peniiuin COVER ME! FOUR HOT COMMANQO GAMES FOOTBALL FEVER 20 HOT REVIEWS KINGPIN! HOW MUCH F— IS TOO MUCH? OUNGEON KEEPER 2 • NEEO FOR SPEEO: HIGH STAKES JLi i 1 J iiMi ffar 1 V V as 'WJ 11 LH ITn^ 1^ \wrKith. . Beauty Is in the Eye of the Gamer. ...... W |[pHMBIMk|S^ w a re Fo r P C s . „T~ii‘^Hr7i'^ r ' The criticatly-acclaimed action-strategy series is back for five more stars with every great war commander's wildest dream — Sattiezone IT!' It’s time to re-enlist. ■ Command an extensive range of vehicles, including tanks, walkers and hovercraft. ■ Build bases and strategies to combat alien lifeforms on five different planets. ■ Use the latest In military hardware, including rockets, air-strikes and sniper weapons. Behold the Beauty on 3dfx. The beauty of Battlezone II and Vampire: The Masquerade— Redemption is yours for the taking with the power of 3dfx. Feel the intensity with lighting-fast frame-rates. sdfi See the realism with incredible features like dynamic lighting, transparency and shadowing — just to name a few. It's the beauty of Activision games powered by the beast of 3dfx. As a vampire, you have powers beyond those of mortats. But immortality has a price. To survive, you must learn to fuel your powers with blood. ■ Survive a thrilling 800-year existence across four cities — from medieval k Prague to modern New York. I A full 3-0 engine brings White Wotf’s stunning World of Darkness to Ufe. I Create your own originat muttiptayer adventures with a unique storytelling system. ‘Best BPG of E3' # E3:net Allgames Network. IGNlcom, Voodoo Extreme HASQUERADeL |THE HAS' pE0ECf7PTlOJ) ,0 jipr_. iL ' Is iMtSpl^iiSl Welcome to Sigil, the "City of Doors," a place with gates that lead anywhere in existence, provided you have the proper key. It is a neutral ground and watering hole for races across the multiverse, all under the watchful shadow of the Lady of Pain, the enigmatic ruleij^ the city. It is a place where the word is mightier than the sword, where thought defined reality, where belief has the power to reshape worlds and change the laws of physics. Built with the Bioware-lnfinHy Engine™, the same engine used in Baldur's Gate' p ^9 ' — 1 ' \ h 1 . [ \ 1 \ \ \ ! \ j'- . _ >■ j .. ■■ ' TO SHOE THE UlORlD, SOMETIITIES ON HHG:Eb.HtE-Ot Bob 15 A WORKINB'CLASS ANBEL WHO BETS ASKED BY THE SIB MAN UPSTAIRS TO "BRINBETH himself TO MOP UP SOME CRAP BDINB DOWN ON EARTH." GIVEN THE TO USE SINNERS AGAINST SINNERS, HE CAN ENTER CHARACTERS AND EXPLOIT THEM TO SNEAK, CHARM, BATTLE, OR CREATIVELY AVOID UJIDiJJ.l11E5SIRH.C0in FOR THE SAKE OE GOOD, i cops, dwellers, pdiesis, behemoths, BOUNCEns, waitresses, prostitutes, VDU GET TO OECOniE Q IIIIIODF sub-girls, bonoage dancers, gigolos, demons, chots, high priests, welders, n UlUnnrt , nuclear workers, medics, technocrats, bartenders, gun commanders, VOUR CHOICES ALSO INCLUDE: dwarfs, pimps, lickers, riot cops, monsters and animals • Control oven 40 oirrepENT organic] characters. • Ydur strategy okpENoa on the characters you CH posE. Can a street hustler sneak'into the RESEARCH CENTER? OR IS A FRONTAL ASSAULT USING A DOT A BETTER SOLUTION? • All character Models have over 00,000 POLYGONS FOR SUPER HIGH LEVELS OF DETAIL. • Advanced neural net ai, group dynamics, and BECAUSE OF TMEsREVOLUTlONARY RT-DAT TECHNOLOGY, YOU^SYSTEM >S CONSTANTLY PUSHED TO THE UMFT WHILE NEVER BLOWING DOWN |k ■ — EVEN WITH DOZENS OF CHARACTERS ON SCREEN!. •Environments feature portal technology tor BEAMLESS TRANSITIONS between the 1 4 HUGE WORLDS. ^flP No MORE WAITING TO LOAD LEVELS! S|f\ * STREAMING VIDEO, SPECULAR LIGHTING, MORPHING ENVIRONMENT, AND 3 0 AUDIO SRINGy ' . THE MESSIAH WORLD ALIVE. •Support for all major 3D vidEo '' AND audio cardE. SQUAD TACTICS INSURES THAT DENIZENS OF THE WORLiO ALWAYS REACT DIFFERENTLY EVERY TIME YOU PLAY. Skin stretches Smoothly over joints, muscles FLEX, AND CLOTHING DRAPES SMOOTHLY. NO MORE BLpCKY CHARACTERS. • Motion capture Iano hand animatipM SLENdeo \USINp interpolation creates virtually THOUSANDS OF. MOVEMENTS FOR EACH CHARACTER. • USE T|.jE RIGHT^TDOL FOR THE JOB. 20,+ WEAPONS TO CHDaSE jFROM, INCLUDING ROCKET-PROPELLED HARPOONB, NEEDLE GUNS, L^BER^, TRIP MINES, ROCI^ET LAUNCHERS, •GRENADke, CnO FL^ME 'THROWERS. ; • ^EAPO^S CREATE Cl^STl'Na DAMAGE *1)0 'VhE ; Elv^lRONMEh^TS. WRITE Tpui^JNlTIALS iM THE WAf-LS wjTH THjE NEEDLE' GUN. ' ‘ ’ ■ • I^INPaiKlT FIRING ACCURACY AND LASER SIGHTS MAKE targetiMg Enemies simple. ' ' : oatoOEiB IHTCKDED FOR IHDTIiRF RROietIGFS OHIO Messiah 01999 Shiny EntertWaiH. tnc. ^1 rights resened. Messiah ija trademarti ol Interplay PrpducUans. All rights reserved. All other IraiJemarlu mi coi^rigtits ara property ol Uielr respetlive owners. j My adventures are best seen on a NVIDIA RIVA TNT2." SsUmie RilingsBoirc COUER STORY FEATURES PREVIEWS Dark Reign 2 The first game got lost in the glut, but this sequel hopes to break out of the RTS rat pank with a new 30 engine S2 COMPUTER. GAMING WORLD I Hands-On BeRortTI Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun We sent our boys Robert Coffey and Tom Price to Las Vegas for a choice mission: Play the hell out of COMMAND & CONQUER: TIBERIAN SUN and give us the skin- qm ny on this long-overdue, highly anticipated game. wU Tactical Simulations Situation Report 110 The special-operations shooter exploded onto the gaming world in a big way last year with Tom Clancy's RAINBOW SIX. Now, a brand new wave of spec-ops games are upon us, all promising the ultimate in combat realism. We assembled a team of real-life commandos to check out DELTA FORCE 2, ROGUE SPEAR, SPEC OPS II: GREEN BERETS, and SWAT 3: CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE and tell us what it’s resUy^\\ about. Football Roundup 126 It's kickoff time at last for the new NFL season, but George Jones is nowhere near a TV. Why? Because he's been checking out the latest generation of PC football games, and he likes what he sees. Theme Park World Design and ride your own theme park attractions, and then send them to your friends 68 Prince Qf Persia 3D A mucli-loved sitle-scroller returns to the PC in 30 72 Soldier Of Fortune Kill. Reload, Repeat 78 Warlords: Battlecry Warlords in real-time? Yet another omen of the apocalypse 80 Asheron’s Call Big Bad Bill Gates wants a piece of that multiplayer RPG pie. With this tasty morsel of a game, lie may just get it 82 Nox A DIABLO-alike with a strong, original multiplayer angle 84 I • OCTOBtR 19S3 COMPUTER GAMINE WO See what you missed on the internet while you were surfing for^ um^ stuff. The best of the Net Show and a whole bunch more. While you were in some dark corner of the internet, you missed a reaiiy good time. YOU DON’T KNOW lACK'”- The Net Show is the award-winning oniine version of the irreverent quiz show party game. We’ve taken 800 of the best questions from the Net Show and combined them with 200 more to create YOU DON’T KNOW JACK Offiine'l it features the same nuciear- powered attitude as aiways, but with new gags, new graphics and a whole new category of question— the Pissed About A Question Question. JACK fans teil us how we screwed up, and we use their letters to ridicule them in classic JACK style. As usual, nothing is sacred. So the next time you’re looking for fun, forget the rubber gloves. Get YOU DON’T KNOW JACK Offline. YOU DON’T KNOW lACI^ ilERR/\ BERKELEY fi 1 1 V » 1 1 n n s c V c T c kj o Soilware. screen graphics ana packaging 01999 Berkeley Systems. Inc All Righis Reserved. Berkeley and Berkeley Systems arc uademarks and lire Berkeley Systems togp is a registered trademark ol Berkeley Systems. Inc All le>tand sound 01997-1999 Jetlyvisian, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Oilline is a trademark and YOU OONT KNOW JACK . Jellyvtsionandihe Jeilyvisic logo are registered trademarks ot Jeiiyvision. Inc C' Sierra On-Une. Inc. Sierra and the Sierra Altracllons logo are trademarks ol Sierra On-Line. Inc Arlvrork i Pholograpliy 01999 Warm Bros. -See YOU DON T KNOW JACK Oflline or Mainx VMS packages lor details. V READ. ME REVIEWS ^ 139 GAMER'S EDGE 210 Might And Magic VII ...210 Everquest 214 How To Draft A Winning Sports Team 220 CGTips 222 I. I II Action Thierry Nguyen 226 RPG/Adventure Desslock 227 Sports George Jones 230 Strategy Robert Coffey 232 Simulations Gordon Berg 234 HII Nocturne Desert Fighters Jack Nicklaus Golf Panzer General 3: Assault Check cut this month's CD for all the hot new demos! • Jane’s A-IO Crashes and Burns • Quake 3 Update • No Naked Pictures ot Lara in London Plus News; Pipeline; the Good, the Bad & the Ugly, and more. Need For Speed: High Stakes 143 Kingpin 148 Might And Magic Ull: For Blood And Honor 154 Dungeon Keeper 2 1 58 Fighting Steel 170 PGA Championship Golf 1999 Edition 174 F-IB: Aggressor 178 Ultimate 8-Ba!l 180 Official Formula 1 Racing 180 Micro Reviews 186 Atari Arcade Hits 1 • Ausim Powers: Operation Trivia • BeaiDown, Dragoon: The Battles of Frederick the Great • Jeff Gordon XS Racing • Man of War II* Pro 18; World Tour Golf • Railroad Tycoon II: The Second Century • Stuka Dive Bomber • Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali • West Front Battle Pack 1 CPU Shootout Pentium III vs. Athinn 194 Loyd Case A day in the life of a techo-weenie 200 Killer Rigs 202 Tech Medics 204 Hardware Reviews Entrega Multifunction USB Hub Plantronics HSL Stereo Headset Madcatz Panther DX Digital Joystick Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla CH Products USB Gamepad Asus MEW Motherboard/lntcl p810-DC1DQ chipset 206 206 206 206 208 208 Outcast DEPARTMENTS Rites of War 2 George Jones What have those fools done to my magazine?? Starfleet Command Warhammer 40k You Don't Know Jack Offline CGi/Vs new look revealed 23 Johnny Wilson The Great One says "game over." 26 Letters Our readers tell us where to stick it 30 Advertisers’ Index 24i Greenspeak Jeff barely earns his paycheck, yet again 242 COMPUTER GAMING WORIO i.computergaming.com • OCTOBER 1998 encounTERS ' Operate s n p — TT^UARTERS ONLY Hold two quarters TOGETHER and insert in slot- TURN^HANDLE TO RIGHT to receive package. AcIiVisioN PACKAGE OF ONE TWO QUARTERS ONLY - .Hold t\.3 quiinirnOGETHER and insert in slot- TU8N HANDLE TO RIGHT to receive package. USE 2 QUARTERS BACK TO BACK iiylH jii \\ fm if 'ill >4rM HARD STEEL Yoo WA^47 lo FtRM To ^ MAKES A LITTLE SO A LONG WAY! A DEVICE DESIGNED TO PROLONG MALE CLIMAX WHILE STIMU- .-UM'GHEfrlWTRE"' RIGHT PLACE! - • Operates on • TWO nilARTPRRnNlY. Gaming r aott were not Born noBle. ^ Butjjour Beotinjj io to reijn ao Binj. Command your knights in menacing formations. Dominate the world’s marketplaces. Embody the spirits of William Wallace. Saladin, Barbarossa. Joan of Arc, and Genghis Kahn. Listen to monks speak of thirteen unique warriors and civilizations, all in their own dialects. Achieve victory through conquest, economic stranglehold, or exploration. Find more glory at wuiui.niicr050ft.C0ni/^ainc5/ajc2 Mictosoft ■nw^'ofh Introdiicing the Aureal Vortex SQ Series Remaining feithfuL to its time-honored legacy, Prince of Persia 3D elevates the Prince to new heights with the fest-paced combat of a fighting game and the depth and challenge of a classic Arabian Nights adventure. Stunning 3D graphics. Advanced 3D audio. Completely unique game design. Countless traps, ruthless enemies, and devious enchantments await you. So sharpen your sword, ready your bow, and embark on a journey that will forever transform you into the Prince of Persia, www.pop3d.com' The only sound cards worthy of a prince. Who did Red Orb Entertainment turn to when they wanted the best possible audio experience for their smash title, "Prince of Persia 3D?' Aureal. Aureal blazed the path for 3D audio on the PC with its A3D technology, used in hundreds of current and future game titles. And now Aureal does it again by providing the best possible audio platform for interactive entertainment, the Vortex SQ Series PCI sound cards. Introducing the Aureal Vortex SQ1500, delivering hi-fi digital audio for music, games and interactive entertainment. Experience award-winning A3D on two or four speaker systems, or on headphones. The Vortex SQ1500 even includes a digital output for connection to supported digital speakers, home theater equipment, MiniDisc and DAT systems. The Aureal Vortex2 SQ2500 provides premier 3D audio for gaming and music. It accelerates Aureal's new A3D 2.0 positional audio with geometry-based Aureal Wavetracing. Also offering two or four speaker output, the Vortex2 SQ2500 includes S/PDIF coaxial output for digital audio connections. Both sound cards include an elegant Aureal Vortex Player for simplifying playback of all your digital audio and MIDI files, as well as Internet audio resources. Aureal Vortex SQ1500 and Aureal Vortex2 SQ2500. The only sound cards worthy of a prince, at a price that won't cost a king's ransom. See your authorized retailer today. For more information visit www.aureal.com/vortex. WWW. aureal.coni www.add.corii 1999 Aureal Inc. Aureal, the Aureal logo, arid A30 aretrademarks and Vortex is a registered trademark of Aureal Inc. Prjnce of Persia' is a registered trademark and Red Orb Entertainment is a trademark of Learning Company Properties Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. I ou are Locke D'Averam, a once proud warrior-prince executed for failing to perforin a ritual sacrifice. 10,000 years later, you've been resurrected from the dead by a prominent warlord to rescue his kidnapped daughter. You are now part of a very special breed of warrior. You are a revenant. In order to regain full strength, you'll need to practice the problem-solving ability necessary to unlock forgotten skills. And though there may be the whole island of Ahkuilon to explore, and more than 40 monsters to destroy, there's only one Locke D'Averam. And however you choose to live as Locke, we think you'll agree: Life is better the second time around. "s. Immerse yourself in a gripping storyline involving the future of the entire world of Ur Enjoy explosive spell casting effects unparalleled in any other CRPG game 'r. Extensive NPC interaction enabies you to discover who you once were CINEMATIX STUDIOS is a trademark of Cinemadx Studios, Inc. © 1999 Cinemalix Studios, Inc. REVENANT is a trademark of Eldos Interactive, Ltd. © 1999 Eidos Interactive, Ltd. EIDOS, EIDOS INTERACTIVE, and the EIDOS INTERACTIVE LOGO are all registered trademarks of Eldos Interactive, Inc. and Eidos Interactive, Ltd. ® 1999 Eidos Interactive, Ltd. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the properties of their perspective owners. WWW eidos. n Multiple modes of combat include stealth, hand-to-hand, bow and weapon Thousands of 3D animations bring the inhabitants of Ahkuilon, as well as breathtaking combat moves, to life Choose from 4 character classes in multi-play mode If. 9 . (f. ■k DUt the interc Coming back from the dead doesn't MEAN ¥QU!jp(TOPjO BETTER, / Includes all the tools YOU need to make your y own custom / levels THE MLUN6 QHVDiMbS Run, climb, djvim and crawl through deadly killing grounds Take the blend of strategy, role- playing and tactical combat that made Jagged Alliance one of the best games of all time*. Add dozens pf new Weapons. Over 150 unique .characters. Your own custom rtiercenary. incredibly realistic combat. Thousands of iines of digitized speech. Face off against an array. of hungry predators, from ferocious enemy soldiers to dark secrets turking underground. The result is the perfect killing grounds. The only thing missing is YOU. Fight to fr^ an entire nation with a team of up to 18 mercenaries The Best of Strategy Nonlinear gameplay, blistering day and night battles, and advanced tactical combat. The'Hest of Role-Playing Create your own mercenary, improve your team’s skills, and explore a huge world. Interact dozens of characters. Treat them well, and they’ll support your cause. Treat them badly, and they'll stab you in the back. “Hot strategy pick of 1999” -Steve Baiunan, Clompiiter . Games Strategy I*his ‘As rated by Coininiter Gaming World aiid I’C' Gaines. Check it out at www.talonsoft.com or call l*800*211-l}5()4 to pre order C'opyright © 1089 by Sir-tech Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. Jagged Alliance'"' is a registered trademark of 1259191 Ontario Inc. TalonSoft™ is a registerefl tri^emark of TalonSoft Inc. TalonSoft is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. OCTOBER 1999 COMPUTER GAMIIMC WORLD liE UNIACKE • lee.uniscke« 2 d.ciim l!Pngl»l«t PIRtCIOR JOHNIVY WILSOM • johnny.wilson^zd.c ISSUE 183 cgw.gamespot.com EPrTon-nfcCHter GEORGE JONES ISPCC1S) • 9 eorgejonss@ 2 d.eom KEN BROWN • ken.br 0 wn@ 2 d.com CHRIS LOMBARDI • chris.lombard 1 @ 2 d.cam DAVE SALVATOR [HARDWARE1 > dav8.selV3tor@2d.eom ttWIOB tPtrOH JEFF GREEN [UVENTURE/REG. NEViS] • feff.green@ 2 d.com AeeOCIATI EPrTOB ROBERT COFFEY (ACTION. STRATEGY) • n:iiOT.ec(ley@ 2 d.eom JESSE HIATT (CGROM] • jesse hi 8 tt@ 2 d.com THIERRY 'SCOOTER' NGUYEN (PREVIEWS) • thierry.nguyen@ 2 d.com HOLLY FLEMING • h 0 liy.flerNng@ 2 d.com eOrrOHIAL ABAHTAHT TDM PRICE • Mm.price@ 2 d.com CHARLES ARDAI (INTERACTIVE FICTION). LOYD CASE (HARDWARE) ABT Dimevon STEVE WANCZYK * 8 t 8 ve.wenc 2 yk@zd.com QBAeHIC ARTIST JASON 8ABLER • jason.babler@ 2 d.com eacpcicTioN Piiticton CARLOS LUGO eBOttUCTION MANAaia DENNIS FITZGERALD AovemiaiNC pboduction coordihaiob TERESA NEWSON MICHELE KELLOGG TAMARA GARGUS TlCHWieiAW ROGER DRAKE HOW TO CDNnCTTHE EDITORS AOORESS QUESTIONS AND FIIDSACI TD: ecw EDITOflIAL, SO BtAEE SI., I2IH FLOOR. SAN IRANCISCO, CA 04105. OR CONTACT OS VIA tUAIl AT: CCWLETIERSOEO.COU RHONE: (AISI 351-4000 • tOlIDRIAL lAH: 1415) 351-4077 WEO SlIErCGW.GAIAESPOr.CDM SUZANNE REIOER • suz)e.reider@ 2 d.com • (415) 357-4915 atOIBHAL «AL£« MAHAOta/ IAN FaAWCItCO. «OUTMtBW TERBtTOaV MARCI YAMAGUCHI < marci..y 8 maguchi@ 2 d.com • (415) 357-4944 B«Q 10 HAt «ALEa MAWABIB/IILICON VALLIY. WOBTHEBN TEBatTOBY ORU MONTGOMERY • dru montgomery@2d.com • 415) 357-4925 SAT SHARMA < 8at.6herma@2d.CDm • (415) 357-4935 HAtlOWAl, ACCOUMT BIB JOANN CASEY •joann.ea6ev@2d.com • (415) 3574920 APVEinrilNQ COOBDIMATOB TIPLER UUELOHDE • ti'pler.uue!ohde@ 2 d.eom • (415) 3574930 TALUE FISHBURNE • tallie.fishburne@2d.com > (415) 357-5226 meunvi AaaiaTAMi UNDA FAN • lind 8 .