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Distributed by : GT Interactive Software Quake™ ©1996 Id Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Published by Id Software, Inc. Distributed by GT Interactive Software Corp. www.gtinteractive.com MS-DOS® is a registeréd trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

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Give specific orders to each unit. Determine each unit's behavior in combat. Preset pathways and waypoints. Place a unit on‘sentry duty or send t on a hit-and-run mission.

Sighting and. attack calcu take into account, true line-of-

te

. * sight. Realistically modeled “. go terrain dynamically affects unit ‘ : movement.. Tefrain deforms when hit || 3 A 4? Ja “hg : with weapon fire.« * * — ax . * $= 2% “ .

Design your own miss@ons. , Create alliances with up to "eight players by sharinge resources and igitelligence. Also, inc@udes gigantic playing maps, never-before-seen units, and dozens of other features.

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REFERENCE GUIDE TO MENTAL DISORDERS

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BUY 2 GAMES AND GET A THIRD ONE FREE’

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GT Interactive

Soft For details on how to get your free game see your local 0 ware

participating retailer or call 1-800-432-3493 ext. M608

www-gtinteractive-com

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*Buy any & titles on these pages plus the following (not shown): Gender Wars, Kingdom O’ ‘Magic, Vikings: The Strategy of Ultimate Conquest, Just Me and My Mom and Just Me and My Dad” and get any title free (plus $6.95 shipping & handling) from the following list: Amok, Bedlam, XS, ZPC, Scorcher, Kingdom O’ Magic, SPQR, Sa a ”, Imperium Galactica, Vikings: The Strategy of Ultimate Conquest, Gender Wars, Just Me and My Dad, Locus, Ice & Fire. Offer expires January 3lst, 1997. Availability dates subject to change. Void where prohibited. Offer open to! residents of Continental U.S. Not all games available on all platforms or operating systems. For game ratings, please contact the ESRB at 1-800-771-3772.

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XS ©1996 SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Lid. All Rights Reserved. 9 ©1996 Tribeca Interactive, Inc, All Rights Reserved. Created and published’ 6y Tribeca Interactive, inc. Bedlam is licensed from Mirage Technologies (Multimedia) Lid. ©1996 Mirage Tec! ne CY GT

me ©1996 Zombie LLC. All Rights 6 GT Interactive Software Coro ll Rights Reserved. Developed by Digital Reality Inc. S.PQ.R. " ©1996 CyberSites, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Created by CyberSites, Inc. Hexen ©1905 Raven Software Corporation. All Rights Reserved

en Software Corportation, All Rights

Delusions of inflation of worth, power, knowledge, DELUSION S identity or special relationship to a deity or famous

OF GRANDEUR: person. (e.g., all powerful sorceress, assassins, ancient

Romans, commanders of inter-galactic space ships)

Now Available Available October ‘96 Available November ‘96 Available November ‘96

ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY A pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights

of others. Elaborate weaponry is often involved. DISORDER:

il

Now Available Available November ‘96 Now Available

OBSESSIVE / Repetitive behaviors or mental acts

(e.g., performing magic, killing) that the person feels

COMPULSIVE: driven to perform in response to an obsession.

Available October ‘96 Now Available Now Available Now Available

Compete head-to-head. Surrender nothing.

The Microsoft® SideWindex™ game pad makes it a fair fight for you and up to three of your best friends. Hook up to any of your Windows® 95—based games and all four (or three, or two) of you get the same fully functional, lightning- fast game control and miltibutton maneuvers. So no matter how many are plugged in, the competition’s still quick

and exciting. It’s a perfect fit for hands of all sizes,

letting you keep a solid grip and making it easier to use any of the buttons or triggers to vanquish your opponents. Record complicated, hard-to-remember miltibutton moves and |

‘map them to a single button for swift execution of lethal maneuvers. Remember, the more SideWinder game pads you own, the more friends you can take advantage of. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone, right? :

enjoy the

inferiorit

of their

best friends.

— Lord Chesterfield

-* game pad

Microsoft

Where do you want to go today?® www.microsoft.com/sidewinder/

Whats Inside

JANUARY 1997

VOLUME 4, NUMBER 1

PC Games (ISSN 1089 Computer Gaming NeS pe BO es Publishing, 951 Manners d Bivd. Y 549-4300; An IDG Company: The rids Leade ] F ™ name d 10g eva art wo Matec A and Y a: PC GAME‘ ). Box 59710, B 3 a dress t GAMES, PO. Box 59710, Boulde: 7, Fore Canadian orders must be prepaid in U.S. dollars on a U.S. bank and must include $3 0/year additional for shipping (air delivery). No part of this publication may be printed or reproduced without written permission from the publisher. PC Games makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of articles published in the magazine and assumes no responsibility for damages a

rs or omissions. PRODUCED IN USA

Features COVER STORY

4? Into the Realms of 3D By Rob Smith

“Hey, 3D Realms, you just leveled Los Angeles. Now waddaya

gonna do?” Hint: They’re not going to a California theme park. Preview the eerie Shadow Warrior and get an insider’s look at the incredible new games coming from the Dukes of Nukem.

BEST OF 1996

The 4th Annual PC Games

Editors Choice Awards Edited By Daniel Morris

While you were up late blasting through Quake, we were nukin’ it out with Duke. When you got joystick wrist, we got gamepad cramp. Just like you, we played lots of games in 1996. But unlike you, we got paid for it. To show we earned it, here’s our annual pick

for the best games of the year.

—— ont Ss: ; ad crt! > t fest. it's hot > raat

yt 2 ONLINE GAMING

| Pere, GAMING OVER THE ca ee | I) INTERNET —

amm By Jason D’Aprile

oe a Multiplayer action games playable through TEN, Mplayer, Engage,

and Kali ensure there will be plenty of Red Asphalt on the Information Highway. But who has the best on-ramp? We notch a few holes in the global village and share our conclusions on how

today’s Internet game services stack up.

SIMCITY 2000 NETWORK EDITION

The world’s most popular simulation finally gets some competition.

| Player 2

is the server that brings the players together— before trying to bring them to their knees in a mad scramble for power.

surveys the city looking for suggestions he can make to the group on how best to beautify their bur- geoning burg.

is in the midst of heated negotiations with Player 1 that could bring some much-needed revenue to her district.

checks out the new sta- dium and power plant he shrewdly got approved at the city’s last real-time town meeting.

After years as the only city simulator in town, SimCity 2000 now has some

Cury 2000

Ses worthy competitors. Namely, you and three friends, competing for resources

and revenue over the Internet or a LAN. Or two of you can go head-to-head over a modem. It’s the SimCity 2000 Network Edition—now ready to compete

for your free time.

When you’re building a mega-metropolis, two heads (or three or four) are

better than one. So import saved SimCity 2000 cities or start a new urban

sprawl. Chat live with your connected commissioners. Wheel and deal for

property and vote in town meetings.

Or forget back-scratching and try back-stabbing—in a shameless grab for political

M(AXIS

power. The Network Edition. Not just multi-layered. It’s multi-playered.

http://www.maxis.com

Available for Windows 95. © 1996 Maxis, Inc. All rights reserved. SimCity 2000 and Maxis are registered trademarks of Maxis, Inc. For product or ordering infor- mation, contact your local retailer or call 800-33-MAXIS. Visit the Maxis Web page at http://www.maxis.com.

REVIEWS

"= «GAME OF THE MONTH

88 Toonstruck ACTION

92 AMOK

95 Bedlam ARCADE

Area 51, Captain Quazar Sonic CD, SlamScape

Grid Runner, Creep Night —4, 2

ADVENTURE Amber Noir

ONLINE

Meridian 59

FLY AND DRIVE Hind Shattered Steel

STRATEGY War Wind Blood & Magic

SPORTS Solid Ice FIFA Soccer °97

GAME SHORTS

Eradicator, Hunter Hunted —— Trophy Bass 2, D-

ei. & rollsi Chapres 7 YOU DON’T KNOW JACK

ne tec i Volume 2

STRATEGY & TACTICS 133

RPGs are out of the dumps and back in the dungeon with the epic

Daggerfall. Learn how to explore the underworld without going under.

Cheats for Shattered Steel, Time Commando, Screamer 2, and

Gender Wars.

DEPARTMENTS

10

15 17

22 29

38

41

85 160

139

EDITOR'S NOTE

Steve Klett

PC GAMES.EXE PC GAMES.COM

LETTERS GAME NEWS

New online gaming sites, Bungie’s roll-out, and more.

THE PLAYER Steve Klett

The Player makes his New Year’s resolutions.

THE OPPONENT

Blade

This LAN is not your LAN—or so Blade says.

THE A LIST FACE-OFF

Can the speed of real-time strategy over- come the savvy of turn-based strategy? Opinions differ...

TECHNOBABBLE

THE ULTIMATE GAMING PC David Gerding

Share our New Year’s fantasy: the coolest, fastest, toughest PC configurations we could assemble. We dream about spending mega-bucks on the best of

the best.

145

Latency makes a fast round of multiplayer Quake feel

ALL.....ABOUT.... LATENCY David Gerding

like a sluggish aftershock. Learn all about the Internet’s dirty little performance-crippling secret and what you can do about tt.

149

HARDWARE SPOTLIGHT

Intergraph’s Reactor and Sierra’s Screamin’ 3D take the stand.

150

Honest answers to your toughest technical questions.

S.0.S. Patrick Marshall

PLAY THE DEMO ON PC GAMES.EXE CD-ROM

STEVE KLETT

New Year, New Look

any people see the end of the year as a time for turning over a new leaf, and we at

PC Games are no exception, as we’ve turned over several in this issue. We’ve listened

to you, and, as a result, PC Games just keeps getting better as we strive to continue giving you more of what you want—gaming information.

We've kicked off several things with this issue, beginning with a more stylish, friendly, and—most of all—fun redesign of the book. No, we didn’t move everything around on you, but we did change a few section names (Tech Shop is now Technobabble, for example). Hopefully you’ll find the book even easier to navigate, read, and enjoy than ever before. Check it out and let us know what you think!

But that’s just the window dressing. You’ll also notice a much more aggressive coverage of multiplayer and online gaming in this issue, starting with Jason D’Aprile’s feature, “Gaming on the Internet,” on page 75. With TEN and Mplayer going commercial, the time is right to start taking a good hard look at the online services, as they’re now making you pay to play. It’s clear that 1997 is going to be a definitive year for online gaming, and we'll be right there in the thick of things to tell you where your online gaming dollar is best spent. Yes, it’s a dirty job, but we're glad to do it.

We’ve also added an online games department to our reviews section (see page 111 for a re- view of 3DO’s Meridian 59), and incorporated a separate score judging the multiplayer appeal of games that offer this option. We did this to more accurately rate games such as Command & Conquer, Quake, and Duke, which, for many, excel in multiplayer mode but leave much to be desired in stand-alone play. We’ve also separated the multiplayer score in our ratings box to show you at a glance if a game has multiplayer capabilities and just how much fun it is to play.

Of course, we will still continue to bring you tons of behind-the-scenes looks at the hottest games in development. This month, you need look no further than our cover story, which brings you the skinny on Shadow Warrior—the latest brainchild from those warped but oh-so- clever minds at 3D Realms. We hopped a flight down to Garland, Texas, for an exclusive hands-on look at what appears to be yet another gameplay advance for first-person action games. Turn to senior reviews editor Rob Smith’s story on page 42 and start drooling over the deathmatch possibilities.

This is just the beginning of the first-class coverage that'll take you through ’97. We hope you like the changes, as we’re worked hard to give you more of what you want. Keep the feed-

OS a

Steve Klett

Editor

Internet: sklett@pcgames.com AOL: steveklett

back coming!

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL

Gini Talmadge

EDITOR Steve Klett MANAGING EDITOR Joy J. Ma FEATURES EDITOR Donald St. John SENIOR REVIEWS EDITOR Rob Smith

SENIOR COPY EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR

ASSISTANT WEB PRODUCER EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Bob

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Barry Brenesal, David Gerding, Patrick Marshall, Shane Mooney, Peter Olafson

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

Corey Cohen Daniel Morris Nash Werner

Lindstrom

ART DIRECTOR SENIOR DESIGNER ASST. PRODUCTION MANAGER

Steven W. Fleury Helen Bruno Erin Wayman

INTERNS DISC INTERN Chris Tou PRODUCTION INTERN Linda Aldredge

EDITORIAL INTERN

Chnistine Lam

MANUFACTURING

DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING Fran Fox MANUFACTURING MANAGER Cathy Theroux MANUFACTURING MANAGER Lynn Luts

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION MANAGER SUBSCRIPTION SPECIALIST CIRCULATION CONSULTANT CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE SINGLE COPY SALES MANAGEMENT

Marcia Newlin Tomoko Negishi

Greg Jones

Irene Basurto

PSCS

(603) 924-4407

SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMER SERVICE TO SUBSCRIBE

(800) 688-4575 (800) 440-7248

pcegamessubs@pcgames.com

PC GAMES BUSINESS EXEC. ASST. TO PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER VICE PRESIDENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER OF FINANCE

Anthony Garcia Chnistine Y. Yam Brian E. Sours

SR. FINANCIAL ANALYST Leona Ching ACCOUNTING MANAGER Laura Rosenga ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR Terry Gering ACCOUNTING INTERN Lloyd Schine IS MANAGER Nancy Durlester NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR Rob Rubright HELP DESK SPECIALIST Kevin Smith

OPERATIONS MANAGER SUPERVISOR OFFICE SERVICES

a ————— le ————— —————

INTERNATIONAL DATA GROUP

January 1997 * PC GAMES

10

Jeannine C. Harvey Lesieli Friesen

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Meee ie oe LLL LLL ee ones

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3D0

5 of Might and Magic,” E OF THE YEAR — Computer Gaming Worle

Chis long-awaited sequel is a CONQUER

feature-by-feature enhancement of everything that made

the original Heroes of Might and Magic an all-time strategy

cassie. Scoresofnew "| HE WORLDS

hero and monster types, alliance formation for team play,

‘enlarged combat maps, increased multi-player options, and

a flexible “World Builder” | @): MI C HT

module are just a few of the reasons why Heroes of

Might and Magic II will be a prized addition to your

CD-ROM treasure trove.

hall: vn om eau ¢ A SS io) P- e. oa a") - i)

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*.

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eet Te

DuAL CAMPAIGNS: characters throug

XenoS phere File Orders Economics Tenitory

oRC & HUMANS

tsar we 2 =

www.mplayer.com

“I'm the ~ r | ] Quake master. Com -

York, New Yor You're fresh sl . % , | meat.”

CM

Ey

suite, IV

‘Prepare to be eliminated.”

_“No one can — Command and _ Conquer me.

_ No one.”

Your favorite games just got tougher to beat. Because —idasaaainadbabsmasuabt choo.

we've added a random, unpredictable, nasty little thing called opponents. Welcome to Mplayer.” The new Internet-based game service that lets you take on real, live players from all over the U.S. and Canada, in

the latest, hottest games. We're talking about Quake. Command & Conquer. Deadlock. And more—with new games added all the time.

RE

re

With Mplayer, live opposition is only the beginning. Because you get to talk to these opponents in real time—using your own voice. You also get the fastest live action of any online game service, with no delays between player moves. And Mplayer gives you a place to hang out between games, where you'll find tournaments, contests, awards, expert advice, and lots more.

Want to check out Mplayer? Visit our Web site at www.mplayer.com to download our software. If you’d rather have a CD, go to our Web site or call 1-888-MPLAYER.

And get ready for the kind of opponents you won't find in a shrink-wrapped box.

Wanna Play?

www.mplayer.com

ian CN

iditadeabling rk ae Mb

Laiilieiehetiloriy

aie:

We i

driven on by a powePful musical score and state-of-the art graphics. You have

ocean Lloor on & mission to submerge Earth. : to pian a strategy amid a relentless And the only lifeguard on hand to prevent alien threat, ig you ere to succeed. total mayhem is you. Earth's last chance The water is salty and it leaves a bad 0 to Clkeep § billion = taste in your mouth, | QS =

heads above water in then again so will

DEADLY TIDES You are defeat. The mission

a solitary soidier in is simple, don’t let

an underwater craft, the

This underwater mission is possible only with Windows® 95.

nn

om

| Rainbow

u [ iJ (| | 0S INCORPORATED

www.microsoft.com/games/deadlytide/

xplore a huge, fully playable world in Bethesda’s role-playing classic. We’re talking an entire island here, so set aside a few hours to take in the sights, interact with the characters, and

undertake a few missions.

Demo of the Month The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall (Bethesda)

Action Games Hunter Hunted (Sierra)

Adventure Games Ecstatica 2 (Psygnosis) A Fork in the Tale (AnyRiver Entertainment)

Fly & Drive Games Rocket Jockey (Rocket Science)

Simulation Games

Pinball Builder (21st Century Entertainment) 3D Ultra Pinball 2: Creep Night (Sierra) Sports Games

NBA Full Court Press (Microsoft)

NFL Quarterback Club ’97 (Acclaim) Microsoft Soccer (Microsoft)

Front Page Sports: Trophy Bass 2 (Sierra)

Strategy Games Admiral Sea Battles (Megamedia)

Baku Baku (Segasoft) Steel Panthers 2: Modern Battles (SSI)

Online Services

TEN: including Duke Nukem 30, Necrodome, Warcraft shareware, C&C enabler

Mplayer: Terminal Velocity (and enabler), Warcraft shareware, C&C enabler, Quake enabler

AOL: 50 free hours trial software Utilities Scitech Disk Doctor 5.3

Win 95 1. Insert the disc in the CD-ROM drive.

2. After a few seconds the disc should autoplay.

If it doesn’t, use Windows Explorer to find the pcgames.exe file on the CD and double- click to run.

Win 3.1

1. Start Windows.

2. Insert the disc in the CD-ROM drive.

3. Select Run from the Program Manager’s File menu.

4. Type “d:\setup.exe” in the Command Line box

d

and press Enter.

Wer’ Gerdes .

January 1997

DEMO OF THE MONTH he Eldex Scrolls 2:

Daqgqexrfali

F ans Action Games: Hunter Hunted

Adventure Gamer: Rustatican 2?

A Pork in the Vale The Heverhood

Fly and Drive Oames; e hucket Jockey

Pinball Guilder

15

Ee |

Getting Started [| Getting Around

Take a gander at the list of hot demos on the Welcome screen. From this first screen, you can also sign up for 50 hours of free connect time on AOL. When you're ready to play the games, click on the arrow in the bottom-right corner. First up will be the option to play our Demo of the Month: Daggerfall. Click on the large screen shot to get straight to the details on how to get up and running. Scroll through the other pages to uncover the buttons leading to our 20

other great games.

