of attrition. If your fleet carries squads of marines, you can even board and capture disabled enemy vessels instead of destroying them.\r\nMOO2 is almost more Civ than Civ is. A futuristic retelling of the Sid Meier classic that updates all the familiar mechanics while replacing Genghis Khan with bug-eyed aliens and the libraries, tanks and market-place with space academies, robotoids and automated factories.\r\nThere are five levels of difficulty to suit all players (including a tutor level to guide you through the first 30 turns of colony building) and different galaxy sizes. There is no quick fix, wham-bam action here. There is the occasional animation and it's pretty enough, but MOO2 is a game of menus, stats and waiting. In fact most of your time will be taken up clicking the 'next turn' button. Hours can pass as you construct new buildings, invest in new technologies and slowly build up a fearsome space fleet. Like Civ, your opponents always seem to develop everything faster than you do, but that's the nature of computer gaming. If you weren't up against it right from the start, what would be the point of playing at all?\r\nNeedless to say, if you're a true-blue strategy nut, MOO2 is a subtle and engaging SF game. It's ultimately pointless and unrewarding unless you play with the tactical combat option, but if you do the game quickly becomes an intriguing fight for survival as you frantically attempt to juggle colony-building, R&D and galactic expansion. The quick space battles contrast neatly with the long term development of your empire, where one strategic mistake could lead to disaster later in the game. Over-expand and you can stretch your resources to breaking point, play too cautiously and after 150 turns you'll have one well-defended home world, while your opponents will have six or seven.\r\nThe bottom line: MOO2 is Civilization in space. It could have benefited from more animation, but this is a strategy game of immense scope and depth that provides a considerable challenge. Multi-player options allow you to scrap for deep-space Lebensraum over a modem or network, but even as a single player game, MOO2 is tougher than old boots. It's not the prettiest game on the strategy block, but it's a game that will steal more hours from your evenings and weekends than anything else around. Stupid acronym, but a great game.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Panzer Dragoon","Percentage":54,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"220.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"One of the most sinister things about PCs is the quiet, insidious way they sneak into your mind. One minute you'll be sitting there moaning about yet another new super-console coming out that you're going to have to spend £300 on if you want to stay up-to-date with the gaming state-of-the-art, and how ridiculous it is that there can't just be a single standard platform. But the next, you're quite happily trotting down to PC Mart with an open cheque-book, ready to blow twice as much cash on upgrading your suddenly-obsolete PC ('But it was all right yesterday!' - your PC-less mate, who just doesn't understand) with a new graphics card, a faster CPU, a load of extra memory and a whole new operating system. You don't think twice about it - it's a PC, and that's just the way PCs are, right?\r\nOnly occasionally do you wake from fitful sleep, clammy with tepid sweat and mumbling '£230 for another RAM upgrade? What a fool I've been!' to yourself, only to fall back asleep and forget everything by morning. ('And if I'd bought a Saturn, at least I could have flogged my Mega Drive for a few quid, instead of having to chuck it straight in the bin. Doh!') \r\nBut anyway. If you're reading this at all, chances are you're interested in buying one of those fancy new Diamond Edge/nVidia super graphics cards. (Panzer Dragoon now comes bundled with it, along with Virtua Fighter Remix and Nascar although not, now, Descent.) Or maybe you've already bought one. And hey, congratulations - the wacky world of Some Saturn Games is now at your fingertips. You know, polygons, all that stuff. So how come it looks like you're playing Magic Carpet on a 386, except you can't move around very much? Answer: that's Panzer Dragoon, that is.\r\nYes, yes, I'm getting on with it. Panzer Dragoon is a simple on-rails shoot-'em-up, like Alien Odyssey or Raven Project or something. It pretends not to be, but it is. You can, to a limited degree, swoop around within the constraints of the preset patterns, but not to the extent of actually affecting where you go - you can't even, for example, go round the left side of a pillar if you're supposed to go around the right side. To create a more liberated illusion, though, you can rotate your view through the points of the compass, so that you can shoot things behind and to the side of you. Cunningly, the game makes quite a play of this, with enemies who dart around attacking you from all directions, but sadly they're the exception rather than the rule. The air of expansive freedom is also helped by the welcome lack of foreground-shortening fog effects, which creates a lovely open atmosphere (especially on the first two levels, the ocean and desert worlds), only to spoil it somewhat with the most jarring pop-up scenery imaginable. To be fair, this is only very noticeable on the first stage (as a huge and ornate temple materialises fully-formed in front of your eyes), but it really blows your suspension of disbelief apart for a while.\r\nWhen the Saturn came out, Panzer Dragoon was one of the early flagship titles. As such, Sega's designers clearly didn't see the point of going to all that trouble creating such lovely graphics if nobody was going to see them and be impressed, so they didn't put too many obstacles in the player's way. There's no actual numerical shortage of enemies, but you're supplied with a weapon so astonishingly powerful that none of them will keep you occupied for more than a second or two - hold down the fire button and everything that crosses your sights will be targeted and permanently locked, ready to be annihilated by a fantastic multiple independent guided missile blast which takes out bad guys six at a time. It looks gorgeous, as huge curving blue streaks whoosh out from your dragon and streak inexorably towards their targets, but it removes almost all challenge from the game until the very last of the seven levels, where fast, numerous and resilient adversaries force you to revert to the less accurate but faster standard cannon. \r\nPanzer Dragoon is, in fact, less of a game and more of an (cough) interactive ride through what the Saturn (and now, for just a couple of hundred quid extra, your fantastically expensive brand-new PC) can do. It's really rather a nice ride for the first few attempts, with a quaint, delicate atmosphere (helped by the distinctly leisurely pace) unlike any shoot-'em-up I can recall, but once you've seen all the scary baddies and the pretty scenery, there's nothing that'll keep you coming back for another play. And given the blink-of-an-eye scale of the time that's going to take you (I can't see anyone playing it more than about half-a-dozen times, so think of it as a coin-op arcade game costing £7 a go), you're going to have to be pretty desperate to be rid of your money to consider buying a Diamond Edge 3D card just to play this.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Pinball Construction Kit","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Pinball construction kits have been around for many years (there was quite a good one for the Apple II) and Pinball Construction Kit is another one. Of them. You use it to... well, you can guess what you use it for - pinball games tend to have the least oblique names of all computer products.\r\nWhat you shouldn't do is to run away with the idea that, using PCK, you'll be able to build tables to rival anything produced by the pros. Oh, no. True, you have a seemingly limitless variety of bits and pieces to play with, but when you actually get down to it there's not really a huge amount you can do with them. \r\nThere are eight basic, nearly nude, if you will, tables which come complete with flippers, ramps, traps and run-outs (which you can't change). There are four difficulty levels for each (different flippers and run-outs) so, in effect, you've got, hang on, er... 32 basic tables to work with. Summon one up and add assorted bumpers, rollover switches, pins, targets and lights before decorating it with 'decals' (stickers to you and me) by which time Bob's nearly your uncle. He finally becomes your uncle once you've assigned sound effects and 'features' to your bumpers and targets (hit the target and get an extra ball, you know the sort of thing). \r\nIt all seems jolly exciting, at first, but by the time I'd spelt the word 'fart' in lights and made it emit a farting sound when I lit them all (there are loads of sound effects to play with), and created a table that played itself forever by putting a multiball bumper just where the ball comes out, I began to hanker after a decent, old fashioned, ready-made pin table.\r\nPlaying the tables can be an odd experience. The workshop section works best in Windows, and you can play the tables in Windows, too. However, because it doesn't support screen scrolling they look really, really small (it only works with the screen resolution set to 800x600). Still, you can play them at any resolution in DOS with all the scrolling you want. So that's all right, then.\r\nIt comes complete with nine ready-made tables with which you're encouraged to tinker 'to see how it's done'.\r\nThis means you get some tables to play on while you learn how to make your own, but they're a bit ordinary and it's disappointing to see that this is the best you're ever going to be able to do.\r\nThey've thrown Paint Shop Pro in to help you edit the graphics, but that just adds to the vast amount of time it takes to make a decent table, and it still doesn't let you do anything to the really exciting bits (the traps and ramps) except change the way they look. If you can be bothered, it's probably quite amusing for a while. But I'd rather play a decent professionally made table, to be honest.","PUBID":28},{"GAMENAME":"Power F1","Percentage":78,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Bad timing? Possibly. After all, the Grand Prix series is now but a summer-time memory; a pastiche of sackings and 'I told you so's', clipped edging tyres and a particularly nasty explosion. But, still, driving fast cars never goes out of fashion, and with this in mind I set about driving the fastest around some of the most demanding courses in the world. And my vehicle? Why, Power F1, naturally (otherwise it would be pretty difficult to review it, eh?).\r\nSpeed. That's what racing games are all about, and that, ultimately, is what they are judged upon. Not exclusively mind, but it's a starting point from which it's pretty important to, er, start. And it's here that Power F1 does not disappoint. There's no denying that those of us who are not blessed with wallets the size of rich men's found MicroProse's acclaimed GP2 a little, well, slow on our less than Ferrari-esque PCs. It's good to see that Power F1 has not fallen into the trap of giving the PC squillions of race dynamics to work out at the expense of graphical whizziness. If you're well endowed on the hardware front, then the high resolution option is welcome, but, for lower-spec Pentiums, this is a race game that cannot be accused of acting as would a sloth getting from A to B when in the lowly VGA res. The all important sense of speed is enough to make you peer very hard at the screen, trying to look out for those dastardly hard-rights and gravel traps, rather than expecting to be able to react fast enough and cope with them when you hit them. Not that you'll have a great deal of time for the peering bit, for those corners approach oh-so quickly.\r\nSo it's fast then. Well, yes, fast enough. The minimum spec is listed as being a 486, but, hey, how many other racing games have said that and then you've had to reduce all the textures to nil before the game's actually playable on a machine boasting 1993 technology? Exactly. And then there's the two-player split-screen mode, which unless you've got a mightily meaty machine, is going to chug a bit, but, it has to be said, I'm getting somewhat ahead of myself here. For the proper introductions are yet to be made.\r\nPower F1, as you may well have realised by now, is a new Formula 1 racing game that's sped around the corner and into the rear-mirror of GP2. Adopting a more arcade-like approach, Power F1 is easier to drive, less reliant on the precise setting up of the car (although if you know anything about tyre-pressure and break ratios they're still there to fiddle with), and more about seat-of-your-pants, V8-powered action. With the 'official' tracks to whiz around, together with the recent season's drivers and teams to pretend to be, it's a pretty faithful representation of what you would think racing F1 cars would be like if you didn't actually know how bloody hard it is. Which is to say, if you were dreaming that you were Martin Brundle, the cars in your dream would handle pretty much like they do here; you're not about to speed off the track and into the barriers on your first corner, even if you're doing 120mph in 3rd.\r\nAll this makes Power F1 instantly accessible, and indeed, instantly playable. Everything is, er, geared from the start to make the virgin racer's life pretty easy for him. There's automatic transmission by default, the game is set to easy by default, the car breaks automatically by default, and unless you drive like my mum, you're going to be winning your first or second race, by default.\r\nAnd this can do one of two things. Either you think: 'Well, this is a bit bloody easy. Now, where did I put my copy of GP2?' Or you're going to say to yourself: 'Wahey! At last, a racing game that I can actually play without practising for the best part of my life, but it must get harder than this - I'll have a play around with the options and see if it gets any tougher.' If you fall into category A here (or, at least if you think GP2 isn't really all that hard and that gear ratios are what makes an F1 game), then you're probably not among the target audience for Power F1. If, on the other hand, you wish that racing around Monaco could be as easy as taking your Nova to Sainsbury's, then please read on.\r\nOf course, fiddle with the many screens of options and life in the fast lane can get significantly tougher; cut the automatic breaking for a start - this makes any racing sim too easy for words. Jump up the difficulty level to Very Hard, turn on the car damage, give God a chance to play merry-hell with the weather (as it were), and be brave and switch to manual gear shifting and you're going to be playing a whole different game altogether - crikey, you may even start to lose once in a while. Power F1 is a game that leads you in gently. You could imagine that you're back in your driving instructor's car again, with those extra pedals on the passenger side which enable him to take over whenever need arose. But there's the potential to make it into a demanding simulation, where the lightest of nudges against a rival's back wheel is enough to spell certain high-impact-with-respect-to-wall action.\r\nAnd, of course, if you get bored of beating your PC all this time, you can always team up with another thin person so you can sit around your PC both at once and have a shot at the head-to-head mode. Now, split screens are something that it's difficult to like - the cramped view is rarely enough to make sense of what's approaching, and therefore, detrimental to having a spot of fun. This usually cramped feel is not so evident when pitching your driving skills against those of a fellow when playing Power F1; the view gives your car enough room to 'breathe' on the track, and although long-range visibility is cut down to an extent, it's not enough to severely hamper you, especially in hi-res, should your PC have the guts to handle so much on-screen action.\r\nThe two-player option is also fun - because you can quite clearly see just where your opponent is in the split-screen, you know when to really pull out all the stops (i.e. when you can see him either right behind you, or directly in front). And if you don't like the immediacy, and indeed the bodily intimacy of the split screen, you can always opt to link up a couple of PCs with a null-modem cable and sit in different rooms so that you can't see your opponent's screen. Actually, if you're running the game under Windows 95 (which, in fact, wouldn't work for some reason on the PC primarily used for testing Power F1), then the latter two-player method is recommended by the publisher, presumably because of the greater demands placed upon the processor.\r\nSo, it's fast, it's easy to pick up and play (but there's longevity in it too) and it's great fun with two players. What else is there that you should know? Well, I didn't feel as if the communication between the driver and road is quite up to what it should be. Now, you may be thinking that's the kind of tosh they come out with on Top Gear, but it's an important factor when playing a racing game. The dips and bumps in the road, and the tension that ought to be there when steering hard, have no effect, it would seem, on the handling of the car. A bump ought to make the back end skit away slightly if you accelerate too hard away from it (especially if there's any turn involved), and over-steer or corner-drift are undetectable. Perhaps this is no bad thing - this is an arcade-style F1 challenge after all, and perhaps such things are better left to the likes of GP2, but I for one felt that this lack of tangibility in the effect of the road surface on the car's handling only made it feel as if you're floating an inch or two above the tarmac. And that's not what I want of a racer.\r\nPower F1 is an accomplished game, though I stress that it is a game rather than a true 'racing simulation'. If you're a racing nut, then you're likely to be frustrated by the limited number of car features that you can tweak in order to boost performance. What's more, even those car features that you can alter seem to have little effect on the way that the car drives, so there's a propensity to leave them alone and get on with having fun. And it's fun that Power F1 is all about, especially in the two-player mode, where you're presented with more of a challenge.\r\nFinally, should you buy it if you've already got (and enjoy) GP2? That very much depends on whether you're after a lightweight (in comparison) game to have a thrash around when you can't be bothered getting all serious. If this is the case, then yes, buy it as an alternative. If, on the other hand, you want the heavyweight features and demanding driving style of GP2, then Power F1 is probably best left on the shelf.","PUBID":42},{"GAMENAME":"Privateer 2: The Darkening","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The onslaught is unstoppable. Every successive hit sends you physically reeling, until you put up your hands and cry 'Enough!'. We're talking about the opening credits, by the way, not the combat. Wham! John Hurt. Blam! Brian Blessed. Ker-Chow! David Warner. 'Blimey', you think. 'That's a bit good.' But still they keep coming. Zoink! Christopher Walken. Pow! David MaCallum. Narf! Clive Owen.\r\nWow. What a team. Unfortunately, they never get together and have a good old scrap. Instead, each star takes a turn in the limelight, little more than a cameo in the convoluted story of your search for identity. A search which, by the way, could have been made considerably easier had you been identified right at the start as the semi-famous British actor Clive Owen, and not as Ser Lev Arris, mercenary of the future.\r\nAlthough it probably wouldn't have been half as much fun. Playing Clive Owen, as he adventures grimly through the daily grind of movie projects which don't quite come off and TV shows which never quite capture the public's imagination, finally working for some nerdy American computer game designer who fancies himself as a film director, isn't really as attractive a gaming proposition as the chance to jet around the galaxy shooting things.\r\nWhich is, I'm delighted to say, what Privateer 2's all about. Despite the big-name actors and movie-style pretensions, it's still, after all, Privateer. You'll spend most of your time flying a spaceship from nav point to nav point, fighting an endless succession of unnaturally single-minded aggressors and trying to make some money in order to buy a bigger spaceship and more guns.\r\nIt's full of noisy laser fights and huge explosions, packaged with the cheerful amorality of all the best games; the screams of your victims echo in your ears as you polish them off with a well-aimed missile before picking up a small reward and going remorselessly about your business. Great stuff.\r\nAnd on top of the combat there's a strategic trading element, where you haul goods between star systems to make an honest cred or two, and the option to take on some quite complex one-off missions, and then you've got all this big-budget wide-screen video interactive acting adventure storyline malarkey. Put it all together and what've you got? An almighty mess? The greatest game of the year? Or what?\r\nWell, it isn't an almighty mess. The different elements complement and amplify each other, lending the game variety and vigour rather than confusing matters. It's a curious effect, because at first sight the Elite-style free-form be-who-you-wanna-be trading/combat model appears to be the type of game least suited to the imposed narrative structure of an 'interactive movie'.\r\nAnd yet it works well. There's a 12-minute intro sequence, setting up your character as the only survivor from a crash-landed spaceship, mysteriously kept in cryogenic suspension on board the vessel and now sought by several equally mysterious and conflicting factions. You've lost all memory of your former life and you're understandably curious to find out who you are, and who you left behind. Fair enough. After that you'll have a brief meeting with John Hurt, who larks about as a foolishly-accented barman, but then you're on your own, with some cash, a spacecraft, and a galaxy to explore.\r\nAnd now you could, if you wanted to, ignore the plot completely and spend many happy days shipping freight, shooting pirates and accepting the many nicely-varied missions which are posted on the 'bulletin boards' at each planet's spaceport. You could be hired to escort a valuable cargo vessel, or eliminate a particularly troublesome band of pirates, or (in one memorable case) steal back the prototype for a new type of pants. Many missions come in several stages, and with a few twists too - there's one particularly complex Die Hard 3-style sub-plot which has you pitting your wits against a psychopathic kidnapper over a series of different locations.\r\n'Newsflashes' will occasionally suggest particularly profitable trade routes - an outbreak of food poisoning, for example, means that the people of Karaticus will pay especially handsomely for medikits, and rampant street rioting on Hermes sends the value of black market firearms sky-rocketing, although an increased police presence makes smuggling more dangerous.\r\nThe more money you earn from these activities, the better you'll be able to equip your ship, adding beefed-up weapons, extra-powerful missiles, mines, decoys and repair robots. And as you become stronger, you'll be able to take on more taxing, and better-paid, missions. But the balance of risk is very fine. You'll have to known at all times exactly how good you are, and exactly what you're capable of, or you'll find yourself ambitiously reaching too far, and getting killed again and again by taking on assignments which, after a lengthy build-up, turn out to be much too difficult for you.\r\nSo there's all that.\r\nBut the main plotline always lurks in the background, with tantalising clues in your diary pointing to the next step in the story. So when the mood takes you - and you've accumulated enough cash and equipment - you can pay a visit to the next character in the trail, whereupon events will unfold once more in spectacular video-vision. You'll probably have to make a couple of dialogue choices during your encounter, and while you're never going to send the story shooting off in a new direction - it's much too linear for that - you can at least save yourself quite a lot of time and money if you make the right decisions.\r\nThe end result? An enjoyably open-ended action/strategy game given focus, structure and atmosphere through the glitzy movie sequences. It's something that could, on the evidence presented so far, have been one of the best games ever - an Elite for the '90s.\r\nSo let's look at things in a bit more detail, and see just how far The Darkening lives up to its undoubted potential. Oh, and in case you haven't guessed, my circumspect tone is a way of telling you that, sadly, it won't. Quite.\r\nPart One: The Movie Bits.\r\nThe plot's fine. We like the noiry identity crisis, although our hero does go on about it a bit too much. And the characters are okay-ish, if a little broadly-painted. Still, they're a lot better than the crude stereotypes of the Wing Commander games.\r\nAs for the acting: generally, it's surprisingly good. The really big stars are the ones who have the most trouble, probably because they're the ones who can least be bothered. But Clive Owen is probably the best alter-ego yet depicted in a computer game. He's always been pretty blank as an actor, which makes it easy for you to fill his on-screen persona. Owen's down-beat Englishness is a welcome change from the usual smart-alec Americans we're asked to play, too, and yet he's accomplished enough to pull off some of the extraordinary mood swings required by the nature of the 'interactive' storyline too.\r\nThe setting's typical sci-fi - lots of cliches rubbing shoulders with a few really great ideas. Some of the more dystopian 'cyber'-style environments are drearily unoriginal, and some of the more imaginative locations are, frankly, a bit daft. But there are still a few convincing and eye-opening moments. The video fly-bys as you cruise in to land on each planet are especially evocative, and there's some nice art in a few of the spaceports.\r\nAlthough the overall effect is far superior to almost any comparable footage, it's still patchy, thanks to some terrible lapses in the dialogue, and the heavy-handed direction of Erin Roberts. He does, I suppose, manage to convey the story, but his leadenly-styled use of 'dramatic' zoom and wide-angle lenses is compounded by some pretty fundamental editing errors. The pacing of the climactic action sequence in the intro, for example, is far from professional.\r\nMost of the time, the performances can still sparkle through, even with the Blakes 7-style sets and effects, although no-one can salvage dialogue like:\r\n'You have an exceptionally attractive credit rating.'\r\n'Nice. If only I wasn't overdrawn at the memory bank.'\r\n\r\nPart Two: The Gamey Bits\r\nThere are hundreds of great touches that conspire to make the main part of The Darkening as entertaining and addictive as it undoubtedly is. Everything looks lovely, for starters, with obsessive attention to detail. The way the cockpit status windows disappear elegantly after you've absorbed their information is especially neat, but it's a shame the same level of polish couldn't be applied to the text, which consistently confuses 'its' with 'it's', and makes such clanging mistakes as 'test your metal'.\r\nThe game's structure, on the other hand, is a clear winner, and you're quickly involved in the process of building up your status in Privateer's universe. Every failure is a real blow; every success an emotionally-felt triumph.\r\nBut, disastrously, the combat model is seriously flawed. Although it's slightly better than the old Wing III set-up, and there's certainly no lack of graphical detail to enjoy, it doesn't go nearly far enough towards creating a believable 3D space. There's none of the sense of strategy or realism you get from, say, X-Wing or TIE Fighter; ships are either far away or really close, and the 'difficulty' of any situation is related merely to the amount of enemies on the scanner, rather than through any more subtle consideration of positioning or tactics.\r\nGrrr.\r\nThe Darkening has got so much going for it that I'd recommend the game to anyone with patience, a love of sci-fi and a high-specced PC. It's lavish, entertaining, compelling, challenging, surprising, engrossing and well-constructed. But it's also seriously let down in a couple of key areas, as well as a number of minor ones. It's much, much better than Wing Commander III or IV but, disappointingly, still not as good as it could've been.\r\nIt is, without a doubt, a great game. But not one of the greatest.","PUBID":100},{"GAMENAME":"Quake","Percentage":95,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Absolutely the worst thing you could do with Quake would be to play it through on 'Easy'. For a start, it's depressingly dull on Easy, with many of the monsters missing, leaving little to do but wander around corridors getting lost. Worse than that, though, you'll spoil all the surprises for when you start playing it properly.\r\nSurprises like, for example, when you unlock a door and, instead of grinding slowly aside like all the others, it simply disappears, and a load of monsters jump in your face, go 'RAAAARRRGH!' and start killing you. Or when you find a room with a pool in the middle, clear all the monsters from around it, jump into the water (it's the only way forward) and find it's not water at all, and you drop through into pitch darkness, flounder around for a few seconds and then get killed because there's a huge monster down there. Or the end-of-level section where you go into a room and kill all the monsters in it, and then this whirring noise starts, and after a while you notice the floor's slowly lowering, and you can hear these mysterious mechanical thumps and clicks coming from behind the scenes, and... But that's probably enough surprises spoiled.\r\nKeep Quake set firmly to 'Normal', 'Hard', or 'Nightmare' though, and it's pretty much the game we'd all hoped for.\r\nPC Gamer's more elderly readers will doubtless remember seeing The Wizard Of Oz for the first time back in 1939. And they'll remember the bit where Dorothy arrives in Oz, and suddenly everything's in colour. What a moment that must have been, eh? I said, WHAT A MOMENT THAT MUST HAVE BEEN. Yes. Well, going from Doom to Quake is much the same. While previously everything appeared to be in 3D but wasn't really, now it genuinely is in 3D.\r\nThis has three effects:\r\n1) id have been able to unleash their full repertoire of architectural skills, giving us huge, cathedral-like arenas criss-crossed with balconies; moats with drawbridges; dungeons beneath gratings in the floor; networks of underwater tunnels; and spiral staircases.\r\n2) If you see some monsters taking pot-shots at you from a window high in the wall above, you can swing the view up, shoulder your grenade launcher and eradicate them. And if you're passing a hole in the floor, hear grunting below and look down to see a load of baddies shuffling about, you can toss down a grenade and, similarly, put a stop to them.\r\n3) The controls are considerably complicated. And yet, because they're completely customisable, they're not. You see, as well as the forward, backwards, left, right and strafe controls of Doom, you'll now find yourself needing the look up and down controls an awful lot. So you can either assign them to keys or - cunningly - make use of the Mouselook command. This can be assigned to, say, the right mouse button, and then when you hold it down the mouse ceases to move you about and instead swings the view around to look anywhere you choose.\r\nBut PC Gamer's readers will know all this already, having played shareware Quake last month. The question is, how does the full version compare? Is it the same, only bigger? Or completely different? Is Quake worth actually paying money for? Questions, then.\r\nMany PC Gamer readers were disappointed by Shareware Quake. All those months of build-up. All that talk of running through forests, microphones that would incorporate players' voices into the sound effects, super-intelligent baddies, axe-based weaponry - And then it arrives, and it's sort of a bit like Doom again, only with less monsters, and it's all over in about half an hour.\r\nIt's true. Some of the wilder Quake ideas that were being circulated appear to have been batted away by id, who've instead settled upon a less surprising evolution of the Wolfenstein/Doom line. There are some ingenious switch/door/trap combinations, but generally it's a case once again of running around shooting things.\r\nAnd it's true - there are less monsters. Some of the finest moments in Doom and Heretic involved bursting into a room to find the floor heaving with monsters, and having to spray the whole area with gunfire as they advanced relentlessly. In Quake you'll see a maximum of around five baddies on the screen at once, and even that causes things to slow down. This is presumably a result of the monsters now being composed of solid polygons rather than sprites, and is, I reckon, the single most disappointing thing about Quake. At no time do you feel you're facing overwhelming odds - it's just a case of plugging through each level - and Quake lacks pace as a result, always feeling as if it's building up to something but never quite getting there.\r\nBut what monsters there are are absolutely superb. Watch the Enforcers clutching at their faces as you pepper them with buckshot before sinking onto their knees. See, too, the Zombies bursting apart with a delicious squelch, showering meat everywhere. And the dogs are good. And the spider things that fire homing missiles at you. And the bosses, though rare, are tremendous examples of what can be done when you attach enough polygons together.\r\nAnd while it's also true that the shareware version is over very quickly, that's probably because you were playing it on Easy. And anyway, it's traditional for shareware 'first episodes' of games to be fairly straightforward so that everyone finishes them and buys the full versions. Sure enough, Quake toughens up considerably from Episode 2, with Ogres hurling grenades at you from every available vantage point. It'd take, I reckon, two or three solid days to get through it all on Normal, possibly more if you got stuck on the incredibly tough finale.\r\nAnd that'll be two or three days well spent. Just like Doom, Quake strikes a clever balance between exploring and killing. On the exploring side there's some superb architecture to be uncovered, with ceilings that wouldn't look out of place in the Vatican and a seemingly endless supply of textures. And there are, well, not a huge number of different sorts of monster, but the ones that there are fight, well, not super-intelligently, but they all put up a stiff challenge and are rewarding to kill, whether they fly apart into a cloud of steak and blood or collapse in agony on the floor. The Fiends are a particular favourite of mine, bounding over with their deadly pointy hands.\r\nAnd then - ah, yes - there are the secret bits to uncover. Having completed a level you'll be told how many of them you found: 0/6, usually. It's then impossible to resist the urge to go back to search for them all, and, while some are pretty obvious - a switch on the ceiling, or an odd-looking bit of wall - some involve running right back to the start of a level having triggered something at the end. It's worth learning them all for when, well, we'll get onto that in a minute.\r\nThe atmosphere is unrivalled - better, possibly, even than Hexen's. Much of this is down to sound: the distressing moans of the Zombies, the deep rumbles of doors opening, the hissing of Scrags hovering unnoticed over one's head. But it also helps that monsters have a habit of lurking in dark corners and jumping out, and that weapons and explosions cast attractive lighting effects on the walls.