{an@ 2 d.com • (415) 357-5425 HOW TD CONTACT ADVERTISING S SALES ADDHESS INQUIRIES TD: CEW ADVERTISING, 5S BEALE SI., 13IH FEDOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA S41DS: OR CALI (4151 3ST-S3S8, FAR [415) 351-4399. Computer Gaming World 6.0 F our months ago, the combined editorial might of Computer Gaming H/brid— which, when properly harnessed, has been known to make small children spontaneously burst into tears— locked themselves into a windowless conference room in the basement of the local Hyatt to talk about The Future. We came up with about 363 different ways to improve the look of the magazine. We laughed, we cried, we held hands, and we talked— a lot— about our hopes for a dreamy-looking CGW 6.0. And then we turned it all over to Art Dirertor Steve Wanezyk, and waited anxiously to see the results. Steve, to his credit, considered all of our ideas., .and then threw them out. You know why? Because editors have no aesthetic sense whatsoever. How are a group of guys who have the collective artistic mind of an almond going to make a magazine look better? To us editor- types, the most beautiful-looking story in the world is text with a stamp-sized screenshot. No, if Steve had listened to us, the new and improved version of Computer Gaming World ...editors have no aesthetic sense whatsoever. How are a group of guys who have the collective artistic mind of an almond going to make a magazine look better? Q magazine you now have in your hands would be neither new, nor improved. To Steve's credit, he has been extremely patient. When we talked about things like "white space" and "gutters" — words editors use when we have no idea what we’re talk- ing about — he shrugged his shoulders, smirked, and went back into his office. In fact, with the exception of that one time when he crushed Editorial Assistant Tom Price's head between the elevator doors, it was smooth sailing. For all the appealing aesthetic changes inside, our core mission is not changing one iota, In fact, with the addition of our Inside Gaming section, which offers opinions and analysis on all the major game genres, I hope you agree with me when I say that CGW is now even closer to our goal of being the ultimate, definitive word on PC gaming. Want to comment on the redesign? Interested in writing for CGW? Let George know at georgejones^'zd.com. LKd'J COMPUTER BAMINB WORLD • e g w. g a m e s p o t . c D m • OCTOBER 1999 23 .^'Sources from the depths of space, or try to sal- vage the wreckage of dereli9t and enemy vessels to add to your might. Choose . . . .w tions and attack tactics as you . send your Armada into battle. Understanding the strengths — and weaknesses — of each ship class is critical to crushing marauders in your path. 1'' 1999 Sicrrs On-Une, Inc. All'Highit flc^BivcdiSicf IS IN Jeopardy, ROM Home. W Kharak. a barren wasteland orbitting an insignificant star/ has been our . home for ages. It is a planet as old as our memory. . . ^ 1 recei^tog^^pV^^earch suggests that we are different from all other forms came the discovery: an ancient tablet long buried within the wreckage of a half- We mt^J'novV acKrrowlecigB.ti^ inescapable truth — we are alie.ns to this world. O'-*'' civilization on a path leading str^ht into / Construction began 60 years ago on the -^ji^ A . will carry thousands of our race into the - i ^ ' tfiiB' depth of space, our enemies await our return. X. / /_ begins now... / ' ^ ? '■ ^ Prepare to a^ust your strategy as you navigate your Armada through an infinite 3D battle- field where the enemy can attack from any point in space. Unparalleled ship detail and intense artificial intelligence bring each dogfight to life, as turrets track their targets inde- pendently and pilots adjust their flight tactics mid-battle. A range of vessels — from the offensive might of the Heavy Cruiser to the stealth technolo- gy of the Cloak Generator — is at your disposal as you journey to the heart of the galaxy. tMtsU'vd uaduoiaik ol Siviii OnUne. Inc. ftek i JOHNNY WILSON Count Geiger’s Blues It's About Time, Johnny Wilson! . 'H S ometimes, you have to take what Kierkegaard termed the "leap of faith.” Sometimes, for your own personal growth and satisfaction, you have to leap the chasm of the unknown - even though you don't know what awaits you on the other side. I've been writing for Computer Gaminff World for more than 17 years. I've done everything from pasting address labels on envelopes, man- ually entering Top 100 data into a spreadsheet, and clean- ing toilets to speaking around the world at conferences, on television, and on radio on behalf of CGW and computer entertainment. I've been privileged to visit the world's top designers in order to bring sneak previews and beliind-the- scenes stories. Most importantly, I've had a wonderful tenure in determining the editorial content of the world’s oldest and finest computer-game-specific magazine. With its founder, Russell Sipe, I helped to shepherd the magazine in your hand from 5,000 subscribers and about 15,000 readers in the early ‘SOs to its current status of over 300,000 paid readers. In the process, I saw the PC game industry move from square, blocky images of light on a black, amber or green screen to its current spectral panoply of color depth. I saw PC game marketing move from the days when Mom-and-Pop computer stores carried game disks and monochrome manuals in ziplock bags to the period where you can buy games in discount superstores. I saw the market broaden from predominantly wargamers and role-players to a variety where there is some- thing for everyone. touch. I can only say that I worked very hard to stay in touch with this industry and I never believed that I knew enough about it. I will still be learning about tliis industry until the doctor fills out the death certificate. I really do care. Perhaps, I care too much. I started writing for CGW as a gamer first and a writer second. I’ll leave CGW as a gamer. When I first met many designers, executives, and technicians in this industry, it was as a fan. I wrote about these people because they fas- cinated me, and I wanted to share them with all of you. I'll continue to be a fan. I wrote my sometimes pompous edito- rials because I’m a true believer in interactive entertain- ment, and I wanted to do what I could to make it better. Even as I leave the best pulpit in computer gamedom, I leave as a true believer. I recently read a marvelous science-fiction novel by ^ I was chastened by my own myopia and naivete, even as I admonished designers, executives and readers for their own lack of vision and understanding. 10 ••• F ew people laugh anymore when I talk about com- puter gaming becoming a mass market entertain- ment experience. Even though we’ve been through Round One and Round Two of the so-called media conver- gence, I think there are more rounds to go, and I don’t see as many eyes glazing over when I talk about the connected household of the future. We're headed for exciting times in online gaming, and I’m opting to become part of it. I'm stepping into a new position where I can serve on the boards of directors of companies who are making these exciting games, and I’m hoping that I can feel as much like a pioneer in the next generation of gaming as I felt like in the last. So, I’m leaving CGW, and I wanted to say a few words to all of you, including those of you who feel that I've cast aspersions on your favorite gaming genres, publishers, or designers, and those of you who felt that I was cramming an unwanted dose of pretentious, pedantic castor oil down your throats. To everyone who remembers my blunders or thinks I pontificated too much in these pages. I’d just like to say the following. There have been many times when I was chastened by my own myopia and naivete, even as I admonished designers, executives and readers for their own lack of vision and understanding. A lot of people over the years have believed that I was arrogant and out of Michael Bishop. Count Geiger's Blues is the story of a critic who becomes a hero, someone who becomes a doer instead of a commentator. At one point, the critic writes his farewell column to his readers. My eyes and throat went through the kind of emotional calisthenics that might cause onlookers to doubt my manliness. I determined that when I wrote my farewell column to you, I would use a portion of it. How I resonate with the sentiment expressed here! "But, most of all, I thank the would-he artists who strive to show us the rahihow, and the beholders among us who seek to see as rainbows the jury-rigged arches winched into view by their hopeful makers. Sometimes the noise is horrible. Sometimes the guy-ropes are harder to see than threads. Sometimes the sky is afire with color and light and passion. Sometimes... " Here's to all of the design teams that try to show us the rainbow. Sometimes, we can't see the colors for the clip- ping problems. Sometimes the frame rate seems like a PowerPoint presentation. Sometimes, we are swept into vir- tual worlds afire with conflict and love and passion that are seamless enough to make us forget our everyday problems and experience the ecstasy of victory. GAME OVER, MAN! Or maybe, this last column from the old geezer of computer gaming is just the beginning - for all of us. Johnny leaves us to become Publishing Director at Wizards of the Coast. We wish him the best. 2313 isponrsNETt 2ND I ISPOHTS WEH 2ND > NHLPA Authentic FOX Sports Net graphics-including FOX TRAX'" Addictive gameplay that's fast and fun Incredible goalie saves INTRODUCING THE NEWEST WAY TO PLAY HOCKEY SPORTS GAMES. FOX AniTUDE; foxsporls.com log on for more info, screenshots and downloads SPORTS miiiMmi ® Tittnlielh Cenluty FOX Film Cwp^lon. IS1999 Roditol Emedglnmeiit Lid. All Rlghlt Resenvd. "FOX," 'FOX Sporli,' 'FOX Sjwls Inlsniillit,' 'FOX Inltrodlva,' ‘Tmiillelh CmIu'V FOX' snd ihnV ouodoKd logoi oio irodomorks ond thi propoiti' of TtreoNelh Cenlury FOX Rim Coiporotioft. Noilonol Hodw; LoogiM Ployen' Asiorioilon, NHLPA ond NHLPA Logo oio Trademoih ol Ino NHLPA ond oio uiid. unooi Ifionio, by FOX Inloiodivo, Ini. Tbit produd li on OHiuollr Uitnio l^dud of Iho Noiionol Hocm Looguo Plortn' AiutioHon ono ibo Noiionol Hoduy Loogue. Wlnoom and the Windom logoi oit either regiileied Irademoib or liodemorki of Microiofi CorwroHon In the Unllod Stoles ono/si other lountilei. The rollngi kon li o Irooemoili ol the Interodne Oigitol Soltwoie Asudob'on. Monuladorei ond prinled In Iho ILIA. Lkeniod hr Sony Corporollon Enleitoinnienl Ameriio lor uie wilh the PloySlolion gome nniole. PfoyStelion ond the PloySlollon logoi ore tiodenorb ol Sony Compoler Enlertoinmenl Iol THIS SOFTWARE IS C0MPATI8LE WTIH lUTSTATION GAME CONSOLES WITH THE NTSC li/C OESIGNATION. Ui. AND FOREIGN PATENTS PENDING. VDJC Control where you want to go an^ MISSIONS YOU WILL FLY - DEVELOP A lj^ ENEMIES AS YOU MAKE CRUCIAL DE0J^ THAT WILL IMPACT THE OUTCOME^ 0^1 Experience furious space-fighter COMBAT WITH INNOVATIVE NEW WEAPONS INCLUDING RAIL-GUNS, BLAST TORPEDOES, REMOTE DETONATION MINES AND "WEAPONS OF LAST RESORT" Customize, upgrade and fly up to 1 0 DISTINCT FIGHTERS - EACH WITH ITS OWN COCKPIT AND UNIQUE COMBAT CHARACTERISTICS Fly cooperatively with other mercenaries 1 b’Jb'JS' You’re JAKE LOGAN; J SYSTEM. Framed by a powerful MEGAicliiRlmoN / you’ve got to rebuild your ship and your ufe by t1 ’Y'<%I$}IE MOST intense SPACE-COMBAT ADVEtSlffll Evi Download the demo ai trsdenaiks of MyiLagic. Ik All inwmiiuin prtpeity ot thtir i«pe I ol piDiJjci. Inigmd senvi mulled. Pigyei rtsponsiPle lot all appin LETTERS Thanks for the clarification. We received a ton of letters ask- ing us to cover your game. Call off the spamming campaign and we'll take a closer look in the next month or two. In the mean- time, interested gamers can peep at www.atriarch.com . Oni Baloney I n your August issue you state that the upcoming third-person-perspective game, ONI, sports “sharp anime style— inspired by Ghost in the Machine ...” I think not! G/iost in the Machine is a cyber thriller chroni- Atriarch’s Matriarch I 'm really excited to see ATRIARCH men- tioned in your magazine (August “Pipeline"). Unfortunately, none of the infor- mation is correct. The company name is World Fusion, and the release date has not been announced yet. ATRIARCH is a massively-multiplayer, online, persistent game based on an original science-fiction universe. It is currently in development. Thanks. Serafina, Lead Game Designer, World Fusion Bad Taste? I n your August issue, you repre- sented a five-star rating with a Three Musketeers bar, and a four-star rat- ing with a Snickers. How can you possibly prefer the limp and overall boring fla- vor of the former with the hardy nuttiness of the latter? I know when I need a chocolate fix, nothing satisfies like a Snickers. No, I don't work for Snickers; I’m simply a concerned reader who feels it is his duty to point out the grave lack of taste on the part of the individuals responsible for that section. For shame! Jason Rabin Montreal, Canada Most of us couldn't agree with you more. The indi- vidual responsible for the gaff has nougat lor brains. Which, to our surprise (and his!), we found quite yummy. W ith respect to the violence in gam- ing issue, I would first like to say that I don’t want to be anyone else's parent. As Charles Barkley once said, “I am not a role model. " However, I do believe that just to say that it is the par- ent's sole responsibil- ity to regulate what their children are watching or playing is a little naive. The point is that there are boundaries that most people would not like to cross. You can call these whatever you like-moral, ethical, political, religious, legal, whatever. It really doesn't matter what you call them, they do exist. If they didn’t, a game where the object was to push human beings into an oven in 1940 Germany and Poland would not be met with outrage. There are times when things go too far or are just plain wrong. It seems that in today's gaming world most publishers and developers are always trying to push that envelope. How violent can It be? How graphic can it be? How sexy can it be? How far can we go? Look, I don’t want to build a bridge. I don’t want to start a village. All I want is that maybe we should be trying to push that envelope in the other direction just a little. between game publishers, the gaming press, and game players. We're glad to get letters like yours and we encour- age others to write to us and to publishers. The publishers push the violence envelope because they think gamers want them to. Well, do you? Walk the Talk 1 am a long time reader and fan of CCW and find it unfortunate that the hypocrisy of your July issue requires comment. As Johnny Wilson notes in his eloquent editorial on violence and gaming, " CGW has advocated content labeling for all games since 1990." You also advocate the ESRB rating [actually, It's Tony Travers San Diego, CA We agree, Tony. The con- cept of parental responsibility does not free game publishers of their own responsibility. And game publishers can go too far. Deciding what “too far" means, though, is a really sticky matter. We do know that we don't want some entity in Washington making the call. And parents taking more inter- est in their childrens’ media consumption can only help matters. Ultimately, the best we can do is talk about the issue, to keep a constant dialogue i i...W % ouFoH^ liriBh fw' V- ' ‘ j'f..the most .ex'citini 9 out of 10! "...the real dearis and it's terrific." ' i .