The impulses of PCs mean that you may occa- sionally run into difficulties. Here’s how to access the demos manually if, for some reason, the in- terface fails to run: Open My Computer. Right- click on the PC Games CD logo and click Open. All the game directories will be displayed. Double-click on the game you want to play

and locate the readme file for that game. Double- click to open it and read the installation instructions.

Most games have a setup.exe or install.exe file that configures the game for your machine. Follow the instructions to get optimum perfor- mance (e.g., rebooting in MS-DOS mode to get the best out of the DOS-based games).

If you’re still having problems, consult the help files at our Web site, www.pcgames.com, or e-mail technical support questions not addressed

in the files to ctou@pcgames.com.

wai

ee ah al

ri yy rye

+

OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR TEN CONTEST

1. No Purchase Necessary. No purchase or payment of any money is necessary to enter. To enter the sweepstakes, print your name and address (including your city, state, and zip code) on a card and mail it to: Total Entertainment Network Contest, PC Games, 951 Mariner's Island Blvd., Suite 700, San Mateo, CA 94404. Enter as often as you like, but each entry must be mailed separately. All entries must be handwritten. Mechanically reproduced entries will not be accepted. Entries must be postmarked by January 24, 1997. Entries will not be returned. The sponsor and PC Games Publishing, Inc., assume no responsibility for lost, mutilated, late, or misdirected entries.

2. Prizes. Total Entertainment Network Contest prizes and, grand prize will be awarded. Grand prize is valued at less than $500. The aggregate retail value of all prizes is less than $5,000 US dollars. Winners will be determined at a drawing to be held on January 30, 1997. All prizes will be awarded. Prize winners will be notified by mail by February 28, 1997. To claim your prize, send your winning game piece to Total Entertainment Network Contest, PC Games, 951 Mariner's Island Blvd, Suite 700, San Mateo, CA 94404

3. Odds of Winning. Odds of winning depend upon the number of qualified entries received.

4. Eligibility. Sweepstakes are open to residents of the United States. However, for entrants under 18 years of age, a parent or guardian must be designated the winner if the entrant is selected

and prizes will be awarded to a parent or guardian in trust for that minor. Citizens of Canada are excluded from participation and receiving any prizes from the sweepstakes. Employees of PC

Games Publishing, Inc,. and/or Total Entertainment Network, their subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising agencies and immediate families are not eligible for prizes. No more than one prize will be awarded to any entrant.

5. Requirements and Responsibility of Winners. Winners will be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility and a publicity release that will allow the use of winners’ names and likenesses for other promotional activities by the sponsor and/or Infotainment Word, Inc. All federal, state and local taxes are the responsibility of winners.

6. Winners List. For a list of winners, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Total Entertainment Network Contest, PC Games, 951 Mariners Island Blvd, Suite 700, San Mateo, CA 94404. Requests for winners lists must be recerved by March 15, 1997. Allow 4 weeks for delivery of winners list

7. Record Keeping. A list of the winners will be kept for at least two years.

8. Disclaimer. This contest is void where prohibited.

9. Liabilities. This sweepstakes/contest is sponsored by PC Games Publishing, Inc., and Total Entertainment Network, which are together solely responsible for its conduct, completion and awarding of prizes. All decisions of PC Games Publishing, Inc., and Total Entertainment Network on all matters relating to the promotion are final. PC Games Publishing, Inc., and Total Entertainment Network reserve the right to cancel or modify the contest in whole or in part. PC Games Publishing, Inc., and participating sponsors assume no liability resulting from the use of the

prizes. By accepting the prize, each winner for themselves and their families indemnifies and holds harmless PC Games Publishing, Inc., and participating sponsors from and

against any liabilities in any way relating to the acceptance or use of the prize awarded or travel related to the sweepstakes or prizes. Additional releases may be required for the prize winner. Submission of an entry is acknowledgment of and agreement to be bound by all terms and conditions of this contest. VOID IN WHOLE OR IN PART WHERE PRO- HIBITED BY LAW.

16

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Playable demos on the FREE companion CD-ROM

Pay the Least!

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to PC Games—get a new CD-ROM with every is- sue—and pay only $19.97. That’s a 71% savings off the newsstand cover price.

PC Games is published 10 times a year. Newsstand cover price: $6.99. Canadian

and foreign orders must be prepaid in U.S. funds with $30/year added for air delivery.

53PC

he action is online these days, and that’s jjiiaum

where most of you are. We are, too—and

online is where you can find breaking news, special features you won't see any- where else, new shareware, and a world more. When you've read the magazine and played the disc demos, stop on by PC Games Online at www.pcgames.com and

get the whole PC gaming experience!

The Battlezone

More and more, the hottest action in gaming is head to head— blowing away your friends, neighbors, or a complete stranger 3,000 miles away. We live to play this way, too, and now PC Games is the place to go for all the info you want on the exploding MPG and online scenes. Go to The Battle Zone, and we'll fill you in on what the hottest new multiplayer games are and give you the newest levels to download. This is where you'll find the Quake Epicenter, the Nukem Files, and more. We'll also bring you the latest news from the new online gaming services such as Mplayer, TEN, and DWANGO. And we'll keep tabs on the big online services, too. Check out www.pcgames.com/zone for all your multiplayer needs—before your opponent does!

TipWorld The key to winning is often that one little strategy or tip that isn’t readily apparent in the heat of battle. So let PC Games tell

you how to take out that pesky monster,

dogged Spitfire, or demon from the depths! Sign up for the PC Games Tip of the Day, and we'll e-mail you a gam-

Id oe

ing tip every weekday that shou

help you negotiate the maze in that one game

that’s really killing you. Each week, we feature a different game. Just point your browser to www.tipworld.com/games/,

fill out the form, and we'll do the rest.

LDILE ACCEPTS WOLVERINE 7S

PC Games on CompuServe

Now CompuServe subscribers can check out the PC Games universe!

GO PCGAMES, and you'll enter a world of total gaming communica-

tion. What will you find there?

M Features, news, and previews hot off the gaming presses.

Mi =A message board where you can ask questions, vent opin- ions, and find other gamers interested in your favorite titles.

M Libraries of downloads, add-on levels, patches, screen shots, and more, broken down by category—and you can add to them, too!

HM Chat rooms, open 24 hours a day so you can talk in real time with other game enthusiasts.

HM Plus, a weekly conference every Thursday at 4 p.m. Pacific

Standard Time with PC Games editors who'll give you the

latest lowdown on

the happenings in gameland. We'll also fea- ture regular industry guests who'll tell you about the newest developments In games. Our partnership with CompuServe brings a new dimension to PC Games Online—one we think you'll enjoy. Come

on by and GO PCGAMES.

January 1997 * PC GAMES 17

i aa

peers >

THE APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN

All seven oniie have been broken. Every evil that wa Se SS _ plagued the earth has become incarnate, disturbing the |= = ~. _ balancing force between good and evil, man and spirit. ~ |

FRIGHTENINGLY DETAILED 3D ENVIRONMENT WITH

. , INTERACTIVE _— AND PREDATORY DEMONS Not only have you. stumbled blindly into a nightmare, , you’ve Set the stage for the Apocalypse.

And now. only one can stop it.

He who bears the mark. The chosen one. You.

i = * .

Presenting a terrifying.3D adventure unlike anything you’ve experienced before. Realms of the Haunting. :

The forces of darkness are ——_ for the final - eS showdown. ~°

0 INTERACTIVE OBJECTS INCLUDING AN 155 POSSIBLE INVENTORY ITEMS - EAPONS, AND MAGICAL OBJECTS.

FINED CONTROLS ALLOW CUSTOMIZATION NNTURE AND COMBAT LEVELS. ee Sk ee ad Si iwn eae (@ ATED CHAR ACTER INTER ACTION : PLOT BRANCHING AND MULTIPLE ENDINGS REAL-TIME, FIRST-PERSON, :

D ENVIRONMENT. = * eaten

*

THE BATTLEGROUND BETWEEN ULTIMATE

RUNIRETE FOR PC CD-ROM

. : BY GAMERS. FOR GAMERS. ‘s ©1996 Gremlin Interactive, Lid. Ail rights reserved. Realms of the Haunting and Interplay are trademarks of Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. Interplay i is the sole publisher and distributor.

Licensed from and dev eloped by,Gremlin Interactive, Ltd. All other trademarks are the Pepe of their respective owners.

Darano fm a liop uz. z-1e's

A sophisticated shooter laced with dark humor, Killing Time” is a fright-fest for the true aficionado

Saal Oo Wes. ASE)

of first-person corridor mayhem.

You’re trapped — locked in an island mansion crawling with the undead. - | Clear heads with a penchant for puzzle solving must prevail.

Use your brains and shotgun blasts to shatter the spell that has kept the island in a horrific limbo.

S-u pee T fie tou tr ack=s' to ysl tne

Afraid? Don’t be. Visit your favorite retail haunt or to order direct, dial 1-800-336-3506, or summon us on the Web: www.3DO.com/studio3do

Woe > 0-- we Ge Ge 2k Rowe est Mee c)ee REE 0cs fh

MEDIAV PLAY

: % MORE CHOICE. LESS PRICE. EVERY DAY-

3D0, Studio 3D0, the 3D0 logos and Killing Time are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of The 3D0 Company. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. ©1995, 1996 The 3D0 Company. All rights reserved.

i Love You, Man I just got your November CD, and I loved it!

I love the fact that you put Leisure Suit Larry on your disc. I usually buy other magazines, but now that I’ve tried yours, | find that I have been wasting my time. They

NGL

Ouestion of the Month: Who’ d We Miss?

You’ve read our 1996 Editors’ Choice Awards: now it’s time to choose your own. Invent a new P) d

would never have put a game like that on their disc. Now I’m thinking of subscribing to your magazine, be- cause that’s the kind of stuff I want to see on a CD: a sense of humor and beautiful women. I would like to know if stuff like Larry is always on your CD or if it’s a once-in-a-blue-moon type of thing. If category, one we didn’t do—good or bad, main or Murphy—and tell us what game would win,

it’s typical, I’m going to subscribe. Your magazine’s a lot and why. Argue your point and be creative: the person who sends us the best response will get a better than the others, but is it always that way? Please let free, always-cool PC Games T-shirt. (Okay, okay, and a game of our choosing.) As always, write to us at PC Games, 951 Mariner’s Island Blvd., San Mateo, CA 94402; fax us at 415-349-7482; or

e-mail us at pcgamesletters@pcgames.com. Please include your full name with each letter.

me know your standards. James A. Sherman

Judging from the responses to Nov- ember’s Question of the Month (Female Protagonists?), it seems that women main characters are a welcome addition to the gaming world. Most of you thought gender was a non-issue—that gameplay, not who you're playing, was much more important. A few of you, on the other hand, were more outspoken:

Well, personally, | think having women as the main character in video games is quite stupid. Most video games are based on ideas from movies, and about 90 percent of all movies feature men as the main char- acters. Action movies are the biggest blockbusters for many reasons. There's blood, gore, and nudity. All three of these make up a great movie. Whether it's Stallone firing some heavy weapons or Van Damme kick- ing some butt, people will pay lots to see a movie like that. Now, I'm not sexist, but while women in video games is okay to a certain extent, game programmers should focus on what makes more income: men!

Wilson Savoy Eunice, LA

| think it's about time there are more female protagonists in games! | love computer games. | play them all the time. | love action films, too, espe- cially ones with tough, sexy, FEMALE protagonists. There are not many (if any!) games, especially action games, targeted at women. Sure, |

played Myst, but my favorites would have to be Quake, Crusader: No Regret, and WarCraft Il. | can hardly wait for Diablo.

Of course, if | want to play a female character, | have to be the “rogue, even though I'd rather be the fighter. Games with females as the lead or with equal character in- teraction are a great way to get the men and women that play games into a mindset that women can be powerful and smart...and as deadly as any man.

Playing a female character, | relate to the game better when | see my character or get responses with feminine pronouns from NPCs. | love Warcraft Il, but I'm getting a little tired of “Yes, my Lord” this and “Yes, sir” that. Not to mention Alleria telling me, “You don't touch the other elves that way.” Excuse me?

As far as influencing my pur- chases, when it comes time to slap my money down, it doesn't matter if the lead character is male, female, or cockroach. What matters is game- play. If it's not fun, I'm not buying.

The industry needs to get to the point of letting you choose the sex of your character as a matter of course, especially in multiplayer games. If I'm going to go kick some butt on the Internet, | want them to know it's one bad-ass FEMALE doing the kickin’!

Laura Straub Via the Internet

January 1997 + PC GAMES

22

Via the Internet

Glad you liked the demo, James. Now, about the “standards” question: We've got a simple, die-by policy for both the disc and the magazine—cover the newest, coolest games as quickly and thoroughly as we can. That's all there is to it. The Larry titles are part of one of the longest-running series in gaming; there’s no way we could pass up the opportunity to show the latest one to our readers. Now, does that mean each month’s disc will be full of disco lotharios and half-naked women? Not necessarily. But we'll keep going after the best game-playing experiences month after month, and we won't shy away from a great demo just because it contains a little questionable content. Ours 1s not to

—Ed.

reason why...

What Evil Lurks...

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the PlayStation game Resident Evil. Is it going to come out for the PC? If so, when?

Adam Koebel

Via the Internet

A lot of readers have been asking us the same question, Adam, so we went straight to the source. According to Capcom, the company’s considered porting the game to the PC, but at the moment, has no plans to do so. Damn shame, if you ask us. —Ed. Feel the Power

I loved Willem Knibbe’s “Empowered” story (Nov. 1996, page 58). I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about up- grades that had me laughing uncontrollably. Upgrading a computer is not nearly as daunting as people think. I can remember a few years ago when I wanted to upgrade from my 80286. I asked the current “computer special- ist” at my workplace for advice on how to do it. He didn’t recommend the job and said that he’d never heard of anyone trying to do it. I could see the fear in his eyes. I went for it.

Tracy L. Eckels

Via the Internet

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ith the online gaming world now a serious reality, more game companies are starting to keep control of their properties under their own roofs. The immense popularity of the Internet, and the relative ease with which companies can engineer online aspects for those games not depen- dent on split-second performance, is leading some firms to handle play through their own Web sites. Take Sierra On-Line, which has been this route before. The Sierra Network

GAME Win

its sale and transformation into the present-day ImagiNation Network, Sierra maintained a close relationship with INN; its CyberPark site at www.inn games.com will feature several Sierra games for online play.

Yet, Sierra has also developed its own Web-based play area, the Sierra Internet Gaming Service (SIGS), for people who want to play Power Chess, the Hoyle card-game series, or Trophy Bass 2. A simple log on at www.sierra.com and an opponent-choice function that’s built into the games can have you playing a lovely 3D game of chess on a customizable board with a friend or stranger in a fairly short time.

Sierra’s certainly not the only company to create its own gaming Web site. Microsoft already has The Gaming Zone up and running (see “Gaming on the Internet,” page 75), Blizzard is joining the fray with battle.net, and id Software’s Quakeworld is due to go active soon. In addition, Activision is developing NetStorm for its own server, a system that could support the multi- player facets of its other forthcoming titles.

The advantages are obvious for all sides. On a Web where mindshare is paramount, the companies get to beam their name and messages at you on a continual basis. Plus, the play sites help them develop a market for a game like Power Chess that might not be too high-profile otherwise. “We think that for a game like Power Chess, online play can help it stand above other products of that type,” says Scott Lynch, general manager of Sierra Northwest. Mean- while, gamers who'd rather take on slower games avoid the costs associated with the dedicated gaming services. And the future promises innovations like

distributed servers and non-TCP-based protocols that may ease the move to-

was the first company-specific online gaming service years ago, and even after

witch gamers will soon have some new SegaSoft titles to twitch over.

Virtua Squad (it’s actually the arcade hit Virtua Cop, with its name changed due to various legal wranglings) offers true-3D polygonal may- hem as you shoot your way through three crime-

infested environments. As usual, plugging hostages is a bad thing; but feel free to nail just about everything else on the screen. Meanwhile, two new driving titles aim to put SegaSoft into high gear. Sega Rally Cham- pionship, a Windows 95-native title, is big on power turns, skids and slides, and getting air on jumps. Track conditions play a major factor: mud and dirt, for example, can make the road even more treacher- ous than usual. You can race in any of six different cars, each with its own track-busting at- tributes, viewing the impressive 3D scenery from ei- ther a cockpit or chase perspective. For speedsters who prefer the tra-

January 1997 * PC GAMES 29

ward fast action games over the Net. Sounds good to us.

—Donald St. John

ditional oval to the open road, the PC release of Daytona Racing may be worth a look. Incredible 3D graphics make it an eyeful, but a word of warn- ing is in order: You'll need serious muscle metal to meet the demanding hardware requirements for running it on most systems. When we previewed it at the SegaSoft offices, Sega’s own demo machines couldn’t handle it at its high-detail settings. Returning to Sega’s arcade roots, gamers

searching for a nostalgic glow may be intrigued by Sonic and Knuckles, a giant compilation of Sonic the Hedgehog’s adventures. Play in a one- player or two-player split-screen mode, running Sonic or Knuckles through their paces in a truly vast playground. Ten minutes into the game, you'll forget you’re at a PC and start reaching for the reset button on your Sega Genesis. Old hedge- hogs never die—they just get ported. (Sega; 800- 733-7288; www.sega.com)

—Daniel Morris

id, or Just I?

The aftermath of Quake cont- inues. Jay Wilbur, the self-pro- claimed and oft-quoted “biz guy” at phenomenally success- ful id Software, is the latest wor- thy to leave the company—in his case, to pursue full-time father- hood for a while. Wilbur's de- parture follows by a few months that of John Romero, the con- ceptual mind behind Doom and Quake. What does that mean for Quake-meisters? Watch this space...

Goin' Back to Kilrathi For those already nostalgic for the early years of the Wing Commander series, Origin is re- leasing Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga, a collection of the first three WC titles in a Win 95-native format. (Origin Sys- tems; 800-245-4525; www. ea.com/origin/english/index.htm; under $40)

Hunter Back on Patrol SSI is set to issue an expansion disc for its WWWII submarine sim Silent Hunter. The Patrol Disc features two new patrol zones, which allow you to prosecute the naval war against Japan in Malaysia and the Sulu Sea (between the Philippine Islands and Borneo). In addition, you get 15 new_ ready-made scenarios modeled from histor- ical engagements. (Strategic Simulations Inc.; 800-601- 7529: www.ssionline.com)

MoreCraft Il Tore through not only Warcraft II but the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion disc as well? Never fear. 734 Maps for Warcraft Il, from newcomer Cybertooth Technology, offers exactly—wild guess here—734 new maps for map-starved Warcrafters,

The Stuff of “ Myth and War

wn ’em or loathe ’em, you have to admit, Bungie

games are always a little different. Just look at their

history: In 1993’s Pathways Into Darkness, the then- Mac-only developer’s first major title introduced the first- person shooter to a computer platform pining for this kind of action. Then came Marathon, one of the first— and still one of the only—Doom clones to work a com- plex, compelling story into the game. This year, as the company went multiplatform, PC users got Abuse, a unique, run-and-shoot sidescroller, and a port of Marathon 2. So what’s next?