\r\nThere's plenty of imagination in evidence, such as the lift shaft lined with cages of Ogres waving chainsaws through the bars, and the First Knight-style walkway where you've got to dodge between moving spikes, and the bit where you're underwater and suddenly a couple of Grunts jump in next to you, and the bit where a gun starts pumping nails into your back, and you run along a walkway to escape and blunder headlong into a huge group of baddies, and eventually work out that if you dodge to one side, the nail gun will do most of the work for you. There are 'nice touches', too, like the way it isn't a good idea to use the Thunderbolt gun underwater, and the way on-screen messages give you hints about the switches you pull so you don't spend ages wandering around obliviously as in Hexen.\r\nAnd, then again, there are a few disappointing aspects to it: the miserable plot ('the witch goddess of Shob-Niggurath' Groo.); those irritating little jutting out bits of door frame one's constantly getting caught on while backing away from baddies; and the lack, apart from exploding ammo crates, of interact-with-able scenery (you can't even smash stained-glass windows); and the fact that when I've got a heavy object on the Control key and I press Escape to get the menu up, my stupid, RUBBISH PC goes back to Windows 95 FOR NO REASON AT ALL. I blame Bill Gates for that last one, however.\r\nAnd, perhaps most suspectly of all, there's the way that, as in Doom and every game since, you can save your position at any time, so, although it could be argued that, well, you don't have to, games of Quake tend to degenerate into a stop-start mess of saving every time you've killed a couple of monsters, and you know that, as long as you're persistent, you'll get through it all in the end.\r\nQuake is excellent, then, but it had an awful lot to live up to, and it didn't set my PC on fire in quite the way I was expecting it to. Were I to award it a score now it would be a high one, but perhaps not one-of-the-best-games-ever high.\r\nBut!\r\nThen there's networked Quake.\r\nHere at PC Gamer we've been playing networked Quake virtually continuously ever since the test version appeared on the Internet earlier this year. And the majority of our readers who don't have access to a networked PC are undoubtedly weary of us harping on about it. But it's simply the case that playing Quake over a network is just about the most fun that it's possible to have on a PC. Even the three simple levels in the test version were tremendous fun to chase around and now, with the full version of Quake, there're six special Deathmatch levels to choose from: the three from the test version tweaked a bit, and three completely new - and great - ones with loads of balconies and Quad Damages. And, of course, you can also stage Deathmatches in all of Quake's standard levels.\r\nFor a Deathmatch, whoever's the server picks a level and the maximum number of players who may join in (up to 16), and then waits to see who comes after him. In a corporation as large and sinister as Future Publishing, several servers generally spring up when work finishes, and it's a case of trying to find the one with the most similarly-skilled people on it. You see, there's seemingly no limit to the level of Quake-playing finesse one can attain with enough practice. Go on holiday for a week and you'll find that in your absence your former equals have become apparently invincible. Part of it's down to learning the levels off by heart - where the red armour is, where the rocket launcher is, where to run to if you need a medikit in a hurry and so on. But much of it's down to sheer mousework and instinct.\r\nDeathmatches are phenomenally violent, with eight-player ones reverberating to the sound of exploding rockets and the screams of their victims. Everyone's uniforms can be customised for recognition purposes, and if one person's doing particularly well they'll tend to get picked on, and may need to go into disguise. Two-player games, meanwhile, are games of stealth, of lurking in dark corners, and listening out for the tell-tale sound of armour being picked up. It's also possible to set up team games, too, where your weapons won't harm anyone in the same uniform, but no-one seems to bother.\r\nBut that's probably enough about network Quake, eh, majority-of-PC-Gamer's-readers?\r\nIf you're playing it on your own, Quake is a very good game indeed, and it's easy to see why it's taken so long to appear. It's perhaps not the creation-of-Earth-rivalling event that the world wanted to believe was about to take place, but it's hard to imagine anyone reaching the end of it and feeling disappointed.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Network Q RAC Rally Championship","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As its bloated title suggests, Network Q RAC Rally Championship is a simulation of the annual UK rally, an event that challenges drivers to negotiate 28 stages of tricky, twisting roads that snake from Leeds to Donington Park and into the harsh beauty of the Welsh valleys. Quite obviously the game has been inspired by Sega's stunning Rally coin-op, but it values its realism much more. Yes, Rally Championship may have arcade modes and Daytona-style views to up the popularity factor, but it still prides itself on being based on the real thing. There isn't a game on the PC quite like it.\r\nLike the phenomenally popular Sega Rally, Rally Championship allows you to strap yourself into a high-performance car and hurtle through the countryside at a speed that's slightly faster than breakneck. There are six cars in the game, all of which have their own particular handling characteristics based on their real-life counterparts. The Subaru Imprezza, for example, is a four-wheel drive, 16-valve monster while the VW Golf GTi is a little less powerful and offers front-wheel drive only. Initially it's difficult to know which car is best to drive. You learn from experience as certain cars are better suited to certain rally stages. Obviously it's no good having a car that can leap from 0-100mph in 1.2 seconds if it's got the grip and the cornering ability of an ice-skating elephant.\r\nHaving picked a car, there are then four main game modes to get stuck into. The Individual option lets you drive any car on any of the 28 rally stages, either against the clock or in the midst of a pack of computer-controlled opponents. The Championship is the official rally mode, a realistic option where arcade racing is a distant memory and the idea is to negotiate the 28 stages in sequence. The Arcade option is exactly that, five levels of rally stages, where you compete with computer-driven cars and hurtle between timed checkpoints. Finally, the Time Trial is a simple race against the clock.\r\nAs you can see from the screenshots here, the graphics are excellent. The landscapes are a little repetitive, but there's no denying that the detail and the quality of the polygonal cars is stunning. Like Daytona and Sega Rally, the game has three driving views-a traditional 'over-the-dashboard' view, a bumper view and a handy chase view that allows you to see much more of the track as you drive. With a fast machine, the SVGA graphics are quite superb and it's exhilarating to thunder down the gravel tracks at night, sliding dramatically around tight corners and dodging trees that suddenly appear in the glare of your headlights.\r\nThings are made even more difficult by the different tracks and weather in the game. Before you start a stage, an overview shows you just what to expect and what percentage of the course is tarmac, gravel, mud and so on. This naturally affects your choice of tyres and so these, plus gear ratios, brake balance and your car's suspension can all be altered in the garage before you set off. Weather is a big factor too. On some stages, it's likely to rain whereas on others you can easily find yourself in the middle of a blizzard.\r\nAs well as the 3D racing, however, Rally Championship also features a multimedia-style section; an 'everything you wanted to know about rallying, but were afraid to ask' type-bit. Here you can view the recent top times and scores plus digest the specifications of the cars on offer. The Subaru, the Escort, indeed all of the vehicles have a photograph and a spinning 3D representation of the selected car. \r\nYou can also view each one of the 28 rally stages, a simple overhead map that gives you the layout of the course, plus information about possible weather conditions and the nature of the track. Finally there's a potted history of the competition itself, and a rally spreadsheet that gives you all the facts and figures about previous winners dating back to the 1950s. Did you know that Lyndon Sims, R Jones and A Ambrose triumphed in 1956 driving an Aston Martin DB2? You do now.\r\nHowever, Rally Championship is not without its faults. The handling of the cars is often too realistic and so stepping on the brake is likely to bring you to a stop rather than gently lower the speed. The tracks, although modelled on the real courses, are perhaps too narrow for enjoyable multi-player races. There's an option to widen them, which is a bonus, but it's often easier to slam your way around the course using the embankments to steer you speedily through tight corners. \r\nIt's satisfying to slide around a hairpin bend in true rallying style, and thankfully the AI of the other drivers can be adjusted so they don't just disappear into the distance before you've even revved your engine at the start. Screamer 2 seems to suffer from this, but Rally Championship is much more competitive. Its graphics don't quite match up to the lush and varied landscapes of the new Virgin release, but you can drive in SVGA without crippling your PC's processor and the sound effects, including the co-driver commentary, are just as good.\r\nIn the end, Rally Championship is a great game to play. It has its faults, certainly, and lacks the sheer addictiveness of Screamer 2. But as the PC version of Sega Rally is still a twinkle in Uncle Sega's eye, it's really the only pure rally game worth looking at. Better still, its realism is unmatched and despite the fact that the nature of rallying means that you end up racing on your own against the clock, rather than against other drivers, there're more than enough options to keep the PC racer interested. After producing titles that would wear nappies and mothercare booties, Europress has come up with a game that wears Mossino T-shirts, Diesel jeans and Vans. Nice one guys.","PUBID":49},{"GAMENAME":"Rama","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"After the disappointing Lighthouse (PCG 37, 52%), I can't confess to having had high hopes of Rama, particularly when I'm not even a big fan of Arthur C Clarke, who co-wrote Rama II, the book on which this game is based, with Gentry Lee. But then no-one really wanted to review Rama in the end, so I suppose I had to do it.\r\nIn a way I'm glad I did, because it was a strangely enlightening experience. What I conclude from playing this graphic adventure is that it is the result of some fantastic imagination realised in a compelling story, put together using a good script and some genuinely fine acting, but let down because the game has no imagination. It's such a shame that Clarke and Lee's book (Gentry Lee also had a hand in designing the game, and Clarke seems to have helped here and there) has been recreated into your bog standard Myst copy. Finding yourself in a 3D-Studio-generated location, you move your cursor around the screen to see if it changes into a different image. An arrow means that you can pop off in that direction; a hand means that you can pick something up or interact with the background. Fabulous. Ingenious, in fact.\r\nRama is the name given to a huge cylinder that is heading towards Earth. As one of a team of scientists (you are in fact replacing one of the original crew who has mysteriously died), you are told nothing more than to wander around and find out what is going on. Myst-style (again), things start to make more and, at the same time, less sense as you progress through the adventure. Scattered throughout the locations (and certainly not well hidden) are various alien artefacts that may or may not be useful later. If they are useful, don't expect to be stuck for hours figuring out what they do. It'll be pretty obvious, not least because you can't 'do' things with the wrong item.\r\nUnlike Myst, though, Rama is populated not only by a crew that chat amiably enough and clearly have their own hidden agendas, but also by a collection of bizarre alien robots, the purpose of which you should try and find out. Some of these metallic beasties will have your life, but, it's all right, Arthur is on hand to encourage you. It's just a game, see, and you should really have another go and try to get a bit further.\r\nIt's certainly a big game (three CDs), and the story is quite easy to get sucked into, but the game style is unimaginative and a little patronising.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Ravage DCX","Percentage":63,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As story lines go - and they do - Ravage DCX's is one of those which, while it manages to include just about every sci-fi cliche going, going and gone, still manages to get even the blandest brain bodypopping in eager anticipation. A brief summary? Aw, g'wan then. Deep breath. A top secret government research programme breaks inter-dimensional barriers allowing power-crazed alien zombies set on universal domination free entry into our solar system and meaning you, as the lone survivor of a tiny rebel force, naturally, must travel through space and time in order to destroy the big metal alien dimension converters and ensure the safety of this little planet we call Roderick. Earth. Sorry.\r\nSo how do you do this, you ask? Well, I will tell you, my child. You will need: your wits (two will do), complex machinery (the kind that enables you to leap about the universe, and suchlike), and a gun (one, large, green, with lasers and bombs and stuff, if possible). Additionally, you will need to have never played one of those games where all you ever seem to do is point a crosshair and press 'fire' in the vain, useless hope that all around you will think you possess some kind of control over your actions and are actually quite an impressive\r\nand skilled games player. Because I am afraid this is one such game.\r\nSo that's it, is it? Limited interactivity offset by pretty pictures? Well, yes and no. It's true that Ravage DCX revolves largely around your ability to move a small crosshair around a screen, essentially creating yet another Duck Hunt for the Nineties, and it's true that this means that, at times, the feeling of deja-vu is almost tediously relentless. However, it's also true that Ravage has been the subject of extreme, incessant love 'n' cuddles. Presentation-wise, it's a hard game to fault, with near-seamless, rendered, action-inserts to fill you in on how you're doing and update the story from time to time. Almost cinematic in their quality, they're matched by a thumping, charged soundtrack and a well-pitched range of difficulty levels that give the game its livin'-on-the-edge feel and complement the 3D graphics no end. Just wait till your cheeky gun-totin' little fella decides to walk you up some stairs, or makes you slide down a chute. Then you'll see what I mean, and no mistake, mister.\r\nBut it's the gameplay we're on about, innit? Sad to say, but it's becoming more and more apparent these days that it doesn't matter how exciting or polished or colourful or fast you make something like Ravage seem, if it's a game where you watch more than you play it doesn't matter how enjoyable the view is, it's no game to spend all of £40 on. By all means play it as a replacement for a stolen set of plastic garden boules. I mean, it's fun enough. But a good, solid, state-of-the-art investment it ain't.","PUBID":153},{"GAMENAME":"Rayman","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Platform games. You wait literally years for a decent one, and then two turn up at once. While games consoles have more platformers than should be allowed (most of them awful) the last decent PC one was probably Jazz Jackrabbit. The PC has always seemed to be at home more with serious things like flight sims, or anything that shows off its 3D capabilities. Things are set to change this year, however, with Johnny Bazookatone, Heart Of Darkness and even Sonic The Hedgehog coming soon. Today, though, Rayman and Earthworm Jim are fighting it out. Two console conversions; one 16-bit (EWJ) and one 32-bit (Rayman); both set on the same target - your PC. Which will triumph? \r\nFirst, the heroes themselves.\r\nMost of you will know of Earthworm Jim - he even has his own cartoon on Sunday mornings (which is great, incidentally). He says things like 'Groovy' and 'They're meatballs', and even 'Whee doggie' occasionally, which is very funny if you like that sort of thing. He can shoot things with his gun as well as using his wormy body as an Indiana Jones-style whip, and he's nicely animated. The game itself is full of bizarre goings-on and surreal bits, and has lots of great characters, like Professor Monkey-For-A-Head and Pete The Puppy. The whole thing is very cartoony. Like the cartoon. Which actually is a cartoon. Right.\r\nRayman is much more traditionally 'cute', except he deals with baddies by punching them very hard. He bounces along in his joyful bouncy cuddly world where butterflies and toadstools play (reminiscent of those Capcom Disney games like Mickey's Magical Quest that used to be so popular on the consoles), and does all the things you'd expect a self-respecting platform hero to. That is, eventually. You see, he gains his powers gradually throughout his adventure. This adds an extra element to the game, as previously completed levels can be visited again and again, and Rayman's new powers enable him to reach new heights (literally) and find stuff you couldn't get the first time. Rayman can also be very funny (especially the fantastically camp narrator in the intro), and the animation is often better than Earthworm Jim's. \r\nEspecially noteworthy is the music in both games. The tunes are the best I've heard in ages. Rayman's are extremely catchy and suit the atmosphere well, but the best piece has to be the easy listening track in Earthworm Jim's 'What The Heck?' level (which is set in hell). I've run out of superlatives, so imagine, if you will, Scully from The X-Files in video game music form. Indeed. Unfortunately, the music in both of them comes directly from the CD, and, when the track ends and zips back to the start to repeat, the screen doesn't update for a few precious split-seconds. This isn't such a problem in Rayman, but in EWJ it can be very irritating. The music can be turned off in both, though, and can also be played on a conventional CD player too. \r\nSo, they both have great graphics, animation, characters, sound effects and music, but how about level designs, baddies and feel? That's where it really counts. Who comes out on top?\r\nRayman's levels are connected on a map screen, so occasionally you can choose which new level to play next, or go back and explore older levels. There are three save-game slots, and most levels have at least one restart point. Hurrah!\r\nPersonally, I hate massive games that make you restart from the beginning when you die. EWJ on the consoles was one of those. Now, however, you can start from any level you've previously reached. Lovely. EWJ has more restart points than Rayman as well, but the last level is nigh-on impossible, which spoils it a bit really.\r\nAlso, in both games you can die by falling off the bottom of the level. This is a crime. However, after a fashion both characters can grab onto ledges, so I'll sort of let them off with a warning. \r\nRayman's levels are populated by cutesy walking bombs, cutesy hunters, cutesy insects and so on, most of which can be dispatched with a quick slap around the chops. If you remember the Dynamite Dux coin-op from ages ago, then Rayman's punches are a bit like that - while you hold down the fire button he winds up, and when you let go he lets fly with his fist. As his arms and legs aren't actually connected to his body, this can be quite a distance. The longer you hold down the fire button the further his fist goes. It's a pity that there isn't more punching in the game, as it's great fun.\r\nEWJ's levels are, as I mentioned earlier, a bit weird. There are often bits where you're bungee jumping or scooting around in a little submarine, and there's a space bike sub-game between most levels, although this can get a little tedious. There are also some not-too-difficult puzzles which punctuate the action nicely, as do the imaginative bosses. \r\nA common trait of both games is that some bits can be fiendishly tricky, and you simply have to keep plugging away until you get the knack of it, really. Mind you, after seeing some appallingly easy platformers on the 16-bit consoles, I wonder if this isn't so bad. You should get your money's worth from both, especially as EWJ has two levels that weren't in the cartridge version, and Rayman has over 60 levels to journey through.\r\nIn terms of feel, Rayman has the edge. It looks slick and plays smoothly. Jim is a good mover, though, and the ability to play any previously completed level is a nice touch. \r\nSo, choosing between them. Let's have a look at the facts.\r\nEWJ is run from Win 95 and fits pleasantly into a tiny box on your desktop. It's funny, and if you have Microsoft Plus! you! can! make! your! desktop! go! all! Earthworm Jim! style! Apparently. EWJ isn't huge, but if you're using it to fill a few minutes of spare time now and again, it's probably a good investment, and certainly more adrenaline-pumping than Solitaire. Problems are that it's rather linear and not particularly deep, and the last level must be some sort of cruel joke to keep me awake at night. \r\nProblems with Rayman are that it can occasionally be just a little frustrating, and back-tracking to get extra lives isn't as viable as it was in the Super Mario games, as once you've collected an extra life from somewhere it never comes back. This means that the best way of getting loads of extra lives is to collect lots of 'tings' - the equivalent of Mario's golden coins - and this takes years. Hopefully things will change in the inevitable Rayman 2. \r\nThe main challenge for both these games is competition from Sonic and the Mario games on Nintendo's systems. Yoshi's Island is out now on the ever-cheapening SNES, and soon Mario 64 on Nintendo's super console, the Ultra 64, will probably make everything else look feeble with its amazing 3D world. You've got a PC, though, and, unless you want a neat Windows 95 distraction, you'll probably be better off with Rayman.\r\nHopefully these two games will be just the start of a PC platform explosion. After all, everyone loves disseminating violent justice, and cute woodland animals are the perfect recipients. Thwack!","PUBID":142},{"GAMENAME":"Earthworm Jim","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"See Rayman review.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Realms Of The Haunting","Percentage":71,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Realms Of The Haunting, which we've been looking forward to eagerly here at PC GAMER, is best described as Hexen crossed with Broken Sword with just a hint of Wing Commander III. In other words, it's a 3D-engined, Knights-Templar-based point-and-click adventure that's punctuated by video clips. So if it later goes on to become a bit frustrating and dull in places, it's not for lack of ambition. In fact, concept-wise it's one of the boldest PC gaming moves for some time.\r\nAnd it's at its very boldest right at the beginning. After a video intro showing your character arriving at a spooky mansion to which he's been drawn by weird dreams involving his recently deceased father, you find yourself standing in an immaculately furnished study. Books line the walls, a grandfather clock ticks steadily in the corner, an antique desk sits before the bay window, and an expensive-looking carpet covers the floor. (I felt immediately at home.) And as you wander around, it all moves smoothly in 3D, still looking smashing, albeit having to be restricted to VGA-resolution on my venerable P75. I can't remember seeing anything this detailed on the PC before.\r\nThen, with all that taken in, it's time to explore the point-and-clicking side of things. As well as irksome Doom-style keyboard controls for movement (alternatively you can hold down various mouse buttons to enable the mouse to move you about, but your gun keeps going off by mistake and it doesn't work nearly as well as a proper Quake-style system would have), there's a mouse pointer which changes when you swish it over bits of the scenery to alert you to things that can be examined and employed. Four floor-standing candelabras in the first room, for example, can be lit to invoke your father's ghost who explains, via more video, that he's being somehow held prisoner in the spirit world and needs rescuing. Doors can be clicked on to open them, stray diaries and keys can be clicked to add them to your inventory, and monsters can be clicked on to kill them.\r\nMonsters, yes. Every so often there's a bestial growl or a rattling of bones and a monster comes loping into view. Initially these must be hacked at with a sword, but presently guns of various sizes can be found, and then, as you get further caught up in Realms' world of magic and legend, there are Hexen-style staffs that launch balls of coloured flame. The monsters, though, are desperately stupid - they always come straight for you - and only ever appear in twos and threes, so they rarely present a problem. And, compromising the game's overall graphical sophistication, they're made of flat sprites rather than solid 3D polygons. In fact, it's difficult to see the point of most of them, except to fill Realms' emptier corridors.\r\nAnyway, though. Further exploration of the house (taking in plenty more smashing graphical effects, like mirrors in which you can see your reflection ˆ la Duke Nukem, windows that provide a view over the grounds, and candles casting flickering light over walls) reveals some stairs leading into the basement.\r\nIt starts to get a bit scary now.\r\nThe basement turns out to consist of an enormous network of caverns and temples, constructed in a range of styles and inhabited, of course, by a light sprinkling of monsters. You'll find some delightful architecture down here, with columns, high ceilings, statues, altars and gilt ornamentation, and exploring it all is great fun in a slightly nerve-wracking sort of way. Strange orbs unlock doors to rooms full of extra ammo, rivers of glowing lava gloop gently, stone slabs slide aside, and suspicious-looking pentagrams dare you to step into them.\r\nAnd you'll meet a range of other characters, none of whom seem quite normal. Perhaps the least weird, though still decidedly odd, is Rebecca, who sort of turns up suddenly from nowhere, claims to have special powers and announces she'll accompany you for the rest of the game and help out. While she appears in the video clips, though, I couldn't see her in the 3D bits, so I can only assume she was hiding cleverly behind me, even though I did try turning round really quickly a couple of times.\r\nRealms Of The Haunting really ought to be frightening and exciting, then. But, well, 'mildly intriguing' is about as good as it ever seems to get.\r\nThe text-based side of things doesn't help. There are documents and books lying around all over the place which are full of background information detailing the strange world of alternative universes and demons which brought about your father's downfall and which you must now penetrate in order to save him. But they're represented as large bitmaps - so large they won't fit on the screen, and must be scrolled around awkwardly to be read. And they're clumsily written, trying to sound classically eloquent but constantly mistaking 'it's' for 'its'. Nevertheless, I dutifully pored over each one, assuming them to be filled with essential clues, only to realise, gradually, that they're merely padding, and can largely be ignored. The idea, presumably, is to add substance to the story line, but instead they just kill its momentum.\r\nWorse than that, though, are the video clips. Now, video used sparingly can be fine. Look at Fade To Black. And Realms' video is certainly sparing, only occurring at significant points in the story. It's also technically excellent, combining actors cleverly with computer-generated backgrounds in a way that blends them and the real-time 3D bits into a seamless whole.\r\nBut what on Earth was the director thinking? The actors spend half their time gazing around sleepily at nothing at all, and the rest of it mumbling the most awful lines. ('Dragons seem to be the current theme around here' when someone presumably meant 'recurrent'.) They seem entirely oblivious to the computer-generated effects going on around them - understandably, perhaps, if they were overlaid afterwards. It's all a bit embarrassing.\r\nWorst of all, though, is the wandering around.\r\nRealms Of The Haunting progresses in a largely linear fashion - a puzzle is solved, and the route to the next puzzle is opened. You might need to activate a moving platform to lift you up so you can reach a key that's stuck to the ceiling and open the door to another bit, for example, or pull some levers to move the hands on a clock to open a further door. It's always just one thing at a time, though, which is the only way it can be in a game that wants to convey a strong story line, and that's fine.\r\nBut the 'doing things' bits are spread thinly over enormous areas - networks of rooms, or sprawling mazes of corridors. For instance, there's a desperately awful bit where you've got to trek around a series of dark caverns, where you can only see about six feet in front of you and therefore have no idea where you're going, trying to locate a gem stone. (You're provided with a map, but it's one of those cursed too-big-to-fit-on-the-screen bitmaps again, and accessing it involves pressing 'I' to bring up the inventory, clicking on the 'documents' section, right-clicking on the map, watching it unfurl slowly in FMV, scrolling to the correct area, clicking it away again, clicking the inventory away and then trying to remember which way it said to go. And then a stupid monster attacks you, and you forget where you were and have to do the whole thing again.) And - oh dear - the Tower itself, the bit that joins the four Realms, is a series of narrow and confusingly laid-out walkways suspended in space that you die if you fall off, making travelling between the Realms - the whole point of the game - a tediously frustrating business. And then, although the puzzles proceed one at a time, the map isn't linear at all, and you must revisit areas you've already explored. The game therefore degenerates frequently into depressing Hexen-style trawls of the playing area, with you not knowing where to go or what to do next. It might be imagined that your companion, Rebecca, would be able to offer some advice, but while she'll happily discuss a vast range of subjects with you at yawnsome length, the question of what the two of you might do next isn't one of them.\r\nIn fact, I reckon I spent about two-thirds of my time with Realms wandering around miles of empty rooms and corridors trying to work out what I was meant to do next, and only a third actually having fun, which isn't an ideal balance.\r\nBut then, there's so much good stuff here. Unlocking a door and entering a new area is tremendously exciting. Will it be another huge temple with a vaulted ceiling and incredibly ornate furnishings? Will there be special effects, like the mysteriously shimmering portals in the Tower, or the clouds racing beneath the walkway to the clock room, or the planets in the sky through the window of the observatory (including, intriguingly, Earth)? Will you find another, even more powerful weapon lying, for example, under a bed? The story line is generally intriguing (although that's probably enough Knights Templar games) with characters who seem dodgy but then turn out to be goodies.\r\nOh, but then there's this terrible bit where you've got to step across a series of moving blocks, like in a platform game from 1984, and, as if this wasn't annoying enough in itself, if you slip off there's a laughing sound effect.\r\nI'd planned to play Realms through to the end, but after spending a weekend with it, and getting no further than the second of the four CDs, I'm afraid it's lost me. I've enjoyed bits of it very much, and I'm eager to see what the other Realms are like. But it seems to become more and more of an uphill struggle, and simply not worth all the wandering around. Perhaps you have more patience.","PUBID":56},{"GAMENAME":"Rebel Assault 2","Percentage":45,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"49.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"The trouble with the future is that you've seen it all before. Nothing is surprising any more. We've seen it, filmed it, bought it, sold it and given it all away. And we're bored of it. Bored of things that haven't even happened yet. Tragic, isn't it? But you know what's worst of all? You know what's really depressing? We've still got it all to come. The future will always be there, always breathing down our necks, and we'll always be bored of it.\r\nWar Of The Worlds, 2001, Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner, HG Wells, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Iain M Banks, Jeff Noon and on and on... With vision upon vision of what's to come, each as credible as the next and as incredible as the last, they're all out to spoil the future for you. The more they write, the less there is to surprise you, and the greater your dissatisfaction with the future becomes. They're telling you what happens at the end of a book when you're still reading the first chapter, and to make matters worse the story has no ending and you can never get to the bottom of the first page. Bastards.\r\nAnd that, my bemused friends, is one of the reasons why Star Wars is so great. Star Wars deftly sidesteps the curmodgeonly criticism so often levelled at future views of our poxy planet ('Earth wouldn't be like that...', 'People won't be able to do that...') because it's a fiction at least once-removed from the experience of us mere mortals. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not, repeat NOT, set in the future. It takes place in a far-flung galaxy, not in the year two thousand and something, but the year before the year before yesteryear. Everything in the Star Wars galaxies has already happened (fictionally, of course, we're not suggesting it's real, silly), and what we're watching, playing and reading is no more than the most exciting history lesson ever. Is has endured and excited for 20 years, through countless sequels, screenings, wide-screenings, releases, re-releases, videos, books, games, comics and toys. And now there's a new chapter in the history, Rebel Assault 2.\r\nThe irony of this is that, if you've played Rebel Assault, you will, in a very premonitory way, have seen it all before. So much for Star Wars not being boring, then.\r\nJust like in the first game, you're Rebel Alliance pilot Rookie 1. Just like in the first game, you have to battle through umpteen levels of rootin'-tootin' shootin' action. Just like in the first game, you get a password at the end of each level. Just like in the first game, the levels mix viewpoints - some have you in the cockpit, some have you looking at the rear of your ship, some have you controlling Rookie 1 on foot. Just like in the first game, you fly on a pre-determined path that's spooled off the CD. Just like in the first game, enemies are superimposed on the background, always appearing in the same place. Just like in the first game, your targeting cross-hairs move erratically to give you a bit more of a challenge. Just like in the first game, you fly down tunnels and inside huge space stations. Just like in the first game, you blast your way through asteroid fields. Just like in the first game, there are levels that require you to shoot your way past stormtroopers. Just like in the first game, there are tons of classy cut scenes and video footage. Just like in the first game, the classic John Williams score booms from your speakers. Just like in the first game, you'll wipe a nostalgic tear from your eye. Just like in the first game, you'll wonder why you spent 50 quid on it.