-l. I'we'eve is a tiile'tfiag^cels 9 out of 1 01 "This may bett best vehicular shooter evei best vehicular shooter eveili^^HBHnrap^d my wildest exp ★★★★l "...the game is nearly perfect." Edit’bl^ClfSfKe Gameoen NOW AVA LABLE Sponsored By: ■»»«ono jjfy Labtec. Purchase Interplay titles by February 29, 2000 and we’ll reward ^ ^ with hardware, accessories, and other cool stuff. / For more details see specially marked Interplay packages or visit us at: BYCA.'tEn.S.VORCAMKKS. ' WWW. interplay- CO m/mostiAfanted LETTERS the RSAC] approach because of its emphasis on evalu- ating the content of games. Bravo! I have enjoyed games that I felt are inappropriate for younger gamers, and feel that this is the correct approach to help par- ents monitor the content of the games for their chil- dren. I am also very aware that most individuals are able to play these violent games and enjoy them in context. The sick individuals who commit heinous crimes will do so whether the catalyst is a video game or 10 years working for the United States Postal Service. It is slightly different when discussing the adolescent psyche, however. In no way, though, should these games be baimed. The need for self regulation of the gaming community is articulated very well by Mr. Wilson. With that said, how the heck could your magazine package extremely violent crap like KINGPIN in your CGW July CD. There was no warning I could find, and this program is available to millions of children through your magazine. If any game needs an "R" rated label, it is this program. It is just not appropriate for younger gamers. Please be more careful in the future, and if you advocate content labeling try to practice it. With that said, off to play more HEROES HI. Colin Linehan Maryland Greaf point, Colin. As something of a "publisher'’ of game demos, we're just as responsible for content labeling as the game publishers are. We did include a warning with the KINGPIN demo, but it obviously wasn't prominent enough. We'll do better in the future. cling the story of a single mother tormented by the comput- erized ghost of a serial killer. This, to all of you who aren't animation fans, is known as a live action. The movie that inspired ONI is none other than Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell, based on the manga by Masamu Shirow. Although this small mistake is deemed trivial, I don't think that anyone should get credit for another person's success. Thus, I am quick to point out this mistake. Nathaniel Plain Can't Beat It I just finished playing the BEATDOWN demo from your July '99 issue, and it really stank! What sort of criteria do you use in selecting the demos that go into each issue? Josh We charge a buck a meg. Just kidding, it's two bucks. We allocate space on the disc based on gameplay quality, with preference towards interactive demos over non-interactive movies. But if we have extra space, we try to iiiclude every new demo we can get. Not all are winners, but that's the point of a demo, no? Vox Populi I 'd like to thank Loyd Case for his article on voice communication software (July, page 90). I am a fre- quent player of TEAM FORTRESS CLASSIC (ain't we all) and communication is the hardest thing about it. But, today I picked up Roger Wilco on the advice of a clan member. We played two hours straight, and it was pure bliss. It never broke up too heavily, but I did have to ask for a couple repeats because his voice was kind of muddy. But it was pure bliss. I’d like to thank you guys, and the folks at Resounding Technology, makers of Roger Wilco. Joey Garrison Madness In our Hot List 2000 feature last month, we mislabeled Electronic Ms’ NEED FOR SPEED: MOTOR CITY as NEED FOR SPEED: MOTOR CITY MADNESS. Clearly, a case of E3 psy- chosis. Also, In last month’s READ.ME Reality Check, we listed the C-Net GameCenter review ratings as having a 5-polnt scale. They use a 10-polnt scale. Contact the editors at cgwIetters(@zd.com. For subscription service questions, address changes or ordering information, call (303) 665-8930 within the U.S. and Canada or write cgw@neDdata.com. All other countries call (303) 604-7445 or write to Computer Gaming World, P.O. Box 57167, Boulder, CO BD322-7167.. The Ugly Truth J oystick and graphics accelerator card makers probably think that gamers are a bunch of idiots. Just look at the depiction of their product "users" of the joystick/soundcard/giaphics accelerator (choose one, they're all unoriginal) on the packaging. Most of the pictures show some doofus with his mouth open almost as if he's drooling and eyes look- ing real shocked at the screen. Some even show the gamer with hair standing on end as if electrocuted. What about the ones where the gamer just looks as if he's trying to stop himself from peeing in his pants. (Go ahead. Imagine the face you’d make.) Yes, all they want to do is sell their stuff and con- vey the excitement the product would bring. But they should come up with some original ideas. The mouth- wide-open depiction doesn't cut it anymore. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the packaging at your favorite games peripherals shop. This, however, does not apply to Thrustmaster which seems to have done the opposite and taken a laid back approach to marketing, right down to recommending other peo- ple’s programming utilities on their own Website. Furthermore, other people have come up with bet- ter utilities than Thrustmaster. Shame but they seem to be happy with that. But the pilot and plane pic- ture on their boxes is enough to tell you what a joy- stick does. Colin J. Smith Yeah, the bug-eyed gamer is getting a little old. But just think of the horror of a truth-in-advertising. approach. Or see a sample in this month's READ.ME. page 56. If you think ydu’ve figured it all out, think again. Parallel universes, virtual reincarnation Zen-like odysseys. It’s all new. It’s all Dnukron. Embark on a spiritual mission to save SOULS from the dark seductions of a decadent dimension.-- All without falling prey to countless temptations yourself. Adventure, exploration, combat and role-playing, and that continues to happen even after you die. Dmikron, is not just a great game. IT’s an experience It’s an out-of-sody experience. Omikron Nomad Soul is a trademark of Qunniic Dream S.A. © 1 999 Quanlic Dream S.A. EIDOS. EIDOS INTERACTIVE and EIDOS INTERACTIVE LO©dW^ registered trademarks ol Eidos Interactive Inc. © 1 999. Ail rights reserved. 'The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Soltware Ass.octatio^y. * / f . ill ’. 1 * EXCLUSIVE COLLECTORS’ EDITION THIEF CAPTURES TOP RATINGS l.OOKlNt] C I. A .S S, [SGAMER EDUDIIS' EDITORS’ CHOICE CHOICE www.lglass.com % Discover wity tkousands of gamers worldwide are silently sneaking tkrougk tke darkness. Journey tkrougk nigkt, as Garrett, a master tkief, cloaked m tke darkness of a sinister medieval realm wkere skadows are your only ally, trust is not an option, and confrontation can kring very grim results. Tkief Gold takes you keyond tke smask stealtk kit, Tkief: Tke Dark Project. Witk tkree treackerous new missions and fine-tuned gameplay, Tkief Gold delivers kreatktaking new levels of stalking, stealing and survival! A Beinare stepping into the light oj the Sun Room. M fl stealthy entrance is necessary f fo preuent a/erfing the guards. Thief Cold £> LooHInq Class Studios 1999. Thief and the LooklhQ Class logo are trademarks of Looking Glass Studios. Eidos Interactive Is a registered trademark of Eldos, Pic, IB 1999 Eldos, The ratings Icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All rights reserved. All other marks are property of their respective owners. IDOS. www.eidos.com It stArtcb S,000 vjCArs ^50. It’s som$ to ctit) now. Cam LArA Croft stop am AMcieMt cwfso frorn plnMsiMs the worte iMto MiA&MCSS? Get rcAbVj for Tomb KAi&er; The LASt RevelAtiOM. the epic A^vcMn^re with everijthiMS vjon’vc becM AsUiM5 for. SeAMilesslij iMtesrAte^ SAMieplAVj amO FMV seqMeMces for MOM-stop ActioM. KiDcr grApViics witVi sUm a*it> texture rnappins tViAt even brinss tbe tie^S eViaractcrs to life. Along witb SiAbolieeil new pureles ant> a toteilltj new inventorv) eontrol svjsteni tli*t make this tbe most inerefeible Tomb Kai&er ever. So while Lara matt baeU in Esvtpt, expeet the Last Revelation to take tjou to a place vjou’ve never been before. ICON YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE, YOU KNOW THE LEGEND... KEY FEATURES Real-time Strategy and 3-D tactical combat. Trade, Diplomacy and Resource Management. Entile terrain of England and Scotland accurately recreated from Satellite data! Night and day battles, weather eltects and seasonal variations. ‘ Epic battles in true 3D allowing you to tight at army level or close-in, man to man. Includes film footage and dialogue from the original film. THEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT THEY'LL NEVERTAKE OUR FREEDOM!” Based on Mel Gihsoii’s award-winning movie, Bravehcan ilie game lecreaies ihe atmosphere and excitement of Scotland’s legendary staiggle for freedom against the English invaders. Scotland NOW LIVE THE EPIC “EMULATES THE POWER AND FURY OF MEL GIBSON’S OSCAR-WINNING MOVIE." "WILLIAM WALLACE’S LEGACY TRANSCENDS THE MOVIE SCREEN.” NEXT GENERATION PC GAMER levels. 25 weapons. 4 time-warped worlds. 2 deadly sidekicks. Everything to feed an appetite for destruction and 30 used to your weapon, your enemy or even your notion of time. Once you do, you're bound to awake in a whole, iMIyaniolo, Superfly Johnson, and MikikoEbIhara are Irademaks of Ion Slorm. LP. ICAirt( 1 GOD 0200 Tomb Raider IV: The Last Rev. Core/Ektos 0399 Indiana Jones/lnlemal Machtno IrrcasArts qa 99 Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear Red Storm Ent 04 99 no Aclmsion 0399 Tribes 2 Siena Studios 0200 Jane's F/A-18 Jane's/ EA 04 99 Ullima Ascension Drigin/EA 0499 InM ClriSe rigM«l Nevakt^ 04 99 liSAF Jane's/EA 0399 Itmsr Cannon HicrDsott 0200 Vampire: The lAasguerade KbAistic/Activtsion 04 99 ^,a,f„r,pnnn EA Sports 04 99 Warlonk:ealtleciy SSG/SSI otoo Empire 04 99 WerewoH Qreamlorge/ASC Gaines 0499 1 Uotncnm Madness 2 Urcrrisolt QlOO Wheel of Time Legend/GT 04 99 NBA Inside Drive 2000 Wcrosolt 04 99 WHd, Wild West SouthPeak 04 99 Need lor Speed: Moior Cily Electronic Arts 04 99 %u Don't KnoviJack OlHina Beikeley Systems 0399 OCTOBER 1999 • c aw. n a m e spo t . ca m • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD RealMe PUYBACK The Month in Review By Miclieal Mullen, Samespot Nows Editor 3D Chip War Heats Up The now-seasonal war of graphic chips is bound to heat up again as nVidia offers more information on its NVIO chip. The chip may output three to five times as many triangles as a Pentium III, which outputs five million triangles. Looking to diversi- fy, nVidia has created the chip with the ability to output HDTV quality images. As we received word of what the NVIO could do, Silicon Graphics (SGI) announced that it had dropped a pending 3D graphics infringement suit against nVidia. Both companies have since licensed parts of each other’s 3D technolo- gies. To top it off. nVidia will be working with SGI to develop new 3D technologies. Sound fishy? Now that nVidia is the only independent developer in 3D graphics’ top-tier, allying itself with SGI could bear retail fruits soon. Expect 3dfx to vol- ley a return in September with the announcement of its Voodoo4 (code- named Napalm) chipset with 32-bit color and more memory. The Voodoo3 has been popular, but the current breed of TNT2 chips has caused many gamers to leap to nVidia's option for 32-bit instead of 3dfx’s 16-bit solution. Pouring Gasoline on the Piames 'Tis the season for controversy. Following on the bloody heels of Interplay’s ultra-violent KINGPIN comes Activision's equally ultra-vio- lent SOLDIER “HALO looks like it may biow the doors off anything graphicaliy” OF FORTUNE - a sure magnet for heavy mainstream press atten- tion. Graphically, the title looks very impres- sive atop the QUAKE II engine, with victims’ bodies performing “bullet dances" and losing limbs with unbe- lievable (and some would say too much) realism. A violence filter can help keep kids away from the game’s more gruesome aspects, but how the public and press deal with those gruesome aspects is some- thing that everyone in the industry will be watching closely. Blame it on EVERQUEST In the "please just finish if cate- gory, Westwood's COMMAND & CONQUER: TIBERIAN SUN remains in production with no release date. Almost five years have gone by since the last major showing of a C&C title, and gamers are begging for a release date. Rather than build a fully 3D C&C, Westwood has kept to the 2D basics and enhancing game- play. Will it be enough as other com- panies have blitzed through at least two generations of RTS titles? See our hands-on preview in this issue. In the same category, DIABLO II ads are running, but the title still has no firm release date other than "1999." Blizzard is known for tweak- ing its titles to death at times, but gamers have been less apt to com- plain since the release of STARCRAFT. Word has it that while the development team is tweaking the game, it has also been struck by the current ailment plaguing other game companies trying to finish their products: EVERQUEST. Bungle Strikes Again Bungie consistently pushes the envelope with its game designs (MARATHON, MYTH) and always sur- prises gamers with its visions of what games should be. Although the company began developing on the Macintosh, it has grown into one of the few companies to offer high-cal- iber hybrid games on the same CD, Its upcoming squad- based action power- house, Halo, looks like it may blow the doors off anything graphically. First shown to speechless editors behind closed doors at E3, Halo was finally unveiled to the pub- lic during Steve Jobs’ keynote address at the MacWorld Expo in Boston. Bungie developed the game on the PC first using OpenGL and then ported it over to the newer G3s. Considering the new G3 has the powerful ATI Rage 128 as its default card, the game should look astound- ing. HALO’S engine could be ripe for licensing out to other developers in the near future. The GOOD... PERFECT PAC MAN SCORE! We have a new hero. This July, Billy Mitchell, a 30-year-ald from Hollywood, Florida, accomplished the impossible: he got a periect score on Pac-Man - the first one ever. During a competition at an arcade in New Hampshire, Mitchell attained the maximum score of 3,333,360 points by playing through 256 screens without losing a single life. Mr. Mitchell: we bow down to you sir. Truly, we are not wor- thy. JAGGED ALLIANCE 2 AT LAST Those lucky Germans have been playing and raving about this turn- based tactical strategy game for months, but everyone else has been chomping at the bit while Sir-Tech worked out a publishing deal with TalonSoft. Now it's here, and it was worth the wait. Our real review is coming next month, but here's the the BAD... THRUSTMASTER BAILS OUT Another month, another monumental change for the gaming industry - and another acquisition by the French. Thrustmaster is selling its name and all its gaming controller assets to the France-based Guillemot Corporation for $15 million. Why gel out of a business in which they have played such a huge role for so long? Why else? To focus on Internet-based products. Sigh. Change: we don't like it. , and the UGLY... COPY PROTECTION WOES We understand the gaming companies' position. They don't want their games pirated. That's fair and good. However, some of the copy protection schemes we've seen lately have been an unbelievable pain in the neck for gamers to deal with - in the worst case scenario making it impossible to play the game. When no less than three experienced CGW editors can't gel a game to boot because of copy-protection glitch- es, you know something is wrong. Protect your software, but please make sure your protec- tion works! 47 Battlezone H" this fall. Screenshots courtesy of Pandemic Studios. The "KiLL-zanB” as saan bu a STandard asn dpi mnusa. © 1999 karna UC. All Rights Reserved, karna. the karna logo. Razer, the Razer logo, Boomsiang. and the Boomsiang logo are all trademarks of karna tic. All other trademarks or trade names art the property of their respective owners. MDUr d.P.z. [dead PLagar zndax] introducing the Razer" Boomslang". The ultimate control device for the ultimate gamer. Featuring over twice the dots per inch (dpi) of a standard mouse, an ergonomic hi-tech design, breakthrough technology, and other innovative features, the Razer edge is all a player needs to compete in today's toughest gaming arenas. So get the only mouse with the deadly accuracy of 1000 dpi (also available in 2000 dpi). And get ready to raze the body count. z e/R BOOn^LANG' The meusB luiTh killet insTincrs . □rder BxcL.u5iveLiyi via uiiuiii.razBrzDnB.cam nr cell TDLL-^rsB z.Bnn.razBrzDne [^.ann.Tas.anBs] EGO-SHREDDING DEKES Attention keepers: Prepare fora D-splittiny one-timing, twine-denting puck attack CYBER PRONGER 136 Opponents Assist^ Off,1ce^,..... 