For fighting fans, there’s Weekend Warrior, a brawl unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Picture Xenophage, Toshinden, and TV’s Married With Children

mashed together and

) Solling (Dwar) r Pas As sis

poured into the “fu- turistic game show” mold. Huge, 3D ver- sions of everyday peo- ple—the Mailman, the Butcher, the Sports Fan, the Bag Lady— have at it in a series of bizarre, multi-elevated arenas. No blood or brain matter here; you're fighting for prizes, not pride. Solve puzzles, escape traps, and pummel your op- ponents while a wise- cracking host comments on the action.

Real-world physics, shifting camera angles, and graphics designed to take advantage of 3D acceleration hardware should add to the mayhem. So should the game’s multiplayer options, which let you network with up to five other people. You’ll also be able to scan peo- ple’s faces onto the fighters’ bodies using a special FaceMapping option. Will it be a Weekend Winner? Find Out in January.

Then stick around, for the stuff of Myth. That’s the work- ing name for a game promising to “explode the current para- digm of real-time strategy” with some truly amazing new features. You like Z? You like Warcraft? Get ready for this.

Set in a richly detailed fantasy world, Myth pits you against “a malevolent deity made flesh” and his legions of Fallen Lords. Only one army can stop them from laying waste to the living, and you’re in charge.

More important than the story, says Bungie, is the

game’s realism—real physics, real terrain, real weather,

This Weekend Warrior’s ren his onity mailbag. isn’t that against the law?

One of Myth’s cooler features: blood that stains the battlefield.

real lighting. Rocks and heads will roll downhill; blood will stain the landscape. And an adjustable camera will let you see every bit of this fully 3D world, so you can revel in the gore.

Bungie also claims the game will have better AI, net- working, and customization than previous real-time strat- egy games. Cross-platform networking will enable multiple players to engage in battles of attrition or in alternate scenarios like Capture-the-Flag and King of the Hill using maps designed specifically for network play. Meanwhile, a user-programmable scripting language will let you reprogram monsters, change game variables, and even change the rules of netgames.

That’s some big boasting. Will Myth live up to its moniker? If it does, it’s sure to become a strategy legend. (Bungie Software; 800-295-0060; www.bungie.com)

—Corey Cohen

January 1997 * PC GAMES

30

Studio 3DO Goes PC

aving just acquired New World Computing, Studio 3DO is moving fast on developing a new line of original PC titles. First out the door is Nitro Racers, a fast-paced minia- ture-car racing game in the style of the arcade classic

Super Sprint. Battle for position against eight computer

es mss. nts Sees Caan re rene ms =

The portal to Studio 3D0’s Meridian 59.

2 =

opponents or connect up to eight players over a LAN to compete on Nitro Racers’ 30 circuits. Simple and user-

friendly, Nitro Racers will come complete with a track modem link or split-screen mode. The war begins in April. editor. The race begins in January. Galactic Conquest: Portal of Succession will join a slew Next, there’s Army Men, a real-time strategy game with of space strategy/combat sims due next summer. As one yet another spin on the genre. Green toy soldiers are re- of five races, each with its own distinct style, the fate of leased from a toy box and placed in photo-realistic battle- the universe is in your hands. grounds against four computerized generals on the tan Finally, Meridian 59 was released as the first 3D toy-soldier side. Six command vehicles and six unit types graphics, multiuser dungeon (MUD). See our review on

—Rob Smith

Interplay’s Sandbox

ction/strategy fans will

can be maneuvered in two-player mode, using either a page 111.

House Osiris and malicious

get a unique viewpoint in SandWarriors. Unlike other real-time strategy

House Set, struggle for the

right to colonize the earth.

The game’s 30 missions in-

games like Command & volve uncovering ancient

Conquer or Warcraft, Sand Warriors filters the

alien technologies, exposing

spies, and rescuing explorers.

genre through a first-person 3D lens.

The setting is ancient Egypt, 6225 B.C., where two alien families, the benevolent

Interplay expects to ship

Sand Warriors in spring 1997. (Interplay; 800-468-

3775: www.interplay.com 3 play

—Daniel Morris

multiplayer game system. The GamePad Pro also includes easy-to-use software for quick button program- ming in Win 95—a feature that could place the pad into cutthroat competition with Microsoft’s SideWinder pad. The Blackhawk joystick is for gamers who want a

good stick without any hassles or heavy learning curve. Avoid crashes with Gravis’

The throttle is set right next to the grip on the joystick new pad, the GamePad Pro.

base, which is solidly weighted to keep the stick settled ire when ready, Gridley! Advanced Gravis is set to right where you put it. Gravis hopes the Blackhawk, unveil a new line of peripherals for PC gamers. The priced at $34.95, will become the budget-conscious stick company’s offerings include the PC GamePad Pro, a of choice. souped-up version of the classic Gravis pad, and the Gravis also announced that its GrIP system will be Blackhawk joystick.

The GamePad Pro ditches the old PC GamePad’s flat

design for a dual-grip design, a la PlayStation pad. It’s got

sold independently of any software bundle (it has thus far been bundled with games) in an effort to bring its price

down to a less lofty $84.95. (Advanced Gravis; 604-43 1- 10 buttons, a built-in Y-cable for multiplayer play at a 5020; www.gravis.com)

—Daniel Morris

January 1997 * PC GAMES 31

single port, and GrIP compatibility for owners of Gravis’

including hundreds designed specifically for multiplayer battle.

Exclusively Engage Continuing with its strategy of adding world exclusives to its roster of online games, Engage Games Online has nabbed Celeris' Virtual Pool. It joins a stable that includes exclusives on Warcraft Il, Total Control Football, Descent to Under- mountain, and others. (Engage Games Online; 714-752-5510; www.gamesonline.com)

Mech 2 Voodoo 3Dfx Interactive announced the impending release of Mech- Warrior 2 optimized for the Voodoo Graphics accelerator. The addition of Activision brings the total number of software de- velopers signed on to Total Immersion, 3Dfx's developer program, to 125. (8Dfx; 888- 545-5733; www.3dfx.com)

Starship Troopers The upcoming Sony Signatures film Starship Troopers will re- ceive its translation into a PC game courtesy of MicroProse. The Robert Heinlein sci-fi epic, to be produced by RoboCop's creators (including director Paul Verhoeven), pits Earth soldiers against malicious alien insects. The game will debut for Windows 95 before being ported to the Sony PlayStation.

Ring the Final Bell Sandbox.net, a Web-based on- line) gaming site, has an- nounced a free stock market simulation called Final Bell (www.finalbell.com). Players use the actual New York Stock Exchange to place their mock orders and buy, sell, and trade real-world stock. The actual outcomes of the day's market provide your score in the game—and you play for real prizes. It looks like the perfect pastime for Wall Street junkies with a hankering to play the market (minus financial risks).

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. SLASH, BODY CHECK AND HACK YOUR WAY THROUGH ‘THE KILLING SEASON.

COMBINATIO

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a ACTIVISION IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK AND HYPERBLADE IS A TRADEMARK OF ACTIVISION, INC. ” 1996 ACTIVISION INC, WIZBANG! IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF WIZBANG! SOFTWARE PRODUCTIONS. INC. ee = ae oo ALL OTHER TRADEMARKS AND TRADE NAMES ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

M CORONERS.

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Bigger tires. Bigger competition. Bigger thrills. Bigger Spent ng

So go Go GO to

www. microsoft -com/ games/ monst pot

for a@ free test drive. And see how you measure up.

Microsoft

Where do you want to go today?° — & Dirty Racing!

©1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft and Where do you want to go today? are registered trademarks and Monster Truck Madness is a trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ©1996 Terminal Reality, Inc. All rights reserved. All other products and company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Build It, They Will

Come...

wo new utilities promise the ultimate tools

for game editing to creative types with lots

of leisure time on their hands. The Descent Mission Builder from Interplay and the Pinball Builder from 21st Century Entertainment are perfect for the guy who has the game and wants more—only this time with himself calling the design shots.

The Descent Mission Builder, by the game’s de- velopers at Parallax, is a simple CAD-style utility that lets you point, click, drag, and drop your way through the design of your very own Descent mines. With texture previews and auto-lighting,

a lot of the work is done for you, but real cus- tomization hawks have plenty of features they can experiment with, including kickers, lamps, jets, and more. (Interplay; 800-468-3775; www. interplay.com)

Pinball Builder lets you design, build, and play your own virtual pinball tables. The stellar touch is the ability to import .PCX and .BMP files; the mind boggles at the possibilities. ’m going on record: My design for a Friends table, featuring

the expressly prohibited reproduction of several

omeday, we won’t have to jam those shiny

silver disc thingies into our computers to

play games, and we'll always be able to find a human opponent. A new Java-based Web site anticipates that idealized future with a set of board-style games that you can play against other visitors to the site.

PlaySite (www.playsite.com) hopes to step out from the rapidly growing world of Java- based games by making it easy to arrange a real- time person-to-person contest instead of just playing against the computer. Although chess, checkers, backgammon, and Reversi can be

found in Java versions throughout the Web, you

Playsite

Samenoo™

PLAY THE DEMO ON

vay PC GAMES.EXE CD-ROM

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Pinball Builder—a bit easier than assembling a real table.

NBC-copyrighted stills, will be the hit of the office. 1,000 points for lighting up Courtney Cox—yessir! (21st Century Entertainment; 716-872-1200;

www.2 I|stcent.com) —Daniel Morris

can enjoy PlaySite versions by connecting with a human partner in one of the site’s chat rooms. In addition to these launch titles, founder Seth Tapper says that original Java-based games should appear within a year.

“There are obviously a lot of people out there with great ideas that are workable in Java, and we'll always seek those people out,” Tapper says. “We can give them exposure on a site that’s al- ready popular and growing more so.” PlaySite also has Java-based chat rooms that have at- tracted hundreds of people by word of mouth, Tapper says.

PlaySite is currently free; eventually, there may be small charges for exclusive original con-

tent or tournament participation. You'll need a Java-enabled browser such as Netscape Navigator 3.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 to play on the site. (PlaySite; 212-965-9773) —Donald St. John

January 1997 * PC GAMES 35

onference

I

Basically,

Be EVEN MORE In

the Know about Gaming

Announcing

CompuServe

FEATURING:

e Live Chat areas about the hottest new PC Games.

¢ Downloads of Great gaming shareware and demos.

e Weekly Guided Discussions with PC Games Editors, Gaming Industry Leaders and Excellent Gamers.

Not hooked up to CompuServe? We'll give you Free Software and 10 free hours*!

CALL 800-828-3313

*Subsequent months: $9.95 with 5 free hours each month. Additional hours $2.95. Some additional charges may apply.

How the AY 3D XPRESSION+ PC2TV™ lets you plug your PC into your TV

~ for the oe big- screen spine- -chiller that blows away those game consoles |

once and i all. Or how ATEs ew 3D accelerator technology breathes life

into everything on your screen. Wide

f Output to TV 1600x1200 (NI)

face-blasting speed, butter-smooth

Be 30 Texturing (8i-linenr | detail and 65,000 crazy colors. | Smooth Video Scaling 2 cy Performance (WinMarks) 40.7M 35.9M All because we build more

I Price $199 (2MB) 6919

| advanced 3D features right . a onto the board than Matrox, Diamond

ATID XPRESSION+ PC2TV

or anyone else. Really cool stuff like }

DIAMOND STEALTH 3D 2000XL 14x

NATROX MYSTIQUE: | | Gouraud shading, bi-linear filtering,

a el aiuiin perspective- -correct texture mapping and

5 10 15 MICROSOFT DIRECT3D - FILL RATE TEST

fog effects. Which, as we all know, means | - scarier realism and faster response than dad's Porsche flat out on the _ freeway. You also get total game acceleration i in 3D aud 2D with Direct3D and DirectDraw support for Windows 95, fast DOS .

| sic and jaggy-free, full-screen, full-motion, TV- -quality MPEG

| video playback. Plus you get the ATI 3D Software Superpak with the hottest 3D games and 3D Web Browser software absolutely free. So oe die

an ordinary death when it’s so much more. fun getting dusted

eon

oS with a new ATI sD XPRESSION+ PC2TV a — pews

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ae graphics upgrade, See it now at your dealer, or see

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re

Also in systems from IBM,

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© ATI Technologies Inc., 1996. ATI, 3D XPRESSION+ PC2TV and NOW YOU SEE IT are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ATI Technologies Inc. All other com- pany and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers. 1. All performance tests conducted by ATI on a P5-200Mhz system with 32MB EDO RAM, 256K cache. The 3D XPRESSION+ PC2T\, Matrox Mystique and Diamond Stealth 3D 2000XL are configured with 2MB of memory for PCI bus using driver release: 3.0, I. 00 and 4.02 respectively. WinBench 96 tests conducted at 1024x768 resolution at 256 colors at 75Hz refresh under Windows 95. 2. Test conducted using Microsoft Direct3D Fill Rate test in bi-linear. 3. Mystique does not support bi-linear texturing in hardware.

Should All Bac Games Be Forgot

hhh, New Year’s—the time most of us look back at the past year,

ruminate fondly on the positives, and vow never to repeat the nega-

tives. Most of us even go so far as to step up to a mic at a party, or pledge solemnly to a friend after a few too many drinks, to make one or sev- eral improvements in our lives by the time we ring in the next New Year.

Never one to shun holiday tradition, The Player thought he’d take this

opportunity to share some of his own, and, of course, suggest one for the . A industry as well. Will any be kept? Doubtful, but who knows—maybe a | ae few will make it. You’ve gotta have goals, right? (4) Stop poking so much fun at bad, bad games.

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, The Player can get a little carried away (1) Start a Fresh Air camp for gamers. in his zeal to slap the wrist of a company that ships a game that is so obviously Yes, The Player has noticed a common pasty complexion shared among his bad. He’s going to work hard at being nicer. Yeah, right—throw this one out fellow game addicts. You may recognize these signs in some of your friends: the window, too. If anything, The Player’s been too nice and will work harder hollow, sunken eyes with black circles, shortness of breath, the thousand-yard —_at giving badly designed and slyly marketed compost the time in the spotlight it stare that can only be caused by seeing one’s friends get gibbed too many so richly deserves. [Editors’ note: At this point, The Player had to be restrained times. The Player’s cure: A two-week trip to the great outdoors. The setting: and a cold bucket of water thrown in his face to stop his ranting.]

A rustic mountain camp with no electricity or computers for a hundred-mile radius. Victims need only be signed up by a loved one, and they'll be whisked (5) Originality!

away in the middle of the night. It’s tough love, but it’ll help. This ts the one and only resolution The Player dares to hope the gaming industry will pick up. How many C&C knockoffs are popping up? How many Doom (2) Cut down on trash talking. clones are still appearing, let alone Duke and forthcoming Quake clones? How Lately, the game-playing atmosphere in the office has resembled a game of many games have we seen over the last year based on this premise: Guy wakes one-on-one between Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson on the big screen— —_up from cryogenic slumber to find himself captured by aliens and needing to es- the amount of barbs flying through the air during heated Duke or Quake cape, or someone wakes up on an island or planet not knowing who they are, or deathmatches is truly astounding at times, not to mention annoying and where they are, or what they need to do? If you’re going to make a Quake com- bewildering to our office neighbors. Of course, The Player never starts the petitor, try something really crazy and give it a good, original story. If you’re juvenile banter that goes with multiplayer gaming, but he has been known. making a C&C-type game, think of something new—new species or races to to escalate it, as everyone knows his dominating play speaks volumes by fight with or against just don’t cut it. How about a different type of gaming ex- itself....As you can see, this is one resolution that already doesn’t perience altogether—coming up with a new genre to copy? have a chance. In The Player’s humble opinion, everyone making a game or coming up with a design right now can take a lesson from DreamWorks’ The Neverhood. The (3) Increase gaming diversity. amount of care and passion that went into creating this remarkable piece of en- Have you noticed many of your favorite flight sim, strategy, or adventure tertainment is truly commendable, and is more of what is needed in the game games languishing on the shelves lately, gathering dust as all the new bad-ass industry these days. Sure, it may be a little short, or a little too easy in places first-person action and real-time strategy games suck up your play time? The for an adventure game, but it is a true breath of fresh air. Player has. "Twas a time when he’d gladly forsake Doom, Dark Forces, or The Player hopes ’97 will set a new standard for game inventiveness, as it is what have you for some late-night strategizing in Panzer General, dungeon- becoming clear the technology is there to support new directions and possibili- crawling in Anvil of Dawn, or dogfights in Pacific Air War. It’s been easy to ties for gameplay. forget about his old faves with all the glitzy 3D stuff coming out and the new Finally, The Player would like to extend a hearty best wishes for the New levels of mayhem to be found in Duke and Quake. The Player’s going to go Year to all of PC Games’ loyal readers. Cheers, and thanks for reading. back and hit some of those old classics and some of their newer counterparts As always, The Player welcomes your thoughts, resolutions, Duke challenges, to broaden his fun. and criticisms at Sklett@pcgames.com.

January 1997 * PC GAMES 38

é

. to play 7

©" 12 mission-based, blood-soaked '*

worlds demanding non-stop violence

& and mental marauding.

Sem Combat ruthless enemies and

| savvy bosses including a death duel With*the-biggest boss éVer created...”

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#7 Not the Kinda girl you can take. including “Bloodbath Tidal. Waves,”

'. home for dinner _— .. a a “Multiplexing Molotov Cocktails,” - . _ me 8. : “Seismic Tantrums,”™Radioactive #4 Flesh—seeking da 0 “els Green Fog,” and more.

missiles COOK gam victims to perfection #5 Every Kill: finger- lickin’ good #6 “Jaws of Death shear right through bone wOeS regular sOwer Junch’ with Jeffrey ‘D@hmer & me Hannibal Lecter

#8 First date could Cost you an arm and a leg

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ILLUSTR:

BLAD

A Multiplayer WasteLANd

ultiplayer gaming is here to stay—so

say all of us. Inclusion of null modem

and serial connection support, mo- dem options, and online gaming service signups all take up a significant portion of game development time. Many is the occasion when a software company spokesperson in- forms us that “the game is finished, they’re just tweaking the multiplayer parts.”

Evidently, this is a difficult area, but one considered sufficiently important to delay game releases. And rightly so: If online and multiplayer gaming are in fact the route to the future, then those elements in these groundbreaking titles should be as perfect as the constraints of technology and deadlines allow.