\r\nRight, so far we've established that, goddammit, Rebel Assault 2 is 80 per cent the same as its predecessor, so what's new? The SVGA mode for a start. RA2 plays fine in VGA on a 486DX, but if you've got a Pentium with a fast graphics card and a quad speed CD-ROM drive, you can crank it up to SVGA and enjoy some superlative graphics. Origin likes to make a big fuss about how wonderful its SVGA video is, but the film sequences in Wing Commander III just had Mark Hamill and co sitting still. In RA2's cut scenes, the hero's not just chinwagging in the locker room, he's pegging it all over the place, wasting stormtroopers and all sorts. It's fab. And the in-game SVGA is just as delicious too.\r\nThe plot's new, of course. Well, new to Star Wars, that is. The Empire has developed stealth TIE fighters that nobody believes exist until they pop out of the ether and waste a few X-Wings. A bit like the Klingon cloaking device in Star Trek. Or the plot of Wing Commander II, which features Kilrathi stealth fighters that nobody believes exist until they pop out of the ether and waste a few Terran ships. Surely they could have come up with something better than that.\r\nThe only other notable new element is the level with the speed bikes, which has you zooming through a forest just like in Return Of The Jedi. Oh yes, you get to fly a TIE fighter in a few levels too, and you come up against the magic disappearing TIE fighters, but these elements are the frills on the doily, rather than the cakes on top of it.\r\nRebel Assault 2 presents a bit of a dilemma (Good cars them - Ted Chippington fan) to the seasoned gameplayer. Essentially, m'lud, it's more of the same, but does that mean it's just as good as its predecessor? Or does that mean it's doubly bad because LucasArts should have worked out how to make it that much better in the two years since Rebel Assault (dis)graced your CD-ROM drive? Well, neither, really. Just as a defendant should be judged not on who he is, but what he is alleged to have done, Rebel Assault 2 should be assessed not on what it might have been, given what has already gone before, but on what its two shiny platters give you. And it is this:\r\n1) Another healthy injection of Star Wars adrenaline.\r\n2) Half a dozen frantic hours of blasting fun.\r\n3) A sore wrist.\r\n4) A squint.\r\nIs this worth 50 of our British pounds? Hard to say, but at PC Gamer we always have your best interests at heart, and so have invented a formula that will enable you to work out whether you should buy this or any other game:\r\n\r\nIf (ET/P) x B-1 < H you should not buy the game.\r\nIf (ET/P) x B-1 > H you should buy the game.\r\n\r\nWhere: \r\nE = naked enjoyment factor (between 0 and 100)\r\nT = hours of enjoyment to be gleaned from the game\r\nP = price\r\nB = probability of being able to borrow the game from a friend\r\nH = number of hours you can borrow the game for\r\nIn Rebel Assault 2's case, E=85, T=6 and P=50, and B and H are up to your friends. So, if you reckon you've got roughly a one in ten chance of borrowing the game, then it's not worth buying. The main flaw with this formula is that the more friends you have who read PC Gamer, and therefore use the formula, the lower B becomes because they're all waiting to see if you're going to buy the game so they can borrow it. So that's that knackered then. Hey ho, you can't say we didn't try.","PUBID":83},{"GAMENAME":"Return Fire","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"'Confound you, Nash!' I have brought Jonathan's forces to their knees. His defences lie in ruins, all his gun turrets destroyed, his headquarters crushed, and the bulk of his tanks, helicopters and rocket launchers long since expended. All that remains is for me to capture his flag and carry it back triumphantly to my base.\r\nBut still he will not yield. With one of his few surviving jeeps he has taken his flag and is racing with it toward the opposite corner of the map. I watch as he speeds out of range of my lumbering tank, darting between exploding shells from my automatic gun turrets and swerving around rocks, the prize slipping from my grip.\r\n\r\nReturn Fire was originally released on the Amiga about five years ago, explaining its feebly primitive graphics.\r\nActually, not explaining its feebly primitive graphics at all. What is your excuse, Time Warner? PC Gamer's readers deserve better than to have blocky, crudely coloured pixels kicked in their faces. They have played Command & Conquer and Warcraft II, and expect more from their action/strategy games. The zooming-in whenever a vehicle comes to a halt is some compensation, but the lazy Windows interface serves only to disguise Return Fire as some sort of spreadsheet or something.\r\nBut Return Fire is still tremendously enjoyable. Given a limited supply of tanks, rocket launchers, helicopters and jeeps, each with their own played-off-the-CD orchestral theme tune, and taking control of one vehicle at a time, you must battle through your opponent's defences, destroy all his headquarters buildings and steal his flag, which you'll find in the last headquarters you demolish. (Although there is a one-player training mode, Return Fire is primarily a two-player game.) Meanwhile he's trying to do the same to you, so you must strike a balance between trying to stop him and trying to achieve your own objective. You're assisted by computer-controlled gun turrets, helicopters and submarines which will fire upon passing enemy vehicles. But, alas, so is he.\r\n\r\nNash's jeep is bumping across a narrow bridge linking the mainland to a small island where he believes his flag will be safe.\r\n'Aeee!'\r\nA rocket explodes in front of him, fired by one of my automated attack helicopters. His jeep lurches to the left, and then to the right, and then plunges off the bridge into the sea below. It is swiftly swallowed up by the turbulent water, its final resting place marked by a widening circle of ripples.\r\nA widening circle of ripples and the flag. But how may it be reached? Neither of us has boats. A tragic oversight by the programmers?\r\nBut wait! I now have a jeep of my own racing to the scene...\r\n\r\nReturn Fire succeeds because, although it is simple, every game proceeds in an entirely different manner. You can play defensively, taking time to lay mines around your headquarters, but while you're doing that your enemy could be gaining ground. You can attack gradually, taking care to destroy every gun turret, or you can attack the headquarters directly with your helicopter and then send a jeep in, hoping for the best.\r\nThere are wasted opportunities, though, beside the graphics. How hard would it have been to implement the game over a network, so that both players could play full-screen? Although there are dozens of levels to choose from, what about giving each player a limited time to design and build his own base, as in Rampart? What about including bridge repair vehicles, so the whole game isn't brought to its knees when an essential bridge is destroyed? (Instead, a no-mines-on-bridges gentlemen's agreement must be enforced.)\r\n\r\nMy jeep splashes into the shallow water beside the bridge. Cleverly, I stab the '+' key and my tyres inflate, providing buoyancy. But how slowly my jeep now moves!\r\nRide Of The Valkyries issues from the speakers, signalling that Nash has launched his last helicopter. I watch as it thunderbirds slowly from its underground bunker. Its rotors unfold and begin to spin. It lifts off, its nose tilts down, and it turns towards my position.\r\nMy jeep reaches the flag at last. I seize it, turn and begin to inch back toward the shore. But Nash's helicopter is upon me. Rockets smash into the water. I cannot manoeuvre to avoid them, and pray that I will not be hit. Twenty blocky pixels to go. Ten pixels. I swiftly deflate my tyres and hurl the jeep up the beach. Nash turns and more rockets roar down upon me. But I drive superbly, and am victorious.","PUBID":138},{"GAMENAME":"Ripper","Percentage":57,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"50.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Memo to everyone in the world: never, ever, use the word 'cyberspace' again. I implore you. Especially when you mean - as you inevitably do - a preposterous collection of rendered images nicked from heavy metal album covers of the 60s and 70s. A seal-swallowingly implausible world shambolically constructed from half-remembered William Gibson catchphrases and technobrat cliches.\r\nSuch is the world of Ripper. A world where you 'deck' into 'C-space', where 'megabytes' of human consciousness can be 'downloaded', and where you wear a ridiculous coat indoors, to make you look even more like the Ralph Fiennes character out of (ugh) Strange Days.\r\nIs this really the best we can do? Yet another humourless genre piece without the wit to execute its third-hand ideas with any kind of verve or conviction?\r\nAnd by the way, I'd just like to check: would you think I was particularly big or clever if I was to start swearing right now? Just out of the blue, for no reason, if I was to start sprinkling my sentences with the f-word (and I don't mean 'futon')? I didn't think so. Ripper, on the other hand, believes otherwise. Barely a minute has gone by before our 'hero' is cussing like a Sergeant Major who's just been told to swear gratuitously because he's in an 'adult' game, and each oath - even though delivered with half-hearted embarrassment - is sure to remind the punters just how gritty and realistic everything's meant to be.\r\nIt is worth noting, however, that despite a lengthy catalogue of failings, faults and flaws, the game has just enough going for it to be reasonably playable. And it's certainly far superior to the godawful 11th Hour, which it resembles in (far too) many ways.\r\nTechnically, for example, it's a fine achievement. Everything moves smoothly enough; the video sequences and pre-rendered sections are integrated with unusual care; and - finally! - everyone speaks in time with their lip movements. I've never understood why this has proven so hard in the past - Rebel Assault II and Wing Commander III spring immediately to mind as the most irritating offenders - but in this case the problem has been well and truly sorted out.\r\nAnd a certain percentage of the writing and acting is, well, passable, in a don't-expect-Citizen Kane II-but-at-least-it's-better-than-the-usual-rubbish kind of a way. Oh, and there are four different endings, with the murderer switching places each time you play.\r\nBUT (deep breath)!\r\nEverything's so restricted. The lavishly-rendered environments are littered with tantalising clues you're cruelly unable to investigate, and you're in the kind of obviously-constricted world where reporters have only half a dozen names in their address book. Navigation, too, can be irrational, which adds to the out-of-your-control atmosphere. You can move in only one direction around a circular object, for example, and there are many times when you can turn left, but not right (or vice versa, obviously).\r\nThere are silly inconsistencies, careless continuity problems, some stupid puzzles and a bewildering variety of interfaces. There's a charmless leading character, a complete inability to stamp your own style of play on the progress of the game and, worst of all, an abysmal performance from star turn Christopher Walken, whose acting efforts are confined to the incessant waving of his right arm. He obviously felt there was something much more interesting he could have been doing, instead of taking part in this silly game.\r\nAnd, to be honest, I'm rather inclined to agree with him.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"Rise 2: Resurrection","Percentage":64,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"What intro does this game need? With its forebear synonymous with, well, total video game failure (if complete marketing success), Rise 2 already has the peculiar queasy infamy often associated with the sons of corrupt politicians and the relations of serial killers. Will it be as bad? Will it be worse? Or are we now finally to see what Mirage originally intended? These are the questions that pop into the mind when Rise 2 is mentioned, and they all link inextricably back to the original.\r\nRise 1 was developed over two years, which, even for today's 3D polygon-built and texture-mapped monsters, stands as an astonishingly long incubation period. As time progressed and Mirage built up unprecedented pre-release hype, games journalists became increasingly suspicious. Why were there no playable demos available, no rolling demos even? Surely the first year's development must have produced something we could see?\r\nAnd then it arrived. Reviewers played, paused in puzzlement, giggled and then started the largest, most comprehensive critical mauling ever to leave its saliva on the bloody corpse of a computer game. When the conversion was made to the consoles, the beat-'em-up stronghold, scores as low as 5% were reached. \r\nNow the queue is forming to do it again. But does Rise 2 warrant such cynicism?\r\nInitial impressions are good. Unsurprisingly in light of the original's sole redeeming feature, Rise 2 is a good-looking game. The between-play sequences are beautiful - the options interface is slick and the million-coloured loading screens make a pleasant change from the usual 'Loading. Please wait' business. Not only are all the fighters exceptionally well drawn, but their fight scenarios do an excellent job of teasing a third dimension into the most 2D of formats.\r\nAnd to cycle through all the available fighters, looking at each will take a while. Rise 2 has 18 selectable characters and another ten available via cheats and rewards. While Rise 1 set some all-time low records, Rise 2 has at least got to be in the running for the title 'fighting game with most play characters ever', something it wins with ease. Each character has a decent array of special moves, surpassing by four or five times those doled out in the original. However, it's after this triumph in numbers that the problems start.\r\nWith 18 characters, two things are bound to happen. Firstly, because designers are going to be stretched to make 18 different-looking fighters, some of their creations are going to look a bit strange. Some of the protagonists in Rise 2 look like, well, fairly anonymous pieces of industrial heavy plant actually. Press 'punch' and one bit shoots out. Press 'kick' and another bit, maybe slightly lower, does the same. You'd have trouble calling it punching and kicking, though.\r\nAs a result of this, and despite the designers' best efforts, the robots do start to feel a bit characterless. Now this is partly due to the fact that there are only three broad groups into which all 18 fit - the humanoid type, the robotic humanoid type, and the power-loader-from-Aliens type - but mainly because robots are machines and, no matter how much you may love your car/PC/rechargeable-Black-and-Dekker, and with the odd movie/TV exception like R2-D2, machines do not have personality. Not one you can imaginatively become in a fight, anyway.\r\nAnd it's at the level of personality that Rise 2 fails. You could point to rather clunky animation and the difficulty in pulling off special moves, but you'd still only have criticism knocking the game down to the mid-70s score-wise. What leaves Rise 2 cold on the canvas is the fact that you don't care very much who wins. Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II had characters that went on to have films built around them. Rise 2's robots will be lucky to get a special section in Exchange & Mart when they go on sale for scrap. Like a punch-drunk boxer (and the original), Rise 2 simply fails to connect.\r\nThere's no doubt that the glaring errors present in the original have been corrected. It has everything one could expect from a modern 2D beat-'em-up and sometimes offers a little more. However, maybe because the fundamental game concept is flawed, or because, after so much time spent has been spent by so many people, Rise 2 seems to lack that indefinable spark that sets good games apart from the average.\r\nRise 2 is not terrible. Sadly, though, it's still no more than average. Before anyone starts pencilling in a Rise 3, serious consideration should be given to the possibility that, for robots, this is as good as it gets.","PUBID":93},{"GAMENAME":"Risk","Percentage":68,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The scene: The PC Gamer office. A single light suspended from the ceiling casts a harsh glare upon the three figures hunched around the Risk board below. \r\nJonathan sits resplendent in full ceremonial dress, ostrich feathers rearing from his tricorn hat; Jim, in his favoured military junta shades and dripping braid, is pinned to his chair by a chest full of brass and ribbon; while Mark is unnervingly intense with his severe side parting, small moustache and piercing blue contact lenses. \r\n\r\nJonathan: Your three men on Yakutsk are an intolerable affront to my 50 strong Kamchatkan peace keeping force. \r\n\r\nMark: No! You mad fool, forget Kamchatka. It's Jim that's the enemy. All the Americas have fallen to his yellow peril. \r\n\r\nJim: Don't listen to him, Jonathan, the young upstart's blatant warmongering cannot go unpunished. \r\n\r\nJonathan: I'm not interested in the Americas - they're just a sideshow. It's your Yakutskian goat herders that are the real threat. They must be stopped. Now, defend yourself. \r\nMark: You deranged lunatic. Now Jim will sweep all before him. You've killed us all!\r\n\r\nAnd so on, late into the night, as our mighty armies clash in grand campaigns of world conquest, swapping continents like football cards. I've loved Risk (the board game) for years now. There's something about its blend of strategy and promise of unlimited global power that appeals to the megalomaniac in all of us. But despite the fact you're trying to wipe them from the face of the Earth, all that psyching out, backstabbing and humiliating of your opponents is a vitally gregarious experience. So, short of offering a free modem with every copy, Hasbro'll need something a bit special to make Risk work in the solitary PC medium. \r\nTo this end, towering over the original version of Risk that's also included, like Hunter from Gladiators next to Dr Ruth, is Ultimate Risk. Incorporating most of the features veteran players ever dreamed of, this is extreme Risk. But before I brief you fully, let us deal with Classic Risk. Unsurprisingly this is a virtually literal translation of the board game, allowing you to chuck enormous armies onto a world map and expand your influence by battling for territories, with dice playing the fickle finger of fate. It's perfectly playable, but that doesn't stop it being almost pointless. Destroy your automated adversary's North African power base and it doesn't curse you and all your children, declaring a Jihad upon your people. No. It just insipidly calculates its next move, interpreting such tectonic events in a dispassionate stream of 0s and 1s. It's as satisfying as telling a joke to a speak-your-weight-machine. \r\nNow for our confrontation with Ultimate Risk. A far worthier pursuit with all of its advanced features. The four new maps are huge, balkanised into well over a hundred territories each. And while Classic Risk is a little simple as a computer game, Ultimate Risk piles plenty on your plate. \r\nArmies in difficult terrain (mountains, jungle, etc.) are tricky to dislodge, so strategic mountain ranges and jungle trails are key planks of defence. As is the placing of forts in strategically vital territories guarding the route to your capital. Troop deployment must now take into account the likelihood of natural catastrophe in areas prone to random events. And they can't just be plonked in the usual steamroller formations on your borders, as there are autonomous rebel forces to be crushed or used as buffers against the other great powers. Moreover, grand offensives need Generals in command if they're not to end in disaster, but heroic individuals are always rare so there are frequent frantic redeployments to the latest hot zone. \r\nThe major coup in Ultimate Risk, however, is the doing away of the dice to be replaced by the Tactical Card Combat System. When battle rages, this operates like play calling in American football. The offence and defence both have a number of tactics at their disposal and make a call to resolve an engagement. So if the attacker launched an assault on the right flank while the defender uncannily put his trust in defending the left flank, then you'd end up with a replay of the Charge of the Light Brigade and another cunning plan in ruins. Thus small forces can sometimes inflict stunning defeats on large ones. If, that is, they're on intimate terms with lady luck. For the system relies little more on skill than rolling the dice, being in essence a glorified scissors, paper, stone game. There are some subtler details - don't try a cavalry assault on a mountainous region, for example - but on the whole it overlooks such nuances as using a feigned withdrawal to entice defenders from a fortified position, or an outnumbered force fatally undermining a superior army with a surprise attack, and basically sticks to the scissors always beats paper formula. Which frustratingly means the only viable attacks (the age-old Risk problem) are luck-discounting sledgehammer versus nut match-ups. In multi-player mode it no doubt works far better, as psychology comes into play, but this is sadly absent against binary belligerents. \r\nThis absence of Risk psychology is a major problem in the Classic game and a slightly lesser one in the Ultimate version, and prevents you from pulling off masterstrokes of tactical genius. The most crucial aspect of the board game is being able to manipulate the other players - knowing you can ignore the annexing of Asia by your opponent because the third power will be forced to do the dirty work for you. In this game, however, the computer's a Gaddaffi-style loose cannon, far happier to start the Third World War with you in some irrelevant Banana Republic than secure a key border for itself in some lightly defended but crucial region. Thus you find yourself just piling up troops where the combative calculator is massing, knowing it to be beyond reason. \r\nTo be fair, Hasbro have done as fine a job as possible while remaining faithful to the board game. Although the strategic zoomed-out displays are poorly done and make it hard to follow the bigger picture, I disagree with those who worry that the maps looks like enormous golf courses. It is a moderately enjoyable game, but even the most ardent fan would have to steel himself for an all-night session of Ultimate Risk.","PUBID":62},{"GAMENAME":"Road Rash","Percentage":73,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Imagine that you're a mean, ugly sociopath with a large motor bike and a distaste for personal hygiene. Imagine further that you know other mean, ugly sociopaths with large motor bikes and a distaste for personal hygiene. And, to top all your imagining off, imagine that a mysterious benefactor was prepared to pay money to watch you race against each other in a succession of illegal road races. If you can feel the wind in your hair, and the bike between your legs, if you're already screaming around corners with your knee scraping the ground, and picking bits of flies out of your teeth, then, don't bother buying Road Rash. Your imagination's taken you there already.\r\nFor those of us whose imaginations aren't that good, Road Rash offers the chance to get involved in some illicit street racing on the PC. It's a tidily organised game with five different courses to race over. A couple take you weaving through the city traffic; a couple of others encourage you to open up the throttle on big, wide, interstate highways; and one has narrow, coastal roads. And the racing's done pretty well too: the courses are all quite beautiful to look at, and the bike handles believably. There are fifteen bikes in every race, and there's also quite a bit of other traffic, including a rather relentless cop on a motorbike who'll pursue you if you speed past him. As well as the traffic, there's a liberal sprinkling of pedestrians for you to run over, from innocent old grannies with zimmer frames (yes, it is a bit tasteless) to joggers and blokes on skateboards who can have a bit of a go back at you.\r\nTo add atmosphere to the race, all your biking opponents have been given a character from the 'stereotype' drawer of sociopaths. Thus one of them is big and mean, while another is short, quick and temperamental. \r\nThese personality traits basically determine whether they're likely to try to hit you during the race or not. And nothing else. Yes, I did say 'hit' - Road Rash has the fairly unique gimmick of you being able to trade blows with an opponent while on your bike. And a good thing it is too, when you can smash somebody in the side with a baseball bat while travelling at 120mph. Especially if your blow causes them to careen into the path of an oncoming lorry, for example.\r\nThe rest of the game is really just trimmings. For finishing a race in the top three you get money. When you have enough cash you can buy a new, faster bike, and when you've won every race you get moved on to a new level which has the same courses, only longer.\r\nSo is it any good? Well, it's a competent racing game but looks a little dated when compared to the likes of Screamer 2. And, though the trimmings are all very well, unless you're bit of a biker, they just leave you cold. Still, it's nicely done and will help you pass a few minutes affably.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Robotron X","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"You get this little man and he stands on a square plane dangling in colour-cycling space and packs of 1980s-style sci-fi drone monsters run around trying to pick you up and throw you down and shoot at you so you run away but vaporise them while doing so and they all die and then you do the same again and again and again. It's superb.\r\nRobotron 2084 was first released in 1982 into the arcades. Nyon, our 16-year-old work experience student, was barely even born then, and looked understandably puzzled when I asked him if he remembered it. In those days it was a top-down shooter with chunky sprites and two joysticks used in tandem, one governing your movement and the other the direction in which your laser bullets were fired. \r\nRobotron X follows in the high profile footsteps of Defender and Tempest 2000 in being updated for the 1990s, the idea being to keep the substance of the original game while fleshing it out and making it look better. The principle change is to the view, which now has a camera tracking your movement as you scoot around, lining up and zooming in and out according to threat and your direction of movement. It works superbly nearly all the time, the sole exception being when it doesn't retreat fast enough when you're running out of the screen.\r\nBacking up this exploitation of 16 years of computer evolution are the graphics. Almost everything is built either of vectors or flat-shaded polygons. There are a couple of touches like the flame-thrower that employ texturing, but basically the whole feel of the game is pure 1980s. The characters have been brilliantly redesigned - they never pixellate because there's nothing to pixellate, with their edges being sharp - and of course they move much faster than they would if texturing were used. There's still slow-down when a horde of Grunts are shambling towards you, but I suspect this is more to do with Windows 95 on my PC than anything else, and there are options to reduce detail further.\r\nThis is pure arcade fun, apart from the fact that you'll be sitting down when having a go. And, of course, the wretched PC still has no decent control pads or sticks for games of this sort, and the keys are an acquired taste to say the least. So many enemies on screen at once, power-ups, speed-ups, shields, regenerating monsters, barriers, and the remains of the human race to save as you go about your business. The CD music is decidedly ropy, but you can play your own CDs in-game so that's not really a problem, and the sound effects, as you'd expect from Williams, are perfect.\r\nRobotron X is one of those games you can't really sense yourself getting better at, you just do as you put in the hours. There are 200 levels, and the difficulty settings when the speed gets going are utterly nightmarish. This won't be the game that you brought your £1,500 PC to play, but it makes Doom seem sedate, so do it anyway.","PUBID":58},{"GAMENAME":"Screamer 2","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Autumn is the season of falling leaves, Halloween, turning on the central heating, my birthday, the removal of summer's artificial stimulus, the onset of six months of depression, Guy Fawkes, and PC racing games. Last autumn, for example, our knees creaked beneath the weight of Fatal Racing, Al Unser Jr Arcade Racing, Big Red Racing, Hi-Octane, Wipeout, IndyCar 2, Manic Karts, Virtual Karts, Micro Machines 2 Special Edition, The Need For Speed, Speed Haste and Screamer. And in this month's PC Gamer alone we must contend with Monster Truck Madness, Network Q RAC Rally Championship and this, Screamer 2. And the trees are only just becoming tinged with gold.\r\nScreamer 2, though, is probably the most eagerly awaited of them all. The original Screamer, after all, sold in incalculable numbers, partly thanks to being nobly priced at £30, but mainly because it's an excellent game that people liked. It provided the PC with an acceptable alternative to Ridge Racer, with charming scenery, great speed and convincing handling. Some, who had played Ridge Racer, derided it for not actually being Ridge Racer. Most, though, loved it, and some still play it regularly to this day. Steve Owen, for example. Tellingly, traitorous Simon Cox awarded Screamer 90% in issue 24.\r\nHaving installed Screamer 2 onto my PC and fired it up, my comfortable office was immediately filled by curious onlookers. They became divided into two groups, and I record their observations here:\r\n\r\nTHE SCREAMER SCEPTICS\r\n'Eurch. It's all blocky.' This, I explain, is because Screamer 2 runs unacceptably slowly in hi-res mode even on a Pentium 90.\r\n\r\n'Pah. The car slides around all over the place.' It does, it's true, and not always entirely convincingly. But Screamer 2 has been inspired by Sega Rally, my favourite racing game of all time, so some degree of slidyness is therefore essential, and Screamer 2 does it better than most.\r\n\r\n'Why aren't there any other cars?' Ah. While there are, in fact, three other cars, they all zoomed off at the start of the race and I haven't seen them since.\r\n\r\nTHE SCREAMER GROUPIES\r\n'Is that Screamer 2? Excellent! Can I have a go?' No.\r\n\r\n'Cor. Look at the camels.' On the fantastic-looking Egyptian course there are some camels by the road who nod their heads.\r\n\r\n'3D maps!' The pre-race maps of the courses - and, indeed, all the options screens and everything - are all done with the same 3D engine as the rest of the game, and sweep attractively from one option to the next.\r\n\r\n'Where've all the cars gone?' Sigh.\r\n\r\n'Fancy a go over the network?' Unfortunately, our review copy of Screamer 2 only works over Virgin's PC network and not, for example, ours. This will be fixed before the game goes on sale, of course, and we're proceeding with the review because\r\n\r\n'Brilliant! A split-screen mode!' Our non-networked-up, multi-player-starved readers will be delighted to learn that Screamer 2's screen can be cleft in two, allowing two people to play at once.\r\n\r\nShooing everyone away, I sat down and began to play Screamer 2 as most of PC Gamer's readers will: alone.\r\nIf you are alone, Screamer 2 can be played in three different ways. There's arcade mode, in which you can pick any of the first three tracks (or others if you've won access to them through the championship mode, which I'll get to in a minute) and race round them as swiftly as possible.\r\nThere's the time attack mode, which is inspired by the Super Nintendo game Super Mario Kart, and - new to Screamer 2 - allows you to race against a ghostly image of yourself on your last attempt. This way you can tell exactly whether you're improving or not.\r\nAnd there's the championship mode, which is where Screamer 2 is at it's best. There are four leagues, which you progress through one at a time, and each adds an extra track to the basic four. To win a league you have to win the most points on a Formula 1-style table, which means you don't need to win every race, merely to be the best overall. And while the first league's not too tricky, the rest are actually jolly hard, so it's going to take ages before you're accomplished enough to win the final league and gain access to Screamer 2's secret course and cars.\r\nNow, the way I see it, the perfect racing game needs three things.\r\n\r\n1) Attractive scenery. The days of humdrum grey roads with white stripes down the middle and the occasional billboard are gone. Now we require houses, shops, trees, farms, windmills, animals and people. And here Screamer 2 is simply the best on the PC. While Screamer's graphics were lovely, Screamer 2's are quite breathtaking. Just about everything's constructed from 3D textured polygons, rather than the flat 2D stuff of lesser games, so you really do feel as if you're driving through villages, forests and mountain ranges. Colours give an excellent atmosphere, from the sandy yellows of Egypt to the refreshing snowyness of Finland and the verdant foliage of Colombia. And there are numerous eyecatching details, like helicopters swooping over the track, flocks of birds taking off, trains passing and windmills revolving. Each track is cleverly divided into 'zones', too, which both gives contrast - like when you leave the Egyptian desert and plunge into the busy streets - and allows you to get your bearings while you're learning the tracks. It's just a shame that you need a monster PC with a special graphics card to see Screamer 2 at its hi-res best, whereupon you can drive up to market stalls in Egypt, park next to them and see little bottles and things arranged on them. The spectators are all dressed in Egyptian clothes, and you can see the sails of Egyptian ships poking up from behind the trees.\r\n\r\n2) Good handling. And again, you'll find nothing to rival Screamer 2 outside of a complex sim like Grand Prix 2. Like all racing games, it's got its own unique style and seems a bit weird at first, but once you've got the hang of it it's possible to powerslide superbly round corners, going sideways into a hairpin bend, seemingly heading for disaster but coming out of it lined up perfectly for the next straight. The brake is, as usual, unnecessary, but you'll have to learn when to come off the throttle. The feeling of realism is enhanced by the way the car wobbles about on the screen, with the suspension bumping up and down and the front wheels steering, and the car frequently almost toppling over as you slam into the sides of the road. Grass, mud and smoke spurt out from the tyres, there are clacking noises over bridges and cobbles, there's a metallic clunk when you crash land after cresting a hump-back bridge too fast, and it's generally great.\r\n\r\n3) Racingness. It's no good having (1) and (2) if all you can do is drive round and round in circles. So you need lots of other traffic on the track to weave between and jockey with, and to give you a sense of progress. Screamer 2, though, only has three computer-controlled cars in it. And races generally seem to proceed as follows:\r\n\r\nAt the word 'GO!', I and the three computer cars speed off in a cloud of acrid rubber fumes, cries of 'Yeehah!' and rude gestures out of side windows.\r\nWe arrive at the first bend. I embarrassingly slither into it, grind to a halt and say something unrepeatable.