460 BONE-THUMPING HITS Throw your weight, and your opponeuii all over the ice. Not to mention the intenwi 1 www.easports.com Read.Me Lara Goes Fourth Get Ready for More Polygonal Jiggle C oj-p T)'=^qiqn ’■'pp p'anc fpr ^ fourth TOM? R.-.ii'B;K psinu' Called THF LAST RRVF' ATI^iN. it wi'' he sot in Fnynt and s^es I ara. unwit tingly unleashing a terrifying force when she opens a prev’onsly unexplored tomb. Based on ancient mythology and the alignment of stars at the millennium, the story will take Lara through a series of Egyptian locations and pit her against a host of native and mythological enemies. As predicted, THE LAST REVELATION will employ a new game engine, and for the first time there will be a dedicated PC version that will not be constrained by the limitations of the Sony PlayStation. The PC version will make use of hardware- specific features, thus ensuring that it will look iip-tn-date, techno''^gy-wise. To add to the atmosphere, lighting effects such as spotlighting have been added, and surfaces can now reflect and react to light sources. Locations and enerpies will be a lot more detailed, while Lara herself has been remodeled and given a whole range of new moves that will be central to solving the puzxles a^d avoiding traps. Unlike TOMB RAIDER Til, which was made up of five separate adventures, THE LAST REVELATION will focus on a single objective, and while the plot will contain several unexpected twists, your goal will always he in sight. Another key difference is that the game will be based entirely in Egypt instead of tak- ing place in different locations throughout the world. While it should No Lara for Playboy A nd now, In the ' Irony Deportment, we Dnd Eidos getting upset about the exploitation of Lara Croft’s body. In luly, Eirins succeeded In injuncting Playboy magazine in the U.K. from print- ing the brand names Lara Croft" and "Tomb Haider" on the cover of the maga- zine, which features ex-lara model Nell McAndrew in a nude photo spread The ml- ing required Playboy \o stick- er covers already printed that contained the name and logo. McAndrew’s contract with Eidos finished in April this year and she has no current associations with the TOMB RAIDER brand. Good for Eidos! We wouldn’t want impression- able gamers to get the wrong idea of what that wholesome female role model is all about, now would we? take a comparable amount of time to complete as its predecessors, individual locations will be smaller and tighter to convey the claustrophobic atmosphere of the tomb, and there will be less time spent travelling between areas. "The philosophy behind THE LAST REVELATION is much more akin to the first game in terms of its puzzle mechanics, ancient locations and atmosphete,” said Core Design’s operations director Adrian Smith, "In some ways, THE LAST REVELATION is a prequel to the trilogy, but the tpchni'^al advances will make it far more detailed and atmospheric.” The inventory system has been completely redesigned. The familiar invontory rings have gone to make way for a new system in which objects can be combined, collected and stored. Accessing the inventory will also enable you to read Lara’s diary (which will hopefully be full of hint.s and tips rather than how much she weighs and whether her boyfriend called or not) and a loca- tion map that will help you find your way through the tombs and labyrinths.--A/an Dykes Reality Check We here at CGWacceptthe fact that we are part of the larger computer gaming community. And like all communities, differing opinions circulate within. Some are sensible, rational and well considered (like ours) and some are completely wonked (like anyone who disagrees with us). Here's the latest roundup of 10 recent games and their corresponding review scores from the major gaming mags and Web sites. All scores use each pub's own scoring system. ■ Yellow indicates an editors' choice game CGW PC Gamer CG Stjat+ PC Accelerator Game^ot Gamecenter OCTOBER 1999 • iin • COMPUTER G A M I N ti WORID CRIME 'kATE'50%. Darkness falls over the city. Not the kind of darkness that comes wit the absence of light, but rather the absence of good. And while many; prepare to naively celebrate the new millennium, a small mysterious cult, known as "The Fallen", prepares to fulfill the dark promise of an evil prophecy. Yet, left standing between these "Fallen" ones is a rookie cop and a disillusioned ex-cop. One woman. . .one man. . .one goal. . .survival- Good cop or ex-cop? The choice is yours as either the youthtut, hand-to-hand combat super-steuth, Otttcer D’Arci, or disgruntled, street-smart weapons expert, Rnper McIntyre. Explore and interact with anything and everything, as you carry out your objectives across 27 mission-based levels, within a 200x200 block cityscape. nisi URBAN CHAOS rutal street lighting awaits on the Union City streets, with intense hand-to-hand martial arts comhat, vehicle chases and drive by shootings, and desperate automatic gun shootouts in dark alleys. Read.Me I CGW DESIGNER PROFILE IR the “HOW THINGS REALLY ARE” Category... ...we present to you the registration page from Hasbro Interactive ( www.hasbro.CQm i. Notice the perfect complexions of the ‘'gamers." Notice the happy, joyful experience they have playing a game (a Hasbro game, of course). Notice the nice threads and the fact that the two guys are actually interacting with women. Well, we at CGW felt the ad didn’t quite rep- resent what we consider a "typical" gaming experience, so we went out and found a few "models” of our own to present a sadder, but far truer, picture of the situation. He’s 24 and the CEO of Relic, Makers of HDMEWORLD. Lucky Bastard. . . Alex Garden Q. You know the drill. A. Alex Garden, CEO of Relic Entertainment, makers of the upcoming HOMEWORLD. Q. CEO, eh? What is it you actually do? A. Glad you asked. I'm in charge of three things: Creative direction (working with the programmers and artists), press relations, and business development issues. Q. What's it like being the CEO of a 40-person company at the age of 24? A. It's great. Much better than being an unemployed CEO at the age of 24. Besides, I feel like I'm 50. Q. You like fast cars and motorcycles. Any scary moments? A. Yeah, I bought a '98 Honda CBR 900, and the first week I had it, I wasn't used to the power. I took a curve and saw a pothole and swerved to avoid it, and just then a car appeared out of nowhere. I had to go off road and almost laid the bike down in a patch of gravel. Glad I have those RTS reflexes. I hate to think what would have happened if HOMEWORLD was turn-based! Q. Speaking of HOMEWORLD, what was the inspiration for it? A. I was having a conversation with a bunch of friends about games, and suddenly it flashed in my mind how to make a convincing 3D world in a flat 2D monitor. I left Electronic Arts and founded Relic, and we had the basic engine banged out in a month and a half. The rest of the time we've spent working on the "details." Q. Was it always called HOMEWORLD? A. The original code name was "Spaghetti Ball." We like HOMEWORLD better. Any other game company is welcome to use "Spaghetti Ball." We release it to the public domain. Q. What are some of your favorite games? A. TWINSEN’S ODYSSEY, FALLOUT, and TOTAL ANNIHILATION are some. Believe it or not, I also love SOLITAtRE-there's a mystique about that game. Q. You've been working in the game industry since you were 15. How did you swing that? A. When I was 15 I saw a guy pull up in a black Lamborghini Diablo. He was Don Mattrick, then President of Disdnetive Software (now with EA). I told him I wanted to do whatever it was he was doing. We talked a bit and he told me to contact him in a couple of years. I went home that night and cooked up a bogus resume and had it delivered to his desk the next day. He hired me as a part-time summer tester. That was where I met Chris Taylor of TOTAL ANNIHILATION fame. Since then Don and Chris have been my respective business and creative mentors. Q. HOMEWORLD is in the homestretch. Are you going to Disneyworld when it's finished? A. Actually, I think I'll just go to bed. Featuring Kovalogic’s VOIGS-OVSR-NST"- If you’re typing, you’re The OIJTjY game with the Voxel Space® 52 engine that allows you to t interact with your environment - CONCSAL yourseli in deep grass, XAK in hillside crags and TARGST enemies over a kilometer away. Plui NSW weapons, equipment, story-based Take control wi-fch tbe new large-Scale Multi-play missions and weather effects like COMMANDER’S SCREEN to 50 PLAYERS rain, wind & fog www.novaloglc.com Large & Loud Internet Gaming DSAD! 'Jt 999 Hovtloglc. Inc. Vg»i 5(u». NsvaLofn; ml tut MnLsgic logo jio legisioHl iiMtiKj'k] M OeU font. Dtii Font lojo. Voiu-Ovn i NonWoilo. He KoviWoiiO logo ind NoviLogiO - TM An ol Wii ve Itigtmns ol Nostlogc. lot Mi ototi vuiinirtt ve piopeir/ ol uku iesii«l w ruewM mwM And then there's the Squad Manager, the most innovative chunk of interface I’ve seen in the genre. You know how most real-time strat games allow you to create squads by drag-selecfinq a nrnup of units anr] Night and Day An extra touch that makes DARK REIGN 2 feel like a real, living 3D world, rather than a two-dimensional map that’s had some three-dimen- sional air blown into it. is the pres- -v'-r. ~,f Hnv -rnH ninbt nyclps in the 'I'cadiaii cvc’?'. 5 THINGS scRiad'.’ -iiientiv from this interface. If you want to order your second squadron to explore their sur- rounding area, click on their but- ton on the right side of the screen and issue the appropriate orders; and- -while you're at it— set their tenacity level and check their health, without even moving to their location. The real kicker is the unit AI in DARK REIGN 2, and it's too early to tell how this will pan out. Subpar pathfinding intelligence wOl render this feature useless. But if the AI comes through at the level the designers are shoot- ing for, the Squad Manager wUl allow real-time strategy gamers the ulti- mate luxury -the ability to easily fight battles on multiple fronts. Five Multiple Game Variants in DARK REIGN 2 1. Capture the Flag: Each player has a flag they 'must |fro- tect. Lose your fly and you’re out. : 2. Kihg of tte^HIJI: The first player to get to the top of a ^ hlil in the center of the map and con- trol it for four minutes wins. 3. Co-op Play: i Several piayers cohtrot the same base ' and fight against another team of humans, or work together as one targe team against a massive com- puter opponent You'lt atso he abte to ptay through the singte-piayer game , in this mode. 1 4. Blobd Bath; 8 me fir^ player to pick up 100 kitls ~ wins. 5. Control Freak: g There are a numfaer'^ne§f^^^SSH^ out around the map. The first player to control all of these regions at the same time wins. are used to give special abilities to units. The Sprawler's Sub unit (a sniping ground unit used to spending time underground) will have better range and accuracy in the evening hours, and will be able to use a Sniper rifle. Similar is the JDA's Watchman unit, a walking robot with a Seeing Eye weapon that can increase the nighttime line of sight for all JDA units. Depending on the mission type and scale, day and night will cycle period- ically at a varying rate throughout the game. Epic battles will see many moons pass, while shorter, more task- oriented missions may take place during the night entirely. Are RTS gamers ready to embrace the 3D future? We’ll find out in November, when DARK REIGN 2 com- petes directly with the two biggest real-time games in the genre, AGE OF EMPIRES 2 and COMMAND & CONQUER: TIBERIAN SUN, both of which are rooted in the two-dimen- sional world. Lirt'J To Get Access To Military Intelligence Like We Do, You'd Have To Be A Spy Jane’s games give you the real insider’s experience because our information comes straight from the inside. Inside the Pentagon. Inside military bases. And inside the most respected military authority for over 100 years, the Jane’s Information Group.That means you experience every detail of real military scenarios, with the most authentic hardware at your disposal. In fact since 1995, Jane’s has won more awards for simulafion games fhan anyone else. So check ouf our newest military simulation, USAF. And find ouf how if feels to master eight of the hottest planes in the U.S. Air Force — without doing anything illegal. Games for the military mind. 6 1090 Eleclionic Arts. All fights leseivoci. June's is aieglstoredltademiiik ol Jana's Inloinmlion Group Ltd Rofflionco woik trom Jane's Library C 1990 Jane's Inlarmation Group Lid Jana's Combat Simulations is an Electronir Aits"' In ami The terms USAF and U.S. Air Force do not imply Air Force endorsement of the product. CiaiiK's for tlic miliuiiy mind. www.Janes.ea.com EIGHT PLANES. ONE PILOT. ONE DESTINY. Experience the life of a real fighter pilot as you fly the hottest planes in the U.S. Air Force. Track your progress through actual missions from Vietnam to Desert Storm — and future campaigns over Germany and the U.S. as you rise through the ranks. Then you can rank yourself against the best on the "Kill &. Compare” board on the Jane's Combat Simulations web site. Using official USAF Red Flag training curriculum, it's the closest you'll get to actually flying for the U.S, Air Force. The planes are ready. And waiting for the one who can master them all — you. FLYTHROUOH ULTRA-DETAILED TERRAIN. The Grand Canyon, Vietnam, Germany and Iraq, all rendered using precise stereoscopic satellite data. PREVIEW by Chris Lombardi Like Walt. I Wish I Could Be Like Walt. I n my real life, the distinction between work and fun is easy to make. Getting Jeff Green to turn in Ms articles: work. LauncMng pointy projectiles at Jeff Green with the Cavedog catapult tchotchke: fun. But in my gaming life, this distinc- tion isn’t so clear, especially when we're talking about a typical "builder" game like Maxis' SIMCITY or Bulldog's original THEME PARK. Building a gorgeous city of my dreams and then setting it aflame; clearly, a blast. But laying 12 miles of sewer pipe? Building my own theme park from the ground up, designing roller coasters, and watching little computer kiddies romp: a good time. Ordering supplies for my concession stands and cleaning up the vomit of queasy kids? This is entertainment software, right? Designing these games well is a real challenge. You want a game that offers enough flexibility and depth to engage the player's creativity, but not a game that gets bogged down in details and monotonous activity. You want fun work, recreational labor, the joy of creation without the pain. The team behind Bullfrog's THEME PARK WORLD has been plugging away at this fun-work equation for many years now. In addition to the original THEME PARK, they've done THEME HOSPITAL and THEME AQUARIUM (released in Japan). For their next project, THEME PARK WORLD, they've taken all they’ve learned and created a game that nails the work-play balance to the wall. THEME PARK WORLD is pure game-design gold. Or, in this case, a gold ticket. Midas Touch The gold ticket is what you’re after in this completely remodeled game, the reward you earn for designing a park well and the pass key to more of the game’s features. THEME PARK WORLD offers four different motifs for your park design palette: Space, Halloween, Lost World (19th-century explorers and natives), and a "land of the giants" theme right out of Honey, I Shrunk the JQds. Succeed with one motif and you earn a gold ticket and the right to move to the next. Success in park construction is measured in various ways. There's the thrill factor, of course: Do you have a variety of rides to keep your patrons on a constant adrenaline Mgh? Do your coasters keep them screaming? There are practical con- cerns: Do you have enough potties cuid trash cans, and are they accessi- ble yet tastefully tucked away from view? There's the value equation: Do your patrons feel they’re getting their ^Ordering supplies for my concession stands cleaning up the vomit of queasy kids? This is entertainment software, right? ^ and PREVIEW 5 THIIMGS Five Worst Headaches of the Park Proprietor 1) Bad Weather Visually, stunning. Hnancially, crippling. 2) Those Damn Unions You've got to keep your employ- ees happy. If you don’t, they'll strike and picket your entrance. And there's nothing worse for business than your Dinky the Dinosaur mascot spitting on scabs In front of the kiddies. 