Notice what’s missing from that opening list of multiplayer sources? LAN network sup- port. Many game blurb fact sheets boast that “Game X features 16-player network sup- port.” Well, who’s ever taken advantage of the 16-player network support of any game other than Quake?

Being in the privileged position of having an office LAN where gaming is not only accepted but actively encouraged, we writers should be in multiplayer heaven. The fact is, we’re not much better off than Joe Public in the multiplayer stakes. Why’s that? Because we never—and are unlikely to ever—have 16 machines all networked at the same time, all working properly, all with the correct software installed and possessing between them the necessary copies of a game to run over that many machines.

And we’re the lucky ones.

So what’s the point? Does Joe Public give a damn about network and LAN support? While getting 16 people from a crowded office together for a Quakematch may not be uncommon, how many other titles are out on the shelves supporting this network capability—but remaining idle?

That’s not to suggest that LAN support should be totally dropped. For one thing, those with the capability would be furious. The point is accessibility, and the simple fact of the matter is that LANs are not accessible by most. The Opponent can’t understand why so many enthusiastic dialogues have focused on the future of gaming residing in the multiplayer arena when there are so many limitations to game players actually accessing tt.

Server technology 4 la Quake makes significant inroads into the realm of

multiplayer heaven, but this has only recently emerged and apparently gave id

Software fits during the development process. FIFA ’97 offers some impressive 20-player support, but only through the curious juggling of resources and the implementation of gamepad devices and technology to fudge the fact that

only 8 machines are physically connected.

Where does this leave the game buyer and player? With games stuffed with high-profile technology that’s ultimately useless.

Unless.

Unless technology gives Joe Public real access to the joys of many-player multiplayer games. How? Through the online services. Duke Nukem 3D’s LAN support will be of benefit to those honored groups with access to the hard- ware, but it’s on TEN that Duke is making real progress and heightening awareness.

Does that mean more game developers should start supporting the online services if they aren’t going through the pains of creating their own servers? The Opponent’s opinion ts a resounding yes. Spend part of the time currently going to waste on incorporating LAN technol- ogy that will barely, if ever, be used and create either the software to allow games to run on an online gaming service or the full server deals currently in the offing from a few companies.

The bottom line is that 16-player LAN support doesn’t mean diddly- squat to the vast majority of game players, but since experts are crying from the rooftops that everyone does want to get online to take full ad- vantage of multiplayer elements, make it accessible. Right now, “accessi- ble” means the online gaming services. If this is the future, more people need easy access to It.

While we all accept that the online gaming services still have some way to go before they manage to overcome the problems of lag (detailed in “All...About...Latency,” page 145), they could succeed given the support. Accessibility is the key to successful multiplayer gaming. Game players will use the technology presented to them if they can. TEN and Mplayer currently offer that accessibility, but they aren’t going to be able to do it on their own. Game developers, take note: People want to play your games—give them the

tools to do it.

The Opponent can be found Quakeing (when he should be working) under the moniker PCG_Blade on Mpath, or on a variety of other servers. And he'll

Dukematch all comers on TEN. Send comments to blade@pcgames.com.

January 1997 * PC GAMES

41

t’s official: Duke Nukem 3D rocks. Invested

this issue with the coveted title of PC Games

Game of the Year, the attitude-oozing action- fest has been something of a sensation. Naturally, the developers at 3D Realms are ecstatic about all this excitement. As die-hard gamers them- selves, led by president George Broussard, they have invested a significant amount of time and no end of late-night/early-morning scenarios into bringing some truly astounding examples of PC gameplay into existence.

So everyone’s happy, right?

Evidently, things weren’t all wine and roses. Last October, with little warning, itchy-feet syndrome struck, whisking away level design- ers, producers, and pro- grammers from some of 3D Realms’ next generation of PC titles. (Perhaps it was some sort of bug floating around the darkest depths of Texas, where id Software

also resides, as they both

experienced this problem.) Nevertheless, the forth- coming line-up is suitably impressive, boasting the Plutonium Pak add-on levels for Duke (reviewed here); Shadow Warrior and Blood, both based on en- hancements of Duke’s Build engine; and the all- new true-3D environment

of Prey. Despite denials that

42

‘2004200 5:50/50 8:20/201 8 3: 99499 6:20420 3:39799

these projects were severely hit by the upheavals, some delay was inevitable. But the ship seems to be steadying. 3D Realms has new people on board, including Paul Schuytema, former lead designer of MechWarrior 3, as producer and designer of Prey.

Soon, the games will speak for themselves, but for now, PC Games paid a visit to Texas to get the behind-the-scenes scoop on what's afoot

at 3D Realms headquarters.

i: 99799 sag 740740 2:441¢200 S:50¢50 8:20420 3: 39493 6:20/20 3:39/93

Shadow Warrior

Initially previewed way back in November 1995, Shadow Warrior takes Duke’s Build engine and pushes it to the limits, adding plenty of new fea- tures to the innovative level designs that are the hallmark of Duke’s quality.

“We listened to what people liked and didn’t like in Duke, and did it,” says George Broussard. “The most important new feature is allowing rooms above rooms. This creates an even greater sense of involvement in the environments, and it’s something that we definitely want to maintain from Duke.”

So what’s Shadow Warrior all about? 3D Realms is still figuring that out. “We let the game evolve, get the levels in place, and then in the last few weeks go through and look for where the attitude is going to fit,” Broussard says. With the exact shape of the storyline still to be finalized,

only this part’s certain: You play a ninja

of Japanese descent. Think The Karate Kid’s “wax on, wax off” to get an idea of the kind of wisecracks and accent.

One of the main criticisms leveled at Duke (mainly from Quake devotees) 1s auto-aiming: it doesn’t take a ton of skill to shoot someone on another platform level. That complaint is ad- dressed in Shadow Warrior with an auto-aiming on/off option. “It was actually in Duke, origi- nally,” Broussard revealed. “For some reason it didn’t end up in the final version. But it’s in Shadow Warrior.”

Probably the most important additions to

Shadow Warrior are the vehicles. Right now, there are seven or eight possibilities, including armored carriers, tanks, forklifts, boats, hover- jets, and bulldozers. Upon meeting them, your immediate concern will be avoiding being mowed down by their rapid cannon fire. But with swift reactions, you'll jump inside the cab, take out the driver, and assume control. Now it’s time to cause considerable damage of your own. In multiplayer mode—a vital component of Shadow Warrior’s level construction—getting to

vehicles first may be crucial to success. But it

won't be the key.

“We're going to limit ammo, or make guns overheat quickly to bring back the Also, the vehi-

game balance,” said Broussard. ‘

cles can become damaged and will start smoking.

Pick up a repair kit, though, and you can fix ’em.

This will also affect cooperative play, as one per- son can drive while the other fires.”

A notable Duke feature that’s missing from

43

Shadow Warrior is flying; there’s no jetpack or similar ability. “The reason for this is that we wanted to integrate more puzzle elements, making people think about how they were going to get access to a particular area rather than simply switching on the jet- pack and flying there,” Broussard explained. Visually, there are some more nifty fea- tures, like water that appears translucent, enabling you to see into and out of it. Tornadoes and whirlpools that suck you into deep trouble look fantastic and add yet another potential problem to overcome.

Meanwhile, enhanced AI makes enemies climb ladders and fight when it suits them, rather than aimlessly following you to their inevitable demise.

Four mapmakers are currently tweaking the 28 levels that will ship with the full game. (As with Duke and Quake, five or six levels will be in the shareware version.) Two deathmatch-

specific levels are also under construction.

2D/3D

Circling around 2D objects and seeing them shift to face you was a limit of Duke’s 2.5D engine that you simply had to accept. Shadow Warrior addresses this by using true 3D voxels for all the weapons and items you pick up. Now, you'll be able to walk around for the rear view of semi- naked women. (Frankly, this wasn’t in the game when we saw It; but it’s coming trom the people who brought you the Red Light District, so ve'd be surprised if they didn’t include it somewhere. } The Build engine still isn’t true 3D, but it’s been stretched to extraor- dinary lengths to create the illusion that was oh-so-familiar in Duke. It’s this cartoon realism, the simply insane sense of humor, and the incredibly inventive level designs that are destined to make Shadow Warrior far more than a run-of-the-mill Duke clone. For those fingers itching to come get some, the shareware episode is due out in January, with the full retail version following around

March or April.

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Missile Launcher

The Kiss of Death

Rather than limiting you to just 10 weapons, one on each

number key, the Shadow Warrior designers have doubled - :

and even tripled up on certain items with a few creative - sy Ps Fae = ~~ ‘

developments of some tried and tested ideas. eae

1. Sword/Shuriken Guardian Head (napalm) Hand-to-hand fighting and throwing stars for distance

2. Uzis Find two to fire them together

. Riot gun

Sticky bombs

A four-barreled rapid-fire shotgun . Missile Launcher Single-fire mode, heatseeker*, and 20-missile multi-fire* 5. 40mm Grenade Launcher 6. Sticky bombs These cling to walls, ceilings, and creatures and explode when touched 7. Rail gun* (an ultra-high-speed “nailgun” a la Eraser) 8. Guardian Heart* The heart of the Ripper monster, which flings magi- cal, er, stuff 9. Guardian Head* Fires a stream of fireballs, a ring of fire, or napalm blasts

* = only available in registered version

Build for Life

While the level editors for Shadow Warrior and Duke are essentially the same, you won't be able to port SW levels, weapons or monsters into the Duke universe. Broussard did say this, however: “If there is enough demand, we might do a Duke to Shadow Warrior map converter or something to

Sn

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handle the basic architecture. The special effects SA HEALTH. § ARDGD. j ic MEREDNS See | one | CPS |

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January 1997 « PC GAMES 45

Hand-to-hand with

My rf A LM S a pitchfork in the face— aed ae | __ that’s gotta hurt.

can be booted around in a manner typically disre- specttul of the dead. (There’s a soccer-field user level just waiting to happen.)

While Monolith may struggle with the limita-

tions of the Build engine in trying to add light- source shading to weapons fire, they have certainly come up with original ways of dealing death to the numerous monsters. The list currently includes a | pitchfork, dynamite, double-barreled shotgun (fire | one or both barrels), a flare gun (with flares that : penetrate the victim, pause, then explode), and a | spray can with lighter (a makeshift flamethrower— don’t try this at home, kids).

The reliable rocket launcher will appear in some capacity, but one of the most original | — weapons has to be the voodoo doll. Stabbing it

causes instant death to some enemies; just be

careful not to stab your own thumb and inflict The spray

can/lighter

interface : is sure to | a beast mode, entered after slaying a certain

unnecessary supernatural damage.

With the horror theme still being fine-tuned,

upset a number of monsters in quick succession, has

few mon- | yet to be finalized. Slashing away with bladed

Sters. | claws in hand-to-hand combat should make an

interesting spectacle.

Hi Realms team. Because Blood is not scheduled for — . ——, bs on release until some time

In Blood, the Build engine is taking a slightly differ- around the middle of ent turn under the wing of Monolith, a 3D Realms _ next year, many ele- affiliate that’s been given the freedom to tweak the ments have yet to be technology in a slightly different way than the 3D finalized. As with Shadow Warrior, much of the attitude will be added in the final weeks of development.

Right now, 3D Realms is still trying to decide exactly who your character’s going to be. A lame monk guy has been shelved, but many op-

tions are circulating.

Some very neat fea- , eS tures are already in place, though. How about a a

bit of head soccer? Monsters’ decapitated noggins

46

AND AGAIN AND AGAIN — AND AGAIN. -

Introducing DEUS, the 3D > role-playing game that requires _both brains and brawn.

-e Your Identity: 22nd century ; bounty hunter |

° Your Goal: save the scientific community on the planet Alcibiade from terrorists —

¢ Your Obstacles: 40 predators; 5 lunatic terrorists; | mind-bending puzzles; your own life parameters (health, energy, food) —

-e Your Strategy: Kill. eat. Kill. sleep. Kill. tend ‘wounds. Kill...

° Your Weapons: anything from _ spears to rocket launchers

Your Bonus: 2 play modes - role"

playing and arcade

~ Don’ time a a . - ee in your k on i is he or he'y

Website: http://www.readysoft.com

Pe

REALMS

Even the familiar sight of a pinball table is get- ting the 3D Realms treatment in Balls of Steel, a collection of six fun, highly detailed, action- oriented tables. A Duke table featuring the hero doing a bit of singing should be quite

_ Come ons some shiny balls. : :

amusing, and in a departure from other pinball games, there’s gonna be blood! (Gee, that’s a surprise. )

Several missions with a coherent story for each table will be a novel twist to the usual disconnected themes of most pinball games. Five-ball multiball and lots of voices to main- tain the speed and atmosphere should set this apart from the plunger competition.

A one-table shareware version is due soon, with the full version ready soon after.

F | * 4 3 a ae 2 > - a 9 ,

Duke Down the e Line

A hematin tame sais as Duke i is not going to be kept out of the spotlight for long. His ap- pearances over the next two years are already in the planning phase. Duke Forever is going to be “a truly awesome, groundbreaking sidescroller featuring Duke’s voice” said Broussard. It’s due for release in late 1997.

To make the Christmas ’97 release date, work on the next Duke 3D game will be under- way before the year is out. The as-yet-unnamed project will still be based on Build, but will incorporate 3D sprites and rooms on top of rooms. The setting is also being decided, al- though Vegas has been mentioned as one possi- bility. Duke would be right at home among the glaring neon, shooting craps and taking in the, ahem, sights. Surely it’s an opportunity too good to miss for the 3D Realms crew. Think of all the fun to be had doing the research!

“When we finish this short project, we'll likely use the Prey engine (or a modified ver- sion) for a true 3D, six-degrees-of-freedom Duke to start in late 1997,” Broussard added. That’s the scoop... *

George Kicks Ass

_ Game reviewers are in the privileged posi-

| tion of having to play games like Duke 3D.

‘The fact that we thoroughly enjoy the mani- acal deathmatches and associated bad- mouthing, sniping, and trash talking is

just our good fortune. We also ike to pit

| Broussard got excited chance | kick some reporter butt, it was an on indication of just how much fun and deste appeal - Duke retain,

On Hollywood Holocaust, a we well known to all, George, editor Steve Klett and I got down to action. While Steve emerged ‘wit ) at least a semblance of dignity in his

8 ki lls, my paltry 10 was an embarrassing } bt ecient George’s emphatic 5 0!

_ being the Lond dof ‘Bin x so you adidas even et your best and I stil kicked the — out |

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The 3-D Rotatable Deathmatch

Your arena is a rotating chamber... Your goal is survival... Your opponent is time...

Turn it left. Turn it right. In this multiplayer deathmatch, Because when your clock hits zero, Turn the wall into a floor. it's every man for himself. you're cooked. p | * | ye /_ PC CD-ROM

Visit us at http:/Awww.activision.com or on America Online at Keyword “Activision” or on CompuServe at Keyword “Go Activision”

Activision is a registered trademark and Blast Chamber is a trademark of Activision Inc. © 1996 Activision, Inc. All rights reserved. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sega and Sega Saturn are trademarks of SEGA ENTERPRISES. LTD

| thousands for anyone with an inkling to download them. But the arrival of the offi-

cial add-on, Plutonium Pak, proves one thing: There are amateurs, and then there are 3D Realms’ professionals. A new episode—The Birth, consisting of nine new levels, a new weapon and new enemies, plus a few cosmetic changes—continues our hero’s fight against alien scum. The Plutonium Pak upgrades the full CD 1.3D version to 1.4.

It adds noth- ing new to the

badder,

bloodier, and more taste-

original three episodes, but has a new interface with a couple of extra options, including entering a TEN game. Sadly, where 3D Realms is always looking to push the boundaries of good taste and attitude, it slipped over the edge of decency with a staggeringly unneces- sary Opening scene. We can hear the com- plaints coming al- ready. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. But the good things in these new levels still outweigh the questionable ones. First off, a new mon- ster, the Protector Drone, can be deadly,

throwing shrinker rays from a dis- tance and slashing with vicious claws at close quarters. They’re tough, too, taking six shotgun blasts to down. They, er, protect the Queen Alien, the all-new, bad-ass boss.

The pig cops have been given a new vehicle. The mini-tank is a fast-firing de- vice offering great protection to the porky ones. A switch on the back initiates a self-destruct that explodes with tremendous force (run fast and far). While it’s pretty cool for a while, this machine’s amazing turning circle, on top of its incredible ability to do small jumps from its flat rollers, makes it a depressing, al- most unbalancing enemy.

The Expander is an attachment to the Shrinker, rather than a whole new weapon. It microwaves its victims, making them swell until they explode. This one’s deliciously nasty, especially in deathmatches. That’s good, be- cause the levels themselves were designed specifically for Dukematches, which will make for some classic, bloody buddy battles.

Attitude, of course, is in abundance. If there’s a chance to poke fun at a movie, be it Mission: Impossible, Terminator 2, Independence Day, or a host of others, 3D Realms is not reluctant to go for a cheap laugh. Backed by more of Duke’s character- Istic wiseass commen- tary, un- earthing new areas is a com- plete joy.

nuary 1997" PC GAMES

Duke Nukem 3D: Plutonium Pa

the Shrinker. —

- firing add-on to

With the subtle (and not-so-subtle) gags, it’s worth clicking on every item; just be prepared for a few shocks.

A hefty install routine required a re-installa- tion of the full Duke on all the machines we tested it on, but that’s still an acceptable price to pay for the quality of these new levels. There are some great user-created levels out there, but it takes time and care to create worlds as well- rounded and complete as those in the Plutonium Pak. It’s going to sell by the truckload—and

rightfully so. » > GAMEPLAY: A- <q : GETTING STARTED: B+ QO. | GRAPHICS: B | | S| SOUND CHECK: B+ BOOMER ALL | _ =% = MULTIPLAYER: A- Oo = Mmm—l'm looking good. a ma —«Deveoper: 3D Realms on PusuisHeR: GT Interactive as 800-332-4300 www.3drealms.com Piatrorm: DOS CD | Reauines: 486DX2/66, 8MB RAM, VGA, retail version of Duke Nukem 3D List Price: $29.95

eae ¥ As in the regular game, look for mes- Tl PS lm sages scrawled on walls. W In Babe

Land, save your RPGs and devastator ammo for the Pirates of the Caribbean. You'll need ‘em to take out the cannons from a distance. W To access the secret level, click on the George Washington portrait in Pig Sty. ¥ The combination for the puzzle at the end of Area 51 is on a wall in the level.

DUKE NUKEM 3D

Mees merrenitecr nhs eel tle so

3 £ Bs : Fd

Ultimate control.

Total customization.

Advanced battlefield st

Interplay Productions 16815 Von Karman Avenue, Irvine, CA 92606 Interplay Website: www.interplay.com ©1996 Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. M.A.X. and Interplay are trademarks of Interplay Productions. All rights reserved.