\r\n\r\nThe computer cars, being computer cars, suffer no such problems and speed off into the distance. The only sound is the chirping of crickets.\r\n\r\nMy eyes narrow, my jaw sets rigid, and I set off in pursuit. After several minutes of skilled driving along an empty road I spot my CPU-steered chums on the horizon. They are driving in close formation, equally spaced apart, making no attempt to overtake each other, jostle each other, or anything.\r\n\r\nInching closer and closer, I eventually pull up alongside the tail-ender and begin to make my way forwards through the pack.\r\n\r\nSuddenly, my formerly docile opponents seemingly become possessed by Satan himself. I am buffetted to the left, to the right, and then to the left again, and spin out of control into a hedge.\r\n\r\nThe dust settles, and all is quiet again.\r\n\r\nThe only way to win at Screamer 2, it seems, is to zoom past the three computer cars on a long straight and then not make a single mistake for the rest of the race. This does mean, however, that you won't see a single other car until you reach the finishing post. (And there seems to be some sort of evil conspiracy involving the arrows that pop up supposedly to warn you of corners. 'Hairpin bend!' they yell, so you slam on the brakes and edge up to what turns out to be a gentle curve before shrugging, pouring the power back on and then discovering the hairpin bend. 'Hairpin bend!' they yell again, a bit further on, this time half-way round a hairpin bend. Tch. You guys.)\r\nSo Screamer 2 is a bit lacking in racingness, then. You find yourself largely racing against the clock rather than other cars, so it's as well that there are plenty of timing options. As well as the clock going in the corner of the screen you get updates on your progress relative, '+' or '-', to the previous best time, and also a reassuring 'BEST LAP!' when you get a new record. And the promise of secret tracks and cars more or less replaces the incentive that other cars would have provided. And there's always the split-screen two-player mode, which is great, except then there are no computer cars at all.\r\nWhere, though, has Screamer's Cone Carnage mode gone? Where's the Slalom? \r\nScreamer 2, then, is clearly missing something. But at the same time it compensates in so many other ways that it's impossible not to love it. Zooming though its pretty scenery, dirt spilling from the back wheels, is brilliant, clean fun, and I must admit to preferring this to Grand Prix 2's more serious approach.\r\nIt's a fiver more than Screamer, but in most ways it's much better. The graphics are prettier, the handling's more exciting, the driving surfaces are more varied, and, above all, it's trying to be Sega Rally rather than Daytona.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Sega Rally","Percentage":84,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Years ago it was the Amiga. Then the first wave of Japanese consoles took over. Two years ago the PC was the top dog. Now we're back to the consoles. What are we talking about? Systems with the best graphics capabilities, naturally.\r\nBecause the sad fact of the matter is that, for the moment at least, the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn and the new boy in class, the Nintendo 64, have the best graphics capabilities of any games system, ever. That's not to say of course that they also have the best games (after all, Command & Conquer isn't exactly a graphical feast), it's just that, for high-speed, graphics-intensive stuff, consoles beat PCs hands down.\r\nDepressing as this thought may be, it's important to bear in mind when you come to consider racing games, particularly racing games that first made their homes on other formats. Both Sega Rally and Destruction Derby 2 carry with them a prestigious name and reputation, which might tempt some PC owners to rush out and buy one of them in a fit of excited and foolhardy mine's-just-as good-as-yours bravado. However, £40 is a lot of money to make a horrible mistake with, so let's go through this a little more scientifically.\r\nBoth games are direct ports of the Saturn (Rally) and PlayStation (Derby) originals. All the tracks, features and extra bits of the original have been faithfully reproduced for the PC. Sega Rally started life in the arcade, where arguably it's still the finest racing game ever to have existed. Destruction Derby 2 is the work of Psygnosis' in-house Reflections team and is the much-improved sequel to one of the original PlayStation line-up.\r\nAlthough both games share an obvious racing theme, it's DD2 that boasts the more complex game structure. There are three ways to play the game. Wreckin' Racing is the main event and sees points awarded both for your final position at the end of the race and the amount of damage you've managed to wilfully inflict on your opponents. Stock Car Racing takes this mean-driving aspect out, making your race position all-important. Destruction Derby (which takes place in one of four deathmatch arenas) is simply a fight for survival - last car revving wins.\r\nWhile DD2's destruction element could have easily been just a gimmick - added on to personalise 'yet another' racing game - in reality that's far from the case. Not only is the racing element challenging enough in itself, the very real possibility of your car not making it through the entire race is a major worry. Before you really adjust to the game's controls (it'll take a couple of races), you'll quite often find that it's your own inept driving that finishes off your car, not enemy action. Front wings take a particular pounding as you mis-judge corners, skid through and hit the barrier wall. In your first week with the game, the idea of deliberately driving into other cars to score points will seem far from attractive. It's a race for survival out there and if your driving's not up to it, you won't last long.\r\nSega Rally, on the other hand, is a far more classic (some might say far less imaginative) racing game, and the only real way to play is in Championship mode. Here, starting from last position, you must battle your way around four separate stages to try and end up as the eventual champion. Just like the arcade original, a timer counts down as you drive along. If the timer reaches zero before you make it to the next checkpoint, then your race ends there and then. Although 14 other 'drone' cars will get in your way during the race, hogging the racing line and generally being a nuisance, there's no benefit from trying to crash into them. Similarly, the only penalty is the inevitable time loss - your rally car is held together with magical video game glue.\r\nAlthough Rally's design might sound limited, you have to remember that the game comes from the arcade, where accessibility is the key. The four courses are the paradigm for arcade racing design - quite brilliant and as yet totally unsurpassed. From the first, Desert stage, where the wide track and gentle curves lead to a final, seemingly never-ending hairpin, to the narrow twisting hell of the fourth, Lakeside, no video game tracks have ever been so well designed or executed. Similarly, the car handling and movement is the finest you'll ever see in any driving game. In corners, the amount of four-wheel-drive drift depends on the type of track surface you drive on. Win the extra hidden car (the rear-wheel drive Lancia Stratos) and you'll have to completely re-learn your driving style as you battle to put increased power through two less driving wheels. After playing Sega Rally, you realise quite how inaccurate and uninvolving many racing games are. Put simply, it's the best there is.\r\nSo then, two great racing games on the PC? Well technically that's true - two great racing games are now available on the PC, whether they've brought their greatness with them or not is a matter for question. We've already discussed the PC's problems with fast 3D stuff and no more obvious is it than with the PC versions of these two racers.\r\nDestruction Derby 2 shouldn't be on sale to anyone with less than a Pentium 100 and they should still forget about the high-res option. The whole key to making a successful racing game is car response, and in DD2 on a low-end Pentium there just isn't any. In a game where deft driving is important merely to survive, and winning entirely dependent on it, you have to be sure that when you steer right, your car moves right immediately - not soon after or a little later (within the week on a P60) but immediately. Another problem DD2 suffers is exaggerated clipping on the track horizon. While this doesn't come close to the horrors of Daytona, it still detracts from the look and feel of the game.\r\nIf Destruction Derby 2 is depressing news for mid- and low-range Pentium owners, then Sega Rally is no news at all - it simply doesn't involve them. Unless you're lucky enough to own a Pentium 166 or better, don't even bother thinking about Sega Rally. Purge it from your minds this instant. The whole point of the game, the very essence of its brilliance, lies in the way your rally car responds. Sega have managed to build in to the PC version that remarkable quality that's always stood Rally out from the crowd, but only on really high-end systems. On anything else the tragic news is that Sega Rally is just another, fairly unremarkable racing game.\r\nComparing the two games on their original systems head-to-head, Sega Rally comes out the winner. Although it boasts fewer tracks and cars, and fewer of the gaming options of DD2, it still remains the benchmark for racing simulation and excitement. On the mutually foreign turf of the PC, however, the situation is less clear. DD2 is by far the best optimised and presented package - it runs reasonably well on a P100 and even if the car handling is somewhat affected by slow-down, the game still has a lot to offer. Sega Rally, on the other hand, has the worst interface of any PC game yet to have a £40 RRP slapped on it, and is a complete waste of time played on anything less than a top-end system. It's a bit of a dilemma, really.\r\nIn a couple of years' time, PCs will once again be pre-eminent, and worries about which ported version of a game is best will revert to the property of console owners. Until then, games like Destruction Derby 2 and Sega Rally are always going to be vaguely disappointing for the few who can cope with their demands, and inaccessible for the majority who can't.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Destruction Derby 2","Percentage":83,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"See Sega Rally review.","PUBID":107},{"GAMENAME":"The Settlers II","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Imagine, if you will, the end of the universe. Trillions of stars living and dying by laws they never knew existed, life ceasing to be in one 10-43 of a second, and temperatures and pressures so inconceivable that I'll stop this sentence right here. The Settlers II doesn't seem quite so exciting in comparison, but about half an hour ago it seemed like my main reason for existing. \r\nThe original The Settlers is one of the most under-achieving games in the genre. Let's hope The Settlers II doesn't suffer a similar niche-market fate. It's SimCity 2000 with objectives, Conquest Of The New World without the irritations, Command & Conquer with subtler strategic elements and Warcraft II with less obvious finishing touches. All in all, a pretty good combination.\r\nIf you were unfortunate enough to miss out on the first game, I'll explain that your aim is to expand outwards from a central castle and destroy the other three races on the map. This expansion is accomplished by constructing military outposts (barracks, watchtowers and keeps) on your borders, which then push your zone of influence into unknown territory. As the land within your borders increases, you can build more civilian structures to further your war effort. Pretty simple stuff, really, and if you played The Settlers it will all sound very familiar. But it's Blue Byte's balance between management and war that makes their game so interesting to play. \r\nThe dual strengths that result from this balance are the way the game deals with constructing buildings, and the way the goods produced by those structures are then transported. In accordance with the ever-reliable Christaler's K-6 population theories (Sorry about this. - Ed), the whole game is based on hexagons. Each building sits at the centre of a hexagon, with a single link to the rim. Roads run around the outside according to certain rules, and one settler maintains each section of your road network, defined as the area between two flags. Finding the correct balance between the number of settlers and the length of road each one has to manage becomes of critical importance. When you consider that other factors such as gradients also have a bearing on the situation, you find yourself playing a game in which establishing a quality infrastructure is of unusually high immediate importance. \r\nEqually crucial is a strong and steady supply of raw materials. At first you require just stone, timber and food to prosper, but as you progress it becomes necessary to refine these commodities into more useful materials. The Settlers II offers all the buildings of the original plus a few new ones, such as donkey breeders, scouts and catapults. The entire basic structure of the game is so sound that everything you do makes perfect sense. And although it's easily possible to survive on some maps without many of the buildings, they add so much to your war effort that you eventually feel compelled to build them all. But it's up to you when to invest in certain costly and time-consuming new expansions. So, mining coal and gold and delivering them to a mint provides gold coins, which are then delivered to keeps on your borders, allowing the knights within to be trained to a higher level. If you have no gold, the alternative is to recruit more settlers into the military and use sheer weight of numbers to gain the ascendancy. \r\nThe Settlers II also scores very highly in the HMV back-of-the-box charm awards. Pseudo-3D is the rage in strategy games today, but in comparison to The Settlers II even Conquest Of The New World (see page 78) looks a little dowdy. Everything is displayed in SVGA up to 1024x768, and there are constant animations: trees sway in the wind, deer and sheep gallivant across the fields (admittedly waiting to be gunned down for dinner) and the little settlers skip and read papers while waiting for tasks to be completed. Each group of settlers has a different set of graphics, for both the buildings and the people. \r\nA little more creative effort could have been applied to the storyline, though. The campaign mode sees you stranded on an island by a shipwreck, and you have to fight through 10 scenarios and capture a jump-gate exit, which allows you to progress. At the end of each island, you return to the menu and carry on manually. Compared to Warcraft II's involving plot and amusing statistical performance breakdown, it leaves you cold.\r\nWith its 18 pre-generated scenarios, the single-player mode will keep you going for quite some time. You can select up to seven enemies on the bigger maps, and the game's objectives can be altered to provide as much of a challenge as you can cope with. And the maps are different each time, although unfortunately, you'll need 16Mb of RAM to play with the larger ones. There's also, of course, the now obligatory multi-player option, where two players can fight for control of the land on which they find themselves. In principle this is excellent, but in practice it demonstrates the fine difference between strategy-action and action-strategy games. \r\nIn Warcraft II, the physical act of combat is exciting to watch, as ballistas pound the enemy from behind massed ranks of foot-soldier cannon fodder. The results are everything, but it's constantly tense and rewarding to watch those life-force bars get lower. In Settlers II, on the other hand, the combat is just as central to your victory, but the game's emphasis is on establishing the structure to send your knights into the fray. When the moment arrives and the cartoony characters arrive at Yellow's watchtower door, there's not much point in watching the comical fencing thrusts and parries. The outcome is obviously important, and seeing the enemy's hard-earned farm turned into a pyre is satisfying, but the actual victory process is undramatic. In a multi-player game you really need more immediately gratifying vindictiveness against someone you know well.\r\nAs I'm getting fed up with saying, '[Insert Game Name Here] 2 is more of an evolution than a revolution compared to the original. It could have gone further without losing the qualities of the original [Insert Game Name Here]'. In The Settlers II's case this is again more than true, as several irritations remain. The entrance of every building faces the bottom of the screen, which means that you have to build a long road right around it instead of moving the door to face the correct direction. A facility to place the entrance flag at whichever hexagon node you wanted would have solved this problem without affecting the game's simplicity. \r\nIt's also annoying when you can't build a Newbury-style affair through a forest because of one small sapling, yet your little woodchopper is merrily hacking down irrelevant trees elsewhere. It's just one example of the problem of where to draw the line between macro and micro management in games. The enemy's woodchoppers are also irritating in a different way. No matter where the border is set, they seem able to cross it and chop wood under the nose of your guard towers. It would have been good if there were knights who cruised the countryside looking for these peaceful invaders and chopping them up on sight to teach them a lesson. These are such minor niggles in the greater scheme of the game that they're hardly worth mentioning. But aren't sequels meant to be about eliminating such gripes, however small?\r\nPerhaps the largest problem with this game is that it's possible to win using a very similar methodology to that of the first game. Okay, there are a few new buildings and units on offer, and you have to modify your tactics to cope with things like catapults, but Blue Byte have not fundamentally altered the game in the same way that MicroProse did with Civilization 2. \r\nAlthough The Settlers II perhaps doesn't represent enough of an advance over its predecessor, it is nevertheless a very worthy sequel. It has lost none of the magic because it's largely the same game. But even though nothing has really changed, and I played The Settlers to death first time around, the return of the PC's cutest game has been keeping me here well into the night. Now, about the end of the universe.","PUBID":23},{"GAMENAME":"Shellshock","Percentage":69,"ISSUEDATE":"32","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The last Core game we reviewed in PC Gamer was Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2, which got 76% in PCG 27. I did it, in fact, and found it to be reassuringly enjoyable, if rather superficial. And the suddenly-appearing battleships were, of course, ridiculous. Now here's Shellshock, which is basically Thunderhawk 2 again - but in a tank. And with rap music.\r\nAlthough Shellshock would appear to use the same graphics engine as Thunderhawk 2, suddenly-appearing battleships have ceased to trouble us. When you're in a tank you're at ground level, and rather more interested in what's going on in the immediate vicinity than on the distant horizon. So it doesn't really matter that buildings and guard towers materialise abruptly a hundred yards away. And battleships are rarely employed in land battles. The only snag now is that, because you're looking at everything in close-up, the old-fashioned bit-mapped objects look even chunkier, and trees spin around disconcertingly as you drive past them.\r\nShellshock's structured as a series of 25 missions, which, again, are much the same as those in Thunderhawk 2 - blow some stuff up, escort some trucks, blow some more stuff up. The tactics required are much the same too - approach the target area cautiously, picking off one baddy at a time as they come into range, rather than ploughing into the middle of it all; out-of-range baddies ignore you rather than moving in to attack. But you're in a tank rather than a helicopter which, although good, isn't quite so much fun somehow. It's upgradable, though, so you can use money earned by completing missions to add guided missiles, extra armour, a more powerful engine, etc.\r\nSo off you trundle, watching the radar screen for little red dots, and then trying to shoot them before they shoot you. Machine gun turrets occasionally open up and send streams of bullets towards you, which is both exciting and annoying because you can't do much except drive towards them, dying, until you're close enough to machine gun them back. And fences and walls crumble beneath your tracks, although tree stumps frequently pose a problem for some reason. Shellshock is undemandingly amusing, in much the same way that Thunderhawk 2 was.\r\nBut, as I said, there's rap music. This can be turned off, luckily, but the accompanying characters can't. The idea is that law and order has disintegrated, etcetera, and all that prevents the world from collapsing into anarchy is your heavily armed police force. So before each mission you're compelled to listen to rendered rap-singer-like characters chatting, Tarantino-style, about trivial every-day matters before going out and killing hundreds of people. They're neatly done, but have no connection with the action and rapidly become annoying. And if you skip them you skip the briefing too, although luckily your instrument panel points you in the right direction and tells you what to shoot. You can't, however, skip the in-game comments from your crew-mates, so missions are accompanied by the phrases 'Go left, man, go left!', 'Yo! Way to go!' and 'What you doing, Jack?' repeated until you sweep the loudspeakers off your desk and play in silence. \r\nThe network game? It's Assault Rigs all over again. Rather than being able to dart down corridors, duck into doorways and creep up stealthily behind your opponent, you're in a tank. Matches therefore proceed as follows:\r\n(1) Players A and B trundle around for a while until they meet.\r\n(2) Both press fire as quickly as possible until either Player A or Player B dies.\r\n(3) The survivor picks up all the loser's power-ups which, combined with his own, make him virtually invincible.\r\n(4) Repeat from (1).\r\nThe only occasional moments of excitement are provided when, during (2), both players die simultaneously, whereupon there's a race back to the battlefield in search of all the power-ups. Then it's back to (1).\r\nExamine Return Fire to discover how multi-player tank games are best approached.\r\nBasically, then: Generally good fun, in a Battlezone-brought-up-to-date sort of way. Graphically dated. Superfluous multi-player game. Ill-conceived rap music setting. Only 25 missions, but they should take ages to get through. A couple of knuckle-gnawing flaws. (Occasionally you'll spontaneously die; I eventually discovered that if you stop on top of a puddle for more than a few moments, the game decides that you're stuck in it, and aborts the mission. And helicopters shoot at you from behind trees, where your self-aiming machine gun won't lock onto them although theirs seem perfectly capable of tracking you.) Probably, on balance, fractionally less entertaining than Thunderhawk 2, even though, ironically, there's more to it. Cheaper than most PC games.","PUBID":31},{"GAMENAME":"Shockwave Assault","Percentage":62,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Imagine the cinematics of the Wing Commander series (except without Luke Skywalker and Biff out of Back to the Future) bolted onto the game engine of Terminal Velocity (except less sophisticated and more linear). Now imagine the plot involves some nice Tripods-style aliens invading Earth, and only you and your rugged and deadly (yet lovable) squadron of fighter pilots can save it. Then imagine there's no hell or heaven. It's easy if you try. Essentially what you have just imagined is Shockwave Assault. But how does it play? Like this:\t\r\nYou start off in Egypt. You're told this by your in-flight computer, and to back it up you can see lots of pyramids and sand. (But no Sphinx. Curiously, the only Sphinx in the game is in Las Vegas.) You glide towards the land, and presently you get attacked by the three-legged aliens mentioned earlier. They're easy to polish off, but after that flying enemies are encountered.\r\nAnd so is niggly point number one: the baddies are invariably as good a shot as you. You fly towards each other. Blam blam blam. Your foe explodes. You lose some energy. It is nigh-on impossible to 'engage' them and successfully avoid their fire, so you end up pegging it for the next refuelling drone instead of risking attacking more enemies than you have to. Also, your missiles seem a bit dodgy. Sometimes they blow up as soon as you launch them, and other times they fail to launch at all. Hmm. Perhaps it's 'realism'.\r\nAnyhow, your missions take you all over the world, including Hawaii and the west of England. Yes, you could possibly be flying over PC Gamer here in Bath. The box says 'Landscapes are based on real aerial photographs and actual geographical data' so you never know. Some of the scenery is very oddly proportioned (in England, the churches are larger than the Egyptian pyramids), but when you fly over LA you can blow up the Hollywood sign, so that's all right. \r\nCertain missions involve blowing up the power generators of alien prisons while avoiding hitting the prison itself, but most involve just blowing everything up. Each mission has several sub-sections, and thankfully if you mess up one of these sections, or simply get a thrashing from the aliens, you start at the beginning of that section rather than the start of the entire mission. Unfortunately, though, sometimes your character actually dies when you crash, and you have to re-start the mission. This seems to happen randomly, though not too often for it to spoil the game.\r\nSo, should you buy it? Well, it's not really as impressive as either the Wing Commander series or Terminal Velocity, but it's quite good fun, and you probably will want to play right through to the end. If so, there's a whole other episode set on Mars. It isn't quite as nice-looking as the first episode, but still adds tremendously to the value of the package.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Silent Hunter","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"31","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Submarine sims have been all the rage ever since Electronic Arts smashed a bottle against the prow of 688 Attack Sub and let it slide into the waters of critical acclaim back in 1989. Sub games seem to make a bit of a comeback every year, and hot on the heels of the rather dismal Fast Attack (PCG 30, 42%) comes SSI's World War Two sub sim, Silent Hunter.\r\nWith a look and feel that's suspiciously similar to Sierra's equally impressive Aces Of The Deep, Silent Hunter has all the usual sub-type features that you'd expect to find. Casual players can torpedo enemy shipping and rig for depth charge attacks, while veteran strategists can get their tactical kicks by sitting patiently on the ocean floor for two hours, listening to the whir of propellers, the muffled thumps of exploding depth charges and the echoing 'ping' of the sonar sweep. There's something here for everyone, and you don't have to be a maths whizz to understand the basics.\r\nIn short, Silent Hunter allows you to take command of an American submarine in a series of missions against Japanese shipping during World War 2. As with any other submarine sim, the structure is fairly straightforward and, whether you choose to play a single mission (featuring historical, warship and convoy encounters) or a full-blown campaign, it's up to you to silently cruise the choppy seas of the Pacific, sinking any oil-laden tankers or fat troop ships that bob innocently into your way.\r\nGraphically, things are fairly subdued, as most of your time is spent staring at torpedo times ticking away on gauges or watching the progress of your sub on the overhead map. But what you can see when you stare through the periscope is fairly impressive, with sea swell, pastel clouds and accurately represented shipping all drawn in SVGA. Obviously, interior decoration wasn't high on the list for these 300ft long tin cans, but the control room, with all its dials and gauges, seems historically accurate.\r\nIt's difficult to get wildly excited about a submarine game because the nature of sub warfare means that to be successful you've got to stay undetected for as long as possible. Most of the missions aren't likely to get the adrenaline pumping, although it's fun to surface right in the middle of a large convoy (using an indestructible boat) to take potshots at tankers with your deck gun.\r\nWith impressive attention to detail and a ruthless AI, Silent Hunter soon becomes a strangely involving and absorbing game. It's fully customisable, allowing you to tweak the game options to have an indestructible boat, unlimited fuel, aimed torpedoes etc., and easy enough that you can be sinking enemy vessels within five minutes. Like Aces Of The Deep, the rest of the CD hosts multimedia interviews with retired US submarine captains and an interactive sub tour, and it all combines to create an excellent game that beats Fast Attack hands, rudders and bow planes down.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Sim Copter","Percentage":59,"ISSUEDATE":"39","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"How we laughed. How we chortled, guffawed, snickered and tittered when, long ago, Maxis announced plans to unify its Sim games. So, for example, you'd be able to take a town made in SimCity and use it in SimFarm; or use a SimLife planet as a SimCity backdrop.\r\nYou might think, then, that we'd be laughing on the other side of our collective face right now. For in SimCopter your job is to police the skies of a 3D SimCity, keeping order and helping out the citizens, and said city can be imported from either SimCity 2000 or Classic. But no, we're still hugely, annoyingly smug, because to be frank: it's really not very good.\r\nWhat happens is this. As a sort of aerial policeman come taxi come emergency service, you're paid to roam the airspace of a city and sort out those little urban problems that crop up from time to time. Finishing a job results in points and more importantly money, with which you can MAKE YOUR CHOPPER BIGGER (snigger) and GET HOLD OF SOME GREAT EQUIPMENT (fnarr). To begin with, you're armed with a megaphone, for blaring messages to the populace, and a water pump/bucket for dousing fires. Later, you can acquire a rescue harness and a tear gas unit.\r\nThere are eight types of mission, and for most you're expected to call on the aid of the city's normal emergency services. A traffic jam can be cleared by ordering the cars to take a detour, or by dispatching a police car to the area. For fires, you need to fill up your bucket from a nearby lake and quench the flames, while alerting the fire service. Then there are rescues from runaway trains, medical evacuations, fleeing criminals, riots and rich folk wanting a lift to other parts of town.\r\nFlying the copter is relatively easy, thank God, though landing it is usually a swearfest. Yes, you can walk around the town, and even enter some buildings -well, one: your own hangar/operations base.\r\nFor a Sim game, then, this is relatively straightforward. And, it has to be said, extremely boring after a (short) while. The splendour of SimCity is totally lost here, mostly due to the astoundingly dire graphics. Sure, they look quite pretty when you're high up and in high res, but wandering about on the ground reveals a sorry state of affairs: stickmen and Atari 2600 trees, for God's sake. Once you've done one of each mission, it all starts getting a little repetitive. And the fact that you can use any of your favourite, hard-built cities doesn't really matter a damn, because they all look the same (terrible) from above. And another thing, unless you're packing a P166 you won't get much of a frame rate even at low res.\r\nSo. Nice idea, mixing up these Sim things, but it's not going to get very far if the results are like this. It's not a great copter game, it's certainly not a Sim... it's not anything much, just an ugly mess.","PUBID":85},{"GAMENAME":"Microsoft Soccer","Percentage":16,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Perhaps we were spoilt with Monster Truck Madness. We soon ignored the underwear that was The Neverhood Chronicles. We chose to forget the graphically impressive but repetitive boredom that was Deadly Tide. Perhaps, with this evidence, it is no surprise that I approached Microsoft Soccer with an open, if cautious, mind. It's ostensibly based on the English game known as football, but I could never be prepared, no matter how fierce the training, for the hideous dross that currently occupies nearly 50 Mb of my disk space.\r\nBelieving that a game is entitled to nil points if it has nothing going for it, I struggled long and hard to save Soccer that indignity. Eventually I found its redeeming feature: you can trick your friends into playing against you over a network or modem. Hoorah.\r\nAnd now for the interesting negatives.\r\nCasually tossing aside the highly successful top-down view, and disregarding the common trend to generate motion captured polygon players, Microsoft have opted for the three-year-old idea of moving sprites around a diagonal pitch, FIFA 94 style. But where FIFA 94 ran on a 486 or high-end 386, Soccer chugs pathetically on a P100 with a super fast graphics card installed.\r\nMicrosoft insisted that the version we saw was complete. Imagine the scene at their play-testing department:\r\nPlay-tester 1: Hey, Brad, weren't we due to get Microsoft's Soccer in for play-testing sometime last month?\r\nPlay-tester 2: Gee, Billy, you're right. Perhaps they thought it was okay without us.\r\nI'm sure games development is so complicated that it's easy to miss out this decreasingly necessary step. But Microsoft Soccer does seem to have suffered excessively from it. Honestly. For instance, it's almost impossible for either human or computer teams to see their opponent's goal. Passes are frequently intercepted and tackles are always successful, be they fair or foul. Your midfielder just runs using four frames of animation before having his legs surgically removed by other side's midfielder. Imagine this continuing until the final whistle has blown. And now imagine this continuing throughout extra time. And then, PENALTY SHOOTOUT!\r\nThis is the best bit. No matter what you do with the joypad, the ball only travels along the floor and rolls into a corner of the net. You never miss. The goalie never saves it. It even continues straight through him. So penalty shoot-outs never finish. No one ever wins. You have to cancel the game.\r\nAdd in the hideous graphics, dreadful animation, unrealistic ball movement, atrocious sound effects, bland crowd all wearing grey, the invisible glass barrier that surrounds the pitch, the fact that the game claims a 'Violation: tripping' when you foul someone (what?), and that the game fades in and out when the ball goes out of play, and I'm sure you'll agree with the score.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"Scorched Planet","Percentage":60,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There was a moment in Scorched Planet when I'd grabbed the beacon from a besieged city and ejected it into the surrounding grassland so my little blokes would be drawn away from the danger area, zoomed around mopping up the monsters in air-to-air combat while the civilians got on with escaping, and returned to pick them up and fly them to safety. Except when I arrived all I could see was the beacon surrounded by a pack of contented dinosaurs. Once again, I had lost.