3) Ruffians Bored troublemakers will hassle other kids and knock over your entertainers. Security guards and cameras may help. 4) Broken Rides Nothing's sadder than a Bouncy Dino that's lost his boing. All rides have life spans that can be extended through research, Investment, and maintenance. S) An Empty Park The price has to be right for the quality of your park or the kid- dies won’t show. Nothing's sad- der than a Bouncy Dino with no one to boing. dollar’s worth from your burgers, balloons, and stuffed ani- mals? And then there’s the bottom line: Are you raking in enough dough to finance your R&D and pay your staff of entertainers, maintenance workers, and ride engineers? As in ail builder games, you must juggle all of these concerns at once, along with the crises that invariably arise. Fortunately, you've got lots of help. First, there’s a little “assistant” guy, a cross between the Microsoft Office paper clip and Marvin the Martian, who pops up to teach you about new game fea- tures and to help you troubleshoot your park’s problems. And if you don't want to deal with every last detail of park administration, you can play the game in a sim- plified mode that elimi- nates a great deal of the economic and manage- ment concerns. Even more helpful is the interface itself. If you played the original THEME PARK, you know what a nightmare of poor design and option overload it was. Fortunately, Bulldog has learned a thing or two. In place of endless menus and windows, you have a slick little interface widget that sits in the corner of the screen and expands and contracts to display your options. It’s very slick, facile, and helpful. Setting the dozens of simulation variables — ride duration and speed, food prices, balloon quality, staff training, security level, and so on — is handled with simple slider bars. In addition. Bullfrog has trimmed away some of the tedious and uninteresting game elements from the original THEME PARK design — features like ordering supplies for your concessions, the senseless stock market simulation, and the abstracted competition with other parks. But the best part of the interface is the roller-coaster design component. No advanced editor is needed to build your coasters; just find a free space for the next track sup- port pylon and plop it down. With just a keypress or two, you can raise or lower the track elevation and add twists, banks, and turns. Advanced track segments like loops and corkscrews must be researched by your engineers, but once in your design repertoire, they can be added to your coaster with a click of the mouse. You can have a function- ing coaster in minutes. Of course, building a good coaster that gracefully wends its way through your park will take some time, experimentation, and testing. Testing your coaster is definitely the coolest aspect of THEME PARK WORLD, because you can get into the car and ride the coaster in a nauseat- ing first-person perspec- tive. In fact, you can ride every ride in first-person, watching the world spin on a coaster corkscrew or bouncing up and down with the other brats on the Bouncy Dino. It was all in my head, of course, but I swear I could feel my stomach torque as I hit the bottom of a large coaster dip. You can also just wander the park at will, getting lost in the sea of happy little faces. You’ll feel like Walt walk- ing hand in hand with Mickey down Main Street. The Happiest Place in Cyberspace Half the pleasure of creation is the act itself, and half is sharing your work with others. Communities of players have spontaneously formed on the Net around many builder games, but Bullfrog is not going to leave this to fate. They will actively support the player community with a THEME PARK WORLD Web Site that will be the place to go to share your parks with other players. You can upload and down- load parks, stroll around in other people's worlds, and then vote on the best designs. You can even create postcards featuring scenes from your park, and email them to friends without leaving the game. Prizes will be awarded for the best overall designs, the best coasters, the parks with the most visitors, and the most prolific designers. Bullfrog plans to release new themes and rides online, and may even publish their ride design tools so that dedi- cated players can get even more creative. The exact details of the design tool plan are vague as yet. which worries us, since we’ve seen these kinds of after-the-game promises fall through again and again. But all we can do is hope (and send plenty of pleading postcards to the game designers). Knockout graphics, painless interface, online support, and a design that’s up with the fun stuff and down with the tedium: Bullfrog has a builder game here against which all others will be compared. How your park com- pares to others remains to be seen. Show me yours, and I'U show you mine. "•..the ghouls overwhelmed the herOf clubbing him with.;their own severed limbs bei'ore feasting on his guts. And that was right about the time we knew we couldn't wait to play Nocturne^ This game will be causing some hellacious nightmares, later this year." - Computer Gaming World j - Adrenaline Vault It is 193? I and in the shado^red world around y exists an ungodly evils Yi'crav/olves, vampires, and i'losh-catlng zombies that wait just outside light's unlocked door to i'eed upon innocence. There also exist guardians oi the good and just, tireloso vigilantes capable oi tracking down this evil and turning it upon itsoli. You are one oi them. And hunt, as your vile quarry does, by night. ^ of Uf'J-feAi.HED hallows €N 1999 "It is unforgettable, astonishing, and teeming with riveting visual realism. Vet behind the rich lighting and gossamer fog is a timeless sense of adventure. This is gaming at its best. 4 WARtUNG! Thi|.game contains strong scenes animated violence, ianguage and nudi Suitable for mature audiences only. Clone Princes Beware — The Original Swashbuckler t Is Back and Better Than Ever RW5!!I!BCTB!^S^M PREVIEW Prince of Persia 3D ^ The Prince franchise has grown from a sidescroller to a full-hlown 3D extravaganza ^ I f Red Orb's smart, they’ll ship PRINCE OF PERSIA 3D with a complimentary pair of steel-toed shoes. That way they won't be liable for the broken toes resulting from gamers' jaws dropping as they ogle the drop-dead gorgeous graphics, the richly imagined envi- GENRE: Aclipn/Atlveiiture RELEASE DATE: 03 ‘39 DEVELOPER/ PUBLISHER: Red Drli Entertainment COMTACT: www.mindscape.cam ronments, and animation so incredi- bly fluid that it should set a new standard in the third-person action/adventure genre. As for what will almost assuredly be insanely addictive gameplay, well, there's always methadone. The PRINCE franchise has grown from a simple sidescroller to a full-blown 3D extravagan- za, with a corresponding growth in the design team. About 25 artists, animators, and level designers are working on the title, a far cry from the creative “army" responsible for every aspect of the landmark 1989 game: one-man band Jordan Mechner. While having the input of so many creative voices has its obvious bene- fits, the danger is in losing the singular vision that enchanted gamers 10 years ago. Fortunately, that does- n’t seem to be the case as PRINCE 3D is blossoming into one of the most fully realized gameworlds burned onto a CD-ROM. Magic Carpet Ride And what a gameworld it is, taking place across seven sweeping envi- ronments, all of them beautifully lit and painted in a wash of almost impossibly saturated colors. As the beggar prince, gamers will scamper across starlit city rooftops, execute harrowing jumps over a series of jagged cliffs, and escape from a dank prison. Great stuff to be sure, but what promises to be the game’s real showstoppers are the dirigible levels in which the prince must tenuously work his way up a palatial airship borne by three mammoth balloons, negotiating the dizzying assortment of ledges, tethers, and whirligigs while the dirigible whizzes along at a heart-stopping alti- tude. No less striking is the game's animation. While a gymnast was liiiiliiiiw YOU WONT Bl 3 Racing Modes - Beginner, Intermediate, Full Racing Simulation Mode Racing Season Career, From Rookie To Pro Rider Automatic On-Line Update Detection And Download, New Versions & Features Roger Wilco'Voice Communication ICQ Messaging Suite Tuning Screens For Suspension And Transmissions Variable Weather Including Humidity And Wind (Changes Bike Performance) 3-D Accelerated Graphics 3-D Adjustable Audio 9 Different Camera Views Practice Tracks - Practice On A Track Prior To Entering A Race WWW.MOTORSIMS.COM "Aims to take the Superbike racing scene to a new ievel." ~ Games.net The physics are real. The AMA tracks are real. The chassis tuning and engine setup are real. The feedback from your bike is real. The skills you need to win are real. The competition Is real. "A total focus on realism. . . "A very true-to-llfe physics race fans had bettor keep their eyes on this." model and all of the elements you - Next Generation Online would find In an AMA event." - PC Gamer \ System requirements: Pentium II and 3-D accelerator card required. Your pupils are about to dilate. Your knuckles are about to turn white. Your pores are about to rain. Your heart is about to machine gun. Your body Is about to get Intimate with the asphalt at 160 mph. You are about to enter the world of AMA Superbike racing. Call 1-888-33-MOTOR or visit www.motorsims.com to order direct. Also available in retail software stores. E NEEDING IT. 1. Customizable Rider Leathers And Helmet 2. Tires Grip, Slide And Skid Linder Power And Braking 3. Changeable Dual Side Tire Compounds 4. Model-Specific Sounds For Each Bike 5. Rider Lean And Seat Position Affect Turn Performance, Lift And Drag 6. Wheelies And Stopples Controlled With Rider Power And Braking PREVIEW 5 THIIXIGS Five Best Finishing Moves in PRINCE OF PERSIA 3D 1. TTie Backhand Plunge The prince slashes his enemy with his sword and then, turning away from his opponent, drives the blade with a back- hand move into his gut. 2. The Neck IWister The prince wraps his staff around his opponent's neck, turns, and shakes the guy ilke a rag doll until things start snapping. 3. The Tear With the double blades, the prince stabs both blades Into his opponent, gives them a little twist, then tears them apart. 4. The Chest Thrust The prince tosses his sword in the air, catches it, and drives it down into his opponent’s rib cage. Then, in a very nice animation touch, he has to brace his foot on the guy in order to pull his sword out again. 5. The Back Skewer The prince spins toward his opponent, hitting him multiple times with the staff in the process, and finally smacks it into the base of his spine with a satisfying snap. motion-captured executing various moves, none of that motion capture is being directly used in the game; instead, it’s being employed as a tem- plate for the Prince's actions. This lets the designers create a charaaer who moves realistically— turning by lead- ing with his head, for example— but also with the flair and embellislrment that are inherent in traditional anima- tion, The end result is a character who can leap with incredible realism while enjoying the incredible imreal- ism of a five-foot vertical jump. The combination of gameworld and animation really shine in the comljat sequences. The prince wOl have four weapons, including tliree close-com- bat weapons (sword, staff, and dou- ble blades) and a bow. The control scheme is remarkably simple, espe- cially for a game that stresses the strategy of sword fighting over sim- ple twitch ability. Gamers will have to pick the appropriate weapon, then sculpt attacks, feints, and blocks into a piece of strategic combat art. Each combat weapon has comlros to learn and each also features up to five dif- ferent finishing moves (see sidebar). The exception to this rule is the game's only long-range weapon: the bow. But while it has no combos or finishing moves, tlie bow does have an arsenal of nine magical arrows at its disposal. The Water Freezing arrow, the Blue Fire arrow, and the Lifestealer are not only weapons but also keys to solving puzzles. The Charmed Lights arrow has no offensive capabUities at all, but it can be used to draw the attention of enemies, allowing you to sneak past them. Arabian Knights Picking up where the last game left off, PRINCE OF PERSIA 3D ojDens with the Prince's new bride being kid- napped by the evil Hassan in order to marry her off to his corrupt son Ragnor. Thrown in prison, the prince must escape and, of course, rescue Iris love. True to the spirit of the series, the prince starts out unarmed and must find a weapon wliile dodging tire diabolical traps that fUl the game. You’ll never be stumbling blindly through the levels; be it through brief cut-scenes or other clues, you'll always have an idea where you Jieed to go and roughly what you'll need to do to get there. This approach carries over to the trap design as well; while there are loads of hazards like guillotine doors, decapitating blades that spring from walls, and pillars that suddenly drive up from the floor to impale you on spikes set in the ceiling, the cautious player can pick up clues to avoid the traps. It's a happy break from the school of game design that alerts you to trap location by killing you. There is no inventory system, though there are items such as keys that must be found and used. But instead of forcing you to fumble through an inventory screen to use the key, the game will know that you have it and just unlock the door. The only drawback we see to the lack of inventory is in the handling of the ):otions. These magical elbdrs i^epper the gameworld and give the gamer temporary powers such as camouflage, featherfall, and increased attack power. While these will most liitely be placed right where gamers will most need them, the inability to carry healing potions for later use could rankle some gamers. It's the only potential wea k poin t in a game we are frankly dying to play. LK-lVi 76 IF YOUR HEART ISN’T RACING BY CHECK TO SEE IF IT’S BEATING Download real-time weather conditions EKperience visually rich 3-D scenery The Concorde It flies at Mach 2. It levels out at 50,000 feet. It’s 350,000 pounds. It’s yours to pilot. Land in 20,000 airports worldwide 40RV Bell Helicopter FlightSafety www.microsoft.cam/games/fslm ZONE Microsoft ACRosme PREVIEW Raven Pushes Gaming Violence and the Quake 2 Engine to Extremes by Thierry Nguyen G EHR E: 3D Ac tion RELEASE DATE: Qa ‘99 PUBLISHER: Activision DEVELOPER: Raven Software the thigh, and could actually see the shattered bone stump sticking out. In deference to the current controversy over violence in gaming, Raven will include a special parental lock. At press time, they were still deciding whether the lock will be “all or noth- ing" or have gradual settings. At its maximum setting there is no blood, dismemberment or screaming, result- ing in enemies literally rolling over and dying. Also, there will be civilians in some of these missions, and you will automatically lose if you acciden- tally shoot one. The weapons list includes several standard real-world weapons that you’ve seen in countless magazines and movies. At press time, there are some licensing issues with the names of the guns, so while you may not be officially using, say, the Desert Eagle, you’ll be using a differently-named gun with similar characteristics. Also in your arsenal will be two AI merce- naries who will provide support in key missions. Multiple Ways to Flay For multiplayer, Raven is thinking of adding a variety of new game types to stand beside traditional deathmatch. There’s Assassin, where every player is given a specific player to kill, and upon success is given a different play- er, until everyone in the game has been fragged. There's also Arsenal, where the winner is the first person to score a frag with every weapon (no more rocket hogs). While SOF may have deviated from the original design concept (as report- ed in April), it still looks like a very solid game. It’s a direct foil to the mili- tary sims featured in our cover story, but if you're craving some hard-boiled, movie-style military action— and have the stomach for extreme gore— look for SOLDIER OF FORTUNE w hen it hits shelves this November. SHU H ard as it may seem, it is entirely possible to switch from a medieval fantasy theme to pulse-pounding action. Paul Verhoeven went from the obscure Flesh & Blood to Total Recall and man- aged just fine. The Raven development house has done a spells-for-guns exchange program in their shift from HERETIC II to SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (SOF), all while hoping to retain the same fast-paced gameplay that first- person shooter fans are looking for. SOF casts you as John Mullin, the real-life mercenary consultant from Soldier of Fortune magazine. The exact plot details are still being worked out, but essentially, you’ll be hopping around various hotspots— Iraq, Siberia, Kosovo, New York?