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Racing Technology!

Race one of 16 prototype X-Cars. The latest experimental racing vehicles!

lest drive your prototype and customize every aspect of your car’s performance using cutting-edge racing technology.

Experience brilliant high res (SVGA] graphics at sustained frame rates. X-Car is the most beautiful and fastest racing game on the market!

Includes a library of real racing circuits and fantasy tracks. You can race lime Rock, the streets of Seattle or around Mayan temples!

Generate real telemetry data on high speed oval, skid pad or handling tracks to customize your car for optimum performance.

The first true hard core racing simulation with an Arcade Mode for those Who just want to experience the pure fun of racing FAST!

eat

Packie

BcFicSUA Sur Wyss

1370 Piccard Drive, Suite 120, Rockville, MD 20850 BBS: 301 990-7552 © Fax: 301 926-8010 Website: oe

By Daniel Morris

55

t's all we do, 24-7-365—play, play, and when it's quitting time, play some more. In fact, we see and play virtually every game released—hig and small, known and obscure, hyped and hopeless. At the end of the year, we tear ourselves away from the computers, lock ourselves down in a con- ference room with well-padded walls, and separate the greats from the grunts to deliver the hard-bitten, truth-tellin’ PC Games Editors’ Choice Awards. If it's anywhere near this list, you know it's good. If it actually gets our highly critical approval, it’s simply the best. Here you'll find all our winners, plus an explanation of what made the best stand out from the rest. Where the debate raged almost too close to call, we opted for a runner-up; but in many categories, only one choice ascended to gaming glory. There were some tough calls; but, dammit,

that's what they pay us for.

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“Advanced combat options ~ include stealth movement and Se 3 bio-mechanically enhanced units. | . *

n the brink of anarchy. — _ For centuries, 4 diverse’ races have tolerated a precarious balance of power. But a new order is in the wind... one born of blood and fire! Ds

This real-time strategy game lets you carry your 8 favorite luis wnits from scenario to scenario.

Play solitaire or choose mult? player and head-to-head play via : network and modem.

‘Online tutorial and pop- up windows help you learn the game quickly.

: : A MINDSCAPE® COMPANY Developed by DreamForge Intertainment. WAR WIND is a trademark of Strategic Simulations, Inc., a Mindscape Company.

(Apogee/3D Realms)

amn, those bastards at 3D

Realms are gonna pay for suck-

ing up all our time... because Duke is how we spent it. How many hours? Combining the staff, we’re looking at thousands of man-hours over our office LAN alone, not including our home online play. For the benefit of our publisher, we hasten to add that these were “after-hours” hours. Ahem.

As we sat down to pick our Game of the Year, everyone knew there were two candidates: Duke and Quake. Both had vociferous propo- nents, and the action got ugly. Some were tempted to settle the matter in the parking lot, with the help of some nailguns and freezethrowers.

We'll say it here and say it loud: Quake is without a doubt the gaming blast of the year. Though it might suffice to briefly ex- plain our choice, we’re going to detail some of the specifics of this close race—namely, why Duke is a better game than Quake. Our argument took days, so here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

While we concede Quake every technical merit, it just doesn’t have that elusive quality the philosophers call a soul. Quake has a lot of style and some serious personality, but Duke is the one we hang out with—the wit, the creativity, the interaction with the garishly colorful environment. If Quake is the big sum- mer blockbuster movie that everybody has to see at least once, Duke is the kick-butt B- movie that you’ve got on tape and watch again and again and again.

We’ve all got our war stories. For some of us, it’s the matches spent as a Duke newbie, helpless to fight back as we were shrunk and pathetically squashed beneath the Mighty Boot of a laughing, uncaring editor who will go unnamed (but his initials are Steve Klett). For others, it’s the time you rounded a corner and found yourself knee-deep in a pile of pipebombs with only enough time to groan

“Damn...” before you were blown sky-high.

Duke Nukem 3D

Or the first time you stepped to the mic and delivered a crooning song, or offered a hooker some cash for a “flash dance.” Or left a knee- high tripwire surprise for a pursuer. Or froze a buddy and laughed in his face before kick- ing him to shards.

That’s Duke: rough, racy, more than a little nasty, and the most enjoyable game of the year.

If Quake offers us a taste of tomorrow, Duke

Nukem 3D serves up a foam-topped pint of gaming today. So pop a tab and cool your heels for a

while, Duke. Damn, you’re good.

RUNNER-UP:

Quake (id Software)

Needless to say, these two mixed it up not only for Year’s Best honors, but for those of Best

Action and Best Multiplayer Game as well.

57

none anaanmemrenineitetant

. EDITORS’

BEST ACTION GAME

Duke Nukem 3D Runner-Up: Quake

JEST MULTIPLAYER GAME

Duke Nukem 3D Runner-Up: Quake

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eserved

Quake (id Software)

uake is the future of gaming, no

doubt about it. A true 3D environ-

ment shaped fully by polygons, brilliant light-sourcing, and haunting use of tex- ture and shadow. Quake is currently the ulti- mate In Immersive environments, and the standard by which first-person technology will

be judged for a long time.

RUNNER-UP: The Neverhood

(DreamWorks Interactive)

The Neverhood dips back into animation’s infancy to bring us a game that truly reawakens the sense of wonder we enjoyed when we began playing on our PCs. The stop-frame clay anima- tion and vivid environments are remarkable, and, like all great fantasies, The Neverhood car- ries you away to its own miraculous world. This game belongs on the shelf of everyone

devoted to the too-often-maligned (and mis-

treated) art of interactive storytelling.

Syndicate Wars (Bullfrog/EA)

n its day, Syndicate was a trailblazing

classic of the then-infant real-time-

strategy genre. In our day, Syndicate Wars updates that vision and then some. Claw your way to the top of a corporate ladder in a world where the gun is truly might-

ier than the pen.

RUNNER-UP:

(Virgin) The Bitmap Brothers turned real- time strategy gaming inside-out

with this delightful tongue-in-cheek

battle between robotic armies who are as quick with an insult as they are

with machine guns.

Civilization Il (MicroProse) id Meier has made fascinating games on almost every subject imag- inable, but Civ II 1s his magnum opus. No game has ever had a greater tagline than “Build an empire to stand the test of

time.” Not much we'd rather do.

RUNNER-UP:

Fantasy General (SSI)

SSI’s General games have leeched more hours out of hex wargamers than any creations in

recent memory. The fantasy edition is the most

involving incarnation yet.

The Pandora Directive (Access Software)

his one has it all: gumshoes, G-men,

and alien greys. Tex Murphy is back

in his trenchcoated, athletic-shoed glory on the trail of the massive Roswell con- troversy. With a twisting, teasing storyline and impressive graphics, this adventure game flew

higher than a cigar-shaped UFO.

59

RUNNER-UP: Spycraft

(Activision)

The Cold War is over, but the world is just as dangerous—which makes Spycraft as relevant as it is engrossing. Charged with thwarting a plot to throw post-Communist Russia into po- litical chaos, you employ a fascinating array of real-world espionage tools to make the world safe for democracy. With the creative participa- tion of former KGB head Oleg Kalugin and the late William Colby, former CIA director,

Spycraft is ambitious, suspenseful, and well

worth playing.

The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall (Bethesda SoftWorks)

umors about the death of the RPG

may have been exaggerated. Just

when we were digging through our stacks looking for the nostalgic warmth of Ultima IV, Bethesda finally released its rich, enormous follow-up to Elder Scrolls: Arena. With wide-open character generation and goal- setting, Daggerfall promises hundreds of hours of fresh gameplay in a challenging environment.

We're stocking plenty of torches.

Virtual Pool from MacPlay bas all Five hundred years ago, Europe's

eS a - Lonquesl :; Nea Corid \ ax@e ame—and then some. Features 3 eae of a new world. MacPlay’s Conquest

the angles and shots of the real conquering heroes pursued dreams

4 great pool games, full-motion- of the New World is a strategy game

video library, realistic physics and where you command explorers,

peg geometry, easy multiplayer modes,

"= The Ultimate 3D Pool Simutator

settlers and mercenary soldiers as realistic 3-D perspective and they discover a new world and graphics plus a musical jukebox. build the ultimate nation.

You Don’t Know Jack, Volume 2, In Zork Nemesis, you're beckoned

is the hilarious sequel to the orig- to the Forbidden Lands, a cursed inal award-winning game. This world occupied only by the tortured Jack comes complete with 800 spirits trapped there. Travel through

all-new questions, new question 5 mind-bending worlds to discover

types, celebrity guest appearances, the ancient secret of alchemy that

new features and more. From | ’ ne will free the trapped souls from

Berkeley Systems. evil’s grip. From Activision.

The best CD-ROM game of 932 A.D— Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail from 7th Level, Inc. It will

MacSoft’s Terminal Velocity offers

h icenecerecinnteata secre

fast 3-D texture-mapped graphics, Jull 360-degree flight movement

and 7 weapons of extraordinary take you on a romp through King

destruction as you fight your way Arthur's England, uncovering clues,

through 9 unique planets with an solving puzzles and playing whole-

awesome array of air-to-air and some games like “Burn the Witch”

Includes the Never Before Performed Kare, Baan be Wap Scenet

air-to-ground combat action. i _ ai = cand “Spank the Virgin.”

0-80 RON att

gate!

Westwood Studios’ Command and

Tank Commander by Eidos

Conquer takes you into a gritty,

Interactive slams you into the cock- 7

high-tech world where the art of pit of an M1 Abrams tank as you

electronic intelligence and covert test your split-second-decision

surveillance reigns supreme. Where

skills against enemy tanks in over

guerrilla strategies and savage com- * 25 fully textured missions. Destroy

T-72, Leopard and Challenger tanks ©

bat are the norm. Muster forces and ~

lacerate your enemies to the bone. with over 7 weapons.

With its incredibly realistic flight Origin Systems’ Wing Commander

THE BRISE SF FREESSM

models, 3-D photo-realistic land- IV is one of the latest space-combat

scapes and the use of real-world games for the Mac. Take on the role physics, Flight Unlimited re-creates of Colonel Blair, played by Mark

the most accurate sensation of Hamill in breathtaking space bat-

aerobatic flying ever experienced tles and heart-pounding drama, as

on the Macintosh. For best results, you fight your way through the most

play before lunch. som. Spectacular Wing Commander yet.

S@ &f&# 8 Baaetats=s Seaene

Get ready tor the biggest adrenaline rush of the holiday season. We're talking new games for the Mac: We're also talking sweaty palms. Heart-pounding exhilaration. Stomach-in-

the-throat thrills —the works. And here’ the best part: with thousands of titles to choose from, you may never come down from that gaming high. Piqued your interest? Good.

logo, Mac, Macintosh. the Mac OS logo and Power M

So now youre probably wondering how to get your twitching fingers on these games. Just visit stores like CompUSA, Staples, Micro Center and Fry’s

Electronics. Or, flip through any Mac mail-order catalogs. Or, hop on the Net. But no matter where you go to find them, remember to look for the smiling Mac OS logo. (All great software wears this face.) If youre ready to take your adrenal glands on the ultimate ride, visit www.macsoftware.apple.com. And learn more about games for your Macintosh’ and how to find them. Of course, if you want to, you can always use a phone: call 800-500-4862.

r Inc. All Otber products are (rademarers or re ered (rd ink )

CHOICE

. EDITORS’

BEST SIMULATION

Afterlife

(LucasArts)

ime waits for no man, but it’s com-

forting knowing that heaven has

such friendly and efficient adminis- trators. As for the poor souls that end up “headed south,” things get sticky real fast. Afterlife is flat-out entertaining, something

fewer and fewer games are these days. Fine fun for saints and sinners alike.

BEST FLIGHT SIM

AH-64D Longbow

(Electronic Arts)

hat’s right—this year’s Top Gun tro-

phy goes to a craft that never gets

above the hard deck. Jane’s Combat Simulations’ AH-64D Longbow is the most in-

volving, you-are-there experience in the air this year. Its stunning terrain, edge-of-seat missions, and teeth-gritting gameplay were second to none (a good thing, since there are no points for...well, you know).

BEST DRIVING SIM Grand Prix Il

(MicroProse)

ith its deft mix of graphic treats,

sterling simulation, and down-

home testosterone, Grand Prix II was the winner by several lengths. Plenty of gas in this tank for both obsessive feature-tweakers and arcade enthusiasts.

BEST COMBAT SIM

MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Activision)

xpanding on its glorious

MechWarrior 2 (PC Games’

Game of the Year, 1995), Activision puts you in command of a merc outfit selling its services to the highest bidder, With new mechs, new environments, and a stepped-up 3D facelift, Mercen- aries improves what was already one of gaming’s most thrilling simulations.

RUNNER-UP: Wing Commander iV

(Origin)

When they finally get around to writing the book on the pioneers of interactive entertainment, the Wing Commander series is going to fill a nice, thick chapter. The fourth installment, a lav- ish, well-executed space opera, carries the series forth in fine style.

62

BEST SPORTS GAME Links LS (Access Software)

olfers had reason to rejoice with the

release of Links LS. Its stunning

photorealistic courses and astound- ingly real physics are sharper than anything else we've seen. We spent more time on these digital links than we did in any virtual ballpark, grid- iron, rink, or stadium this year.

BEST BRAIN.

Chessmaster 5000 (Mindscape)

indscape’s Chessmaster series has

long been the standard by which

chess games are judged, and the newest entry checkmates the competition. Featuring a comprehensive tutorial section and a complete online gaming package, this cham- pion’s nearly unbeatable.

HF you play only one real RPG this year, it will have fo be...

A GURPS Postnuciear Adventure

“Fallout has everything necessary to be the best roleplaying game of all time”

~ — Next Generation or. EE : Coming Soon for | aeer seine ? ri | www.interplay.com | Win 95/ D0S, and Mac

© 1996 Interplay Productions. Fallout: A GURPS Postnuclear Adventure and Interplay are trademarks of Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Used under license by Interplay. All rights reserved.

0 te °) : Q w

CHOICE

Warbirds

(Interactive Creations)

arbirds continues to be the model

for what an online game should

be: endlessly entertaining. Our week would be much duller without the promise of Thursday night sorties. May the wired gaming community of tomorrow be as much fun to fly as Warbirds’ skies are today.

RUNNER-UP:

Multiplayer Battletech: Solaris

(Kesmai)

Kesmai/Aries’ MPBS is easy to learn and fun to play...and play...and play. Better yet, it’s a ter- rific place to “hang.” From the bar where Mech Warriors swap tales of battlefield slag- gings to the warzones themselves, Battletech: Solaris is not just a great game, but a great community.

BEST PERIPHERAL Gravis GriP

(Advanced Gravis)

ave GrlP, will travel. This handy

four-way gameport is a must for

multiplayer gaming at the same ma- chine. Sure, this is the age of modems and on- line gaming and such, but there’s nothing like scoring on a breakaway goal past your buddy’s supine goalie, then turning and indicting his manhood eye to eye. The GrlP is the peripheral getting the most use in our office, and we sus- pect that will be true for a while to come.

RUNNER-UP:

SideWinder

Gamepad

(Microsoft) While its DOS-shell compatibility is variable, the Microsoft pad is a must-have Windows 95 gaming accessory. The DOS Militia may decry Win 95 from hill to MRSC hill, but it’s rapidly becoming the gaming OS of choice. The SideWinder pad is its finest peripheral.

Falcon Mach V

(Falcon Northwest)

hen we pop the shrinkwrap on

the latest game in our mailbin, we

head straight to the Mach V to put it through its paces. Built first and foremost with gamers in mind, the Mach V is the best gaming rig we looked at this year.

BEST COMPONENT Verite 3D Accelerator (Rendition)

nce you've seen a game turbo-

charged by the Vérité chipsetand

BIOS, it’s hard to go back. Rendition’s technology is the best of the first-gen 3D acceleration bumper crop thus far, turning pixelated terrain into full-blown landscapes and simulated environments into something damn near reality. Though its competition is getting tough, the Vérité

January 1997 * PC GAMES

64

technology should continue to sear gamer eyeballs throughout 1997 as it appears on graphics cards from Creative Labs, Sierra, Intergraph, and other hardware vendors.

RUNNER-UP:

GameLAN

(Apexx Technology) Those of us who routinely subvert office pro- ductivity by using our LANs for games have all wished we could rig the thing up at home and indulge in a weekend of War and Waste. GameLAN 1s a simple, relatively affordable net- work designed to let gamers set themselves up with a personal LAN. It’s what we’ve used most of the year for our in-house fragfests, and its performance has been topnotch.

BREAKTHROUGH HARDWARE

SideWinder GamePad

ust the facts, ma’am: it’s affordable,

it’s user-friendly, and it’s ridiculously

easy to install, use, and configure for all your Win 95 games. You can daisy-chain sev- eral pads for multigaming without having multi- ple joystick ports. It’s the perfect model of what “plug-and-play” was supposed to be all along, and destined to be the prototypical peripheral of the plug-and-play era. Si

The countdown

has begun.

=

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can stop

BATA

ae ¥ a ae. aN ot % + URN as

COMING MARCH 1997 or your FREE CD-ROM demo call 1.800.258.3800

- — — — —— — — — ——— oe el See

LIVE

INTERACTIVE

A LIVE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY

Ss =

PATIENT 33-S: Received multiple treatments for injuries sustained while participating in “Rocket War” Reconstructive surgery corrected most facial bones destroyed by repeated encounters with rockets, cement walls and pylons. Skin grafts from buttocks region replaced epidermal tissue burned off by jet exhaust.

PATIENT 4-0: Treated for severe lacerations received when he was knocked off his rocket by competitor’s cable while “Rocket Racing” Rhinoplasty and ear reconstruction were also necessary, as patient’s face was smashed repeatedly against the ground and walls while traveling in excess of 100 mph.

f

PATIENT 98-B: Treated for massive head trauma suffered after ramming his rocket into an exploding ball while playing “Rocket Ball” The accident completely welded his eye sockets shut and tore 90% of the skin off his face. Needless to say, this was no ordinary “lift and tuck”

FOR A FREE WINDOWS ‘95 DEMO OR TO ORDER ROCKET JOCKEY DIRECT, CALL 1.888,SEGASOFT WWW.SEGASOFT.COM

Science logo, Rocket Jockey and the Rocket Jockey logo are trademarks of Rocket Science Games, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Lie i He

iy He

y Hi My i i i oe i

omputer games arent spontaneously generated in a Toys “R’ Us

landfill. They were never the contents of Pandora's box. And they

arent a neo-communist plot to reduce the intelligence of American youth to the moron level. They're the inspired and dedicated work of thou- sands of talented people whose main goal in life (after retiring wealthy at 38) is to bring you involving, provocative, polished, and revolutionary inter- active entertainment.