\r\nThere was another moment when I was haring away across lumpy sand dunes in my tank pursued by several extraordinarily annoying giant mosquitoes, span 180¡ on the spot and, as my momentum kept me going, fired backwards at the surprised insects as they rose into view. The survivors valiantly battled on, and as I fell off a cliff and plunged 3,000 miles to the ground, I continued firing upwards at their swooping forms.\r\nAnd there was a moment when I desperately scooped up all the fuel, took off and tried to fly through the passenger-saving stargate before my leaky petrol tank emptied, misjudging the approach but managing to stay airborne for just long enough, practically falling through the last ring and ricochetting off the ground into the sea where I bobbed on the undulating waves until my tank got its breath back.\r\nAnd then there were about 178,315 moments when I wanted to find the programmers and knock their silly heads together, because Scorched Planet is about as close as it's possible to get to being fantastically great while still messing it up. It's billed as Defender - but in 3D, and indeed it is, except they just haven't been able to let it be, and have piled on the strategy (because you can't have a PC game without strategy, someone who badly needs punching has decided) until it spoils the game. And that's particularly painful, because Scorched Planet has so much going for it. Your humans can now help out by foraging for power-ups (if civilians) or outing with the old rooty-toot-toot themselves (if soldiers), you can direct them by placing beacons, they flee in lorries and by flying hang-gliders, they're in constant danger of being bitten by spiders and turned into zombies who then scamper around attacking everyone, they can still be captured by flying monsters (although curiously I never saw this happen), they become stronger the longer they survive, and you can still accidentally shoot them. You have weapons like plasma cannon and homing missiles, a boss turns up every third level, if you don't like the eight-player deathmatch there's an alternative network game where you race to rescue the humans first, the monsters are fantastic, and your spaceship can turn into a tank, which is possibly the best vehicle yet to appear in a PC game.\r\nBut aaarghh. Each level is huge, robbing the game of that vitally important they're-everywhere frenzy. If you're not actually in a fight, there's no sense of urgency to be getting on with it. There's not even an indication of trouble-spots on the radar. (The radar, fatally, is rubbish. Everything's shown by tiny single-pixel dots, even when you zoom right in or look at the map, and the colours are extremely badly chosen, with humans, power-ups and flying monsters shown in easily confusable light hues. Time and again I'd be trying to find the last human and fly excitedly to an ammo dump. WHAT'S WRONG WITH USING SYMBOLS, YOU NITWITS? As you do to show the stargate or indestructible mothership, for example.) I wanted to hear terrified radio chatter, to be bombarded by pleas for help from all sides so I didn't know which way to turn. Or at least hear a hugely audible scream every time someone was set upon (like in Defender, say). As it is you mostly fly around for a bit and suddenly everybody's dead because you hadn't been paying attention to the dots. Instead of being thrillingly overwhelmed, you just never really feel in control. (Incidentally, if you fail a mission you enter the world's most dismal mutant wave -a lot of entirely normal aliens arrive, you fly around each other for ages because your turning circles are so tight your shots all go wide, and then the last half-dozen RUN AWAY so you have to spend perhaps ten minutes chasing them down. Unbelievable.)\r\nLater levels introduce mechanical complications. I enjoyed the leaking petrol wrinkle because the tank's far more fun to drive, but by the time I had to rebuild bridges for the civilians to cross I'd more or less given up. I'd signed up to blast monsters, not to be a repairman.\r\nScorched Planet is a game of moments, and those moments are excellent. You'll long remember salmoning up the waterfall, for example. Fighting monsters is extremely good fun, the tank is quite brilliant and the 19 incredibly tough levels have lovely geography. But for every wizard idea like being able to save at any point but only after you've found a save power-up, there's a pointless irritation like having to find a battery before you can fly your people through the stargate. In trying to build on Defender, the designers have lost sight of what made it so much fun in the first place.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Space Bucks","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There's absolutely nothing wrong with a company that relies on a steady stream of solid, playable games as a foundation for success. But Sierra seem to feel that games like Space Bucks should be smuggled out of the warehouse under the cover of darkness, while the red carpet is reserved for the likes of Phantasmagoria and Conqueror 1086.\r\nSpace Bucks, apart from its terrible, local-radio type of name, is the perfect example of such a game. It's not completely brilliant, but it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable than most of Sierra's other recent games. In theory it places you in an Elite-style trading universe, minus the flying, and has you trying to compete to establish trading dominance in a Railroad Tycoon fashion. Taking two classic games and trying to mesh them together is a fine idea, and Impressions, Space Bucks' developers, have largely pulled it off.\r\nYou start on a single planet in a randomly generated universe with a starport and one intergalactic ship, and have to take it from there. Locate trade routes between high- and low-tech planets, negotiate landing rights with a special team, dispatch a starship and then set up a small shuttle service. As the years progress you'll gain the benefit of new technology, enabling you to carry more goods further and faster. Weapons and shields can be added to fend off pirates and stock bought in from other companies, and if you feel like playing dirty, sabotage teams can be sent out to your neighbours' ships to slow them down permanently. Brief and well-produced video clips compare your progress with that of your rivals and add to the atmosphere.\r\nAssuming you can get it to work (it's a bit picky about resolutions and things), Space Bucks is very icon heavy, and there are a few odd key/mouse choices, and some irritating inconsistencies -like the exit button jumping round from screen to screen -that should have been picked up on. But, as with The Settlers, once you've been playing it for a while and got used to what all the icons mean, the lack of text can be seen as a bonus. And if you're a Space Bucks kind of person, you'll be used to ugly lookers.\r\nWith Civilization 2 being released about now (early March), even the most heavily-promoted strategy game is going to feel the strain. Space Bucks, of which no-one outside Sierra's offices is likely to have heard at all, is probably going to sink without a trace. Which is a shame, as it's just the sort of game we could do with more of.","PUBID":125},{"GAMENAME":"Spycraft","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The familiar number rattles upon the keypad. The door phwisps open. Patterson Plakes steps into the safe room. Vabbaugh stands looking through the one-way glass. She raps her teeth with a pencil. Glancing across, Plakes can see both halves of the chamber at once. In each, an officer questions a figure sat correctly in a sturdy chair. The figures are identical. Vabbaugh speaks, her eyes never leaving the glass.\r\n'By all tests they are exactly alike. This is worrying to the Floor Tops. I have assured them you will be able to deliver the real Jonathan before the Nectarine-9 deadline.'\r\n'Then give me sound.'\r\nThe pencil bullseyes a control.\r\n\r\nJonathan 1: Spycraft is a compulsive game. Even as I jibed at the restrictive linearity, fumed at the limitations of the pretend computer through which I worked and swapped between the three CDs with increasingly tiresome regularity, I would not relinquish my place at PC Gamer's second-least-hateful machine. I was determined to avenge 'Grayling' (killed in the field by the traitorous 'Harmonica'), defeat a sinister organisation of mercenary ex-spies and unmask the double agent who'd been scuppering my plans all along the way. (Due to his suspicious sweaters, I strongly suspected Charles Napier.) Even as I baulked at the proudly authentic procedure of systematically cataloguing every aspect of government employees' lives, I was hunkering down, escaping the boisterous\r\nPCG office with borrowed headphones, listening intently to a private telephone conversation between a slightly anarchic young professor and his creditors, then leafing through another scientist's confidential psychiatric report. And horrified delight was writ visibly upon my face as I examined plans of a dozen ugly improvements to large-calibre weapons. Truly I had become a CIA operative -but in my head. Nothing would deter me from completing my assignment to the satisfaction of Mr The President.\r\nNow, a full 48 hours later, I have completed the game. And I am immensely pleased to report that overall it is splendid, even though Charles Napier and his knitwear were innocent. Though a polar opposite to Wing Nuts, which live readers may remember I thoroughly enjoyed playing last month, Spycraft has the same commendable feel in its elegant blending of game and video. It is an adventure game with puzzles, but instead of sliding tiles to open doors, you get to play with wireframe models of murder scenes, matching angles with shaky videotape to trace the trajectory of the bullet, or blow up photographs electronically and photofit suspects from their tiny blurred faces. The plot, involving presidential assassination, nuclear blackmail and Bondish crime syndicates, is gripping, and is carried off by refreshingly grave actors and a pleasing quality of writing. There are, praise be, no wacky sidekicks.\r\nUnfortunately, there are some cumbersome, addle-pated flaws. For example, the game starts with a training camp section which is enormously dull but which must be completed. You'll end up trying all the answers in sequence just to escape. Irksomely, if you accidentally choose to go somewhere that involves swapping discs, you can't change your mind. Most annoyingly (because you'll be using it almost all the time) your pretend computer rivals a PC in its lunkishness. You can only move through a session's documents one at a time, which is hell if you've (quite rightly) been jumping around the archives and networks following a lead; and if you shut it down without solving a puzzle (which happens a lot as you're always being called away to meet people or examine evidence) it LOSES ALL YOUR WORK. That complicated, almost-right photofit -that phone call analysis where you picked out individual background sounds to identify the point of origin -all must be done from scratch. Once again, a game with a computer in that you need a pencil and paper to play. Grrrr.\r\nThe largest problem with Spycraft is that its exciting high-tech gadgetry inevitably boils down to pushing things repetitively around\r\nthe screen until you finally hit the right combination. The game's fishing for you, twitching enticing lures while keeping large clubs cheerfully hidden behind its back. Like Lemmings, the fun is in working out a task -where the shooter's hiding, or which brand of cigarettes should be superimposed on the fake photo to make it look as if you've captured a suspect's lover -while actually poking everything into place is a poor second. (But perhaps that's just me. It didn't do Lemmings any harm. Wretched game.) It's no help that the game is cursedly tight-lipped -for example, is it refusing to recognise that photofit because the picture's of an innocent bystander, or because you've got the nose slightly wrong? You don't get even the slightest clue. (Your CIA team-mates are quick enough to spot when you submit a wrong conclusion -how hard would it have been for them to chip in when you've obviously been stumbling over the same thing for ages?) It's a particularly exasperating omission, because in other areas the game's superbly fiendish, as when you're suddenly asked about a contact's family, who were fleetingly mentioned in a report hours ago, or when your photofit turns up a similar but visibly different face, but you'll probably accept it because Computers Don't Lie.\r\nBut, heck, Spycraft's a bit muddled in its head from beginning to end. It deals in hard dates and has news reports to mark the passing of time, but because events are triggered by events (rescuing your informant, or finding who's passing those marked dollar bills, or whatever) you can jet as often as you like between the Washington and Moscow stations without comment. There's a deeply, deeply repellent, gratuitous and gimmicky torture sequence (it doesn't get results, and you can dispense with it from the title screen so WHY HAVE IT AT ALL?) supposedly to demonstrate how, morally, the choice is entirely yours (though the CIA characters are careful to distance themselves from the 'procedure') so setting up a scene where you have to shoot a friend to prevent a bloodbath, but when you have to order your informant to kill someone to prove his loyalty to his gang, that's all right because the target is a criminal. There's a bit where you grind to a halt until for no explicable reason you might try visiting the Moscow station whereupon a vital clue appears on your desk, but a bit where a British henchman blasts you at point-blank range, except his gun jams, and his face drops and he murmurs, 'Oh, bloody hell.' There's a bit where a top-secret rifle is stolen by a man in an insultingly obvious beard, but a bit where your boss says, 'You're so fired, there's just a smoking crater where you're standing.' There's a bit where you unavoidably play into the villains' hands, but a bit where the (real) ex-head of the KGB falls to bits because he's on camera, and a bit where the (real) ex-head of the CIA looks at you and says, 'Trust no-one.' There's the most unbelievable, ridiculous, plot-betrayingly illogical ending, but a bit where you have to download priceless files from a booby-trapped computer leaving time enough to hurl it through a window while the bomber's voice gloatingly counts down. It is, in short, largely splendid.\r\nIt is a credit to Spycraft that it treats you as intelligent (and, yes, I was complaining about the photofit sequence earlier, but that's where it gets in the way of the game, so rasssp). The puzzles are interestingly unusual, rigidly logical and afford an uplifting sense of achievement when you beat them. They drive the story and fit snugly into the world o' espionage which spins about your (admirably sexless) Agent Thorn like a nasty carousel. It's the (mercifully brief and straightforward) Lethal Enforcers-like shootouts that are there to break them up for a change. Treat it with respect, for it is the FMV equivalent of spasming up a swampy riverbank and having a bit of a breathe. I'll not be playing it now I've won, and I'm slightly worried by how easily it became confused in the later stages, for instance having characters promise new programs for my cretinous computer but never delivering them, or occasionally messing up the cursor so you couldn't select anything and had to restart, but my word, how easily I've forgiven it making me analyse aeroplane seat bookings for an hour-and-a-half on a Sunday morning. I am highly impressed.\r\n\r\nJonathan 2: My favourite episode of Animaniacs is the one with Pip Pumphandle telling the infinitely drawn-out story about Bob Barker.\r\n\r\nA smile plays lightly across Patterson's lips. 'A simple task,' he murmurs, and reaches across to snatch the wig from Vabbaugh's head. 'It was a good try, Jonathan, but not, I fear, quite good enough.'\r\nLights ping on in the safe room and alarms begin to whine. Patterson senses guards spilling in behind him.\r\n'You hunted a great game,' says Vabbaugh, her voice rising, 'and caught the greatest game of all, Jonathan - yourself!'\r\nBut they were both wrong.","PUBID":5},{"GAMENAME":"Star Control 3","Percentage":31,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Here's an interesting mathematical poser. Star Control 3 is an unstable marriage of two completely different games. Both of them, taken on their own terms, are extremely unsatisfactory. But does the sandwiching of two below-par games add up to one serviceable title, or do their faults compound each other, creating an even more disappointing combination?\r\nThe correct answer, of course, is that it doesn't matter. Star Control 3, from the very first instant you try to play it to the moment, a little while after, when you shatter the disc into small pieces and nail them above your door as a warning to others, is clearly so unremittingly poor that degrees of failure aren't really an issue. We should, perhaps, just shake our heads slowly, laugh wryly to ourselves, and move on.\r\nBut we shan't. Because I spent Sunday subjecting myself to the SC3 nightmare, and describing my experience is the only way to purge myself of the screaming irritability, festering rancour and vague sense of bereavement it has left me with.\r\nStar Control 3 jury-rigs a rickety shantytown of mismatched side-shows around the central attraction of Asteroids-style space combat. The two-player head-to-head version of this duel is the most significant entertainment on offer in the whole package, but even that has an exceptionally limited appeal, thanks to its dunderheaded over-simplicity. Each player builds up a fleet of ships for the battle, which is fine, but then - appallingly - each vessel is played off against another, one at a time. The result is, paradoxically, both stultifyingly boring and table-bangingly exasperating.\r\nThe one-player 'adventure game', as it's described with almost total inaccuracy, has you exploring a distant star system, trying to defend the League of Sentient Races from Crux antagonists, holding the alliance together through multiple-choice 'diplomacy', shuttling aliens around the galaxy to create new colonies, searching for and researching buried artefacts from an advanced society, advancing a series of plot-developing animations about the destruction of the universe and managing resources to maintain and expand your infrastructure, producing more ships and crew members to fight your battles (the one-on-one Asteroids-type things I mentioned earlier).\r\nAnd if all that sounds, perhaps, a touch unfocussed -well, that's because it is. \r\nBasically, Star Control 3 tries to do much too much, and does all of it badly as a result. The strategy bits are hopelessly muddled. The mechanics of exploration are desperately tedious. The graphics are poor, the interface design atrocious, the supposedly humorous dialogue quite unbearable and the whole thing's riddled with errors, from frequent grammatical mistakes to gameplay non-sequiturs and technical faults like the way in which, even when you click on a highlighted dialogue choice, you'll sometimes pick the one below it.\r\nJames, the buffoon, has a slightly different point of view. 'But didn't you rather enjoy its quirky crapness?' he had the effrontery to ask me. Which is rather like asking someone with blood pouring from their mouth if they didn't rather enjoy that razor blade you 'quirkily' slipped into their apple pie. The 'so bad it's good' argument just doesn't wash. Star Control 3 is so bad it's, well, just bad. No, wait - worse than that.\r\nVery bad indeed.","PUBID":153},{"GAMENAME":"StarFighter 3000","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"By the time we reach the year 2000, the world will be an oh-so, ever-so different place. Although man will not have evolved a great deal, technology and lifestyles will have leapt great leaps and bounds. We will eat tablets, not food. All cars will have been destroyed in favour of a giant, supermultinational monorail; all cotton ditched and silver foil used instead. So much to look forward to in the next four years.\r\nSuch is my state of mind as I cheerfully shimmy my way into StarFighter 3000. Which is a mistake, really, because the mood immediately and forcefully created by highly polished cosmetic touches is the kind you get from waking up in a corrupt, warring 3037, ruled by an evil new regime, and realising you've just been 'persuaded' into testing experimental spacecraft. Remember: The Sinclair C5 was an experimental spacecraft, and, had we been involved in some sort of intergalactic conflict in the early 1980s, would doubtless have been employed as the front-line in Earth's attack. Just you think about that. Luckily, though, StarFighter 3000 sees you equipped with nothing less than a Predator Mark IV Planetary Assault Vehicle, which is a fine model. \r\nBut rather than patronise you by following review protocol and Saving My Conclusion For The End, here's my frank and touching lowdown on StarFighter 3000. It's solid. It's trustworthy. It's a whole, wholly satisfying game. Easy to play (but tricky to play well), it's a massive 60 missions long, each of which lets you clamber that inch further up the career ladder (from Cadet to Commander). And each mission can be deceptively hard, too. Even the Rookie levels seem to take most of your life to complete, but are, thankfully, generally and mindlessly entertaining. For a shoot-'em-up, StarFighter 3000 is also fairly varied. Okay, so it's extremely flight-based, but depending on the kind of mood you're in, you can either play for fun or play to win. Explosions are gratuitously satisfying in both sound and vision (think Thunderhawk 2), the craft handles with extreme nimbleness, and -even when you get down to the complex business of instructing wingmen where to strike next on your behalf -you still feel completely, totally in control. Apart from the occasional on-screen slowdown in the thick of the battle, your ship also whistles along very nicely indeed, creating, in places, the sense of speed that gave Terminal Velocity its extra-special edge in the market.\r\nIt may not have the look of TV - in fact, in places, it's downright poor - but little tweaks and touches here and there show the sheer amount of thought that's gone into the game. Whereas with Terminal Velocity a mountain is as much of a deadly enemy as a rapidly approaching spaceship, SF3000 gives you enough firepower to simply carve your way through. And add to that the almost tedious array of options and power-ups you're able to make use of, and you're laughing. Except war is never funny, and I want you to remember that always.\r\nBut generally? Well, StarFighter 3000 is a good enough game. In fact, 'good' is probably the word that describes it best. Nothing inordinately brilliant, nothing that strikes you as particularly bad. Just a sturdy, wholesome, trustworthy game that, were you to introduce it to your mother, would no doubt please her immensely.","PUBID":134},{"GAMENAME":"Star Rangers","Percentage":67,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Welcome to the future. Again. It's war. Again. If the Israelis and Arabs of the late 20th Century have learned to settle their differences with the pen rather than the sword (it's mightier, after all), then why haven't the super-human, super-intelligent, superannuated lifeforms of the 23rd? BECAUSE IT WOULD MAKE FOR A CRAP GAME, that's why. Who on earth would want to buy a peace treaty simulator?\r\nAnd it would also call for more than a modicum of intelligence and imagination on behalf of game designers the world over. That's a more pertinent reason why, because it means you're saddled with yet another sad save-the-galaxy tale of woe. Wing Commander all over again, you'd be entirely forgiven for thinking, except this time the enemy are Tauregs (after the desert-dwelling tribes of Africa, no doubt), and there aren't any video sequences, and there aren't any famous ak-torrrs.\r\nBeyond that you might as well be playing the next instalment of Chris Roberts' deep-space saga. Small texture-mapped spaceships can't wait to be blown up with your guns, large texture-mapped spaceships can't wait to be blown up with your missiles, bases can't wait to be saved, transports can't wait to be escorted and so on. The big difference between Wing and Star is that each time you venture out on a sortie the latter gives you a section of space to defend rather than a preset mission structure. You flutter about the galaxy (through the incredibly irritating Warp Tunnelª) like the Butterfly of Death, flitting from flash-point to hot-spot, defending bases, wasting enemies, protecting transports and crushing cruisers.\r\nFor a minute there it almost sounded exciting, but sadly the reality is not quite so scintillating. The game's meat is the 3D combat, and, quite frankly Mr Shankly, it's not up to scratch. Sure, the got-to-get-over-to-Gamma-2-base-before-it-gets-wasted stuff adds to the edge, but when you get there, you will not be party to the most exhilarating bout of spacial blasting this side of Tau Ceti. We won't even bother to bleat that the game jerks to a near stand-still in VGA mode on a DX2 when more than two enemy ships are encountered. And we won't remind you that Wing Commander III played quite sensibly in SVGA on the self-same machine. Nor will we complain that the tenuous mission linking screens smack of pre-determined destiny.\r\nNo, what we do deride and decry is that Star Rangers is utterly devoid of the thrills and spills so evidently abundant in games like TIE Fighter, Descent and the ubiquitous Wing Commander. Missions boil down to blast-'em-as-quick-as-you-can death-fests, with the more advanced difficulty settings offering more lengthy, rather than more exciting, dogfights. It gets to be a rather drawn-out chase through space, with only the desperate cries for help from your densely populated bases spurring you on to greater glory. These are, after all, real people. And lives matter. \r\nStar Rangers has most of the elements of a great game -graphics, strategy and action -but somehow, some strange how, it's less than the sum total of its parts.","PUBID":71},{"GAMENAME":"Shattered Steel","Percentage":79,"ISSUEDATE":"37","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"All hail generic saturation, because hot on the heels of Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries comes Interplay's version of the Big-Robots-With-Legs game, Shattered Steel. Unsurprisingly, it's cut from Mechwarrior/EarthSiege cloth, and so veteran robo-pilots should find the whole thing cosily familiar. For starters there are a wide variety of vehicles, air and ground targets to shoot at; a well stocked arsenal of shockingly destructive weaponry; Aliens style dropships and pastelly Dulux landscapes. But this snug familiarity is half the problem. To slap down Mercenaries or EarthSiege 2, Shattered Steel either needed to have bigger, better and altogether flashier graphics, or a completely new twist on the old stomp-around-and-shoot-things theme. Unfortunately, it has neither.\r\nSet in the far-flung future, Shattered Steel predicts a future where mankind has colonised the stars. In this universe, huge, avaricious mining corporations are stripping the new colonies of their natural resources and, thanks to a strange string of technological developments, their business interests are protected by machines that look suspiciously like heavily armoured chickens. Called Planet Runners (rather than Mechs), these huge bipedal tanks pack the firepower of an army division and possess the defensive capabilities of a small hill. It's a bit like piloting one of those small Imperial Walkers from Return Of The Jedi, but sadly without the Ewok cannon fodder.\r\nLike MechWarrior 2 and EarthSiege 2, Shattered Steel is a futuristic combat game that challenges you to take part in a progressively difficult campaign. Four cursor keys control the basic direction of your gun-packed Runner, while the mouse takes care of the turret movement. It's a bit fiddly at first and takes some time to get used to, but it's probably the perfect combination of controls. Like X-Wing, each Runner also has its own power plant which allows you to devote different amounts of power to the three different systems: weapons, shields and engines. Divert more juice to your weapons system and the lasers will recharge more quickly. Pump up the shields allowance and they will recharge more rapidly. Giving the engines more power, obviously enables you to move at a greater speed, handy for those hit-and-run missions into enemy bases.\r\nWith nifty online instructions that clearly explain the finer points of Planet Runner technology, it's easy to get playing within minutes of firing the game up. Digitised mission briefings explain the goals of each sortie; 3D grid maps show the topography of the battle zone; while the intelligence display gives you a run down on the capabilities of the enemies that you'll meet. There's the Gnat, for example, an old but agile Planet Runner; the Steel Crawler; an ant-like tank; not to mention the Night Wing and the snappily named Voltar SAR-2, which scoot around the cloudy skies like flying hair-dryers with industrial strength lasers. It's comprehensive enough and, as the campaign progresses (there is only one, but expansion packs are planned), you advance across the pastel planets, destroying communication arrays, rescuing prisoners and escorting vital supply convoys. \r\nWhere Shattered Steel hopes to make an impact is in the graphics department. The animation isn't as silky smooth as that seen in Mercenaries and the Planet Runners seem squat and slightly misshapen in comparison. But, on the whole, the graphics are excellent. They aren't exactly of gosh-wow proportions, but the Voxel graphics engine, similar in many respects to the one used in Comanche, creates a world of rolling hills and valleys. When you shoot an enemy Planet Runner, for example, he might lose a leg before toppling sideways onto the ground, while winging an aircraft will cause it to catch fire and spin uncontrollably towards the landscape. Flames lick the buildings, pick-ups are there to be collected, buildings collapse in avalanches of fiery rubble while the dark skies are eerily lit by weapons fire and searchlights. It all looks great.\r\nFor Mechwarrior veterans, however, Shattered Steel doesn't go anywhere that MechWarrior and Earthsiege haven't already been. There's a gorgeous Mechwarrior 2 style intro sequence that has the production values of a low budget film, and a wide range of missions and enemies to keep the average robo-jockey interested. It's all hard edged, impressive stuff and so developer Bioware gets a ton of brownie points for attention to detail, but there's nothing revolutionary that sets it head, shoulders and gatling guns above the crowd. Sometimes it's difficult to be impressed when your main enemy looks like a Bernard Matthews turkey. You don't know whether to blast it to bits or tear off a drumstick.\r\nAdmittedly, Shattered Steel has all the features (multi-player options, the usual crop of external views, not to mention a virtual cockpit and some slick presentation) that are traditionally part and parcel of the big robots genre. But despite the pretty graphics and the fairly exciting gameplay, this Interplay effort doesn't quite match up to the delights of Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. It's not a bad game. Far from it. It's just that Shattered Steel lacks the imagination and the originality that would make it a real contender for the Mechwarrior crown. Digitised speech, pastel landscapes and SVGA graphics aside Shattered Steel is on a par with the first Mechwarrior and EarthSiege outings. With expansion packs and a sequel already in the pipeline, let's hope the next generation of Shattered Steel is better. (I think Shattered Steel's a really good name, though. - Ed)","PUBID":72},{"GAMENAME":"Strife","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There is nothing I like talking about more than world-based games. I'll talk about it to strangers on buses, people who have dialled my telephone number by mistake, the postman, and even in my Descent 2 (87% PCG 29) review. This combined with that fact that I constantly mumble the script to Destroy All Monsters under my breath means that I am always invited to the most fashionable parties. Anyway, also being the recognized world expert on strife means that I was the only candidate to review this odd little world-based Doom-engined RPGer. Is it the all immersing atmospheric religious experience it should be, or is it an outdated Doomalike that is put to shame by the likes of the new breed such as the mighty Quake? ('World-based game'? -Ed)\r\nWhen you start playing Strife the first thing you notice is that it looks quite dated -perhaps even cartoonier than Doom. In fact it looks suspiciously similar to the first game to borrow the Doom engine - Heretic. However, scratch a little below the surface and you'll discover that it has an equal amount in common with Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series. It's based around a small town in a world overrun by an evil religious cult, and you must help the underground resistance fight back. Everyone in the game can be talked to (even the baddies if they're not too busy fighting you), and some people will ask you to complete tasks for them. These range from the relatively simple (for example assassinate someone), to the rather complex (open the gate to the castle by entering the sewers, contacting the underground tribe who help you get into the castle so you can drain the sewage tank and using the secret entrance in there to find and destroy the gate mechanism. And get out again).\r\nIt's a bit like Dark Forces, but a bit less stylish and slick, but with more continuity between missions. For the main part it's good clean fun. Certain missions (such as the sewer ordeal explained above) can become extraordinarily tedious though. AND STUPIDLY YOU HAVE ONLY ONE SAVE GAME SLOT. At the start of one mission (the sewer one, coincidentally), I thought I had to shoot the man guarding the sewers. It was only when I came out again when I was halfway through the mission I discovered that the town alarm had been triggered and there were several hundred guards waiting everywhere to give me a good kicking. I of course had saved my game several times in the sewers in case something went wrong. Luckily I had some underhand cheats to facilitate further play, but otherwise I would have had to start again right back at the beginning of the game. Nnngh.\r\nIf you do persevere, though, there are some great moments that make it worthwhile, such as the attack on the castle - you're joined by an army of friendly soldiers and it's fantastic - unlike anything else.\r\nIrritations aside this game is a gigantic and shining example of how the Doom genre is advancing plot-wise.","PUBID":149},{"GAMENAME":"Top Gun: Fire At Will","Percentage":88,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Persistent PC Gamer readers will remember Top Gun: Fire At Will (Aarghh. -Will) from our April issue of last year. We spoke of a flight sim for beginners that would feature characters who'd ease you into the game by explaining how the controls worked, a navigator in the back-seat who'd look after some of the more routine flight sim operations, a rendered 3D InteracTive Baseª for you to wander around, and movie-style presentation that would join all the missions up into a story.\r\nNow, after the sort of irksome delays which seem to beset every flight sim, it is here. Some of the original ideas have been dropped -including, thankfully, the Interactive Base where, no doubt, you'd have to click on the cleaning lady's trolley to arm your plane, or something -and some have remained.\r\nIn-flight conversations are still in there, and these take place over the radio throughout missions. These go something like this:\r\n\r\nMe: I wonder what this button does.\r\n'Merlin': Splash one Bear bomber! Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! Yee hah hah! We got those suckers! Momma, spread the word!\r\nMe: Pardon?\r\n'Strike': What was that? 'Merlin', I didn't copy. Over.\r\nMe: I'm glad it wasn't just me.