— to take on terrorists. Raven is going for the feel of a blockbuster mili- tary action movie like The Bock or Wavy SEALS, and the focus of the gameplay is the fast- paced firelight. Mullin consult- ed on the project to make sure the tactics of the enemy oppo- nents and the general feel of the game were accurate, so expect high risk (one or two shots can kill both you and your enemies) and fast and furious gunplay. The various lev- els will have different mission goals, ranging from sneaky assassinations to balls-out showdowns. Just a Flesh Wound The character design is the most drastic improvement Raven has made on the QUAKE II engine. Just because you’re fighting other humans doesn’t mean you'll be fighting endless armies of clones, as in WOLFENSTEIN 3D or even HALF-LIFE. The character body type will be the same, but there are a variety of different clothes, weapons and faces to differentiate the enemies. What really makes the ene- mies stand out are the injury and ani- mation systems. Wound location is modeled to an uncomfortably accurate degree. Not only can you individually target body parts, but the hit location system even allows you to shoot between an enemy’s legs. For the character animations. Raven has motion-captured sequences for each wound location; hit someone in the neck, and he’ll clutch the wound in agony, or go for a groin shot to watch him writhe in misery. The wound modeling and animation will surely be controversial. Even I was shocked the first time I saw a shot that severed an enemy’s leg at Soldier of Fortune ^^^f~0CTaBER 1999 • cgw.game 9 pat.e 0 m • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD Prepare. •“SW ' TKc action is fierce. Tlic wor U is AAi^lu and A4af^ic. Cotnin 3 soon lo your PC-. naySlallon ESRn K[w w^Ria eaupuTm © 1999 The 3D0 Company. All Rights Reserved. Crusaders of Might and Magic, Might and Magic. New World Computing, 3D0, and their respective logos, are trademarks and/or service marks of The 3D0 Company in the U.S. and other countries. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. New World Computing is a division of The 3D0 Company. www.niighianJiiiii^ic.atin PREVIEW SSG's Turn-Based War-horse Gallops Into the World of Realtime by Robert Coffey Warlords: Battlecry 5 THIIMGS Five Other Fantasy Strategy Games Worth Checking Out 1. HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC II and Hi 2. MASTER OF MAGIC 3. DUNGEON KEEPER 2 4. FANTASY GENERAL 5. MAGIC & MAYHEM KNOW THYSELF This guy greets you before every BATTLECRY cam- paign. You begin by deciding on a hero character to lead your troops. Gameplay will be influenced heavily by the attributes and abilities of the hero you create. RENREr Strategy HEIFASF DATE: DUfllL PUBUSHEB: Rert flrh Fnleriainment ntlNTART: vavw rednrh cnm spells after battle, adding another strategic level to gameplay. Do you go for that nifty ice spell, or pump up your charisma for a morale bonus? With all the options players will have, experience points are bound to be precious. Happily, SSG is using the quest feature from the turn- based games in BATTLECRY. This will let gamers go on subquests dur- ing campaign missions, managing their troops from afar as they seek to garner even more experience points. This should add another tactical layer to combat as gamers weigh whether their troops can manage without the bonuses and spells hero leaders provide. Graphically, BATTLECRY is shooting to be as pretty as AGE OF EMPffiES II. They're off to a good start, but the units could still use a little work. However, the terrain already looks nice thanks to a very large tile size that allows the level designers to create worlds with much more detail and sig- nificantly less repeti- tion than your aver- age RTS title. Real- time lighting and weather effects such as rain won't have any effect on play, but should add lots of ambience. Will WARLORDS' name recognition be enough to launch BATTLECRY to the top of the real-time heap, or will its turn-based legacy hamper it in the marketplace? It's tough to say, espe- cially once 500-pound gorillas like HOMEWORLD and TIBERIAN SUN are on the shelves. Ultimately, it may come down to how well it fits its fan- tasy niche and matches up to TOTAL ANNIHILATION; KINGDOMS an d the upcoming AGE OF WONDERS. S ometimes, in order to grow, you need to branch out. If you’re Mel Gibson, you direct; if you're Jennifer Lopez, you sing; and if you're Gary Coleman, you become a rabid, fan-bashing mall cop, endur- ing an endless chorus of shoppers shouting "Watchoo talkin' ‘bout, Willis?" as you safeguard the sanctity of the Orange Julius. Obviously, mov- ing away from the tried and true is fraught with both inherent dangers and rewards — precisely the challenge facing the designers of WARLORDS: BATTLECRY as they move the venera- ble, turn-based Warlords franchise into the brave new world of real-time Strategy- Something for Everyone A funny thing happened in focus testing — Red Orb found out that next to the WARLORDS games, their very loyal fan base rated the real-time AGE OF EMPIRES as their favorite game. This inspired SSG to fold every- thing that makes WARLORDS what it is into a real-time for- mat, complete with harvesting resources, building structures for troop upgrades, and churning out armies made up of the game's 56 units. What will separate BATTLECRY from the real-time pack will be robust RPG elements. WhUe your individual units improve with every battle won, the real RPG- style ability juggling comes into play with your commanding hero. Your avatar will be generated at the start of the game when you select your race, gender, and class. Each of the 16 hero types tasks you with assign- ing points to standard character attributes: intelligence, strength, charisma, and dexterity. Under each of these primary attributes lie four sub-skills that thoroughly determine the shape of your character as you apply the experience points gained in battle. Want a truly killer fireball? Then beef up your fire ability under your intelli- gence rating. Experience points are also used to pur- chase new 'You couldn’t ask for more’ -Computer Gaming World Best of E3' -GameSpot 'Absolutely Anoazing’ ■PC Gam^ - 'A Real Innovation’ -IMext-Generation 3rd person action at its best! crademank of Infogrames North America, Inc. © 1993 All Rights Reserved PREVIEW Y OU know you're onto something hot when the Evil Empire wants in on the action. After the success of Origin’s and Sony's online role-playing games, it wasn’t long before Microsoft made its play. Just as I was ending my EVERQUEST binge, an ASHERON'S CALL (AC) beta landed in my hands. While Microsoft's RPG has many trappings of a traditional RPG, it is by far the most original of the three big massive- ly-multiplayer RPGs. Character generation is similar to other games, but here there's an addi- tional level of detail. While other games let you pick your character's face and clothing colors, AC lets you pick all the individual components of the face and clothing. The AC design team wanted to make sure that every gamer has a chance to make a truly unique character, rather than a cook- ie-cutter clone. Characters are skill- based rather than class-based; gamers can use either a default tem- plate like "warrior," or choose which skills the character will focus on. You then pop into Dereth, the game world, One of the big features being touted in AC is the lack of zones; you can walk from one end of Dereth to another without seeing a load screen. And don’t expect a short walk either, as Dereth has over 500 square miles of terrain. For faster travel, there are teleportation portals scattered around the landscape. Entering dungeons will be the only time you’ll have pause for data transfer, and it’s barely noticeable. Since all dungeons are small downloads, it’ll be simple for the design team to seamlessly add new acreage. How Does a 50Q-Pound Gorilla Design an Online Role-Playing Game? Any Way it Wants To. by Thierry Nguyen Asheron’s Call GENRE: PnlliiB RP G • RELEASE DATE: U '99 PUBLISHER: Microsoft DEV ELOPER: Turbine Entertainment Softwa re Murder, Madness, Mayhem, Microsoft ASHERON CALL'S combat wiU make some innovations. The design team is straying from the traditional "click-until-your-mouse-dies" style of com- bat by adding additional tactical elements. Your enemies will vary in height, so your combat menu will have additional buttons denoting high, medium, or low attacks. You'll have to deal with high-flying wasps, and you'll have to decide whether or not that Drudge’s head is less protected than its chest. In addition, you'll have a slider bat that determines how fast and powerful your blows will be. Speed and power have an inverse relationship, so that you can opt for quick, weak attacks or strong, slow ones. The design will also breathe new life into the death experience. There are Life Stones scattered throughout Dereth, and you can bind yourself to any of these; once you die, you'D be resurrected at the last stone you were bound to. Upon resurrection, you’ll lose half your money and your most valuable item. Finally, you’ll suffer a five percent penalty to all your skills and stats. This penalty fades as time goes by, but if you die again, well, those penalties start to add up. It's an interesting compromise, in that while you do get penalized, it’s not as harsh as other games where your items are with your corpse and you must retrieve them. FEE FI FO FUM This giant Manouga is an example of the unique creatures in ASKERDN'S CALL, as the design team has eschewed traditional fantasy critters in order to be original. Jltra-Realistic 'll PREVIEW As for player-killing (PK), everyone will start in non-PK mode. In order to become a PKer, you need to go out on a specified, medium-difficulty guest. Once that is done, you can only attack other PKers. If you then change your mind, you'll have to finish a harder quest in order to return to non-PK mode; be com- mitted to whatever choice you make. Merlin Sells Amway The magic system is also unique, in that it will allow for player experimenta- tion, and creation, of their own spells. Spells are based on physical components, player gestures, and incantations. Spell power is drawn from a general worldwide pool, so that the more people who cast a spell, the less power it has— it’s advantageous for a player to keep his or her new spells secret. Finally, if you had to name one thing that makes AC truly unique, it’s the Allegiance system. Think of it as a medieval pyramid scheme, where play- ers can be patrons and recruit vassals; each vassal can become a patron by recruiting more vassals under him. Each vassal will add to his patron's rank with- in the Allegiance, in addition to generat- ing experience that will be given to the patron. In a way, level-one character Joe Fairy's slaying of a rat will generate experience up the chain, all the way to his King. Now, whenever a character leaves, all vassals under him leave also, so patrons need to keep their vassals happy (by giving them rare items, for example). In the Allegiance system, higher-level players attempt to recruit newbies, rather than try to kill them. All in all, Microsoft isn’t entering the online field with a hack job; it's committing to a truly unique game within the genre. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see the social dynamic of the Allegiance s ystem at work once the game hits the shelves this winter. S3I7 HAVE PORTAL, WILL TRAVEL For those of you who abhor hik- ing and want a fast shortcut, seek out these teleportation portals. Westwood’s Multiplayer May Challenge DIABLO I by Thierry Nguyen GEWRE: BPG RELEASE DATE: 0l ‘flP PUBLISHER: Westwood Studios T O our jaded eyes, NOX looks like a simple Diablo ripoff. But after playing a few multiplayer sessions, we have to say that NOX has plenty to distinguish itself from the DlABLO-clone masses. The backstory here is that your name is Bob, and one day you're zapped into another dimension. After choosing to be a Warrior, Conjurer, or Wizard, you embark on an 11-mission crusade against the evil Hecubah. Each character class has a different set of missions, with 33 total. Westwood is now tweaking the single-player campaign to make sure it feels different depending on your class. When NOX really shines is during multiplayer. The three classes are well-balanced against each other; the Warrior is the straight “point-and-click attack" fighter, who can use his shield for protection against magical spells. Meanwhile, the Wizard has an array of tradition- al spells, complemented by those that focus on teleporta- tion. Lastly, the Conjurer has a spell arsenal concentrating on summoning monsters, and can also wield some ranged weapons. While the character balance is very well done, what’s even better are the spell traps and combinations. Both the Wizard and the Conjurer can string three different spells together to create a par- ticular combination-such as a Wizard teleporting the target into an open fire, blinding it, and then dropping a giant stone fist on it. With about 40 spells to choose from for each class, there wUl be lots of opportunities for new and more devious combina- tions. This feature alone makes NOX multiplayer a great ride. Not only wUl there be deathmatch, but there will be specific multiplayer scenarios, such as King of the Hill or Capture the Flag, all supported on Westwood Online. There are other features that make NOX a standout, but what really drew us in were the spell combinations and character-class bal- ance. While there will be many Diablo clones, we'll probably be to o busy dropping giant stone fists on each other — in NOX— to notice. 84 OCTOBER 1999 :gw.o< COMPUTER GAMING WORLD Team Rainbow is back in full force. Rogue Spear, the sequel to PC Gamer's 1998 Action Game of the Year, immerses you even deeper in the explosive action of an elite multinational strike force. Rogue Spear feels so real, you'll be yelling 'Tango Downi' in your sleep for weeks. And the multiplayer action Is to die for. Remember, when stalking the enemy: Walk softly but strike like a thunderbolt. You only have one shot to save the world. * NEW REPLAY FEATURE NEW MISSION EDITOR * FULL SNIPER SUPPORT * EIGHTEEN NEW MISSIONS JOYSTICK SUPPORT * TSRRORISTS MORE REALISTIC AND LETHAL THAN EVER 2 a ME PLArrrONZONE.COM Environmental V-V ^ Audio- WWW. redstorm . com Chicks dig guys with small cars True-to-R/C-racing physics! Objects and surfaces affect the action just iike reai iife! Wiidiy interactive environments: museum, cruise ship, ghost tovm and supermarketi Pint size weapons pack a major punch: bottie rockets, baii bearings and the shockwave! 