To recognize these human dynamos behind the high-tech, PC Games created the Murphy Awards (named after Tex Murphy, one of the first live-video characters in a computer game). In contrast to our product- oriented Editors’ Choice Awards, the Murphys honor the people who con- tinue to make computer games one of the most remarkable creative

pursuits of the 20th century.

“se release, and with neve oi cave key people to, persis buiivideal projects, this _. SS ee ee revolution (not to men-

: ican blast that was Doom. Quake’s technology will be the sg standard for a a long time to come. We have a feeling these boys aren’t done writing the industry's future

- deepest thanks ; mi congratulations. And from network managers across America, curses withoutend.

69

After a round of full-motion-video games mostly notable more for their technology than their entertainment value, the industry saw a backlash that resulted in a lightweight year for video-driven games. Is FMV dead? We don’t think so. Developers just need to re-evaluate the role that conventional storytelling and acting should play in an interactive environment.

Still, a slow FMV year meant that no performers jumped off the screen to capture our imagination. On the upside, we’ve already seen a couple of early FMV contenders that suggest 1997 will be a much better year for digitized acting.

The Pandora Directive As our awards’ namesake, Tex, Chris Jones didn’t exactly stretch his acting chops in this

THE 3RD ANNUAL MURPHY AWARDS

sequel to Under A Killing Moon. Still, the full- motion video in The Pandora Directive—cre- ated in collaboration with director Carr and co-designer Conners—was the best of the year’s otherwise so-so entries.

If anyone doubts that computer games lack the visual sophistication of other art forms, let them look at 9. Ryden’s art direction of this sumptu- ous adventure spawned images of audacious creativity. Who needs photorealism when fan- tasy looks this good?

The Neverhood

Clay animation has rarely looked better on any screen, let alone a monitor. Designer TenNapel and animators Ciccone and Dietz (supported by art colleagues Mark and Tim Lorenzen, Brian Belfield, and Edward Schofield, along with armature de- signer Peter Marinello) handcrafted every frame of The Neverhood, and it’s dazzling.

_ Directive

The Neverhood

This finely crafted game moves to the playful beat of a wonderful ragtime soundtrack. Like so many other trends that The Neverhood bucks, its music seems decades out of place for the interactive era. So what? Taylor’s inge- nious retro score creates an audio environ- ment that perfectly complements the rich

fantasy of Klaymen’s quest.

70

‘Pandora

The Pandora Directive

No sooner are the trenchcoat and slouch hat comfortably in place than Tex Murphy finds himself in the middle of a frightening web of intrigue. From rain-slicked city streets to the deep abyss of an alien tomb, The Pandora Directive teases, grabs, and satisfies. It’s an ode to the benefit that good writing

can bring to a game.

35750 8:99/99 § “49750 9:10710

Duke Nukem 3D Granted, the guy didn’t have to do a lot of work in providing the voice of Duke Nukem; but what he did was priceless and peerless—it’ll inform the vocabulary of action gamers for years to come. Duke’s riotous deadpan is the spark of life that separates Duke from the mass of 3D shooters released this year. “Cool.”

Steven Spielberg's Director Chair

No contest on this one.

<a | EE | a ~ 50 adrenaline-pounding mission olurs

Lock and load with over 25 armaments _ including: guided missiles, fuel-air mortars and plasma cannons!

TO 16 PLAYER ANA;

DEATHMATCHES, TEAM MI

ted exclusively by Inte

rplay Productions

BY GAMERS. FOR GAMERS.”

EIPIE Pre INE

a5 ==

= EE

== i= MUCH Me re = = KL ==

DURE NU RErESEEPELEPOMIEIPEPAR SOMEcEES

—— == ails new. Tropes: with new levels new-weapons and new- aliens to splat, from the = es anginal creators. Full version of Duke Nukem 3D tequired.1f you don’t already have the full version

¢ Explore 11 new levels, several based on current hit-movies = oS all new enemies get their butts kicked by Duke’s steel- toed boots

¢ Smell steaming entrails as Duke’s..

new microwave cannon fries and explodes those alien bastards

De ome by

www.3dreaims.com

¢ Hear aliens squeal as Duke

aborts their entire race -in-one of two hilarious and controversial new:cinematic:scenes

“Learn more about Duke’s philosophy as he cracks dozens |

of new one-liners (Duke Talk): e Exciting new special effects,

www.ten.net

_ of Duke Nukem 3D, crawl out from-under-your-rock-and-_buy-_the-Duke-Nuken:-sD-Atomic:Edition.

including deadly lightning and

new features such as simulated multiplayer games (against up to 7 other Dukes) on a single computer

¢ Other Duke-approved stuff: Duke Win95 themes, 5 Duke Screen savers, 6 Duke jigsaw puzzles and image Carousel

Distributed by GT Interactive Software 16: EAST 40TH-ST., NEW YORK. NY 10016

www.gtinteractive.com

61996 3D Reaims Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Distributed exclusively by GT Interactive Software Corp. Total Entertainment Network, TEN and the TEN logo are trademarks of T.E.Network; Inc.:All-other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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PRIZES

Gaming Over the Internet

ell, we finally have a truly useful reason for the existence of the Internet—blowing up our friends, neighbors and total strangers all over the Net. For any hard-core gamer, that sure beats Web surfing (or crawling, really) and IRC chat.

Both TEN and Mplayer—the two most high-profile Net-based gaming services—are officially moving out of the testing stage and becoming full-fledged Internet gaming services. So finally, gaming over the Net has hit the mainstream, with plenty more to come. But with the choices you have right now and other new services approaching, what's right for you?

There are a number of questions you need to answer before you decide on one source for your Internet gaming. Which service has the most games that appeal to you? As important or

/ even more so, what type of connection do you have? For instance, | live out in the country, sev- eral hundred miles away from a major city, so my Internet choices are not exactly striking, but most gamers probably have several different Internet service providers (ISPs) that they could use. Or maybe you have an online service like AOL or Prodigy. For the latter, you really have only one choice right now—Engage, which should be appearing on both services by the time you read this. One more question: How much do the services cost?

ISP users will have to come to grips with the ideas of latency, pings, and lag (for in-depth in-

| formation on these concepts, see David Gerding’s article in this month’s Technobabble). If your connection to the Net is clean and solid, all the services should work quite well for you most of the time, and you stand in what might be referred to as an “ideal situation.” But if your ISP is a

By Jason D’Aprile

little on the spotty-and-gritty side at times (and most are at some point), then you get to see how clever those programmers in the back room really are.

VERVIEW: Total Entertainment Network—more familiarly, TEN—is the first widespread, well-known commercial Internet gaming service, notable not so much for its high-profile marketing as for Duke Nukem 3D. TEN’s exclusive five- year deal with 3D Realms assures the ser- vice a top spot among hard-core action fans and gives it an enviable ace up its sleeve, along with some of the most im- pressive, big-name multiplayer games of any of the services. TEN also has the AD&D Dark Suns role-playing gaming | world, with a full one-year exclusive to it. TEN works with current Internet providers to minimize latency, and moves servers closer to users by having three main servers in different parts of the country (the East and West Coast areas, with the middle ground being taken up by the Chicago server). TEN isn’t quite as latency-friendly as Mplayer, however. When you log on and en- ter different game rooms, you'll have to con-

tend with Mr. Bandwidth, the icon used to

represent all the Internet gam- ing concerns. Mr. Bandwidth will tell you how good your connection is based on a few

criteria, and if it doesn’t quite

> : , hu . PPI Fee t's th. ee aE tee Cec + ee ty |

cut it, he won’t let you play. TEN offers direct-dial numbers throughout the country, but charges almost a dollar an hour extra for using them (which should put a noticeable smile on Mr. Bandwidth’s little alien face, not to mention TEN’s investors).

When you do get a solid connection, however, good game quality is usually fairly easy to find. Sure, playing Duke over TEN isn’t going to match the speed and quality of an office network, but most of the time the playability 1s quite good. In the future, TEN will be looking to expand its front-end interface by embedding a full-fledged Web browser in the software and, eventually, mov- ing to make the interface take advantage of Internet-specific technologies such as Java to im-

prove performance and features.

75

; ' Wewsg FPOY reparts TEN-related staries, i} | Gane fire keeps you up ta date on new games amd the like. and dok 477. 2 ix « hints and tips . } colamn to improve the [EN experience

CURRENT GAMES: Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Deadlock, Dark Suns, Necrodome, Warcraft, Terminal Velocity, Panzer General, Command and Conquer.

UPCOMING TITLES: Shadow Warrior, Blood, Prey, Big Red Racing, Total Mayhem, Confirmed Kill, Deathtrap Dungeon, SimCity 2000, Falcon 4.0, Top Gun, Silencer, Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, CivNet, WizBall RATES: The first 25,000 TEN customers will be able to take advantage of special half-price

charter rates. There are two rate plans:

Internet Gaming

Hourly Rate Plan: $4.95 monthly fee (regular rate:

$9.95 monthly fee). Includes

5 hours a month. $0.95 per

additional hour (regular rate: $1.95 per hour) and an additional $0.95 per hour when connecting via a TEN local-access number (provided by the Concentric Network). Flat-Rate Plan: $14.95 monthly fee (regular rate: $29.95 monthly fee) provides unlimited hours

(plus an additional $0.95 per hour if connecting

VERVIEWE Mplayer doesn’t have quite as impressive a list of coming attractions as TEN, but it has a number of advantages in terms of user-friendliness. Rather than both- ering you with a Mr. Bandwidth-like restric- tive entity, Mplayer simply marks gaming rooms that your connection is unfit for. And all of Mplayer’s game servers reside on PSInet’s Internet backbone. “We use the ad- vanced features of the Internet, like frame re-

lay, to [send data more directly to Mpath

,” says Paul Matteucci, Mpath’s presi- dent and CEO. “That decreases the latency.

Plus, we create permanent virtual circuits—

servers

all of the game packets are tagged with prior- ity so that they don’t have to wait in line at a router behind e-mail or a file download.” Mplayer also has a more cohesive social environment. You choose the game you

want to play and click to go to its specific

battle.net

(www.battle.net) CURRENT GAMES: Diablo, Starcraft Much like Microsoft's Gaming Zone (see page 79), battle.net is simply a place on the Internet to play the games of one particular company. But since the company is Blizzard and the games are Diablo and Starcraft, battle.net is sure to be one of the most popular sites for some time to come. What it is, essentially, is a grouping site. Come to play Diablo and the server automatically matches you up with players who have good connections in relation to you. battle.net will be a free service and will be shipping with Diablo.

via a TEN local-access number).

PLUSES: The 3D Realms deal (which includes Duke 3D), plus the overall amount of new high- profile games coming to the service. Dark Suns Online ts one of the very few graphics-based RPGs on the Net, and its AD&D-based system/world is one of the best known in the gaming community. MINUSES: TEN is noticeably more finicky than any of the other services about latency issues. As a result, those with Internet connections that

have a tendency to be spotty are going to have a

server; from there, you either wait in the main lobby and chat, enter a

/ +3 t ; 1 q | ; |

room that’s al- ready been created, or create a room yourself. Once you've made a room, you Can lock it, then invite members in

with Mplayer’s “pager”—much like a private mes- sage in a chat room. Also, within these rooms, you can use your PC’s microphone to actually send voice chat. (Right now, only MechWarrior 2 al- lows the use of this feature during gameplay; press the Scroll Lock to talk.)

For the most part, Mplayer games run excep- tionally well. Action games like MechWarrior 2 play very smoothly, even with a less-than-sterling connection. Yet, most users are found in one of two places: the Quake server or Command and Conquer. C&C runs great most of the time, and Quake usually runs well.

CURRENT GAMES: Quake, Command and Conquer, C&C: Covert Operations, Warcraft, Terminal Velocity (shareware only), MechWarrior 2 (Win 9S version)

UPCOMING TITLES: Diablo, War Wind, Panzer General (online only), Deadlock, Battleship, Big Red Racing, Havoc, Monopoly, Q-Ball (Quake modification exclusive to Mplayer), Risk, Scrabble, SimCity 2000 Network Edition

RATES: Mpath Interactive's Mplayer is offering limited-time charter rates to everyone who signs up by Jan. 31, 1997. Basic pricing for charter members is $7.95 for 5 hours, $.99 for each additional hour. Charter price for unlimited usage is $19.95 per

month or $199.95 for a year. Standard pricing be-

76

hard time with Duke, Quake, and other fast-action games (and TEN tends to fall back on its pay-by- the-hour direct-connect numbers to make up for it). Given the number of different ISPs throughout the country, this is a big problem—one that TEN will either have to deal with very soon or risk los- ing potential customers. Also, the non-charter rates are rather expensive, especially when you add them to the cost of your ISP subscription. And TEN’s social interface 1s far more basic than those of its

competition.

C

gins Feb. 1, 1997; the rates are as follows: $9.95 for S hours per month ($1.95 each additional hour), $19.95 for 15 hours a month ($1.25 each addi- tional hour), $29.95 a month for unlimited access, and $299.95 for 12 months of unlimited access. All members will receive 10 free hours when they sign up for the service.

PLUSES: Mplayer deals with latency issues very well and has a user-friendly, social air to it. Also im- portant 1s the fact that Mplayer has a live, online customer-support server, so you always know where to go for help. MechWarrior 2, C&C, Quake, War Wind, and Diablo are all solid, higher- profile Internet games for the service, and I gener- ally found Quake to run better over Mplayer than on TEN. You could probably get a better game on a dedicated Quake server if everyone had a great connection, but on Mplayer you won't be bothered with any of the technical work yourself. MINUSESS Since action games are really the cash cows of this market, TEN’s 3D Realms deal will tend to overshadow what looks to be a steady flow of Mplayer games, most of which are middle-range titles. That means Mplayer is going to have to get some seriously attractive exclu- sives, and soon. As with TEN, the non-charter

pricing plan is rather expensive as well.

HIP Me SiGAMIRAN AI

ic monsters, clever characters, and rprise with every passing day.

And little else.

www. arcadium.com

Connect. Swap strategies. Post cheats. Get personal. Basically, feed your obsession. And your greed. Win stuff by logging directly onto www.arcadium.com/pc__games

se) Internet Gaming }

ee ee | a

EVERYWHERE WITH EVERYONE

» Welcome to the ENGAGE games online Beta Lesters’ area!

+ NOW available for. Play!:

. ttF “ f Pilees: ; =t 6 ° Warsrall ID Tides of Darsaicss DUSIL) GE

VERVIEW: Engage has two aces in

its hole: exclusive access to Interplay

Microsoft's The Gaming Zone (www.zone.com)

titles, and exclusive access to the wildly

popular Warcraft II. Plus, Engage is being

designed to be easily accessible—it won’t just be on the Internet, but AOL and CURRENT GAMES: Various card and board games, Hellbender, Monster Truck Madness, Close Combat, and any future Internet- playable games from Microsoft The same concept as battle.net, the Zone is mainly a place to play the new Internet-compatible Microsoft games. Go to the Zone’s Web site, click on the game you want to play (both the full and trial versions have their own servers), and you'll find yourself at a chat room where you can join or create games to play. The site automati- cally tells you the quality of your connection by putting a colored dot above the player listing—if it’s green, you're all set, yellow is mid- dle of the road, and red is a defi- nite no way. It’s all very simple, but doesn’t always work right yet. Still, it’s a smart step in the right direction, and Microsoft has ex- pressed a strong commitment to making sure the Zone improves and grows. This matching service is, of course, completely free, but you need Microsoft's Internet Explorer to play.

Prodigy as well.

As far as latency issues, Engage presi- dent Jeff Leibowitz says: “We’re generally pretty comfortable at anything under a second. The services usually give us any- where from 300 to 800 milliseconds in latency, and all of our games play very, very well in that space, so we don’t really need a traditional low-latency solution, although we are working with the Concentric Network for people who do want truly low-latency systems.”

Descent and Rolemaster: Magestorm, the two Engage titles I tested over the Internet, both played great, with virtually no latency problems at all. Working with AOL and Prodigy, however, has caused some problems due to the fact that both services are essentially chat-based, so Engage’s launch for the two has been delayed while certain latency issues are resolved. When it is launched, though, Engage will likely be integrated into the overall interface of these online services. Of course, until the new Internet rates are set, you'll still be playing at the services’ normal connection rates (AOL gamers can take advantage of the new flat rate of $18.95 per month, though).

Engage will be broader than the other Net gaming services in terms of its social

structure, with things like the Human

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Social Studies: Building

An Online Community One of the major focuses of online gaming services, aside from the games, is the idea of bringing more social interaction onboard. All three services feel that this aspect of multi- player gaming is absolutely paramount to their success of its service. So what is each one doing about it?

TEN was initially focusing on games with only utilitarian chat rooms, but has since added Quake clans and ranking systems (like Mplayer), online contests, editorial content in its Datasphere sec- tion, and even user-content forums. TEN will be expanding the social aspects of the Dark Suns game by adding things such as guild rooms and “trading” posts for game-item swapping. Also, much like Mplayer has now, TEN will add the op- tion for players to create their own chat rooms and expand on the chatting options.

Engage obviously has major plans concerning the social aspects of its service. “[We] feel that [the social interaction element] is equal to or more important than the games,” president Jeff Leibowitz comments. “Community is really what it's all about. When you put a game online it becomes a magnet for social interaction. Over 50 percent of the traffic on game networks has tradi- tionally been chat, so those kinds of elements are perhaps the critical elements of what makes for a successful game service. Of course, if you pull away the games, the chat rooms won't be as popular, so they're symbiotic.

“It's kind of like the feature-film industry in that this will be a largely hit-driven business,” Leibowitz says. “So, you do need the hits. On the other hand, you need a nice ‘theater’ for people to see those ‘movies’ in. If you have a really unat- tractive, not-fun-to-be-in theater, people wont go; they'll go to somebody else's and they may even skip going to a movie they want to see because your theater is unappealing. Having a nice envi- ronment for the top content is really what we'll focus on.”

Mplayer plans to expand by adding voice chat to the pager function to create something like a pri- vate phone booth, as well as generally improving its interface. “Our goal here is to have technology for communication, then places like chat rooms to communicate,” explains CEO Paul Matteucci. “And then to have excuses to communicate, which re- quires the most creativity. You have to build all of these [aspects] into the service for people to build their own community online.” —JDA

Bean Café (actor Michael Keaton 1s

actually a main

ber-café” chat room), comedy-based entertain-

ment at The Improv, and simulated gambling

at Caesar’s Palace Virtual Casino. Engage 1s

also broadening the role-playing-game field

with its original Rolemaster series, based on

the Iron Crown Enterprise game system. The

first of these, Magestorm, is a Doom-style

shooter where you create a wizard character

TRANSLUCENT _TexTiRE MAPPING

and try to take over pools of power and

destroy the power centers of the other mages,

all the while gaining experience levels and

SCHEDULED GAMES: Descent Online, Descent Into Undermountain, Castles 2, BattleChess: 4000, Rolemaster: The Bladelands,

Total Control Football, Caesar’s Palace Virtual

Casino, Warcraft II, Rolemaster: Magestorm,

Splatterball, The Improvisation Online, U.S.