\r\n'Stinger': 'Strike', he means that the bandits have been destroyed.\r\n'Strike': First cruise, kids.\r\nBoth of you are RTB. That's return to base. Then you can write momma a nice letter telling her what it is to be in hack for a week.\r\nMe: So, er, what is it to be in hack for a week?\r\n'Merlin': He's just kidding about that hack\r\n'Merlin, how come you always speak for Maverick? Come to think of it, I've never even seen Maverick.' The characters who're speaking appear in a little window at the bottom of the shown in the little window, of course). But the mercenaries attack, and so on. Tends to start off really easy and not put up any kind of a fight until about halfway through, which is fine at the beginning but began to tax my patience as I became more proficient) it could easily become my favourite flight sim.\r\nImagine a new version of Knights Of The Sky done like this. Cor.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Syndicate Wars","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"You know those truly awe-inspiring gaming moments? When you're confronted with something so breathtakingly exciting you literally gasp at its audacity? When, for example, you plunge into the Death Star trench in X-Wing, or experience your first grenade fight in multi-player Quake. When your heart fills with love for the programmers of the great game you're playing, and you want to hug them -well, shake hands firmly -and just say, 'Thanks. Thanks for treating me to this incredible experience'.\r\nYou know those moments? Syndicate Wars is full of them.\r\nAn early example: you're escorting a pair of kidnapped scientists through enemy territory when an alarm sounds. For a few tense seconds you brace yourself for an onslaught, and scan the area for enemies. There's no-one around. But just as you're about to relax, the building you're standing next to - yes, the entire building - explodes, sending a shower of glass ripping across the street. Floor by floor, the tower block crashes to the ground, sending up a huge cloud of smoke. Your agents are blown backwards by the force of the explosion; the scientists you were meant to protect are caught in the blast. And as the dust settles, you see the first wave of attackers running towards you from the shadows. It's heart-stopping.\r\nSyndicate Wars turns violence into an art form, and is packed with moments of balletically-orchestrated cinematic explosiveness that'll stay with you forever. The first time you shoot down an anti-grav vehicle, and it somersaults into a trio of pedestrians before exploding with a mighty roar, flinging debris at innocent bystanders and leaving a gaping crater in the road, the only thing you'll be able to say is 'Wow'. And when you witness your first satellite rain, well, some kind of jaw support would be in order, to prevent facial damage when it drops to the floor.\r\nFull of great bits, then, is Syndicate Wars. But the best bit by far comes after about half an hour when you suddenly realise that despite all the amazing additions and incredible improvements, it's still, basically, Syndicate.\r\nI loved Syndicate. And judging by its position at number 11 in the PCG Readers' Top 100, you loved it too.\r\nSo the happy news for us all is that Syndicate Wars is just as good now as Syndicate was then. It's a true sequel, taking all the features which made the earlier title so marvellous, then developing them even further while remaining, at heart, exactly the same. If you see what I mean.\r\nIt still strikes the perfect balance between action and strategy. It's still got that infectiously enthusiastic love of things going 'Bang' and 'Arghhh' which gave the original game such a distinctive personality. You still have to guide your four agents through a varied series of finely-designed missions across the globe, developing increasingly-powerful weaponry while conserving your resources and stealing technology from your opponents. \r\nAnd the action in each level -the 'gameplay', if you like -is almost exactly the same, too. Your four cybernetically-enhanced agents can be controlled individually or teamed up, and you lead them around futuristic urban landscapes by, basically, pointing somewhere with the mouse and clicking. There are plenty of different tasks to achieve, ranging from stealthy kidnap missions to all-out assaults, but they all involve, at one time or another, unpacking a fearsome arsenal of sci-fi devices and loosing energy-driven death with maniac abandon.\r\nInjections of powerful drugs can alter your agents' behaviour; body modifications make them stronger. There's a multi-player mode. You can hijack vehicles. All this, and much more, is tried-and-tested, a much-loved success story with a prominent place in most gamers' hearts.\r\nBut there are spectacular differences, too -a host of advances, rethinks, tweaks and developments -which conspire to make Syndicate Wars as distinct from its ancestor as Independence Day is from the zoetrope.\r\nMost stunning, obviously, is the spanking new graphics engine. Syndicate's fixed isometric perspective looked fine at the time, but had an irritating tendency to mask the action when your operatives slipped out of sight behind a building. So now we're treated to a fully-rotatable and powerfully immersive 3D environment, conjured with consistent realism by an endless amalgamation of textured polygons. With one hand on the mouse to control your agents and scroll the view, your other rests on the keyboard to spin the landscape, zoom in or out and raise or lower your vantage point. Confusing and obstructive at first, this process of perspective manipulation soon becomes second nature, and you'll quickly find yourself buzzing around the action like a hyperactive hornet.\r\nThe much-touted real-time lightsourcing is tremendously effective, enabling you to, for example, shoot out street lights to darken your approach. And overall, there's a fantastic accumulation of visual detail, from the briefcase-waving panic of the fleeing citizens to the animated advertising screens -running trailers for Manga videos and 2000AD -which you can just stand by and watch, if you want.\r\nThe hi-res 640 x 400 mode is frankly astounding, but don't even think about trying to run it on less than the very highest-specced PC (it certainly chugged on my P120). With constant full-screen movement, as you continually rotate your view to keep track of the action, even slight jerkiness is intolerable. The slick fluidity of VGA is infinitely preferable, and the game still looks brilliant.\r\nSo much for the graphics. The next major development concerns the plot. Firstly -there is one. No longer are we merely yomping across the world conquering all before us; instead, there's a particular sequence of events to be dealt with. The story develops through lengthy text briefings, adding fresh impetus to your struggles, and it's got a couple of excellent tricks up its metaphorical sleeve.\r\nMore importantly, it also affects the gameplay. Apparently, the Syndicate's hegemonic grip on the world has recently been loosened thanks to a computer virus introduced into its mind-control system by the extreme religious organisation The Church of the New Epoch. As a result, there are four distinct forces in play at once. Agents of the Syndicate and Church are the prime foes -and here's the first twist: you can play as either side. Each starts with different technology, and each has radically different goals.\r\nThen there are local police forces, as before, but there's another significantly-armed group, too. Calling themselves The Unguided, they're free from the Syndicate's control but refuse to throw in their lot with the Church as well. You'll come into conflict with them whether you play as Syndicate or Church, and they can offer significant opposition when grouped together.\r\nLuckily, there's an outstanding array of new (and old) weaponry to help you deal with trouble-makers like The Unguided. Anyone familiar with the original game may find this hard to believe, but the weapons in Syndicate Wars are even more vicious than before. Puny pistols and shotguns are things of the past: Uzis are bottom-of-the-range firearms, with Miniguns a preferable choice right from the start. And things rapidly escalate as you research pulse lasers, electron maces, graviton weapons and hand-held nuclear devices.\r\nAn especially significant development has been the eradication of ammunition; there's some unconvincing waffle in the manual about how all the guns now shoot 'energy pellets', or something. This is a mixed blessing: it simplifies matters, and means you don't have to overload your agents with three miniguns so they don't run out of bullets, but it also peels away one of the game's strategic layers. And rousting corpses for dropped weapons and ammo isn't half as much fun as before, especially because you're not 'allowed' to carry more than one of each device.\r\nThis new energy system, while requiring you to be more careful about some of your weapons selections, is still slightly unsatisfactory, as it leads to a lot of hanging around while you wait for shields and power packs to charge up -and that becomes pretty annoying after a while.\r\nThere are a few other changes which might jar with veteran Syndicate fans. There are now only two drugs, rather than three, which gives you slightly less control over your operative's actions. Both heighten adrenaline, but while 'Blue Funk' makes an agent fire on anyone who strays into range, 'Red Mist' limits their attacks to arms-bearing foes.\r\nEven more significantly, the team-organisation system has been radically altered. Instead of shift-clicking on their status panels to select group members for control, you now have to pick a leader for each team, then choose how many other agents will follow them. This has the advantage of making it much easier to split up your agents into two groups of two, but things can get very complicated when you're trying to assign specific operatives to a particular squad. It's never entirely clear who's going to follow whom until you actually start moving people around and see who tags along. In addition, there's no longer an emergency 'select all' button, and there's no way to administer drugs to a group en masse with a single click, as you could before. This all feels like an attempt to simplify control for the console version, and it's backfired.\r\nBut, look, enough of this whinging. So Syndicate Wars isn't perfect: it's a bit difficult to get into and has a slightly finickity interface panel and a few control problems. And for a game requiring so much strategic planning, it pulls an awful lot of surprise stunts, with death squads frequently appearing from nowhere.\r\nYou're bound to be able to pick holes in something this ambitious. But there's no point in dwelling on any such flaws when the game itself is just so incredibly entertaining.\r\nIt's lusciously presented and unremittingly exciting. The sound effects are thrilling, there's plenty of scope for individual strategy, and you can even customise the style of your agents' trenchcoats. 46 extremely difficult missions and 15 multi-player levels demand total concentration. You can rob banks to get cash -something we all wished you could do in the earlier game. The impeccably-coherent and gloriously amoral scenario is punky without (mercifully) being 'cyber'. You can steal tanks. The explosions are far and away the finest pyrotechnics ever seen on a computer screen.\r\nBasically, you get to shoot people. A lot. With immense, dangerous guns.\r\nI enjoyed playing Syndicate Wars more than I enjoyed playing Quake. And if that isn't a buying recommendation, I don't know what is.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"SWIV 3D","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There was a time when '3D' tacked after the title of something meant you were about to be subjected to a very poor-quality entertainment experience. An experience compounded by the indignity of being fooled into wearing Elton John prescription polaroid specs, with one lens coloured green and the other red, while watching some film called Bwana Devil 3D or similar, whose blurred and indistinct images were about as dimensionally convincing as a pop-up book. \r\nHappily, though, SWIV's 3D suffix is not some cheap B-flick gimmick. It is, instead, SCI's warning of an intense shoot-'em-up taking place at high speed in a fully 3D landscape with a totally topographical taste. Each level is blistered by mountains and ridges, scored by valleys, mottled with lakes and liberally sprinkled with refineries, bases, factories, pylons, bunkers, SAM sites and that sort of thing. Your Special Weapon Interdiction Vehicles (aha!) consist of, in the beginning, a helicopter and a jeep. \r\nIn the first instance, you'll find yourself mostly in control of a sprightly young gazelle of an attack chopper. Fortunately, from a finger deployment point of view, your 'copter is a contour hugger, adjusting its altitude automatically according to the underlying terrain and leaving you to worry about pointing in the right direction. This contour-hugging is the most inspiring aspect of the entire game as your chopper burns through valleys at low level with the superbly textured ground rushing by at speed. Suddenly, with a ridge looming up ahead, it pitches up and then, with a stomach-wrenching lurch, drops like a stone down the other side as it heads for the floor, leaving you disorientated and suffering from motion sickness. Great. The physics modelling also makes the jeep fun to ride as it 'gets air' off berms and you can learn to use downward slopes to give it that extra boost over steep climbs. \r\nOnce you've mastered the aerobatics you might care to have a bash at the missions. Each level is on the vaster side of big -roughly 600sq km -and comes conveniently divided into a number of objectives, often with an end-of-level fortress thrown in. Carnage is the order of the day and there's no soul searching about collateral damage either. All you have to do is destroy the key installations, then move on to torch the next base. \r\nHowever, SWIV is far from mindless violence. Once you've charged in a few times, shooting off in all directions only to be plugged by an enemy tank or missile silo, you begin to realise that perhaps helicopters and jeeps aren't the most resilient pieces of military hardware. A more stealthy approach is required, making SWIV a great challenge to play. Soon you develop hit-and-run tactics: probing the defences around major bases, picking off isolated radar installations to confuse the enemy, taking out stray tanks and key missile sites in an effort to find the easy way in, before bugging out to find previously noted caches of power-ups to restore health and replenish ammo.\r\nCrank up the CD-spooled soundtracks and SWIV is almost entrancing. Pumping out rockets to the rhythm of the seven 'large' dance tracks is an experience which some might describe as 'full on', while dropping napalm from the chopper to the epic strains of Ride Of The Valkyries smells like, ooh, at least another 2% on the final score.\r\nThere are also loads of great touches. When the 'copter flies over a power-up it winches it up, suffering momentarily from Thrust-style inertia, often forcing unscheduled changes in flight path to avoid piling into the nearest mountain side. As you loose off with a spread of missiles your vehicle dumps the empty pods before switching to another rack. And napalm carves long trenches in the ground, while downed enemy helicopters spread themselves over a wide area as they crash and burn.\r\nSWIV is a huge game that constantly rewards progress with new weapons, vehicles (like the skidoo), baddies and terrain types over its 17 levels. There are 18 different weapons like the multiple warhead star bursts, the tac-nuke smart bombs and, my particular favourite, the relentless super cruise missiles. In addition, robotic wingmen can be deployed as you battle your way through the varied martian, lunar, arctic and temperate landscapes. \r\nNow for some niggles. The targeting system is rather dodgy and suffers from poor threat perception. Often it's content to lock-on to a tree rather than the more worrisome tanks that I'd prefer to prioritise. Even when you have locked-on, a sharp manoeuvre to avoid incoming ordnance often spoils your aim, making it very hard to fight back properly in frantic situations. Also, although the graphics are excellent, with slow down barely noticeable even when the screen is chocka, they are rarely spectacular. All the baddies, weapon effects and explosions are fine, but they hardly make you gasp. More imaginative power-ups (invisibility?) and more diverse behaviour from the enemy would also have helped make the levels distinctive in the long run.\r\nNevertheless, though far from the perfect shoot-'em-up, SWIV is engrossing and can be heartily recommended for its speed and its thinking man's approach to the genre.","PUBID":118},{"GAMENAME":"Broken Sword","Percentage":90,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Have you ever read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum? Yup, by the same Italian geezer who did The Name Of The Rose. If you have, and assuming you persevered for long enough, you'll have been gripped by his Knights Templar theories, conspiracies, conundrums and straight best-guess history lessons clamouring to break free. Broken Sword is the nearest someone will ever get to the computer game of the book.\r\nThe Templars were a mediaeval religious fighting order intricately involved with the Middle East crusades, the Pope(s), Europe's Kings, the modernisation of banking, the masons and just about any other major influence on today's society you care to name. Almost literally overnight, having been the most significant pan-European force since the Roman Empire, the entire order disappeared. Broken Sword delves into the mysteries of the Order and does it in a way I like very much.\r\nWhen Revolution's master, Charles Cecil, visited the Future offices his game attracted a following as varied as the original Crusade's call to arms. Passers-by stopped and stared, reviewers crowded round and people who normally shun the very thought of being interested in games (there are lots here) stopped working and watched. This interest was a combination of the fascinating subject and the beautiful and clever way in which the story unfurls.\r\nThe game begins with a clown carrying a present into a Parisian street cafe and running away with a briefcase, and then with you being showered by debris as the package explodes and takes the cafe frontage with it. From there it progresses through Paris, Italy, Ireland and the Middle East and on to the climactic scenes somewhere you wouldn't expect. The story leads you effortlessly onward as you try to unravel the mystery of the parchment the clown stole, which contains clues as to the fate of the Knights Templar and a secret plot to re-align the Earth.\r\nIt would be possible to watch Broken Sword as a long cartoon film. The amount of dialogue it contains must be greater than any other adventure game to date. Although some will say it slows your progress annoyingly as characters are introduced and the plot develops, it's really more of a bonus with this game. The story's paths and possibilities require greater elaboration than in most others and the dialogue is almost without exception useful, informative or funny. Some characters are there for light relief, some to help you on your way and some to thwart you, but their responses are appropriate and sharply written. The pace speeds up as you progress, and Revolution have learned from the failings of their annoying previous hit, Beneath a Steel Sky.\r\nThroughout the long game the puzzles are tight, logical and usually set at about the right difficulty level. If you need an object it'll be somewhere you'd think to look, and the game never suffers from Discworld's puzzle obscurity. Re-visiting locations is kept to a minimum, and when it's necessary there are new people there and they have something useful to say. When it does all go wrong your death cut-scenes are varied and, given the subject matter, generally entertaining. Death by rival parchment seekers' bullets seems to be the most common daisy-visiting method.\r\nThe interface is standard point-and-click fare. The cursor changes shape as you move it over various parts of the screen to indicate live points and then selects the appropriate action automatically. It's far from a case of just sweeping across the screen to solve puzzles, though. Your equipment collection (and there are a hefty number of objects scattered through the game) is in a screen bar.\r\nThe music ties the dialogue and the action together perfectly. As you approach trigger points and events the tempo ups, and it warbles on to reflect conversations, events and the success you are having. Apparently, Barrington Pheloung, one of Britain's leading composers, was behind it (although for all I know he could have composed the Eastenders theme tune) but whatever the case, it's a lesson in how in-game music should be done.\r\nTechnically, Broken Sword is up there with the best of them, although the cleverness is rarely appreciated because you're too caught up with the puzzles and story. Each of the 80 or so locations is 640x400 pixel, scanned, hand drawn artwork that always captures the feel of the location, but puts a slightly exaggerated slant on it. The characters are also cartoon sprites and are consistently well animated; they never get locked into a boring frame cycle or just gormlessly stand there. Some of the locations are more than one screen wide so as to give the feeling of scale, and this is further enhanced by the layer of parallax that some locations use.\r\nThe Templar subject matter combines perfectly with the technical and stylish elements of the game. A few may find it hard going at first but that'll cease to be the case later on. Broken Sword is the first 'serious' adventure that's held my attention for more than about 10 minutes and now that it has, I'd put it up there alongside the best comic ones I've played.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"SWOS Euro Champ Edition","Percentage":86,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"30.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Without even the slightest inkling of a doubt, Sensible World Of Soccer is the ugliest football game you can buy today. Sensible Software just don't want to move into the 1990s, continually releasing what can only be described as Amiga emulators. Sensible World Of Soccer European Championship Edition, hereafter known as SWOSECE, is just a seven-year-old game repackaged for the umpteenth time and chucked out again to soak up stacks more cash for all concerned.\r\nNow, this would be bloody annoying if it weren't for the fact that, despite a flurry of European Championship related releases and re-releases, SWOSECE is still more fun than anything else out there, and by a chalk so long it would snap if you tried writing with it. Take away all that flashy motion capture and famous commentator baggage and the likes of Euro 96 and FIFA 96 are left as hollow, flawed and slow-moving soccer sims. SWOSECE, on the other hand, doesn't ever pretend to actually play or look like a game of football. Instead, it takes the essential elements of the sport and combines them with fast-paced arcade action and a constant flurry of passes, tackles, dives and headers. You could describe it as end-to-end stuff.\r\nBut that's what SWOS has been like since it was first released, and, in truth, very little has changed since its previous appearance in November's issue 24. Twenty-four thousand players have been updated to reflect the latest information available, and, as you would hope, the European Championship reflects the current draw. Own SWOS, though, and you can create Euro 96 as a custom competition. Other than some sparse commentary from some TV unknown, SWOSECE is SWOS with player and squad updates.\r\nAnd that goes for the problems. The very worst of all is that you still don't have any control over the goalkeepers. In a vain attempt to overcome their own shortcomings, Sensible have programmed the hardest goalies you'll ever have to beat, but this is little consolation when you are convinced you are playing better than the PC, fire off some amazing shots (which are saved) and watch as a decrepit opposition centre half punts the ball past your own strangely stationary keeper. I can live with being a goal down if I had plenty of time to get it back, but championship matches last for an inexplicably short five minutes.\r\nIt's still as much two-player fun as you can get on one PC, with plenty of obscenely detailed management career options if you want to sit in a darkened room for months on end. And it's definitely the best football game you can buy. Keep your fancy pants to yourself, Gremlin and EA, and play this instead. Um, unless you bought the last version, in which case save your money.","PUBID":121},{"GAMENAME":"Team F1","Percentage":55,"ISSUEDATE":"35","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"There are three sorts of people in this world. There are people who are interested in the technicalities of Formula 1 strategy, having been intrigued by Murray Walker's occasional glimpses of what goes on behind the scenes, and who like management games generally. They'll either already have bought MicroProse's Grand Prix Manager or would be advised to by either it or this, Team F1 -both do a similar job. There are people who are interested in Formula 1 strategy but who dislike management games. That's me. And then there are people who dislike both, who are unlikely to have read this far anyway.\r\nFalling into the middle category, I've previously been moderately intrigued by Ascaron's (nee Ascon) approach to management games. With On The Ball they gave football management a more friendly face, bunging in pretty pictures and having the players fall in love and accusations of match-rigging and so on. Except I hate football of course. Here, though, they seem to have sort of tried to do the same with Formula 1.\r\nBut Team F1 isn't a huge success.\r\nThe whole interface, for example, is absolutely rubbish. I disliked the otherwise excellent Grand Prix Manager (PCG 26, 80%) for being overly dry -just presenting you with a few screens covered in buttons to flick between. Team F1, on the other hand, dresses everything up to look like an office. To buy parts you click on the computer on the desk. To visit the workshop you click on a coat hanging on a hook. To see a list of race dates you click on a certain part of a bookcase. To read any messages you may have you click on a Scalextric track on a table. To alter the sound options you click on the floor of a trailer. It's nonsense, and I longed to return to the logical-if-dull world of Grand Prix Manager.\r\nThen, once you've spent hours learning what everything does, you can go racing. The problem here is that even if you take over an established team like Williams you'll get nowhere just by leaving everything on its default setting. Instead you've got to immediately grasp every single principle of Formula 1 strategy and implement it all, otherwise you won't even qualify for the first race. And the game's absolutely no help here whatsoever. You can completely forget to train your drivers, for example, and you won't hear a whisper of complaint until race day, when they'll inexplicably lap five seconds slower than everyone else. Grand Prix Manager was exactly the same. Surely, after all these years, management games should have reached the stage where, after a week of the drivers languishing unoccupied, a little box will pop up saying: 'Ahem. You appear to have forgotten about us.' Or if you overlook the spoiler settings before the race the race manager will say: 'Er, hello? These spoiler settings? Really?' Or if your cars clearly aren't going well, someone will raise a dissenting voice. Or, better still, everything ought to work automatically unless you specify otherwise, with your team using its initiative rather than sitting there waiting for orders.\r\nWith its near-impenetrable front-end and cliff-face-like learning curve, Team F1 is a very difficult game to get to like. Once you're up to speed it seems to work as it should, simulating the events of Formula 1 accurately -I'd be hard pressed to place it above or below Grand Prix Manager mechanics-wise -and the 3D race highlights are good. And while frustratingly useless, the graphical menus do look lovely. But that unhappy third-category-inhabitant such as myself is unlikely to be won over to management games by the likes of this.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"TekWar","Percentage":50,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"TekWar is a bloody awful game. The first thing you have to do is turn the detail level right down, because even on our Pentium 90 it's unplayably juddery in high-res SVGA. Then, you step out into the street, and immediately the screen starts flashing red and your energy meter drops. You're being shot at. But by whom? There's no-one nearby, and all you can see in the distance is a mess of blocky pixels. Running around randomly, the screen flashing red all the while, you eventually make out a poorly-digitised baddy hiding behind a tree. You kill him with your crap space gun, but the screen still keeps flashing. There must be another one somewhere. And so on, until you're dead.\r\nThere's quite a nice idea whereby, if you run around with your gun drawn, civilians get scared and the police start firing on you, so you're meant to keep it hidden until you need it. But in practice, this means you can walk into a room and baddies will start shooting at you while the police look on disinterestedly, but as soon as you begin to fire back the police attack you as well, and you're dead. Again. There's also no indication of which is your current weapon until you draw it, or how much ammo you've got left, and the game won't automatically switch to another weapon when the current one runs out. And half the time the weapon-swap buttons don't seem to work anyway.\r\nSome bits of TekWar are all right. The subway trains are good -you can ride on them just like real ones. (Don't get trapped in the doors, though, or the game crashes out with an error message.) Some of the scenery, like the museum with planes hanging from the ceiling, is impressive. And there's a reasonable attempt at a warehouse shoot-out. But it's impossible to enjoy any of it when the screen keeps flashing as you come under attack from hordes of blocky, uninteresting baddies, and you struggle to fight back with your selection of weedy weaponry.\r\nThe premise for all this is William Shatner's TekWar world. (I haven't seen the television series, but can confirm that the books are painful to read.) Drug barons rule, apparently, with the police unable to cope, and you're some sort of cryogenically-frozen special agent, or something. Whatever, there's none of the atmosphere of Doom or Hexen here, and none of the exciting set-pieces of Duke Nukem 3D (which has donated its engine for all this, although when we asked them for an opinion on the results, 3D Realms shuffled their feet awkwardly). Stacks of oil drums explode with a feeble pop, you can't tell if you're hitting a baddy until he finally dies, and you frequently come across civilians trapped obliviously in bits of scenery.\r\nI wasn't expecting TekWar to be great, but at the same time I didn't think it would be quite this awful. The more I played it the worse it got, until I was no longer able to type its name at the DOS prompt.","PUBID":147},{"GAMENAME":"Tempest 2000","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"39.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"'Right. This is my last go.' That's the immortal phrase associated with every timeless game, and Tempest 2000 is the perfect catalyst to spark off repeated and uncontrollable use of it. It's the perfect old-fashioned game, if old-fashioned means pure playability, rapid reactions, constant key presses, heart-pounding frustration and simple graphics. There's no pre-rendered padding, no waits for loading and no respite from the massive explosions and booming sound effects. It's based on the game that seduced and helped build the arcade industry in 1980, and will hopefully conquer the PC market to a similar degree 15 years later.\r\nTempest 2000 is the work of the llama-loving, psychedelic-drug-addled Jeff Minter, but he has faithfully stuck to the principles and ideas of the original arcade Tempest. Your ship moves around the rim of a tunnel, which recedes into the distance in 3D. Baddies come speeding along the walls towards you, and you have to whizz round zapping them before they reach the end. \r\nMinter has supplemented the primitive basic vector graphics and phut-phut sounds with smooth shaded colours, huge pixel-based explosions and a dance/rave soundtrack. T2000 was born for Atari's Jaguar console over 18 months ago and was for a long time the only worthwhile reason to buy the machine. The Jaguar's pitiful success in the high street has forced Atari to reconsider its policy on converting its games to other formats, and the PC is the first machine to benefit.\r\nIt throws you in at the shallow end and then takes the floor away. Just when you've grasped its basic principles, it completely overwhelms you. But each time you play you feel slightly more instinctively connected with your wireframe ship, until eventually you reach the stage where you don't have to think about how you're going to perform a move, just which move it is you have to make. As with Doom, Mario and Defender, the bottom line is pure skill. This is rammed home by about level 25 of the 99-level game, where the pulsars are arriving in abundance and your lives are running perilously low. You're bound to die, but the re-start level key options are perfect, and all the time you can feel yourself getting better. Chill-out bonus levels give you time for thought and then advance you onwards if you complete them successfully.\r\nTempest 2000 is a revision of the classic (and probably the only one you'll play) but there are also two other versions of the game on the CD: The original Tempest, now looking dated but still playing brilliantly, and Tempest Plus, a customised version allowing AI droids and other power-ups to be selected as standard. Also available is Tempest Duel where two players each take control of opposite ends of a web and fight it out to the death. This adds even greater longevity to an already immensely time-consuming game.\r\nLooking at the screenshots it may be hard to see T2000's special attraction, but for once it's not a case of rosy-eyed retro-hype. This is one of the best arcade games of all time, and therefore must be in your collection.","PUBID":12},{"GAMENAME":"Surface Tension","Percentage":66,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Probably the worst message that can be flashed on a gaming PC's screen, aside from 'Installing DirectX', is 'Mission failed'. You know, when the enemy forces advance to the point where they can no longer be turned back, or the plane you were meant to be escorting gets shot down. Surface Tension spares you the pain involved in getting 'Mission failed' messages in a novel way.\r\nIt simply doesn't bother telling you when you've failed your mission.\r\nInstead, it lets you fly around fruitlessly, desperately trying to work out what you're meant to be doing, for however many hours it takes for the truth to dawn.\r\nOne of the first missions, for example, on Mars, involves flying to some docks and picking up a fuel pod or something. So you battle through the enemy defences and arrive at the docks, your shields in tatters, and begin to hunt for the fuel pod. A flashing square on your scanner supposedly marks the spot, but no matter how hard you search there doesn't seem to be anything pickupable on the ground. You check your mission briefing. 'Pick up the fuel pod,' it confirms. You check the scanner again. Yep - you're in exactly the right place. And then an uncomfortable feeling begins to spread outwards from the pit of your stomach. Surely they'd have told us if... But no. They didn't. Sure enough, you've somehow accidentally blown up the fuel pod, which was securely placed in the open air amongst a crowd of enemy gun turrets and ships, and the mission can no longer be completed. You will have to restart the mission. Which would be just about fair enough IF ONLY THEY'D BOTHERED TO TELL YOU.