Chess Federation, Human Beans Café, Shattered Steel, Slipstream 5000, Billboard Live!, AD&D:

™ UNPRECEDENTED cLoRKinG EFFECTS

RATES: No extra charge for playing through

AOL and Prodigy, but as of now, the charge for

directly playing through the Internet is described

as “competitive” (expect somewhere under

$2.50 an hour). A full-fledged launch campaign

will start in January, but the service should be

fully functional by the end of November, with

10 games by the end of the year and 1 to 2 new

games each month. PLUSES: An impressive lineup of games, especially with Warcraft II and Descent Online,

in addition to plenty of original titles like

Magestorm. Interplay’s steady flow of multi-

player-ready games will be exclusive to Engage

and ensure that the service will grow. The

games that I had a chance to test—Descent

Online and Magestorm—ran nearly perfect,

and this was before even the official beta-

MINUSESS The Internet rates haven’t been

determined yet, but is it really going to be cost-

effective to play over AOL or Prodigy even if

using Engage won’t cost you extra? Engage’s

“...a STAR TREK sim

worthy of a place. beside the Wing * Commanderard

Star Wars games.”

“all things to all users” ideology may not work

entirely to its benefit. There is such a thing as

spreading yourself too thinly, and it’s open to

speculation whether people really want to

spend their time interacting with each other in

chat-only environments when they could be

interacting in games.

MS-DOS® AND WINDOWS?’ 95 CD-ROM | A HTTP:/WWW.ACTIVISION.COM C | ISION.

Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. © 1996 Activision, Inc. MechWarrrior, BattleTech, BattleMech and ’Mech are registered trademarks and Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries is a trademark of FASA CORPORATION. © 1996 FASA CORPORATION. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective holders.

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Players somes View Window selp

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For Hele, press F1

VERVIEW: Kali is an IPX emulator,

not a service like TEN and the others. It’s

a little program that enables your Internet connection to fool a game into think- ing that it is hooked up to an IPX network. The reason why Kali is a great thing for gamers who can use it is that most MPG games have an IPX network mode for multiplay. That’s not to say that Kali will run all of them—it won’t. But it will enable you to play a varied selection, as its games list suggests.

Simply download the software from the Kali site, pay the creator of Kali, Jay Cotton, a $20' shareware fee, and that’s it—no more fees. There are three versions of Kali: KaliDOS, Kali95, and a Macintosh version. The downside of Kali, and the inherent ad- vantage of services like TEN and Mplayer, 1s that it simply isn’t all that user-friendly. You have to manually keep track of ping times for the server, yourself, and the other players, along with proper game execution and various other things that the services do automatically. Also, Kali servers are essentially general servers (there are very few servers for specific games), so you have to search around for peo- ple who want to play the same game you do. Also, some major games just don’t run all that

well—Duke is far better on TEN, for example.

CURRENT GAMES: Warcraft and Warcraft I], Descent and Descent II, Command and Conquer, Deadlock, MissionForce: CyberStorm, Duke Nukem 3D, NetMech (MechWarrior 2), MW2: Mercenaries, Big Red Racing, and many

other IPX games

PLUSESS That $20 one-time fee makes

Kali one of the best deals on the Internet.

Lots of games work over Kali, and the program has gained an international community of play- ers. Depending on the game, performance can be as good as the other services, and Kali’s function as a straightforward IPX emulator, along with its low-key, fairly non-commercial existence, makes the need for licensees and

marketing unnecessary.

MINUSESS Kali is definitely not for everyone. The technical aspects of Internet gaming that the other services try to keep in the background tend to come right to the forefront—especially latency issues—and tech support is handled through e-mail only. Also, Kali95 and KaliMac are still in the beta stages, and are likely to be for some time. Not all games are supported, particularly DirectX games; however, Cotton says there will be

native Direct X support down the road.

PC Games tested the various gaming services using a Pentium 133 with 24MB of RAM; the connection was over a 28.8Kbps modem. All tests were done via the EarthLink Network through a link in West Virginia.

Interne

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COMING THIS SPRING

for Win 95/DOS, Macintosh and PlayStation Game Console

STAR TREK

RATING PENDING

= ef: , ne € f 4aramoute Jricrlite

http://www.interplay.com Starfleet Academy Software ©1996 Interplay Productions. Trademarks and ©1996 Paramount Productions. All rights reserved. Star Trek, Starfleet Academy and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. MacPlay and Interplay are trademarks of Interplay Productions. PlayStation and the PlayStation logo are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and copyrights are properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

9 I Nn

r | a |

THE YEAR IS 2020,

AND THE EARTH’S OZONE LAYER IS CRUMBLING.

AS MANKIND HANGS ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION,

A SUB-SPACE PROBE NAMED

ved.” Huygen’s Disclosure” created and produced by Microforum Inc: All trade-

HUYGEN MAY HAVE DISCOVERED

ONE LAST GLIMMER OF HOPE. Now

THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE EARTH WILL

TAKE YOU TO A MOON MORE THAN A

MILLION MILES FROM THE NEAREST SUN.

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HUYGEN’S DISCLOSURE FEATURES THESE EXCITING MICROFORUM INNOVATIONS:

DIMENSION TECHNOLOGY

SCALEABLE CHARACTERS REFLECT ACTUAL L¥Ys PERSPECTIVE WHEN MOVING FROM FOREGROUND | 4° TO BACKGROUND | GROUP ACTIVATED INTELLIGENCE MODE (GAIM) USER'S TEAMMATES FEATURE INDEPENDENT a INTELLIGENCE, ALLOWING THEM TO REACT BASED| ae SS ce ON THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT ae ar WE

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i

Right now, it’s the hottest, bloodiest 3D action game.

(id Software; 800-434- 2637; DOS CD; $45)

For serious chopper-sim aficionados, Longbow’s a must-buy. (Origin Systems; 800-245-4525; DOS CD; $59.95)

Outrageous humor and stunning graphics make this SimCity clone heavenly. (LucasArts; 800-782-7927; DOS/Win 95 CD; $54.95)

Love it or hate it, you’ve never played an adventure game as a cock- roach before. (Pulse Entertainment; 310-264-5579; Win CD; $54.95)

A wonderfully compelling upgrade of the strategic conquest classic. (MicroProse; 800-695-4263; Win CD; $48.99)

A revolutionary tactical-level military sim that’s reason enough to have Win 95. (Microsoft; 800- 426-9400; Win 95 CD; $44.95)

Quake’s rival for the top first-person action shooter—especially in multi- player mode. (FormGen; 800-367- 6436; DOS CD; $39.99)

The newest entry in the General series offers solid wargaming from start to finish. (SSI; 800-601-7529;

DOS CD; $50)

Russia’s prime attack helicopter takes to the skies. Fitted with awesome firepower and impressive realism,

it’s a must-have for combat-sim fans. (Interactive Magic; 800-699-4263; DOS/Win 95 CD; $49.95)

As close to a real game of golf as you can get—provided you’ve got

a speedy Pentium. (Access Software; 800-800-4880; DOS/Win 95 CD; $79.95)

Tex Murphy returns in this engag- ing sequel to Under A Killing Moon. (Access Software; 800-800- 4880; DOS/Win 95 CD; $49.95)

Awesome sound effects and a com- pelling story help make Terra Nova the most immersive combat experi- ence around. (Virgin; 800-874-4607; DOS CD; $59.95)

This clay animation adventure is an artistic

masterpiece.

(DreamWorks Interactive; 310-

PC Games uses a letter-grade system to rate games. Everyone ve $ gone sto schoo! knows what our grades mean without resorting to an in-depth explanation or clever chart: an A+ is the best score possible and an F is a complete bust. To give you a better feel me, the overall quality of a title, we rate each game in six key areas,

Gameplay: How good are the game's interface and control scheme, and how much fun is it to play? The most important element of the game. Getting Started: How much reading, study- ing, and hardware-tweaking are needed before you can start to have fun? (The less the better.) Graphics: How advanced and attractive are the game's visual elements, and how well do they match the game?

Sound Check: How good are the game's sound effects and musical score, and how well do they fit the game?

Overall Grade: Taking these factors into account, how strongly do we recom-

mend the game for purchase?

Multiplayer: How easy is it to

use and how much fun is it as a mul-

tiplayer game? An independent rating.

85

This long-awaited sequel 1s sure to please strategy fans. (Accolade; 800- 245-7744; Win 95/DOS CD; $49.95)

Join Christopher Lloyd and a cast of crazies for hilarious adventure with superb production valves. (Virgin;

800-874-4607; DOS CD; $54.95)

A classic strategy game, made even better with 24 new scenarios in the add-on disc. (Blizzard Entertainment; 800-953-7669; DOS CD; Tides of Darkness, $50; Beyond the Dark Portal, $30)

Everything you could ask for in a space sim—and then some. (Origin Systems; 800-245-4525;

DOS CD; $55)

Real-time wargaming with excel- lent AI and lots of humor. (Virgin; 800-874-4607; DOS CD $54.99-$59.99)

The latest Zork once again redefines (Activision; 800- ; DOS/Win 95 CD;

adventure gaming. ( 477-3650 $49.95)

SEE MURE ONLINE http://www.pcgames.com

LIST

Here s the top 20 titles that we ve fated as either

an A or A- in the last year.

See the

complete 1996 and

1995 A lists on

our Web Site.

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GAWNMIE OF THE MONTH

oonstruck starts out so sweet

and safe that you could just

vomit. The king’s head is a happy face. His doormen are a pair of chirpy armadillos. The country 1s called Cutopia, and you're building something called a Cutifier.

Excuse me—is there a cute- sickness bag in the house?

Indeed, you may think after the first 15 minutes or so that Toonstruck is a misfiled children’s game. I saw it early in its development, knew what was coming, and still, was fooled good and proper. The early scenes are so patently inoffensive that I kept wondering when I was going to fill out a multipli- cation table or outline a sentence.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve been set up by experts. Toonstruck, the first release from Virgin’s new Burst label, builds up the sugar only to tear it down. This masterful hybrid of Who Framed Roger Rabbit artistry and Day of the

Can you say “twisted”?

Tentacle-era LucasArts is a wicked production number, golden with the promise of the medium and the intelligence of its creators.

This two-CD animated adventure pairs Drew Blanc (a filmed Christopher Lloyd) and Flux Wildly (a high-spirited lavender blob with the voice of Dan Castellanetta, TV’s Homer Simpson) on a quest to save Cutopia from the clutches of the evil Nefarious (the voice of Tim Curry).

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Actually, Toonstruck starts in the real world. Drew ani- mates the most saccharine of saccharine car- toons, “The Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show.” For its 10th anniversary, his boss—that fellow famous from commercials for his bore-you-to-death voice—decrees there’s to be a “Fluffy & Friends” show and orders Drew to produce its characters by the next morning.

Drew is slaving over the project at 4 a.m. when he finds the “Fluffy” cartoon inexplicably on the air. On inspecting it more closely, he’s

Toonstruck

By Peter Olafson

Scarecrows have come a long way since The Wizard of Oz.

sucked through the TV screen...and winds up ina

castle in Cutopia with his cartoon creation, Flux. The king (the voice of M*A*S*H’s David Ogden Stiers) hands the two the mission, and you’re on your own.

And Cutopia—sickeningly sweet, Disney-esque Cutopia—is just the beginning. You’ll also have to explore Flux’s home, Zanydu, where you'll find an octopus played by Dom DeLuise, and Nefarious’ strange Malevolands.

Once you’re out of the castle, you'll begin to dis- cover that everything is not quite the sweetness and light it appeared to be within. In town, you'll find a bar with an outrageous pipe organ and a seemingly impossible- to-catch mouse making faces at the patrons. The bartender speaks in an Irish accent in one sentence and a Scottish one in the next. a...

“That’s an interesting organ you have there,” Drew tells him. “Auch!” says the bartender. “My kilt’s riding up again, isn’t it?”

Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.

January 1997 * PC GAMES 88

tells the pair, when complimented on his cape.

Just south of town, you'll find a little bunny with huge eyes who giggles every other sentence. (Is that barf bag still around?) Talk about decon- struction: She screams like a banshee because someone gave her cotton candy instead of pop- corn, tells you how cute her “poops” are, and asks, “Want to sniff my sweet fluffy bottom?” You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Flux’s response is imbued with a certain amount of Pee-Wee Herman.

To the west, an effeminate scarecrow resides. “This old thing?”

this lispy creature

is that a Warner Bros. cartoon? No way.

“Hate it. I call it Cape Fear.” And then there’s the old horse at a nearby barn.

Unlike the cow and sheep who share the dwelling,

Elmer is “spe-

9 0e

cial,” “Special?” asks the ever- sensitive Flux. “I just figured he was a total retard or something.”

No toe is immune from getting stepped on. The euard at Zanydu’s fish-flushing outhouse does a splendid Jack Webb routine. The dog at the Wacme store can only be Ross Perot, and elsewhere I heard echoes of Phil Silvers, Terence Stamp, and Dana Carvey’s pumping-iron routine. Toonstruck makes fun of everything—not least, cartoons.

The basic concept shouldn’t hold many sur- prises. Using a mouse, you direct Drew through 2D scenes with Flux in tow, collecting objects in a bot- tomless bag— yeah, it’s an Object Quest— and using them to solve puzzles and satisty the desires of your little animated pals. The “care- crow” wants a new outfit. B.B. Wolf wants a bottle of vino. Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun wants a beating. (Just kidding: She wants popcorn.)

The artwork is classy throughout. Some of it has a Tentacle-like cast—everything slightly out of

kilter—but it’s much richer and glossier. Some of

the animations, such as the face-making mouse at the bar and the elephant that powers the shuttle to Zanydu, recall some of Warner Brothers’ distinc- tive theatrical shorts of the 1950s. And when our heroes finally nail King Hugh’s arrogant foot- man—literally a foot, with a set of eyes for each toe —it reminded me of nothing so much as the Wile E. Coyote cartoons of the same period. Technologically, Toonstruck is just about flaw- less. Lloyd is melded seamlessly into the back- ground. The mu- sic, consisting of light classical themes, is gen- uinely lovely. The voices are clear and distinctive— accompanied by text, if you like. The game feels

special; every bit of work that Burst piled into it

shows. The interface isn’t especially new, but the developers didn’t make any real mistakes, and you won’t make any either. It’s pure point-and-click, and it’s difficult to imagine anyone needing to look at a manual.

Objections? Well, I don’t want to spoil the party, but for all the good stuff, Toonstruck isn’t quite laugh-out- loud funny. Sure, it’s consistently amusing, but the timing doesn’t approach the heights that LucasArts reached in its Monkey Island games. (Admittedly, the challenge of a talkie adventure is greater than one that’s only written.)

I also wish it was

89

more creative in its responses when you use an ob-

ject in the wrong place. More often than not, it tosses up a non-specific sound effect that’s out of keeping with Toonstruck’s anything-for-a-laugh ethic. And I’m not sure that the best use of Christopher Lloyd is as a straight man for a little lavender blob with green glasses. He doesn’t have many chances to step out.

So there’s room for improvement. But not much: By any standard, Toonstruck is one of the year’s best and most daring adventures. Cutopia 1s on the map, and Burst is off with a bang.

y GAMEPLAY:

) GETTING STARTED:

a GRAPHICS:

2 SOUND CHECK: a “”

pa 6 MULTIPLAYER:

O

: Gorgeous. Outrageous. Fun.

Burst

Virgin Interactive Entertainment 800-874-4607 www.toonstruck.com

DOS CD

486/66 (Pentium 90 recom- mended), 8MB RAM (16MB rec.), DOS 5.0, Super VGA,

2X CD-ROM drive (4X rec.)

$59.95

You can't talk to Bricabrac until he

finds his glasses, and he won't know to look in his pocket until after the Footman suggests it to you. W The guards will drop the key to the king's bedroom during their welcome dance. (Awtul, isn’t it?) To open the trap door within, position Flux on the loose floorboard in the storage room below and step on the other end. W At the bar, chase the mouse until he’s standing next to the trap. Play the organ to make him dance and have Flux set off the trap. (Also, don't forget to take the poor dazed critter with you. He'll come in handy with a certain elephant.)

Once upon a time, in an enchanted kingdom,

there lived a big bosomed

lacky and some gerbils.

Enter a severely fractured fairy tale. Discworld” II: Mortality Bytes is the graphic adventure with cheek. Over 100 hours of hilarious gameplay immerse you in a bizarre realm where dozens of bawdy characters face life without Death. Yes, Death has gone on

holiday. And the hapless magician

& ~ oe ~ ~

42415

Diseworld [1 features the voice «

f Monty-something-or-other. | Rincewind must find a way to restore order in the world. You'll be dazzled by 25,000 cells of hand-drawn animation. You'll be delighted by the fiendishly clever puzzles. You'll be deeply offended by the vocal stylings of Eric Idle. Discworld II: Mortality Bytes.

It’s magical. It’s enchanting. It’s sick.

MORTALITY BYTES! aR a a

OT TT ETT ar PSYGNOSIS

www psygnosis-com

Discworld II ©1996 Perfect Entertainment Limited all rights reserved. Published under exclusive license by Psygnosis Ltd. Psygnosis ™ and the Psygnosis logo are trademarks of Psygnosis Ltd. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association Any and all original and / or distinctive characters, features, likenesses and element appearing in the Discworld series on which this product is based are trademarks and ©Terry and Lyn Pratchett. “Discworld” is a trademark registered by Terry Pratchett

i

ACTION

aving parents with a bizarre sense of humor

is not necessarily a blessing. In Amok, a

Scavenger-developed action/arcade shooter, it’s quite evident that the hero of the piece, Gert Staun, suffered this problem. “Gert”—c’mon, what were they thinking? Is the trauma caused by this moniker a pivotal reason behind Gert’s desire to jump into the pilot’s seat of an armored battle walker, dubbed the Slambird, in an attempt to kick off a new, bloody, but profitable war? Perhaps.

Planet Amok has suffered 47 years of cor- porate war. The Bureau, Gert’s em- ployer, has benefited from this turmoil through its position as a supplier and recruiter of mer- cenaries and bounty hunters. However, the profit machine has now ground to a peaceful halt. By completing a series of nine missions, each featuring various tasks and objectives, you can see the benign corporations thrown back into the melting pot of destruction. And, once again, the Bureau will make a mint.