\r\nThen, on the next mission, you're meant to meet an informer in the middle of a heavily defended city. So you spend ages shooting down hundreds of enemy ships, and blowing up loads of gun turrets and missile-launching trucks, until eventually the coast is clear. Once again, you aim for the flashing square \r\nand... nothing. Now what? As it turns out, a message popped up earlier in the corner of the screen warning you to avoid shooting civilian craft, except you couldn't possibly have paid any attention to it because you were in the middle of being attacked by some enemy ships, and you'd turned the sound down anyway because the music is so awful. And how are you meant to tell which vehicles are civilian ones anyway, given that everything is represented on the map by a yellow dot? Apparently 'they're the ones that don't shoot at you'. Right. So you fly up to every vehicle in turn, wait to see if it shoots at you (while at the same time every other vehicle in the game is throwing everything it's got at you), and if it does, shoot it back. Assuming you're not dead. It transpires, then, that the informant was in the one vehicle out of about a hundred that doesn't fire at you, and you've accidentally blown him up. All of which would be just about okay IF ONLY THEY'D BOTHERED TO TELL YOU.\r\nSorry to go on like this, but it really does matter, because Surface Tension could otherwise have been a perfectly enjoyable game. It might look a bit ropy in the pictures but the scenery is actually quite intricate, if lacking the exhilarating speed of something like Terminal Velocity. And the mission designs are really quite clever. On each level you've got various objectives that can be achieved in more or less any order, rather like in Desert Strike, and they involve doing exciting things like planting radio-jamming beacons in enemy territory, shooting down huge supply ships and exchanging information with spies. You've also got a little tank thing, complete with annoying wise-cracking driver, that can be lowered down from your ship and sent to retrieve things from the ground. While it's not as technically impressive or as adventurous as Scorched Planet, which we're also reviewing this month, it balances action and strategy much more successfully.\r\nBut, in a variety of annoying, niggling, easily correctable ways, Surface Tension conspires to have you spending rather more time scratching your head and poring over the map than getting out there and having fun. (Another example: You've completed all the missions on level one, you've flown to the teleport exit point marked on the map and... nothing. After another hour of fruitless, soul-destroying flying around and getting nowhere you open the manual in despair and discover that you're actually meant to fly to the teleport point and then press 'T'. Why? How come every other game ever has managed to teleport you perfectly well without you having to resort tp pressing 'T'?)\r\nSurface Tension is an amusing enough game underneath -and certainly goes way beyond anything else Gametek have published in recent memory - but it keeps poking you in the eye just when you're starting to have fun. Bah.","PUBID":54},{"GAMENAME":"The Terminator: Future Shock","Percentage":92,"ISSUEDATE":"26","COST":"39.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The future is a pretty terrifying place. Robots rule the Earth, mankind has been reduced to a mere handful of Resistance fighters, all with receding hairlines, overalls and all wearing extremely worried looks on their faces. And well they might, for if you fail in your mission, then machines will rule the world. Of course, exactly what they'd do with it once they'd killed everyone is another matter. Put their feet up? Watch a bit of telly? Moan about the good old days, when all they had to do was run a few 3D games, and everyone was happy?\r\nAnd of all those games, this one would surely stand out as one of the best. Okay, so we've had a lot of this sort of thing recently, what with Duke Nukem 3D and Hexen (and a few others this issue) and, yes, we've loved them both, but this one's a little different. While both Hexen and Duke had 3D environments with flat sprites, Future Shock has a true 3D world, and 3D polygon-based monsters, in the shape of all sorts of robot baddies. The result is one of the most atmospheric and believable shoot-'em-ups ever.\r\nIt does, however, take a bit of getting used to. Because you have all six degrees of freedom (meaning that you can move and look in any direction), you need to be pretty sharp with both the keys and the mouse - you use the mouse to look around and aim weapons, and the cursor keys to walk backwards and forwards and side-step. It takes a while to get the hang of, but soon becomes natural, and once it does you'll find yourself in a completely different world - a world where you can run, jump, look up and shoot, slide from side to side, drive a jeep and fly one of the enemy Hunter-Killer aircraft. The 3D engine is so advanced that Future Shock is less a Doom-clone than a kind of 'bloke with guns' simulator. It is to the first-person what EF2000 is to jets. \r\nThe plot stays true to the first Terminator movie, and actually precedes it slightly. John Connor leads the Resistance from the safety of his cushy bunker, while guys like you leg it around up-top polishing off the heavy metal, armed with nothing more, initially, than an Uzi (9mm). In time-honoured fashion, you must make your way through 17 missions to reach the end of the game, and every one is a challenge. By the time you've finished the first level, your jaw is dropping at the formidable power of this graphics engine. Hunter-Killers circle in the air above you, while on the ground the pack-hunting Raptor-bots stalk about making scary 'whir-click-stomp' noises. Floating heat-seeking mines follow you into buildings and appear from the corners of darkened rooms, and tanks lurch forward as they train their deadly sights upon you.\r\nThis game is not for the faint-hearted. The heat-seeking mines make an audible powering-up noise, which they only do when you're within a few feet. This adds a whole new dimension of fear to your game. As I crept about in one of the disused buildings, peaking around corners and generally 'being' Charlie Sheen in Platoon, I managed to scare myself stupid every time I opened a door. That's not something I've done since playing the original Doom...\r\nOne of the problems with Hexen is that the so-called 'outside' bits feel more like rooms with a sky-coloured roof than the great outdoors. Not so with Future Shock -here there are clear differences between inside and out. Outside, the sky is dark, and the landscape scarred with toppled buildings, wrecked cars and bodies. The maps are big enough to feel limitless, and the true-3D nature of the engine means that you can walk just about anywhere you want to, onto walls, up over hills, down into valleys. The terrain, in fact, owes more to a flight sim than a Doom game, and the experience is altogether different. \r\nOnce you're inside, the claustrophobia sets in. Lights flicker at the ends of deserted passages, rooms are littered with corpses, and Terminators can be heard in the distance, hydraulics driving their metal limbs as they get closer and closer. The stereo sound leaves nothing to the imagination. Enemies to the right of your position can be heard from the right speaker, and as you move, the sound dynamically changes. Needless to say, this makes things more than a little disturbing. You can hear them, but you can't always see them.\r\nTo help you in your daunting task are a number of superbly realised weapons. You begin the game with just an Uzi, but if you go for a bit of a wander, you can find the hefty assault rifle. Once you have that you can start hearing things, and at the slightest provocation back yourself into a corner, strafing the nearest wall and shouting 'VC! VC!' Once your palms have stopped sweating you can get on with blasting your way through the levels, picking up ever-more-impressive arms. There's (hurray!) a shotgun, complete with meaty blast noise and the essential 'ch-chik' reload effect. There's a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher and a laser pistol, as well as pipe-bombs, Molotov cocktails and hand-grenades. But the best of the lot, and by far the coolest weapon I've yet seen in a 3D game, is the laser rifle, complete with infra-red lens that actually shows a moving picture of the target in the sights. Because all the missions take place at night, it becomes invaluable for spotting Terminators as they lumber towards you from the darkness. \r\nSo far, so impressive. However, in the spirit of balanced and informative reviewing, and the cause of better games, I did notice the odd imperfection. After all, the more detailed and realistic a 3D engine, the more we expect from it. Where once we may have been content to ignore the fact that you can't actually move your head, or look up, now we find ourselves getting picky. 'Yes, that's great, but can he dance? And how come when he looks down, we can't see his feet, eh? How come he never gets lonely or depressed about his girlfriend?' At the risk of falling into that trap, I have been annoyed by the following...\r\nAlthough the directional sound works extremely well, there seems to be a problem with some of the maths where distance is concerned. When, for example, you blow up a tower in the distance, you should at least be able to hear the explosion, albeit more quietly than if it were closer. But in Future Shock you often don't, as the game seems to decide that you're too far away to hear it. Surely, though, if you can see it, then you can hear it?\r\nFuture Shock has very few genuine puzzles in the conventional sense. Whereas Hexen and Duke Nukem 3D had intricate level designs, here they tend to consist of just finding the odd switch to open a door. As you progress, they do get harder, with switches in odd places, but overall you feel it's less of a mental challenge than it could've been. Also, there are rooms that, once you've entered them, you can't leave, even by judicious use of the jump key. (Perhaps you forgot to flip a switch, or it's a deliberate trap.) All you can do is exit the game and reload, which, if it happened on a platform game, for example, would be considered criminal. \r\nThat said, Future Shock is a generational leap forward for 3D games. Bethesda, it seems, may well have anticipated both id's Quake and Apogee's Prey with the Xngine. Not only do you have complete freedom of movement, but all the fires, and even the bullets you shoot, cast light onto their surroundings, and the stereo sound is a genuine innovation, adding immeasurably to the already impressive atmosphere.\r\nIt may be at heart just a shoot-'em-up, but then so was the Terminator movie, and that's already a classic. Terminator: Future Shock will blow you away.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Terra Nova","Percentage":91,"ISSUEDATE":"29","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"PC games with robotic enemies rather than people have always suffered from the same problem - namely, that trashing hulking lumps of metal just never gives the same level of vindictive, sadistic gratification as watching fleshy creatures go 'Splutt'. Various solutions have been tried. Games like MechWarrior 2 make the enemy behave as humanly as possible. Or you could spend huge wads of cash, create a marketing campaign, and disguise the problem altogether (as with every robot beat-'em-up ever). Or you can opt for Looking Glass's approach and make the entire game so fundamentally sound that you don't really mind what you're shooting.\r\nTerra Nova is a game that feels utterly right to play. From the first training mission when you get to grips remarkably fast with the large number of controls to the final few battles when all seems hopeless, it all hangs together brilliantly.\r\nYou're a member of an elite squad of marines in a break-away republic fighting off the attentions of the Earth Hegemony (the pronunciation of which is probably the game's most annoying feature). The 23rd Century state-of-the-art fashionable fighting gear comprises Powered Battle Armour (PBA), which is a black exoskeleton that you sit inside. The sense of control you feel when you're tramping around in your PBA is Terra Nova's fundamental strength, and upon it much of the fun I had with the game rests.\r\nWhenever you're in a suit it actually feels like you're walking. (Well, obviously it doesn't really because you're sitting at a desk, not romping about on a low-G moon in a fake metal catsuit.) You slip down steep slopes, and have to negotiate cliffs with care, and you're seriously slowed down when wading through water. The effects vary with each of the different types of PBA, but the overall result is a feeling of attachment to your PBA, which means that you really care what happens to it/you. This is the first stage in caring about how well you do.\r\nWhere Terra Nova really joins the greats, though, is by way of its mixture of action and strategy. As you play through the game you're gradually introduced to a huge range of weaponry. This classic ploy (which so many designers still ignore for some inexplicable reason) serves not only to help you complete the harder, later missions, but also acts as a tangible reward for your successes, thereby encouraging you to play on to see what will arrive next. Starting with basic lasers, you soon gain the use of grenade launchers, particle beams and mine-layers.\r\nPlus there's the cook-from-the-inside microwave beam, which melts the pilots with a particularly pleasing 'wah-wah' visual distortion effect.\r\nTo add further variety to Terra Nova's 39 missions there's a choice of Scout, Standard and Heavy suits for each mission. Each has different characteristics, and although there are some missions for which only one suit is appropriate, there are many where the decision is yours. This initial choice will heavily affect the way you play the rest of the mission, and it's the flexibility at this stage that allows the strong strategy element to be brought into play later. If you pick a heavy suit, you certainly won't be outrunning any other PBAs, and will therefore probably be on the receiving end of much enemy fire. In a scout suit you'll be extremely hard to hit, but if you ever need to enter the thick of it, you might as well not bother. There's no right or wrong way to complete any of the missions in Terra Nova, and this is one of its strongest assets.\r\nIn most of the later missions you have up to three squad members to control as well as yourself. At first it's easy to view them as hangers on, but for demolition tasks you'll need a suitable expert around, and for rescue missions a repair PBA will have to be on hand. To control them out in the field you use the function keys to broadly affect their movement, tactics and engagement. This system should be a model for flight sim wingmen -it works perfectly even when you're in the thick of it, and tips the balance so that brains as well as brawn will always be needed.\r\nTo complement Terra Nova's real-time physical behaviour model (which accurately governs your actions under various gravities and situations), there are some superb fully-textured graphics. In SVGA it's unspeakably lovely, but even in cruddy old VGA Terra Nova looks a treat. Using the smallest goggle view is quite acceptable, but full-screen in VGA is probably the best mode of play possible.\r\nEach view is supplemented by the (initially) overwhelming array of instrumentation. Your panels contain every piece of information that's vital to the operation of the PBA, but after a while you get to know which are the important screens. Maps, weapons, shields, the drone camera and your companions' statuses are indispensable at some point or another in all missions. As you take damage the display begins to degrade in quality, with a variety of excellent effects, and accompanying this is a performance hit in your PBA's essential systems. Sensors may fail to locate enemies, weapons lose their lock and all manner of other tension-building devices affect you.\r\nThis is a common occurrence throughout Terra Nova, as most of your tasks are extremely difficult indeed. As you'd expect from the creators of System Shock, every mission is extremely well designed, balanced and widely varied. One minute you're demolishing a telescope on a low-gravity moon with your projectile weapons travelling twice as far, the next you're taking photos of an enemy installation under a rainy sky surrounded by huge canyon walls. Between missions there are medals, e-mails, kill tables and tacky (I think, on balance, it's intentionally ironic) FMV footage narrating the trials and tribulations of being a Luke Skywalker clone in an Aliens-esque universe. All the clips are the right length and actually further the story, and even around Mission 30 I'm still watching them (which is an unprecedented achievement considering FMV normally equals ESC in my book). Terra Nova has everything, and it's all been done brilliantly.\r\nThere's a downside to all this realism, and you've probably guessed it by now. Terra Nova isn't going to run well unless there's some serious chippage inside your PC. It falls firmly into the Flight Unlimited/EF2000 nose-dive of running like a sick dog on much less than a P60. Even on a P133, when you turn on the extremely flash external camera views, there's a noticeable slowdown. It's virtually impossible to recommend it to anyone not in possession of a Pentium. But it's also impossible to condemn Looking Glass for programming the game this way, because it feels so real, and its authenticity is what makes it so much fun.\r\nFor many of PC Gamer's readers it must be enormously irritating to see another 'Game of the Month' that needs a monster PC. But Terra Nova's the best game I've played this month. What else can I do?","PUBID":82},{"GAMENAME":"This Means War","Percentage":82,"ISSUEDATE":"28","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"As a famous General once remarked: 'Don't be stupid, man, they couldn't hit a barn door from that dist-Aaarghh.' War is hell, or at least it's meant to be. However, This Means War is instead alarmingly good fun. \r\nThe world as we know it has collapsed (again) under the effects of a sinister virus hidden in an all-conquering computer game called Snark Hunter. (A thinly-veiled dig at Doom.) Out of the ashes rises a new and eccentric world order, led by a bizarre generation of latter-day warlords calling themselves things like Mondo Khan, Crocodile Ghandi and Napolienne. Intent on emulating their historical namesakes, these nouveaux despots immediately embark upon a global power struggle which threatens to make the Second World War seem like an over-hasty pillow fight. It is 12 years AG (After Game), and, as a newly promoted Colonel in the Free World Alliance, it's your task to scrabble about in this rather silly post-apocalyptic melee and re-conquer the world for the forces of truth, justice and the American way. \r\nThe world of This Means War is divided up into a strategic map portraying both FWA and opposition forces in control of various sectors, and from then on in, every battle you fight represents the struggle for a territory that's up for grabs. Succeed and the world will slowly turn orange as the FWA extends its influence. Fail and, well, you're not going to be exactly flavour of the month at the officer's club.\r\nBeginning with the humble light infantryman and a few scattered battle bikes, you'll probably win the first few encounters with ease. However, as you progress you'll develop a taste for the meatier bazooka and mortar units and shock troops like the Marines. Eventually mobility will become a priority, and there's a full complement of vehicles to send your troops haring around the battlefield. Of course, no army would be complete without the 'must-haves' of artillery, heavy armour and hovercraft (?), but when your technology advances to the highest levels, jets, bombers, radar and even guided missiles will all enhance your already considerable offensive capabilities.\r\nThe all-important command interface is both flexible and intuitive, and allows you to plan and execute intricate manoeuvres right up to platoon level. Commanding your blokes is simplicity itself -you just set their behaviour mode and then click and drag individual units to where you want them to go. A variable speed control means you're never struggling for time, but you can also form squads and deploy special tactical formations to crunchingly good effect.\r\nThe actual battles themselves are also good, clean fun, and can degenerate into quite rip-roaring affairs with hostile fire fights breaking out up and down the line to the constant radio chatter of multiple 'Enemy contacts'. Your units all have circular fields of fire, and This Means War also employs a rather clever line-of-sight system, with unseen areas shaded out to keep you guessing about enemy troop movements and strategy.\r\nBut fighting isn't the whole story. You've also got to marshal your forces on the home front and develop an industrial base to fuel your armies and advance your weapons technology. Again, it's an extremely logical system. Engineers build all the depots and factories which produce your units and service the army's needs, while mines and oil wells provide raw materials and power. But you've also got to keep an eye on your civilian population and ensure they're well fed and fully able to contribute to the war effort. \r\nAs the game progresses you'll find you have to devote an increasing amount of time to building a solid military industrial complex; as with real warfare, to win militarily you've got to win economically too. However, This Means War strikes a happy balance between the two extremes, and, if anything, there's a large incentive to get things right economically, because it opens up whole new and intriguing ways of smiting the foe.\r\nThis Means War also comes with a well-adjusted learning curve with new concepts and technology being introduced gradually so that you can get to grips with the fundamentals before moving on. The game also manages to side-step neatly the problem of repetition, by already deploying units you have developed in previous engagements. \r\nSo far so good, but no game is without its failings and This Means War suffers slightly, as most strategy games do, from that old problem of innovation. Although the opposing generals all have their own unique styles, once you've worked out their game plan, it's usually a matter of simply grinding them down. The opposition still offers an extremely stern challenge, but there are few bold counter offensives or sneak thrusts on your blind side to seriously challenge an accomplished player. Another slight quibble is that occasionally, when you move large bodies of troops, some of the stragglers meander about for no apparent reason, and you have to re-issue your orders to bring them back into line.\r\nBasically, This Means War is very accessible strategy fare, which because of its good looks and excellent sense of progression, will have a broader appeal than most wargames.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Deadly Tide","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"For many years now, software developers have attempted a sly and cunning trick: the sly and cunning trick that is the Taking The Game Out Of 'Videogame' And Selling Them A Video Instead sly and cunning trick. Yes. That one. \r\nRelying on smooth-scrolling FMV and the finest in CD-sound, they'd churn out what was essentially a short film, pausing from time to time only to allow the viewer (or, as they were called in the manual, the 'player') a quick fix of gaming before it was on to the next scene. Perhaps he'd have to move a crosshair slightly to the right in order to shoot an incoming missile to the floor, or maybe he'd have to make a snap decision between left and right as he hurtled towards the end of a mothership corridor. Whatever, the sly and cunning trick never really worked.\r\nNow, although Deadly Tide (essentially a space shoot'em-up - but underwater, by the way) does succumb to using this rather formulaic style, it does at least try something new. Yes, you still get the feeling that it's a game on rails, where everything seems somehow pre-determined and you either fit in or switch off, and yes, much of the gameplay does revolve around moving crosshairs about and pressing 'fire' when required, but it's all so impressively done, and the odd feelings of helplessness are effectively offset by sections where you do actually feel totally in control. You can look up, down, and from left to right, with supersmooth ease, and it's down to you to make tactical decisions on where to shoot, and, from time to time, where to move. Okay, so perhaps it could all have been better. Perhaps, though they've at least tried to give you that feeling of control, the programmers could have shunned basic laziness and gone for an altogether different format. But if we take Deadly Tide as it is - and it looks as though we'll have to - it's a good enough game with pretentions of being the best. It tries, and tries, and tries to impress, and, for the most part, it does. After extensive playing, though, the graphics seem to mean less and less, and it all seems that little bit shallower, but remains, as you probably always knew it would, more than worth a look.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"Tilt","Percentage":58,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"29.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Tilt is the Last Action Hero of pinball games. It has everything, on paper, that a good pinball game should have. And yet, inexplicably, it has the staying power of an asthmatic great-grandmother. The six tables look fantastic. It is necessary to ignore the 'because we can' scrolling 3D view, which evokes the sensation of being involved in a 20-car motorway pile-up, and the 2D scrolling view, which disintegrates into a nauseating blur the moment you launch the ball, but the fixed-3D, Pro Pinball-style view reveals every table to be gorgeous -not a duffer among them. Star Quest is set in space, although you get an 'airlock' simply for launching the ball; Myst And Majik features undoubtedly the most exciting medieval music ever heard in a PC game; The Gangster whisks you back 70 years with its art deco lettering, jazz music and tommy gun effects; The Monster casts you into Frankenstein's laboratory and frightens you with organ music; Funfair has all the fun of the fair, with just hint of something more sinister beneath the surface; and Roadking has plenty of squealing tyres, but has a huge empty space in the middle for some reason.\r\nThere are multi-balls and excellent LED animated sub-games. There are little rendered animations which cut in when something exciting happens, showing a close-up of the feature in question. There are good, clacky sounds effects.\r\nFor the first few seconds, Tilt appears to be the perfect PC pinball game.\r\nBut, after approximately the same time that it took you to realise that Last Action Hero was going to be awful all the way through, the whole\r\nthing collapses.\r\nThe ball just doesn't move around properly. It's weighted more like a ping pong ball than a ball bearing. It moves too fast for you to be able to do anything clever with it -if it's rolling towards a flipper, it seems to be a matter of luck whether you can catch it and hang on to it or it carries on rolling down the middle. And yet, as if by way of compensation, ramps are absurdly easy to get up. They seem to have built-in hoovers which suck up passing balls, accelerate them to enormous velocities and whisk them around and out the other end. As Stuart Campbell pointed out, 'It's Dragon's Lair on a pinball table' -you decide where you want the ball to go and it does the rest, rather than you having skillfully to guide it home.\r\nConsequently, despite its many charms, especially the fantastic Myst And Majik music, Tilt didn't amuse me or anyone else at PC Gamer who played it. Chris from the postroom seemed the most positive, but even he only enjoyed a couple of the tables.\r\nWhat a waste. Pro Pinball: The Web, despite its meagre single table, remains the PC's best pinball game.","PUBID":151},{"GAMENAME":"Time Commando","Percentage":75,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"The trouble with success is the expectation it breeds. Once you've overcome the odds, been successful, been praised, in the lull after your first ticker tape parade the inevitable question is softly spoken: 'So what's next then?'\r\nIf you're more than just a flash in the pan, maybe you can repeat your success a couple of times. The critics now start to compare your new work with your old and use a unique scale of criticism. The dread words 'not quite as good as the first' and 'is X losing it?' start to creep into your reviews. Work that fellow artisans would consider excellent becomes peppered with 'relatively disappointing' comments. It's all your own fault. You were too good to start with.\r\nUnless, of course, you're a member of the German football team, popular expectation starts to weigh you down, innervating every area of your life with an unbearable tension. You start to drink heavily. Eventually you are admitted to a private clinic suffering from 'exhaustion'. You emerge a year or so later to live out the rest of your life, an empty shell of a man, creatively broken. Daytime chat show appearances talking about the 'old days' are your media high points now, and you take up fretwork.\r\nTime Commando is the latest eagerly anticipated game from Adeline, the authors of the phenomenally popular Alone in the Dark and Little Big Adventure. Back in issue 28 of PC Gamer, Frederick Raynal (one half of the Adeline creative team) said that they wanted to do 'a small action game'. Although he also claimed that Time Commando had grown to be much more than that, 'a small action game' does have a prophetically authentic ring to it.\r\nThe game is basically a pre-rendered platform beat-'em-up. Your character walks through eight themed levels (each with two sub-sections) killing anything that gets in the way. Although there are two or three secret rooms per level, it's the fighting rather than the exploration or puzzle solving that provides the main thrust.\r\nThe background story explains that each of the eight levels is actually a Virtual Reality simulation used to train soldiers of the future. To ensure the training is as rigorous as possible, eight different ages (Prehistoric, Roman Empire, Medieval Japan, Medieval Europe, The New World, Wild West, 20th Century and Future) are simulated and their inhabitants have only one thing on their minds - aggression. \r\nYour character starts each world with only his fists for protection. By defeating enemies during the level he can pick up increasingly more powerful weapons (for example, throwing rocks, clubs, spears and big clubs in the prehistoric world, or mace, sword and shield, crossbow and two-handed sword in medieval Europe). Weapon selection is particularly important, especially when fighting the end-of-level bosses, who can be practically immune to some attacks but quickly dispatched with others.\r\nThe game uses the same sort of polygon generated figures seen in Alone in the Dark but in place of the bland Gouraud shading comes full texture mapping and light effects. Some of the enemies (the sabre-toothed tiger, the bear, the angry monks, the robot terminators) are brilliantly created, with realistic graphics and accurate animation. With this in mind, it's a pity that your character runs like a randy young John Inman. The game's backgrounds match this graphical prowess, showing exceptional detail albeit with relatively few points of interaction.\r\nAs fighting is the main point of the game, you'd expect the control system employed to be fairly complex. However, there are basically only four offensive moves and although the contact and reaction of the fighters is good enough to make spectators flinch, fighting can quite often degenerate into simple rapid bursts of punching or kicking. The problem with a reliance on simplistic fighting is that the game has to be huge to give the title any longevity (Guardian Heroes from Sega, for instance, has over 60 levels, multiple routes, an evolving story line and the option to play over 50 different characters). With the game set to 'easy', only the seriously dexterously challenged will fail to finish Time Commando in an evening. The levels are too short and too prescriptive; there aren't enough of them; you can't back track and there's precious little reason to replay the game when you've finished it.\r\nThis review has been largely negative: 'The game's about a 75 percenter, well below what we expect from Adeline.' If Time Commando had been written by a new entrant to the PC market (or by a company unused to success) and received no pre-release hype, then the overall tone would have been something along the lines of, 'A nice little game, flawed in places but well deserving of its 75 percent.' There's no disparity here -Time Commando is a good little game. It deserves to be played by a lot of people for quite some time. However, it is not a brilliant game (which is what we'd hoped for) demanding to be played by everyone. I'm sure Adeline know this, though don't expect to see the booze and drugs headlines just yet.","PUBID":43},{"GAMENAME":"Timegate","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"27","COST":"44.99","ReviewBodyCopy":"Edward Carnby is nowhere to be found. The haunted houses, spooky mazes and ghostly two-bit towns are no more. Alone In The Dark is dead - its battle-weary corpse lies in the bargain basement at your local Woolies, between those funny looking boiled sweets and the cut-price He-Man figures. Or so we thought. Infogrames have resurrected their enfant terrible and dressed him up as a time-travelling thriller...\r\nIt's a bit like that film, Never Say Never Again. Sean Connery steps once more unto the breach for one last try at beating the baddies - saving the world from rich Russian-sounding villains with weird pets and lots of shark mates. You watch dutifully as he gets the girl, drives around a bit on a souped-up Yamaha, and gambles amiably with his arch nemesis. None of it's new, or unexpected, but you kind of enjoy it anyway. Timegate is just like this. Cosmetically enhanced for 1996, its bald pate buried beneath a wobbly toupe, it is essentially Alone In The Dark 4, which, when you consider how good the others were, is no bad thing. \r\nThe plot is a little complicated. The intro sequence (one of the best I have ever seen) begins with a fight between a valiant-looking Knight, Gallois, and a Darth Vader-style baddie. Gallois wins, but not before receiving a fatal wound. He cries out to someone called William. That's you. You're the reincarnation of William, the founder of the Knights Templar, studying Law in Paris, 1995. Your girlfriend has been kidnapped and taken back in time to the Middle Ages. You, resplendent in your coat of many polygons, must travel back through the centuries and rescue her -instead of getting drunk with your mates and phoning your ex. The adventure begins in modern-day France, at the 'Museum of the History and Tradition of the Middle Ages' and then moves, via some sort of portal, to the Templar's Grand Headquarters in 1329.\r\nThe first thing that strikes you about the game is the detail of the characters. Instead of having heads like cardboard boxes, each is now made up of over 300 polygons, with real-time Gouraud shading and more frames of animation. William drifts about with his Templar robes swishing gently from side to side. The monsters and baddies look better than they did in the AITD games, and all are decked out in appropriately leathery attire - many sporting beer bellies, shaved heads and nasty looking killing implements. While they still act like headless robots in a fight, this kind of attention to detail adds immeasurably to the atmosphere - which is already dripping with authenticity.