The mission briefings are well-presented, with target objects highlighted. Tasks within a mission must be completed in a logical order: For example, you'll need to destroy the generator that powers a force field before you can obliterate the fuel depot behind it.

The Slambird can adopt two forms, land- and sea-based. The ships have slight handling differ- ences—taking your foot off the gas makes you glide to a halt underwater, but you come to a dead stop on land. Three different third-person-perspective

Amok

By Rob Smith

views let you choose the best way to witness the destruction.

Deserts, plains, and superbly detailed cities pro- vide the land-based backdrops, each inhabited by

its own indigenous range of beasts and enemies.

Aside from the attentions of the corporations—

who defend their property with mechanized vehi- cles, stationary gun emplacements, droids, and swarms of cartoon-like, pot-bellied infantry— natural enemies such as kamikaze beetles and steel- jaw rats add to the difficulty. In the submerged sec- tions, sharks and spiked guhu fish are joined by tough scuba grunts and stationary mines in an un- ceasing onslaught against our hero.

In fact, there are loads of the little geezers shooting guns and bazookas from all angles of this 3D environment, aiming not just for you, but at each other. An unlimited supply of mini-cannon rounds, boosted in velocity and damage through powerups, is the basic weapon. Standard missiles are pretty handy, and bombs enable you to get to certain ar- eas by taking out a large number of grunts and land mines. Heavy missiles are also needed to bash through certain barriers.

Backed by an excellent, pumping soundtrack of seven different tunes, the action Is intense and non-stop. Fogging effects create a truly eerie environment, especially in the underwater segments, which is a good thing: You'll need to

92

i

es

keep exploring to find the secret areas hiding extra ammo and powerups.

The game loses somes points for the lack of control options: your choices are keyboard or key- board. With just nine missions—even hugely chal- lening missions—it may also prove too short. And the two difficulty levels are something of a mis- nomer—“easy” is just the first two missions of the full, “hard” game.

In the end, it’s a simple concept made into a chal- lenging arcade romp. At the higher graphic resolu- tions, such as 800-by-600 with 32K colors, it looks like an absolute treat, though you'll need a beast of a machine. There’s certainly plenty of stuff to shoot— so much so that dispatching 100 percent of the ene- mies seems a virtually impossible task. Amok is a sheer adrenaline rush—nothing more, nothing less.

GAMEPLAY:

3 GETTING STARTED:

= GRAPHICS: <x SOUND CHECK: OVERALL

MULTIPLAYER:

Pure, pumping arcade action.

Scavenger

GT Interactive 800-610-4847 www.gtinteractive.com DOS/Win 95 CD Pentium 60, 8MB RAM, Super VGA, 2X CD-ROM drive, sound card $49.99

In the desert, skirt the edges of the

rocky hills to find small secrets with powerups that aren't visible on the radar. W Just avoid the sharks: shooting them is fun, but it won't help you complete the mission. W In the cities, go up any yellow-paved ramps to areas secreting extra health and other powerups. W When you encounter groups of grunts, keep moving to avoid their fire and always target the bazooka shooters first—they do more damage. W Droids are difficult to destroy, so just avoid them wherever possible. You're unlikely to win many antennae-to-antennae shootouts. W If youre confident after completing a mission, scout around for extra health and hull powerups before heading for the rendezvous point.

How did we come up with the exciting new features found in Destruction Derby 2?

By accident.

CONTENT RATED BY ESRE

wWW+pSygQnOSisS-com Destruction Derby™ 2 is the perfect combo of balls-to-the-wall racing and 3D wreckage. Seven

new tracks are longer, wider, faster, plus four destruction bowls. Cars roll, cars flip, cars fly off

the track. There's more deadly debris to deal with - tires, doors, hoods get jettisoned and serve as incoming missiles. There's all new fire, new explosions, and improved suspensions for more realistic handling. Destruction Derby 2. Designed exclusively for the true connoisseur of crash.

© 1996 Psygnosis Ltd. All rights reserved. Destruction Derby™ 2 and Psygnosis and the Psygnosis logo are trademarks of Psygnosis Ltd. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association.

© 1996 Entertainment International (UK) Limited. All rights reserved. Empire Interactive, Pro-Pinball and The Web (used in conjunction with Pro-Pinball) are trademarks of Entertainment International. Interplay and MacPlay are trademarks of Interplay Productions. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Mac and the Mac OS logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., used under license. Sega and Sega Saturn are trademarks of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved. PlayStation and the PlayStation logo are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

By Peter Olafson

ction gamers would have to be crazy not to pay a visit to this Bedlam. This isometric shoot-’em-up—a striking composite of the Crusader- and Syndicate-style games—has enough graphic intricacies, intuitive play mechanics, and heartening explosions to keep you involved for weeks.

As the hero, you control up to three Mechs (here called Remote Assault Tanks) on a 25-mission campaign to re- move an infestation of “biomex.” (I don’t know. Don’t ask.)

A superb briefing display provides a detailed overhead map of the mission area with highlighted objectives that can be displayed in closeup when you click on them.

After checking out the map, you'll want to head to the armory to load up on weapons. The bad news: You have to pay for ordnance. The good news: The game auto-configures your craft to stay within budget. There are lots of options, ranging from needler guns that barely kick up dust to Hades bombs that reduce whole regions to raging firestorms.

Finally, you’re dropped off at the insertion point by a great gleaming aircraft. Gameplay is simplicity itself: one mouse button for movement, one for fir- ing. The game makes clearly audible announce- ments when you achieve objectives, and displays as-yet-unachieved ones on a useful (but not too useful) in-mission map.

It all looks wonderful. The explosions are the first and best reason to play Bedlam. They’re glori-

ous—almost epic—and they bring home the mem- orable satisfaction of mass destruction as well as any game in recent months.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of demolition work. The missions tend to be go-in-and-blow-up chal-

lenges. That’s not to say there aren’t puzzles. Objectives are often protected, remote or both. You'll find yourself combing the landscape in search of teleporters to unlock off-limits areas, pressure pads to raise or lower sections of terrain, and control switches to disable forcefields.

Through it all, though, it’s very much an action game. Powerups strewn about the playfield add to your score, pocketbook, energy, and speed.

Moreover, the game is full of delightful little touches other than the way things go “splat.” The ex- plosions are great, but the buildings look even better—both before and after a conflagration. You'll also see yourself performing on big-screen TVs spread throughout the levels. The playfield has depth, and you'll have to travel in tunnels (in which your character vanishes, Syndicate- style) and on catwalks. I even liked the intro’s big beat and cinematic ti- tle sequence.

In fact, I have few complaints

95

hee tf

ACTION

about Bedlam. The saved-game routine is rather fragile. If you miss the opportunity to save after a mission, tough bits, babe. In- game speech is a bit risqué, and not for any persuasive reason. (Besides, if

your Mechs are remote-controlled, who exactly is doing the talking?) And performance under Windows 95 1s slightly sluggish. ’'d recommend playing under DOS.

Nevertheless, this is a delightful surprise. I’ve got Bedlam on the brain.

GAMEPLAY: GETTING STARTED: GRAPHICS:

SOUND CHECK:

OVERALL

BEDLAM

MULTIPLAYER:

All-out action in the tradition of the Crusader games.

Mirage Technologies

GT Interactive

800-610-4847 www.gtinteractive.com

Win 95/DOS CD

486DX/66 (Pentium recom- mended), 8MB RAM (16MB rec.), Super VGA, 2X CD-ROM drive, mouse, sound card $49.99

Lure enemies across their own land

mines. W Scout out each level, noting the locations of forcefield controls and ammunition caches. That way, you'll be able to plot out the most efficient course when playing for keeps. W In the multi-RAT missions, constantly monitor the status of the idle units. Otherwise, you could be in for a nasty shock.

_| ...OR CHUCKLE, chortle or even guffaw as you embark | on your quest to solve the “Alien Incident”. If you A! enjoy “classic” graphic adventure games where an

‘intuitive interface and a sense of humor are the ~

ingredients to fins, then this | is your kind of game.

\f’s Halloween night and you’ ue just witnessed | your le nein abducted by aliens after his wormhole spawner invention sprung a leak. \t’s up to you, _ Benjamin Richards, to unravel the mystery of where they’uve taken your uncle. With simple mouse clicks explore spooky mansions, dark and mysterious

forests, underwater caverns, creepy cemeteries, a challenging maze and the aliens’ mothership itself. Hundreds of puzzles and clues provide you with hours

of immersive gameplay. Meet interesting people such as Yodel the tree dweller, plus dozens of other strange and — bizarre characters ina humorous. won that’s easy enough even for adults to play!

~ PHILIPS

Area 51

or a place that officially doesn’t exist, Area 51’s

been getting an awful lot of attention lately. But

its the wrong kind of attention: The purported government secret base has been infiltrated by aliens, and you’re part of the special paramilitary team sent in to clean up the mess.

Let’s not mince words: This conversion of the

By whatever means

necessary

Atari coin-op 1s basically Virtua Cop with bitmapped enemies and an oddly filmed actor replacing polygons. It’s a clone of that most cele- brated of rail shooters, but a well-done clone— one that expands its reach and adds to its depth. You move through the base in scripted stages, killing off formerly human caretakers (gray- skinned zombies who are hosting incubating aliens) and grown aliens in “on tracks” shooting-gallery sequences. They give up the ghost in a satisfying display of blood and bone, and between alien anni-

hilations, you can blast ammo boxes and obliterate

Shoot...it’s time to shoot again

floating powerups to get a hold of weapon upgrades.

In short, there’s a lot to shoot. Like the Crusader games, you can trash everything: computers, barrels, window panes—even your colleagues. The explosions look real, particularly when you set off one of the yellow barrels dotting the landscape. Blowing them to

hell is the way to secret rooms, a search that'll GAMEPLAY: GETTING STARTED: GRAPHICS: SOUND CHECK:

MULTIPLAYER:

keep you coming back for more.

The backgrounds you'll be blasting are detailed and convincing—especially during a mid-game OVERALL jeep sequence that’s one of the game’s best mo-

AREA 51

ments. In places, their moody look combined with

the cries of your fellow troopers contributes a cer- Nice game—for a few hours.

tain Aliens mood. ov Williams Entertainment

GT Interactive

800-610-4847 www.gtinteractive.com

Win 95 CD

Pentium 60, 8MB RAM (16MB recommended), Super VGA with 1MB of video RAM, 2X CD-ROM drive, sound card, mouse $39.99

DEVELOPER:

Still, the front-end looks cheesy, and the end- Pypuisuer:

ing’s rather weak. Worst of all, the game’s way too short. I amazed myself by finishing the Easy set- — ting in 45 minutes and polishing off Medium diffi- REQUIRES: culty in about two hours.

I liked it. I just wanted more.

—Peter Olafson pint PRR

Captain Quazar

aptain Quazar? More like Major Havoc—both

for good and bad.

This Windows 95 translation of an angled- down shoot-em-up originally appeared on 3DO. It offers enjoyable mayhem when it works well. Unfortunately, as with many console ports to the PC, it doesn’t work as well as it should, or as often as it should.

The Captain, a great blond lout with Popeye’s chin, is assigned to take down the galaxy’s bad guys in 10 missions pleasantly large in scope and rich in destruction. They’re set in sprawling, multi- directional levels viewed from a third-person point of view just above and slightly downwind of the

Captain. These levels—

and almost everything

Some hero!

in them—come apart in

rich animations. Walls, buildings, storage tanks, the works, are there to be turned into smoking ruins—if you have the time and the ammo (you start out with a Big Gun, mis- siles, and grenades).

Ammo, first-aid kits, and the occasional extra

life are unearthed in these ruins. Sometimes, you'll

PEE

The Cap’n can’t AW Shs sans 8 EDD quite overcome 4 “4 yt?

the glitches.

smoke a building and come across a sooty sur- vivor waving a white flag. These turncoats may offer codes to teleporters, point you toward money caches, or make known that there’s more to a level than meets the eye.

As lively as it is, the game ultimately has a wearisome quality. It takes too long to get past the multi-segment intro screens and into the

action. Enemies have an irritating habit of materi-

GAMEPLAY: GETTING STARTED: GRAPHICS:

SOUND CHECK:

alizing out of nowhere. The scenery wasn’t quite varied enough to keep my interest; it starts to look

like different arrangements of the same tiles. And OVERALL

while the game aims for a comic-book goofiness, it

MULTIPLAYER:

Play is okay, tech hassles aren't.

Studio 3D0

800-336-3506

www.3do.com

Win 95 CD

486/66 (P90 rec.), Win 95; 8MB RAM (12 MB rec.), Super VGA with 1MB of video RAM that supports Direct Draw (2MB PCI card), 8-bit sound card that sup- ports Direct Sound, 2X CD-ROM drive

$39.95

isn’t all that funny. (I don’t like getting flamed by my boss when I pause the action.)

Worst of all, I didn’t play a single session with- PUBLISHER: out interruption by some sort of technical problem.

CAPTAIN QUAZAR

a STR) : 412) : € a On a 32MB Pentium 133, the game often dis PLATFORM:

played corrupted graphics (sometimes the Captain REQUIRES: himself was invisible!), hung up on a skipping CD soundtrack, or just plain locked up the machine. Sorry, Cap’n. It was a nice try, but I just pressed Eject and gave your CD a dishonorable discharge. —Peter Olafson

January 1997 * PC GAMES 97

List PRICE:

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7th LEVEL.

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Warcraft defi fir | [ gave you ‘the Le Now, DOMINION

challenges you | to the future with fiery

real-time strategic combat, resolutions up to

1280 X 1024, and | an unprecedented 95,000

frames of real- time 3-D animation.

It's 2224. Say good bye to the tactics that served you well in previous Campaigns. Your new reality: battle- ground strategies vary by planet, and the military- spun AI anticipates your every. Move. Invent new maneuvers with dog- eat-dog Commanders.

Sabotage enemy bases

with computer viruses, and teleport Men and Materials across-world.

Isn't technology great?

Download the interactive demo at: www.gamespot.com www.7thlevel.com

Every .oth download can win the complete game.”

As . . 5 ~ Ss RET ah eS Be - Beedl Fh — we

fe >,» Se = se a al & & 4 / .* fe 3

*The DOMINION demo may be registered via e-mail. Every 10th registration, of the first 100,000 received, gets a mail-in rebate coupon for the retail cost of DOMINION. Limit one registration per person. Offer only valid in North America. Rebate will be paid in U.S. funds. Void where prohibited.

- ©1996 7th Level, Inc. 7th Level is a registered trademark of 7th Level, Inc. All other products are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved. 7th Level, Inc., Richardson, TX 75081

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Fast action and stunning realism — that’s the promise of new 3D games and

edutainment software. But if your Super Star Fighter jerks along instead of zoom- EONS —e—— a ing and your “terrifying” monsters are OK Se ee. glaringly pixelated — face it. You're not : | having much fun.

Don’t just play it...Live it! With a Reactor 3D graphics accelerator on

your PC, expect a whole new interactive IndyCar with SVGA Graphics IndyCar with Reactor Graphics

experience! Notice the jagged lines and edges and the flat, dull colors. Where’s + Now you're racing! See the detail on next car. Watch those rearview : the crowd? What are those blocky things in the background? Are mirrors — that’s real 3D! Notice the crowd in the stands and the

Plus | ndyCar land HellBender™ FREE! you really into this race? mountains in the background. And how about that sky!

Want to know more? Call 800-763-0242 or reach us on the Internet ot http://www.intergraph.com/ics/reactor.

- Intergraph and the Intergraph Jogo are registered trademarks and Reactor is a trademark of Intergraph Corporation. HellBender is 4 trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other brands and product ames are trademarks of their respective owners. intergraph believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date: Such information is subject to change without notice and is subject to applicable technical product

Sonic CD

e’s back! And after all these years, he looks

exactly the same!

Which, of course, is the problem. I was looking for more in Sonic’s PC debut. After all, in this day of Pentium processors and 3D graphics ac- celerators, I didn’t expect to find the same old game that’s kept Genesis owners hooked for years.

Despite some clever

Same old

new twists

Hedgehog

(the ability to

teleport to different areas of a stage by flipping signs, for example), this is still the same old Sonic: dashing through one world after another collecting life rings and power emeralds, racing through the two-dimensional worlds of tunnels, cliffs, bridges, and elevators. As always, his ultimate mission 1s to save animals from the clutches of the evil Dr. Robotnik, though in this case, the hostage 1s his

girlfriend, Amy the Hedgehog.

SlamScape

ntriguing storyline and brain-teasing puzzles sim-

ply don’t figure in SlamScape. Plentiful dodge-

and-shoot action: yes; great electronic literature: no. The plot—for what it’s worth—is that you’re trapped in a virtual-reality experiment along with 16 other captives. The plan is to get you and the other guys out of this mess.

To succeed, you'll have to navigate your way through four levels, dodging and destroying a variety of enemies to reach the Orb-Ids. Collecting powerups and ammunition along the way will help you fight your way to them. Liberate the Orb-Ids to progress to the next stage.

SlamScape’s designers score high marks for providing great 3D scenery. The action is smooth and fluid as you power your Slamjet Module in all directions. The Shockball is your main weapon, but your onslaught is aided by picking

up torpedoes and the Ripstar, a devastating device

Carnival of

destruction

Look at that jump! Yep, you’re Sonic, all right.

The one real change is an

(23 Sl “a ort

impressive 3D stage reached by

al

nabbing more than 50 rings be- fore finishing a level. Hit a series of flying UFOs successfully and you'll receive a Time Stone. You must acquire all seven Time Stones before Dr. Robotnik does in order to

save your darling Amy.

Lest you think it’s only Sonic that has to jump through hoops, there’s a few obstacles Sega has left in your path. A massive 155MB full installa- tion 1s a bit excessive. (Little guy, big game.) I was also irritated to find that Sonic doesn’t even remember the gamepad configurations from one session to another.

Hardware problems aside, Sonic’s still a highly playable arcade game. Let’s just hope that if there’s a sequel, the creators bring something new to a rather old formula.

—Sam Marshall

The third-person

view shows you more of the carnage.

with limited ammo.

Your enemies are equally enter- taining: clown-faced balloons, tank- like assault vehicles, mechanical spiders, teddy bears with razor- sharp claws, electric brainfish, and flying propeller blades that pick off the powerups you’ve so painstak- ingly gathered.

You'd think such a simple arcade game would be dead easy to get into, but that’s not the case here. Controlling the Slamjet effectively takes some practice, and needs mastering before you can make any significant progress.

Frequent pauses in the gameplay (usually when accessing the pounding soundtrack), even on a monster PC, don’t help the flow of supposedly fast-paced action. Still, SlamScape’s a typical console-style title that, with the right hardware, can fly and provide uninvolved, fast, and furious gameplay.

—Sam Marshall

January 1997 *