\r\nYou may not know much about the Middle Ages, but after playing Timegate you'd probably find that, having fallen through a temporal wormhole, you could march confidently into the nearest medieval kitchen, pour yourself a nice cup of mulled wine, and settle down to an evening in front of the fire. You might, though, also find yourself looking over your shoulder. All the locations in the game have been lovingly hand-painted, which gives dungeons a genuinely spooky feel and every hearth a warm glow. The sound effects are great too - William's footsteps echoing back from stone passageways, and heavy doors creaking open and slamming shut with an ominous 'boom'. Full marks, then, for atmosphere - but what of the fun of it?\r\nIt seems fitting that Timegate should be all about travelling back in time, because you certainly feel that you've been here before. Little, if anything at all, has changed since the Alone In The Dark games. The puzzles, though more typically restricted to opening locked doors, are challenging and engaging. At one point, for example, you must mix various substances to make ink, find a pen, and copy vital information into a book - while at the same time concealing the theft of the very book you have stolen. The book, it turns out, belongs to the evil Wolfram - the master baddie. As you hurry to replace it, the game cuts to a shot of Wolfram, with nasty looking henchman, approaching the room. You must work fast to pull off your daring theft -too slow and you're shot through with a crossbow bolt, but try to do things in a hurry and you risk missing a vital clue. This is when the atmosphere really kicks in - the tension building as you fumble the keys in a desperate attempt to close the box, retreat behind the secret panel, and avoid the guards.\r\nTricky puzzles like this keep you interested, but must fight hard to conceal the rather too-linear nature of the game. In Alone In The Dark, many puzzles could be completed in any order - what was essential was that you found the various doors and artefacts needed to complete the game. In Timegate you get the feeling that you're being shuffled along by the game's designer, and cut scenes are used to kill you off if you stray too far from the official path.\r\nThe inclusion of cut scenes is, however, mostly welcome. Instead of just wandering over to something and standing around a bit, you can now, on occasion, watch a mini-movie that shows you how you, for example, silenced a tell-tale bell with a sheepskin coat, or hooked a robe from beneath the nose of a sleeping monk without him realising. Such cosmetic touches are at least an attempt to enhance the AITD game engine. \t\r\nBut, while combat should be more skilled - both yourself and your enemies have more weapons and moves to choose from, and William can throw punches, defend himself with crossed arms, and kick his enemies in the head, Bruce Lee style. As you make your way through the corridors and rooms of the Templar's headquarters, you'll find a warm glow stealing over you as you settle into the familiar AITD feel. It feels right. It holds no nasty surprises, no hidden depths or unwelcome oddities. This is not a problem, more of an opportunity missed to do something really different - which is just about how you'll feel about the game as a whole.\r\nOne of the best things about the original Alone In The Dark were the monsters, which felt genuinely evil, and pretty scary too. Timegate, even with its enhanced graphics, confines most of the enemies to lumbering sentries. As you progress, you do get to meet more malevolent creatures (the rooftop slime monster is excellent), who bring a sense of horror to the proceedings, but they are few and far between. At one point you attack a couple of innocent-looking monks who, before your amazed 20th century eyes, transform into hideous devils and gang up on you. It's moments like this that draw you into the Timegate world, but we could've done with a few more.\r\nThe hand-drawn backgrounds look great, but wouldn't it have been good if they'd been done in real 3D? Games like Fade To Black have taken the Infogrames style and turned it into something really new and different, and despite the atmospheric lighting effects, the Timegate world can't help but feel a little dated in comparison. The buildings are detailed and authentic but lack the claustrophobic atmosphere of Hell's Kitchen from AITD2. The Templar's headquarters have been superbly realised, but have little in the way of secret passages and rooms to discover. Like the monsters, when you do find a secret entrance, it comes as a pleasant surprise.\r\nThis must seem like nitpicking, but it all adds up to a title that falls a little short of its impressive predecessors, while still managing to grip the player with its atmospheric scenery and huge playing area. Timegate is an involving and challenging adventure game, but after all this time you expect Infogrames to be revolutionary rather than evolutionary. If you liked the other games, then you'll find a lot here to get excited about, but if you're looking for the next generation of 3D games, you'll just have to wait for Timegate 2, which will finally lay Alone In The Dark to rest.","PUBID":69},{"GAMENAME":"Steel Panthers II","Percentage":80,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Were I, through some difficult-to-imagine set of circumstances, to have to name my favourite wargame on the PC, I'd unhesitatingly plump for Steel Panthers (PCG 24, 84%). While steadfastly turn- and hex-based, it manages to be unusually exciting by mixing movement and attack phases into a freeform whole and by making it almost invisibly easy to give orders to units. Of the hundreds of wargames I've played, generally unwillingly, it's one of the very few that I wanted to carry on playing after it ceased to become necessary. That was over a year ago, though, and since then it's been replaced in my affections by even faster-moving, more accessible games like C&C and Warcraft II - not quite the same thing, of course, but I'd rather play them. Can Steel Panthers II rekindle my interest?\r\nIt's definitely onto a winner with the 'modern battles' idea. Everything from the 1950s to the near future is included, with the appropriate hardware from each era, and scenarios ranging from Korea to Vietnam to the Arab/Israeli conflict to a hypothetical Soviet/Allies clash in 1980 to the Gulf War to an imaginary war with China at the turn of the century. New hardware is gradually introduced, beginning with bazookas and F-84 Sabers and building up until you've got helicopter gunships strafing Iraqi troops while A-10s drop cluster bombs on their heads.\r\nThe sheer scale of Steel Panthers II is revealed if you go into the editor. Here it's possible to pit virtually any two countries in the world against each other at any time in history. So you can have, say, Norway and Brazil battling it out in the desert in the 1970s, and both sides will have exactly the hardware they ought to. There's huge potential for wargaming fun here, although it does rob the preset scenarios of a little of their mystique.\r\nThe engine itself remains largely unchanged. When it's your turn you can click on a unit, move it a bit, attack something with it, move it a bit more and so on. It's fast and straightforward, and can be speeded up still further with keyboard shortcuts. It's a bit annoying the way that when you switch from movement mode to line-of-sight mode the screen doesn't update until you scroll it. And, playing it on our Ultimate PC, I found that when I went for one of the icons I'd often brush the edge of the screen and cause the map to scroll off to the right at 2,000 mph. And I wish it would stop switching out of Auto-formation mode without me asking it to. Otherwise, though, this is the most comfortable way of playing historical wargames on the PC.\r\nWith suitable sound effects and some astonishingly stirring music at the beginning, Steel Panthers II achieves everything it sets out to, and is excellent value for money. I will probably carry on playing Red Alert, though, to be honest.","PUBID":92},{"GAMENAME":"Virtua Fighter","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"At launch, the new super consoles - the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation - had a selection of killer titles to entice prospective punters. In the beat-'em-up line, Sega had their home conversion of their arcade smash Virtua Fighter and Sony had Takara's fantasy fighter Toshinden. Those doubtful of the longevity of the new consoles might now have their suspicions borne out by the appearance of both these games on the PC with neither requiring a specialist graphics card.\r\nAs far as Sega goes, Virtua Fighter is only the first of a long line of Saturn to PC conversions, with Daytona, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2 and the rest pencilled in for later this year or early next. This might seem a strange move for a company that has traditionally accepted minute profit margins on its hardware sales in order to sell premium priced software to a dedicated and exclusive console user-base. By opening up a PC division, Sega are either hedging their bets with the Saturn or calculating that people with fast PCs are unlikely to also buy a console and are therefore a huge untapped marketing opportunity for the company. By the turn of the century, some think that Sega will be a software-only company, supplying arcade conversions to PCs and other people's consoles. Stranger things have happened.\r\nBut that's all secondary to the really important question now facing PC gamers. If there are now two high quality, polygonised beat-'em-ups available without graphics card prescription, which, if either, is worth getting? It's not a question we should have too much difficulty answering.\r\nFirst up, Virtua Fighter. It's a tried and tested formula and for its second PC incarnation (see PC Gamer issue 26 for the first) it doesn't stray too far from its roots. The original eight characters are all present and correct with the metallic woman, Dural, making a ninth and unsurprising boss. The fighting accent is placed firmly on Martial Arts with none of the characters using weapons more advanced than their fists and hands. New additions to the PC version include the Team Battle Mode (select a team of fighters and pitch them in turn against another team) and the Watch Mode (sit back and enjoy the computer beat itself up -useful for finding the more complicated special moves) which originally appeared in the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 2. There are also some cool optimisation features (see Two in one.)\r\nVirtua Fighter was always a simple game to pick up and play. Only three buttons (guard, punch and kick) control the attack options, with these modified by the direction commands and special moves. This might sound limiting, but a surprising number of throws, combos and special moves can be executed via fast sequences or simultaneous button pushes. It's easy to play Virtua Fighter badly, but with over a thousand different attacks available the learning curve is long\r\nand enjoyable.\r\nAs far as the quality of the conversion is concerned, Sega have made an impressive PC debut. The impact and movement sounds are not as fruity as they are on the Saturn or on a PC with the Diamond Edge card and every so often the game will drop a frame or two of animation. However, Sega have kept the speed and slickness of the original and successfully ported the most appealing part of Virtua Fighter, its painfully attractive gameplay.\r\nToshinden, on the other hand, is now, and always has been, a totally different kettle of eels. Yes, it does have another eight characters, this time with two bosses, and, yes, they are polygon generated. But whereas Virtua Fighter is a punching, slapping, kicking extravaganza, Toshinden is more of a spear, pole, sword, whip and strange special weapon fantasy fest. There's none of the noble art of unarmed combat here, you've got to hit your opponent with any blunt instrument that comes to hand and never mind the consequences for the cleaners.\r\nNow Virtua Fighter does well to code so many moves with so few controls but Toshinden, with all its weapons flying, would have to perform miracles to do the same. Consequently, it uses many more control buttons than right hands are really built to deal with. If you pick up and play this, it's only because you've spent an hour with the instruction book committing absolutely everything to memory.\r\nToshinden looked best on its original home, the PlayStation. Since it's started to appear elsewhere (it's said a shaky hello to the Saturn), it's lost a lot of its graphical polish. On PC, it looks okay but with so much texture mapping on the original characters and so much intricacy on their costumes, anything less than perfect shows up badly. The movement and gameplay come to the PC intact, but the graphics look as if they could do with a lot of sharpening up. If I'd invested a lot of money in an expensive graphics card for my PC, I'd be a lot less concerned looking at Toshinden than I would at Virtua Fighter.\r\nIn a straight head-to-head, in their original forms on their original systems, Virtua Fighter leaves Toshinden in a pool of blood on the pavement, licks its wounds and then looks around for something else to beat. On the PC, the story's very much the same. The problem Toshinden has is that the weapon and missile attacks it uses somehow detract from the realism its graphics try to create. For instance, it's hard to believe that in real life if you hit someone with a three-foot broad sword it wouldn't trouble them more than a centimetre on their health bar. On the other hand, you would quite expect a punch in the face to motivate some kind of retaliation. Mortal Kombat uses weapons and no-one has a problem, but its violence is strictly cartoon; you're not being asked to believe it.\r\nBoth games can only make use of one joypad at a time (a disadvantage that the Diamond Edge card doesn't suffer), making two-player contests distinctly one-sided. However, Toshinden, with its weapons and multiple controls, suffers more with this disadvantage than Virtua Fighter. Playing either game on a keyboard is not going to appeal to purists (they've probably already got a console) but I'm sure if you come to the games having never played them with a joypad, you'll not really notice the difference.\r\nToshinden is not a bad game, it's just unfortunate that it's come up against one of Sega's finest and its proper 'next generation' PC debut. If you're a beat-'em-up fan, then owning both games would be no disgrace and you'll get good value from both. For the more frugal, less completist gamer, though, Virtua Fighter is all you need.","PUBID":120},{"GAMENAME":"Toshinden","Percentage":72,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"See Virtua Fighter review.","PUBID":52},{"GAMENAME":"Total Mania","Percentage":70,"ISSUEDATE":"33","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Seventy per cent, seven out of ten, three-quarters, two-thirds; however you eventually score it, Domark's new real-time strategy game, Total Mania, is best described by the word 'average'. It's basically a Syndicate wannabe with Crusader-style graphics, but while it doesn't soar up to the stratospheric heights of 'fantastic; 90%', it doesn't nervously stand on the critical high-board and belly-flop into the 'dismal; 25%' category either. \r\nBut despite its blatant similarities to a certain Bullfrog game, Total Mania is still a fun and fairly entertaining shoot-'em up. Like Syndicate, it's set in a futuristic world dominated by huge, cash-rich corporations and as these business giants have grown larger they have built powerful Mechs (small EarthSiege-type robots) to defend themselves from each other. Unfortunately (warning: over-used sci-fi plot element approaching), as time passed their creations soon became sentient and the machines quickly took over the Earth and dragged mankind into slavery. All that remains is a fragile resistance movement and a secret army of cyborg soldiers...\r\nThere are 20 missions in the game and at the start of each one you take command of a squad of heavily-armed robots who you must guide through the multiple objectives, shooting enemy robots, picking up keys and solving simple switch puzzles. The designers have opted for an isometric world view, and so like MicroProse's X-COM games line-of-sight rules apply in combat and buildings cut-away to reveal their innards when you enter them through a door.\r\nAs in Crusader: No Remorse, you control your robotic freedom-fighters using the mouse; clicking the left mouse button to move your squad and the right to switch to targeting mode. The system is fairly versatile, so much so that you can target an enemy robot and fire at it while running away in another direction or be a bit more aggressive and walk towards an enemy while letting off a hail of strafing gunfire. It's a bit fiddly, however, mainly because the fixed isometric view means that you can't see some areas of the map if they are naturally obscured by bits of walls or hills. Syndicate suffered from this problem (although it's been remedied for the sequel, Syndicate Wars), but apart from this, some dodgy collision detection and soldiers that occasionally don't go where you send them, Total Mania is easy to control and even easier to sit down and play.\r\nIn its favour, Total Mania is far more of a strategy-orientated game than its rivals. Each level has multiple objectives, e.g. clear out a building, destroy a Mech, find a key, etc., and all of the relevant information is indicated on the overhead tactical map in the top-left corner of the screen. To complement this, the command bar in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen takes care of the attack modes, the inventory and whether you want to move your soldiers around in a group or individually. A zoom mode even allows you to view the action in close-up - everything is at your fingertips.\r\nAs well as reducing enemy robots to piles of smouldering scrap whenever the opportunity arises, you have pick-up technology and weapons during the missions so that your scientists can reverse-engineer them and then manufacture them for your side. It's also important to collect raw materials like iron ore and gold if you find them, because these can be sold when you get back to the base and converted into valuable credits. \r\nEven the revolution has to watch its finances and the objects you pick up on the early missions can be sold off and converted into vital credits for use in the later ones. Each cyborg soldier has four important statistics - shield strength, power, armour strength and experience -and three of these ratings can be upgraded in the robotics lab between missions. The only one that can't be upgraded is a soldier's power. The battle armour that each cyborg wears requires a battery to run it and, as the batteries only have a limited lifespan, it's worth taking two or three spares for each soldier so the suits don't run out of steam at the crucial moment.\r\nThere are five levels of shield, armour and power packs that can be developed as you work your way through the missions plus lots of new weaponry like rocket launchers, land mines and floating bombs. However, the new weaponry and armour plating doesn't necessarily give you a huge advantage over the enemy once you've amassed enough credits to afford them. Because you're forever reverse-engineering the enemy's technology, you're forever playing technical catch-up and you soon find yourself up against enemy soldiers that use cover and attack intelligently rather than mobile dustbins that have the raw computing power of a calculator and the destructive firepower of a peashooter.\r\nWith multi-level buildings, four different terrain types and over 65 different enemies, Total Mania seems to have it all. But the heavy emphasis on strategy, which was supposed to add an extra dimension to what is basically a Syndicate-style shoot-'em up, is often the one thing that frustrates anyone who plays it.\r\nThe main problem with Total Mania is that it's not very exciting. I'm all for ease-of-use and pretty cut scene graphics, but Total Mania's strategy-orientated gameplay means that there's actually more room-searching and key hunting than actual action. \r\nFeatures like limited ammunition and battery power overcomplicate the game and, although there are only 20 missions, the levels are so large that it's easy to get discouraged and annoyed when you can't find a green key to open a locked door. Whatever you throw at it, doors will stay resolutely and firmly shut unless you have the correct key to unlock them. Why the enemy don't make their robots out of the same indestructible metal they obviously make their doors from is an absolute mystery.\r\nAll in all, Total Mania is initially fun to play, but once the levels get larger the game soon becomes an elaborate hunt for keys and puzzle parts, interspersed with a bit of shooting. As East 17 so eloquently put it, Total Mania is 'really all right'. Although 'okay' and 'not bad' will also do nicely.","PUBID":42},{"GAMENAME":"Track Attack","Percentage":66,"ISSUEDATE":"30","COST":"35.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"It can't be easy thinking of new ways to do the racing game, but Track Attack can boast more inspiration than most. Its courses are sort of a cross between Stunt Car Racer's and Fatal Racing's, with ski jumps, long tunnels with sloping sides that you can drive up, split level sections where it's to your advantage to jump up onto the top layer, spirals, and all manner of short cuts and detours. You can even fly off the track altogether if your concentration slips, but, disappointingly, you don't get winched back on like in Stunt Car Racer.\r\nTrack Attack's trump card, though, is what Arc, its developers, call the Dynamic Track System. This is similar to what Bullfrog claimed they achieved with Hi-Octane, except this time you can actually see its effects. Drive over icons and you can cause the track to narrow behind you, or walls to shoot up, or draw-bridges to lower, or oil to spill, or spikes to pop out from the walls. \r\nAnd underneath all that, Track Attack has all the features you'd expect in a racing game. You can upgrade your car with money earned from race wins. There are 12 tracks to race around (the back of the box claims 39, but heaven knows where this figure came from), all pleasantly varied. You can play your own CDs as you race, as in Screamer. There are action replays. And there are texture-mapped 3D graphics with a wide selection of viewpoints, although they look all blocky despite purportedly being in SVGA, and chug along rather even on our Pentium 90.\r\nBut is it particularly good fun? I fear not. Despite it seemingly having all the basic ingredients of a decent racing game, I just didn't want to play Track Attack any more than I had to.\r\nAfter giving this some thought, I've come to the conclusion that, whatever extra goodies a 3D racing game might offer, 90% of its appeal is going to lie in the sense of cheek-flapping speed it creates as you're zooming along. That's where Screamer and Grand Prix 2 win, and where Track Attack has to retire about ten laps from the end. Whether it's the slightly sluggish graphics engine or the over-enthusiastically-sprinkled slowing-you-down devices (the stop-you-dead pinball bumpers are particularly dispiriting) I'm not sure, but Track Attack feels like it's going through the motions rather than hurling you faster and faster along a dangerous road. And it doesn't help that there are only three other cars on the track, so the potential for bashing into other people is limited.\r\nIs it better as a networked game? Possibly. But I think, having assembled enough players on wired-up machines, you'd have a hard job persuading them to play Track Attack rather than, say, Quake or Warcraft II.\r\nThere are plenty of good ideas in Track Attack, and it's hard to pinpoint any one thing that's actually wrong with it. It's basically all right. But it's not as much fun as Screamer, and it's therefore hard to make a case for recommending it.","PUBID":89},{"GAMENAME":"Monster Truck Madness","Percentage":89,"ISSUEDATE":"36","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"Some names suggest their own tone of pronunciation. Advertisers bear this in mind when they hire actors to do voice-overs -toilet tissues get a caring, sharing, comforting voice, performance cars get an authoritatively macho voice, and British Telecom get an irritating cockney. If Monster Truck Madness was ever to get some ad time, they'd have to drag out the reddest of American redneck sports commentators, drip feed him on a caffeine/speed cocktail for three days, sit him on a two-bar electric fire and shout 'Saddam's got bigger guns than America' continuously in his face before they attained the required voice excitement level. It's a bit of a 'hyper' game, you see.\r\nThe idea at the bottom of it all is to race around in one of those huge four wheel drive jeeps -you know, the ones where the wheels are bigger than bungalows, and the driver sits about 15 feet up in the air. Uniquely American, and in real life more than a tiny bit crap, these Monster Trucks make an excellent basis for a network race game where rules are a bit of a grey area and keeping your truck on the right side of vertical for any length of time can be counted as an achievement in itself.\r\nThe game comes in an easy-to-handle package. Select one of the eight MTs available (with names like Rampage, Grave Digger and Snake Bite, I think we know where we are), select the number of players you'd like to race against (human opposition if you're networked), choose a race type (let's say keep it simple and go for a Circuit -Canyon Adventure will do) and off you go. The start light goes green, the simple left, right, speed-up, slow-down controls come alive, and you're off, bouncing down the track, jostling for position with the other MTs.\r\nAll very normal. A run-of-the-mill racing game, one starts to think. And then you bounce over your first car. And then another. Why are people leaving cars on a race track to be crushed by ten tonnes of over-wheeled truck? No matter, you're rushing up a hill now. There's a jump at the brow. You're flying. You land. The horizon is moving around in a most disconcerting fashion. The recoil from your over-worked suspension sends you bouncing into a mound by the side of the track. Your left side flicks up. You hit another large bump. Your truck flips onto its side and for a few seconds you roll lazily, casually almost, down a grass bank into a stream. Your truck lands on its wheels. Lucky. A reverse and turn manoeuvre points you back where you hope the track is - the track you now can't see. You hare off across country. You rejoin the track, miss a bridge, but zip through the river instead. You're back with the opposition. You're approaching the first checkpoint. You're waving goodbye to your social life.\r\nNo, you haven't played anything like MTM before. Although the graphics won't be troubling Daytona, F1 or any of the race league leaders in the basic looks department, the way the game models the pitching and bouncing of your truck is nothing short of stomach-troubling. Not only have Microsoft crafted a game engine that gives you the freedom to drive wherever the hell you like over the eight available courses (five circuits and three rallies), they've made one that makes you want to brace yourself for every approaching bump, jump or crash. This is no worthy driving sim, this is a big, bouncy, excitable puppy of a game.\r\nThere aren't really many areas for criticism, either. Installing the game couldn't be easier. There are plenty of basic play options (see Drag Act), three levels of difficulty arranged in a structured league system as well as all the nice little extras like replays from multiple (and recordable) angles. The game's four views can make the driving experience enjoyably diverse -f rom the up-close-and-not-so-good-for-the-easily-travel-sick cockpit view, to the more-useful-for-serious-competitors 'Chase' view, to the Micro Machines-esque 'Blimp' option. Other choice goodies include the Garage (see below), a 'chat' feature for network play, and even a horn to make liberal and rude use of. \r\nIf we're going to be hyper critical we could say that the slow-down on multiple truck melees can get a bit serious at times, and that the Map feature (essential for finding your way back to the track after a big spill) is pretty useless. But then again, if your PC's not fast enough to cope with all eight trucks at once, you can always lower the number of competitors before the race starts (most of the fun in the game comes from battling the course, not your opponents) and, well, stop getting lost.\r\nMonster Truck Madness takes a dubious idea and, through a mixture of technical excellence and a firm understanding of what holds gamers' interest (an enjoyable challenge and plenty of it, basically), makes it one of the most original, playable racing games you'll ever have the pleasure to bounce around with. Please remember, though. Nissan Micra, tyres, 80 Psi. MAXIMUM.","PUBID":90},{"GAMENAME":"Tunnel B1","Percentage":85,"ISSUEDATE":"38","COST":"40.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"'As we power frantically into the home straight, the enemy hovercraft has the temerity to pull even further ahead. My machine guns rake his rear shields and then I finally get a lock, and two homing missiles streak out to smear him against the wall. But - disaster! As he disintegrates into small pieces, he manages to drop a full load of mines in my path and I'm forced to swerve, bouncing off a barrier, losing precious seconds. The clock's ticking, but a lightning-fast adjustment and now the finish line's in sight. I punch the afterburners, hurtling through the exit, mere nanoseconds before the reactor goes bang in an extremely life-threatening way. There's just enough time to shake some life back into my hands before the next level loads and even more futuristic hover-style carnage is unleashed.'\r\nNow, I've always been slightly suspicious of games developed on the PlayStation that are then ported over to the PC. Their often arcadey-style mix of cheap thrills and instant action doesn't usually translate too well onto our beloved beast, more accustomed as it is to wholesome cerebral and strategic style antics. So as Tunnel B1 whirred its way through the installation routine, I was fully prepared to see my unreasoned prejudices confirmed. A quick scan through the manual didn't seem too promising either, with B1's rather superfluous plot involving a nameless dictator who's apparently developed some form of doomsday device or other, which is secreted deep within a well defended tunnel complex. Some unlucky soul (guess who just volunteered) has to pilot the latest experimental hovercraft through 12 levels of his nefarious devising and disable the doomsday machine, thus, presumably, foiling his dastardly scheme for world domination. Oh dear. Hardly an original scenario there either, and, on the whole, things weren't looking too promising for our imported PlayStation chum.\r\nImagine my surprise, then, when after no more than a couple of moments, B1 revealed itself to be a rather superior tunnel-hopping blastathon of the first order. From the off, the game really sets out to capture graphical hearts and minds, and it's no exaggeration to say that B1 features some of the most spectacular and innovative graphics and lighting effects seen on the PC to date. The sense of speed as you fly through its torturous, sinuous tunnels is amazing, and although the controls are initially a little tricky to master they rapidly become intuitive, allowing you to exercise total command over your speeding hovertank. Soon you'll be pulling one-eighties, spinning on a sixpence and swooping - yes, there's no other word to describe it - positively swooping around corners to deliver killer blows to the dictator's defences.\r\nIt's no easy ride down there either, and all manner of opponents await, from simple static defences and barriers that slow you down to enemy hovercraft and attack helicopters which engage you in fast and furious fire fights. As you'd expect, your craft can pick up a full complement of offensive weaponry and power-ups, from the humble machine gun to the awesomely destructive super smart bomb, which has the capacity to devastate whole legions of the dictator's minions. And B1 likes its explosions, oh dear me yes. Things don't just blow up in B1, they detonate with extreme prejudice, erupting spectacularly in waves of cascading flame, sending debris cartwheeling across your screen, which then also explodes just for good measure. In fact, scarcely a moment goes by without something going bang in a big way, and B1 rewards you with some of the most gratifying and mindless violence yet seen on the PC.\r\nBut B1 isn't just about blowing things up, immensely satisfying though that is. Underpinning the action is an intriguingly balanced mission structure which guides you through each level, plundering extra weapons, triggering secret alarms and finding the right combinations to disable parts of the complex's defences. The missions with time limits are particularly stressful, as you dash from objective to objective with the clock counting down, and it's perhaps a measure of B1's success that you do actually lean into the turns with your craft and get an immense buzz of satisfaction as you complete that final level with seconds to spare. \r\nSo now, in a complete turnaround, things are suddenly looking extremely rosy for our PlayStation-based pal. But there is a price to be paid for B1's seat-of-the-pants style graphical extravaganza. Unfortunately, to take full advantage, you'll require the terrestrial equivalent of Deep Thought, as B1 chugs significantly in hi-res mode, even on a Pentium 100. However, you'll be heartened to learn that switching to the low-res mode doesn't detract from the action one iota and actually reinforces its unnerving sense of speed.\r\nAdmittedly you'd have to concede that Tunnel B1 is hardly the most cerebral game, but it never fails to deliver in terms of instant excitement and frothing non-stop action. If you feel the need to find a challenging, no-holds-barred blastathon in your stocking this Christmas, then you should sneak a note to Santa with Tunnel B1 top of the list, right away.","PUBID":98},{"GAMENAME":"Urban Runner","Percentage":35,"ISSUEDATE":"34","COST":"45.00","ReviewBodyCopy":"According to the box, Urban Runner is 'the first 100% full-screen video adventure game'. Except it isn't, having large grey borders at the top and bottom of the screen. It also boasts a 'scenario that would make Hitchcock proud'. Proud he didn't have anything to do with it? He's probably gyrating in his grave at this very moment. \r\nHang on, though. Sierra's last adventure, Gabriel Knight 2, wasn't bad at all. Maybe this is the turning point. Maybe this game will be the first 'interactive movie' to fulfil the promise of a cinematic experience where you are actually in control. Maybe this time it will actually be worth ten times the cost of going to see a proper film at the local multi-plex.\r\nOf course it's not. It's dreadful, for reasons I shall now explain. First, as always with this sort of game, Urban Runner is incredibly linear, with no possible deviations from the rigid path the game has you follow. Second, the plot itself is very poor indeed -you're a reporter investigating drugs trafficking only all not as it seems, etc. The gang's all here: stereotypical characters, cliched lines, rampant sexism on the part of the writers (who funnily enough aren't credited), huge gaps in the plot (Why doesn't the hero take the bodyguard's gun in the first scene when he has the chance? Why doesn't he leave the pumping station through the exit which is labelled on the map, or through one of the open windows?). If this game really was a film it would be laughed at. There are also many trivial irritations, such as characters who've clearly had their voice-overs done by more than one actor, the ridiculously contrived puzzles in certain places, and the stupid time limits later on. There are some