4 racing modes and battle mode! Customize your racing with the included TRACK EDITOR, ^ Subterranean units allow for devious base assaults. • Tiberium-based plants and animals present new hazards. Blue tiberium, more valuable than the standard reen variety, lets players collect money faster, he unstable nature of the substance means that firelights taking place on blue tibenum fields can end in devastating explosions. • While other infantry units take damage in tiberi- um fields and can eventually turn into vicious tiberium-based creatures, cyborg commandos actually heal In tiberium fields. Unit production queuing. • Base cloaking technology lets Nod commanders hide in plain sight. • Includes both hostile and friendly mutant units and civilian vehicles. • Colored lighting makes for a much more visually- interesting nattlefield. Che Nod and GDI unit sets. The GDI leans heavily on mas- sively-armored units capable of dealing punishing amounts of damage. Mech-like units such as the Wolverine, Titan, and the vicious Mammoth Mark II make for devastating assault forces in numbers. The GDI is all about classic tacti- cal stratagems, relying on pincer maneuvers and straight- forward, withering assaults to beat their opponents. Even their infantry units are powerful, with grenade-lobbing Disc Throwers and Jump Jet Infantry that can hover across the rivers and streams that lace game maps. The Nod, on the other hand, are just plain evil. Relying on stealth and surprise, the Nod units will probably hold the most appeal for gamers. Burrowing units like the Devil’s Tongue Flame Tank or Subterranean ARC let Nod comman- ders pop up in enemy bases to wreak havoc, while Stealth Generators can be buUt to conceal entire Nod bases. We found that hit-and-run tactics that disrupt enemy produc- tion are an especially effective tact to take in multiplayer games; in fact, the Nod can win multiplayer matches with- out ever launching a typical fuU-scale assault, thanks in large part to their devastating Chemical Missile. By harvest- ing veins of tiberium. Nod forces can create warheads that unleash clouds of horrible tiberium waste, mutating enemy forces, destroying their buildings, then spreading a toxic vapor that turns its victims into mutated visceroids that attack anything near them, including former comrades. Few weapons have said “Screw you’’ more effectively. The visceroids are just one part of a landscape that is as much a part of the game as other players or the AI. Bridges can be blown to shut down avenues of attack; tiberium- tainted creatures and mutants will attack both sides; huge sucking maws (like DUNE 2's sand worms) gobble forces that try to cross plains veined with tiberium; frozen rivers can be crossed by lighter units; and fields of tiberium wUl poison human troops or, in the case of blue tiberium, explode under fire. Ion storms shut down technology-based units while showers of tiberium meteors re-seed the land with tiberium, but could contaminate or wipe out entire bases. All of these things add challenges for gamers both to avoid and to exploit, especially in multiplayer, 1 We went into our marathon playfest with some skepti- cism. First off, we couldn’t understand why flying units couldn’t penetrate unrevealed portions of the map. Westwood’s reasoning was that airborne units can scout out too much of the map in multiplayer games and throw the balance out of whack. While we fully expected to hate this choice, we found that it wasn’t really an issue — flying units are far enough down the technology tree that if you hadn’t done extensive scouting by the time you were ready to build them, you were probably dead anyway. While this vrill stUl infuriate some gamers, we’re now convinced it shouldn’t be too important. We were especially heartened by the efforts being made to halt the tank rushes that plagued previous C&C’s in mul- tiplayer. The most significant change comes in unit produc- tion-multiple production buildings no longer supercharge your production rates. While you'll get a slight production bonus with a second war factory, anything after that is just a waste of money. Also, Electromagnetic Pulse Garmons will literally halt a tank rush in its tracks. With every unit having a counter on the other side, players are going to have to develop new tactics and constantly re-evaluate their strate- gies in order to crush their opponents. Unit veterancy is an interesting new idea, with units gaining improved attacks and, in some cases, new abilities after inflicting so many enemy kills. But this cool idea may turn out to be irrelevant. As cool as it is to have your veter- an Rocket Bikes suddenly gain the ability to attack aircraft, the "expendable horde" play that dominates RTS games COMPUTER GAMING WORLD • 1 • OCTOBER 1933 to use her got yours. body Ultimate high-tech weaponry ,/nc/udes Fiighlening 3-D realism gives you an all-too-real Intriguing character generoliotr lets you fully configurable,, derailed equipment first-person perspective. In fact, the enviionmenl choose from three distinct personalities, each amazing gomephy'deplh and oclien. is so irue-lcdife, your erremies aie even sensitive with their own special weapons and abilities. \ to light and sound. YoU'Wake oboard the Von Braun with a mind-allering implant in your. brain and no memory of recent events. As you wander the dark, eerie decks of the derelict spacecraft, you discover an alien materia! is slowly taking over the ship — feeding upon the 'flesh of your former comrades, leoving zombies end corpses in its wake. Behind the engulfing terror, you sense the presence of the evil cyber-being, SHODAN. She is seductive and sinister. And she pulls all the strings in the most chilling role playing game ever. Enter Shodan's terrifying world to dis- cover her ultimate plan — or die trying. For all the gory details, visit www.lglass.com COVER STORY— C&C: TIBERIAIM SUN may lead this feature to be largely overlooked. As much fun as the campaigns were, the real test of this title will be in the multiplayer game, and at the time of our visit it wasn't quite up to the test, crashing whenever more than two play- ers joined a game. While we expect this to change, we have a few concerns about the game balance in the multiplayer arena. As powerful as the GDI units are, they're slow and seem to be at a distinct disadvan- tage against the stealthy and disruptive NOD forces, especially the Chemical Missile. In at least one-on-one contests, a well-fortified Nod base hurling Chemical Missiles seems assured of winning almost every time. As much as Westwood seems to want to avoid rushing, it would seem the GDI might have to lean on early assaults to stay in the game. In spite of our concerns on these points, TIBERIAN SUN seems assured of a long, healthy life on the hard drives of gamers. The single-player game is looking extremely solid, with a pair of bruising, incredibly addicting cam- paigns highlighting the strengths of both factions. Multiplayer contests might be cause for some small worry as the Nod seems to have an edge over the GDI, but the great assortment of units on both sides, a fantastically customizable random map generator, and the hardcore, militaristic flavor of multiplayer combat should create a nonstop flood of games on Westwood Online. The bottom line is simply this: Just days before comple- tion, COMMAND &CONQUER: TIBERIAN SUN is a Stronger game than most RTS titles after 15 patches. You're definitely going to want this one. Kd'.v terrain and colored light- ing may not im play, but dang look good. jaamgaDiiir he ion Cannon and Obelisk of Light are back to decimate your friends and loved ones in multi- player skirmishes. n a sweltering July afternoon off freeway exit 82B in Northwest Las Vegas, producer Rade Stojsavljevic walks into conference room three at Westwood Studios, bug list in hand. Once 40 pages long, the list now contains only a few dozen items. To lead designer Adam Isgreen, and designers John Archer, Michael Lightner, and Patrick Pannullc, it’s the telltale sign that COMMAND & CONQUER: TIBERIAN SUN is almost ready to ship. “We Just fixed the bug where the GDI Qrca Carryall could use its grappling hook to pick up enemy troops and trans- port them,” says Stojsavljevic with a slight grin on his face. The designers all crack up, their laughter spilling into the building’s corridors. Down the corridor in his office, Executive Producer Brett Sperry sums it up: “We’re probably going to be done within 48 hours. It’s just surreal-four years of our lives and it’s all coming down to this.” For Sperry and his team, building TIBERIAN SUN has been a “Herculean task,” commencing just days after the original COMMAND & CONQUER shipped in 1995. Since then, a talented group of programmers, designers, and artists chal- lenged themselves to build a sequel worthy of the C&C name. “Even the smallest call, like whether the Jump Jet Infantry should be able to be fired upon by Nod lasers, is an incredibly Important balance decision,” explains Sperry. “We really wanted to reinforce the whole Achilles’ heel concept so that every single strategy has a counter strategy others can figure out”-&eoffrey Keighley Ixcerptetl from BameSpot's Behind the Games: Tiberian Sun. For mare on the chaotic finai 48 hours of TIBEttlAN SUH's life, inciuding exciusive interviews with the game’s designers and a tew hints about the future of the C&C series, check out: www.gamespot.com/fea- tures/btg-tsun. In Six days^a superpower has been'\destroy PWIRS The First Pro Sports League for the Computer Gaming Crowil To Sign Up» or For More Info, Go To : wvs'w. VJjUVu bu iijJJd u JJ l^Jjy LTHE GUILLEMOT CHAMPIONSHIPS OFJHE AMD PROFESSIONAL GAMERS’ LEAGUE,^ r [ 5 W «?Tt gtTi Finals event- Fof tljp PGL's, Spring attended: the twor^lgj^ event at XS NeyvYot . action via tlje live Wefeeast! iJINTHE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDS OF COMPETITION notoriogefWayn& Soso Chiaffgtt-0)tj|jig4ji the Action (Quake II) crown bjeiit)n)| ' cash apiece, and: more thani SABM distributed among- the top ?,S(i^ea6onIi I IN ADDITION.^KUIfTRECEIVED AN AWESOME BONUS PRIZE:1 pi an all-expense’-paid trip to id courtesy oP id and Activision! The linalislis in each ef hhe Spring '99 caliegeries placed as faiieiiis (Hihh ciiip if residence); Quakell Sbarcrafb ~Bon “Kuin” Danan: Montreal, Canada I Erik "Vorador” Spoon Amsterdam, NY I Sebastian “Sybek” Lenart; Mississauga, Canada I Kurt “Immortal” Shimada: Pleasanton, CA I Alex "bad-habiC Pogozelski: McLean, VA I Gordon ‘'K9-Gloucester" Luk: Los Angeles, CA (lie) I Jason “Jmaster” Siquig: Fremont, CA I Eric “DH-SaboTaJ” Manfredi: Mundelein, IL (tie) Guillaume “Grrrr" Patry: Beauport, Quebec Wayne “Soso" Chiang: San Jose, CA Dave "BOO!" Howell: Gander, Newfoundland Christopher "Pillars'' Page: Andover, MA Patrick "Kain-the-Feared" Chapelsky: Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada Stephen “taurus” Chan: Culver City, CA (tie) David “DeepBlue" Magro; Rochester, NY wend s emesameM I DIAMOND I^.DVE\T COVER STORY— CGiC: TIBERIAN 5|LIN This tactic works well as a cheap and flexible defense system, as well as early in a war. Loop a waypoint system around your base and link it up using the shift key. Build a lot of low cost units, machine gunners, disc throwers, and rocket troops. Space groups out evenly, then press Ictrl-alt] to put them in guard mode and send them along on the patrol route so that your base is completely surrounded by troops ready to fire at will. Activating guard mode will make them aggressively assault any nearby enemy. Just telling them to move means they'll ignore enemies. Avoid large gaps in the procession; your opponent can time a desperate engineer dash for a vital resource when your guys are clumped on one side of the base. Also note that when a repair bot or a medic is placed on a waypoint system, they will heal and repair your troops as they make the rounds. The tactic works well at the beginning of the game when attacks tend to be more exploratory than all-out assaults. As your enemies climb the tech tree and confront you with more advanced and powerful units, you’ll probably be forced to build the more effective permanent ground defenses to repel the attacks. One added benefit to this tactic is that it serves as an early defense system that can immediately be turned to offense if an opportunity arises. The more flexible you keep your force, the better off you’ll be. Windows of opportunity open and close quickly in this game, and you need to take advantage of them. ON GUARD Setting your troops to guard mode will ensure that they attack intruders, instead of just continuing on their merry way. Find gaps in the circle and rush an engineer though. You can also try attacking from one side, until all or most of the members of the circle are concentrat- ing on your diversion, then rush an engineer in on the exposed side. You can also refrain from attacking at all for a while. The circle requires spending a large amount early on for cheap units, money that could have been spent on refineries and harvesters. K your opponent devotes time and resources to the circle, he'll probably fall behind in his development and you'll be able to stay ahead on the tech tree. Tactical Advantai T here are general strategies for attaining victory in COMMAND & CONQUER: TIBERIAN SUN that will work no matter which side you're playing on, and there are other strategies that take advantage of the unique strengths and abilities of each force. Here's a look at a few tactics and their respective counter-tactics that will have your multiplayer opponents wishing they could join Kane in the land of the living-in-death. Name; Karl Wagner.'. / / \ : ’■V 1 - 4 , I Call Sign: Creepy ^ '/Skill: Camouflage ,'s* / ■ ' ' A/ / , Personal Details;, / / Recruited by Project^ Nemesis in 1998, Karl is ' the son of a German//. \ Diplomat living in \ London. Karl joined the army and then moved \ into the SAS in 1993. He A was, transferred to. a / special attachment unit , and seconded to a SEAL unit out of Kinmore \,:.j yField in 1997. Karl's entry into Project Nemesis was a result of his never ending quest for \ adventure; he , , volunteered for assignment to the project / Download U>e demo; / eidos.com DISCIPLES ' •^NGtAGE'lN Ciy^SIC TURN-BASE!? ' grWTEGY AND RPG ACTION IN A mi-Y IXPEORABEE EANTASY WORID. BATnE FOR YOUR GOD AS A FUUY HABIBIE CHAMHON FROM ANY ONE C FOUR DISIINCT RACES. Master over 100 speciacuiar speus, EACH BOASTING TIS OWN DYNAMIC ANIMAIlOt Gash in Multipiamer achon IVW and Internet. ' DT Inliiitllte SoUwtii Strategy First http://www.strategyfirst. com WINDOWS ' 95/98 PC CD-ROM ©1999 SlralGoy First Inc. All rights reserved, Disciples is a Irademark ol Slralogy First. All rights rosorveci. All other trademarks and copyrights are Iho properties ol Ihoir rospeclivo owners. CaVBR SraRY— C&C: TIBERIAIM SUN NEED A LIFT, BIG BOY? The Carryall can ilrop heavy units like the Maniiiinth Mkll into the middle of the Nod camp, where a single mech can wreak some serious havoc in short order. SAMs, SAMs, and more SAMs. The best way to make a Carryall-dependent enemy pay is to infest your bases with SAM sites and to knock the Carryall and its cargo out of the sky. Putting SAMs in unexpected places can hamper your opponents’ attempt to avoid the flak field above your base by landing close by, and moving in on the ground. Rocket troops and other anti-air units are useful, but nothing does as much damage to a flying unit as a SAM site. Cloaking your base helps as well. After you cloak your base, move your Construction Vehicle so that your Carryall friend won't know where to attack with his Mammoth Mark II. The Orca Carryall Is one of GDI's most useful units, if you know how to use it. Build a Mammoth Mark II and airlift it right next to your enemy’s construction yard. It can lay waste to the yard in three or four shots of its rail gun. Another good way to use the Carryall is to airlift in an APC full of engineers and take over a base en masse. The Carryall can also place sensor arrays in spots normally unreachable. Efficiently using Carryalls can torment an enemy to no end. Just make sure you know where any SAM sites are and avoid them like the plague. Also, you can't land on a spot that is still cloaked, so some early scouting will be needed. A well balanced air force of Orca fighters to scout an area, Orca bombers to suppress anti-aircraft weapons, and Orca Carryalls to deliver ground units to the landing zone can be formidable indeed. At some point during a battle with Nod forces involved, the Stealth Generator will come into play. It’s a frustrat- ing device that makes everything your enemy owns invisible within a certain range. You can uncloak a cloaked base with sensor arrays, or you can take out power generators until the thing turns off. Whatever you do, don’t kill the Stealth Generator. If you can commandeer it with an engineer, all of your troops will become cloaked and all the enemy buildings visible. Then you can attack with a huge force that's just become invisible. Executing the maneuver successfully is one of the most satisfying moments in any multi- player game. Immediately destroy all sensor arrays. Without sensor arrays, your attacker should have no idea where your stealth generator is, As an added precaution, build a bunch of laser turrets around your stealth gen- erator so that any engineer who gets anywhere near it will be quickly torched. Sensor arrays have a wide range, so you'll have to make sure you know what’s going on around your base. Aircraft on a large waypoint patrol route will keep you updated on what is where. Name: Matt Lansing Call Sign: Savage Skill; Extreme Strength Personal Details: Matt served in the US ' Marines for 0 years, mostly in "police" actions ; around the world. He was • retired from the service in 1995, after he broke his spine in a helicopter / ' | crash in the Middle East, ' He spent the next three years paralyzed from the neck down. Project / Nemesis offered Matt the possibility of a surgical solution to his chronic disability; Matt ' volunteered for the team immediately. Download t;he demo: eidos.com I COVER STORY— CGiC: TIBERIAN SUN BOTH SIDES So, you’ve finally been able to build up a large assault force, but you're ter- rified your enemy's EMP cannon will turn your battalion into a fleet of Yugos. The EMP cannon shuts down all mechanized weapons for about two min- utes, rendering them useless and vulnerable to attack. Instead of rushing in, go in a few units at a time. Fire up the edges of the base. Attack and withdraw. Keep the torment up until he finally fires the pulse cannon. The cannon takes about four to five minutes to recharge, giving you enough time to rush in and start reducing his beautiful base to rubble. The Ion Cannon is immensely powerful, but don’t waste it. One blast will not quite destroy crucial buildings like construc- tion yards. Soften structures with conventional attacks, then fin- ish them off with a mighty blast. This is a good rule of thumb that can be applied to any long-range, ultra-powerful weapon for both GDI and Nod. Buildings and units can be repaired, so just causing some damage is not good enough. Use these weapons in conjunction with a ground attack or an air raid to make them count. I I I li I An engineer running inside a friendly building repairs it completely. If you sense an enemy is softening up a building so he can finish it off with an Ion Cannon, run an engineer inside between the ground assault and the Ion blast. Repairing buildings to full health with an engineer is some- times more cost efficient than using the conventional repair command. I’VE GOT MY ION YOU The Ion cannon is a preci- sion weapon, so it is important to first scope out your target weaken ’rt somewhat, and then quickly drop the hammer before your opponent has a chance to repair it I I |i|i I Ill I I IM When using tunneling units, don't just pop them up and let them take fire. Once trouble arrives, burrow below the base and pop up somewhere unex- pected. Attack one side of the base, and once you start taking fire, tunnel under and head to the other side. Find the weak spots. The flame tank and the APC don't have the best armor, but the enemy can’t hit what’s just tunneled underground. One word: concrete. Tunneling units can't come up through concrete, so build a lot of it around your crucial build- ings. If you pave over enough of your property, you’ll find that you can funnel the tunneling units into areas you have heavi- ly defended. Don't forget to build plenty of sensor arrays. They see below ground and act as an early warning system for incoming moles. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN Burrowing tanks can easily slip under your sentries for a direct attack on your base, and once detected can easily burrow away and pop up somewhere else. iii.-Trm-ran Don’t fire that EMP until you absolutely have to. Have patience and wait until his most powerful units are descending upon your base-then let him have it. Build walls and conventional defenses while he’s toying with you and make him pay for the time he’s wasting. His massive force is probably nearby, waiting to strike. Find it with air patrols and assault it with weapons like the multi-missile and chemical missile. This might also be a good time to attack his base if he's concentrating all his efforts on yours. With ail his big weapons out in the field, it would be good to tunnel over some flame tanks if you're playing Nod, or Orca Carryall over an APC full of engineers if you’re GDI. ^RE'Ab it AROUND 1 ! qBoW SIDESJ Build a second or third Construction Vehicle as soon as you can. Move them to key points and deploy them. Throw down defenses, refineries, whatever. Then move the Construction Vehicle to another spot and repeat. Put SAM sites under flight lanes. Put j a couple obelisks in a choke point Put a | refinery right next to a nice patch of blue ! tiberium in a remote area of the map. Open as many branch offices as you can and all will be well. COUNTER Construction Vehicles are expensive and not well-armored. Take them out as soon as you see them. Also, second and third bases are rarely defended as well as base number one. They are incredibly susceptible to take ! over with engineers. So, let your expanding friend do all the work for you. Just comman- deer his weaker satellite bases; not only will you deprive him of resources, but you’ll pad your own coffers as well. ER 1999 • wi COMPUTER GAMING WORIO IkAAULmI W ildly hysterical strategy game set In the American underworld circa 1933. You’re the Boss; use your street smarts and an army of willing thugs and enforcers to take control— sllp-up and you sleep with the fishes! ©1999 Studio 3- Piislishedby Simon aSctiusler Interactive, a division ol Simon 4 Schuster, Inc. 1 230 Avenue ol the Americas. New York. NY 1 0020. A Viacom Company. All rights reserved. BOO. LUelcome to toe elemenf oF surprise. JoysFick and proporFional programmable Funchions For unFair conFrol oF any game. D-pad conhols For killer synchronized moues. Forly-nine Xrerminator” Dual Cdnhol. Game ouer. GRAV/S.%} www.grau/s. com/ boo The Sicker the trick, the sweeter the win . TnckSiir«'in()AMJ>im"01998AcclimEnliruinra«nLlnc All R-otils BestrvM Dotloptd Uy Cnimon SliWios LIS Ail iigtiij r««rv«d. Seja. Dreimcjsi, jivJ iru I liaSiniaiks or liasesutks of Sefla Enurprlsep. LIS All oUitr IraSemiikp and Isopi are ptopprliM sf thpir resopctiyp pwnerp Scrpps shsis sliOAflwere lakpn I/pm Uic I /NVIDIA If you wanna get your swerve on, you WANNA GET INTO TRICKSTYLE. THAT'S WHERE YOU GO UP AGAINST THE BEST IN THE WORLD IN AN ALL-OUT, GO-FOR-BROKE RACE WHERE THE ONLY RULE IS TO WIN. BUT YOU GOTTA WIN WITH STYLE. SO PRACTICE AT THE Velodrome until you've got the SKILLS TO pound YOUR OPPONENTS RIGHT INTO LAST PLACE, Then you can drop some ill 720° spins, METHOD GRABS AND BARREL BACKFLIPS, AND OUT-RACE AND OUT-STUNT YOUR OPPONENTS RIGHT INTO THE WINNER'S CIRCLE, AnD SINCE TRICKSTYLE IS POWERED BY THE REVOLUTIONARY DREAMCAST GAME CONSOLE, IT LOOKS AND PLAYS BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU'VE EVER SEEN. SO GO GRAB SOME AIR. FEEL THE SPEED. AND TRICK YOUR WAY INTO THE NEXT MILLENNIUM. Clockwise from the top right, Bronx sla«. Zak T. lays down the sick heelflip lose into a lose 360 and finishes with a headspin flip. Sega #Dreanncast www.acclaim.net DCTDBER 1939 THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPECIAL-OPERATIONS GAMES PROMISES THE UTMOST IN REALISM HOW WELL DO THEY DELIVER? WE ASSEMBLED A TEAM OF m % ■ 1 TO PUT THESE GAMES TH =101 L ■Sn ; DELTA FORCE 2 R06UE SPEAR 5PEC OPS 11} DREEM BERETS SWAT3: CLOSE QllhRTERS BI9TLE L ast year, the special-operations shooter took the gaming world by storm. These games brought realism, special tactics, and true teamplay to a genre that was desperate for new ideas and greater depth of play. With their gritty blend of mOitary-grade weapons and equipment, accurately- modeled ballistic effects, and real-world small-unit commando taaics and missions, games like RAINBOW SIX, SPEC OPS: RANGERS LEAD THE WAY, and DELTA FORCE led the rush toward an exciting new subgenre of action games. In computer gaming, success breeds sequels and imi- tators, so it's no surprise that Fall will bring several more games into the tactical simulation battlefield. With NovaLogic's DELTA FORCE 2, Red Storm’s ROGUE SPEAR, Zombie's SPEC OPS H: GREEN BERETS, and Sierra’s SWAT 3: CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE all in development, there will be plenty of special-ops options for the arm- chair killer. We took these games out into the field and tested them with a team of genuine special-operations guys to see which had what it takes to survive the bat- tle for gamers' bucks. What set RAINBOW SIX apart from the throng of first- person shooters crowding the market? Red Storm would say it was the realistic combat model. After playing a beta version of ROGUE SPEAR, the sequel to RAINBOW SIX, we can report that the combat model is still the strong point. ROGUE Spear's refinements of the original include improved artificial intelligence, better graphics and sound, realistic ballistic effects, an improved inter- face, and an observer mode. Not only do computer-con- trolled team members move and support your actions with more effect, but nearby terrorists actively seek you out during a raging battle. Add some really awesome ballistic and wound effects, like shooting tlirough win- dows and doors, or taking a round in the leg that will leave a trail of blood, and it's clear that ROGUE SPEAR is on track to becoming a more true-to-life game. The same goes for SWAT 3; CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE, the latest addition to the already popular Sierra Studios SWAT adventure series. Based on real-life SWAT missions of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), but set in the year 2005, the game casts you as the leader of a five-man team in either career or single-play- er modes. SWAT 3's dynamic missions focus on high- intensity close-quarters combat instead of the puzzle- solving of its predecessors. Most of the game’s develop- COMPUTER GAMING WORLD imputergi • OCTOBER 1993 111 TACTICAL SIMULATION SITUATION REPORT OPERATIVE: ROGUE SREAR j Operations Center: Red Storm Entertainment Deployment Date: 03 '99 Area of Operations: Counter-Terrorist Tactical Simulation I Last year's benchmark game returns to action completely polished with 3 brand new At, improved Interface, and more realism than ever before. Mission Capabilities: Realistic combat model, ballistic effects, saved replay feature, improved observer mode, full sniper support weather effects, 3D environments and sound, multiplayer. Mission ShorUatls; Team Al mode. , OPERATIVE: SWAT 3: CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE I OporatiDiis Coiiter; Sierra Studios I Qenioymciil Date: Q4 '99 I Area of dporations; Paramilitary Tactical Simulation 'Hie SWAT series loses the popular Police Quest adventure mode in favor of CQB realism. Mission Capabilities; Dynamic At, CQB realism, goiieous lighting and 30 environments, physics modeling, ballistic effects, score based point system. Mission Shortiails: Separate multiplayer release. [RDBUE spear has added crouched |«TTT^»^^€»T?7i\vr in SWAT 3, good reflexes and sound tactics will bo crucial to surviving standoffs like tills one. You'll also have to deal with the added challenge of not shooting-first-and-asking- Duestions-later, since you're prohibited from shooting civilians. movement and sniper support for a more comprehensive team assaulL ttriTfiffl SPEC OPS II SPEC DPS fl's Viper its realistic but omi- WHERE’S THE LIGHTS? engine will spice up me game acuon w nous environments. ^ . . ers trained with the LAPD SWAT; the resulting tactical realism is apparent, for example, in the way your team systematically sweeps an area for suspects. In DELTA FORCE 2, you continue to serve as a member of the elite U.S. Army Special Forces unit known as SFOD-Delta. DF2 now uses a true 32-bit Voxel Space graphics engine so players can actually see the enemy, instead of nondescript pixels, at 200 meters. The upgraded graphics are smooth and crisp, though the buildings pixelate up close and would benefit from 3D accelera- tion. Still, the vast outdoor environments are second to none in subtle detail and now have tall grass, trees, and other objects use- ful for stealth maneuvers. According to Mark Long, head honcho of SPEC OPS developer Zombie, “We want players to feel like they're actually Green Berets." To that end, Zombie completely rebuilt its SPEC OPS Viper engine while adding a fluid in-game control for a more dynamic team-oriented combat experience. There are over 30 real-life special-forces missions stressing Green Beret teamwork for direct action, special recormaissance, and hostage rescue operations, SPEC OPS II follows its predecessor in using teams of two and three members to enhance gameplay, even though a U.S. Army Special Forces "A" team has 12 men. The simulated men do, however, train and fight like real Green Berets, with obstacle courses modeled after real Army training courses, and their skQl development in weapons, demolitions, recon, and sniper tactics shadow the real deal. All these titles share one common gameplay element: missions based on realistic military or paramilitary commando operations at the tactical level, aimed at direct action, counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and special reconnaissance. One thing is cer- tain-all the developers have done their homework, as the level of authenticity is quite high. Whether it's SPEC OPS II's co-op mis- sion with the British SAS to address a Pakistani nuclear situation, or SWAT 3's terrorist takeover of the control tower at LAX, the action is gritty and authentic. TEAM SELECTIOM Team command and control is an important element in these games, since most operations depend on support from your com- puter-controlled teammates for success. The flawed AI in ROGUE SPEAR has been measurably improved. “There were^a lot of rough edges to the original AI," says Greg Stelmack of-Red Storm. "We look the lessons learned from the original AI, scrapped it, and rewrote it from the ground up. The computer-controlled members navigate much more cleanly, and their combat routines have been improved. They'll duck for cover, run away, try to avoid grenades, and generally act much more human than the origi- nal AI." DELTA FORCE 2 and SPEC OPS II have also beefed up team AI to better support you (your SPEC OPS teammates shouldn’t wan- der into your line of fire anymore). AU four games have refined their team command and control screens for bet- ter team response during the heal of battle. Each approach is unique. SPEC OPS II uses a single key- stroke to dispatch operatives to a location, without your having to micromanage their maneuvers. DELTA FORCE 2 uses a Commander’s Screen and waypoints to control AI teammates. ROGUE SPEAR has streamlined its team mission screens for better planning and rule-of-engagement management. And SWAT 3 lets you split your five-man element into two smaller elements to better sweep an area for bad guys. Only DELTA FORCE 2 won’t allow you to select team operatives. IIISIBEBEISIBEKIEElKny/aiEll Last year, was the biggest This year, destroying it is There are two sides to euery story Play the Indie side in the all new Defiance campaign, featuring in-mission save points, new weapons and more. Rebate available for original Independence War owners. www.independencewor.i © PARTICLE SYSTEMS I L oot and extort your way J to Infamy in tlie seedy world of the 17th centuiy Caribbean. Strike terror in the hearts of your victims: board ships, ransom 'hostages and sack towns. The only rules are the ones you make. Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas makes you the captain of a ship bristling with cannons. Seek a Letter of Marquee and light for King and country as a privateer, or become a ruthless pirate. Either way, remember to ply your crew with rum and treasure or face a mutiny. Will you survive to retire a Pirate King?- Or will you dance the hempen jig on Gallows Rock? ^ Customize your lieet of up to 12 ships with cannon and crew to devastate enemy ships. For land battles, arm your men with muskets, cannons and cutlasses to raid ports. Sophisticated real-time strategy engine enables complex amphibious assaults; bombard fortresses with your ship's cannons, while your men pillage the town. From the company that brought you iMMANDOS™ and Gangsters' Ovei 7G ports in B million miles of pnnmpiny area to expluil. LcincJing pailies can capture ports or burn them to the yroimd Kill enemy crews with cannons, then boaitl your prize ami take your spoils. Go To War! at www.eidosinteractive. PllI^AGE. PeUNDER Cmov on the High Scas TACTICAL SIMULATION SITUATION REPORT OPERATIVE: DELTA FORCE S < > Cijnti’.r. NovaLogic I ils|ilu'- 1 . ^ . Q3 ‘99 ' Commando Tactical Simulation Delta Force returns with better graphics, improved command and control interface, and voice technology. i‘; Voice-Over-Net technology, Improved Voxel Space SWAT 3 provides a roster of over 60 SWAT members and 12 ele- ment leaders from which to assemble your five-man team. Each operative wUl improve his skills mission to mission, so success will hinge on training your key players and assembling the right team for each mission. Same with SPEC OPS n, where you'll choose from among a machine-gunner, grenadier, sniper, rifleman, and more for your teams. beenupgSed to clfer Vue 32-bit graphics. The payoff is even better outdoor environments and weather effects, and missions that move the action indoors. rescue is aROGUE ^EAR mission specialty. NotehoWloth commando elements move through each side of tiie aircraft for a more realistic sweep. AREA ASSESSWiEWT FIRST CLASS TICKET TO HELL B.ATTLE DRILLS The arsenals from these games are bulging with more weapons and equipment than ever before. ROGUE SPEAR adds full sniper support with weapons like the M-14, Enfield L85A1, and the big, bad, ,50-caliber Barrett Model 95 sniper rifle. SWAT 3 uses the traditional LAPD arsenal of MP5s, CAR-15s, and 1911 pistols, while adding new technology like the Kevlar tactical helmet. DELTA FORCE 2, on the other hand, adds unique weapons like the H&K Pll{which fires flechettes underwater), an M4 with shotgun, and fixed weapon emplacements sporting mini-guns, SPEC OPS n added some unique weapons like Chicoms, M270s. Steyr Augs, and some of the heavier stuff like grenade launchers and machine guns. Picking your team's flashlights, light sticks, binoculars, tac vests, and grenades add to game strategy. DF2 now uses equipment slots in addition to primary weapon slots so you can choose Kevlar vests, rebreathers for underwater action, and field surveillance cameras for watching your back. SPEC OPS II allows you to pick up and drop objects during the game, which is good if you run out of ammo and an AK-47 happens to be laying nearby, but bad if you get too greedy and weighed down. Shot placement and ballistic effects are heavily emphasized in all four games. Not only do most weapons have a choice of rounds, but bullets now penetrate doors and walls (and DELTA FORCE’S previ- ously bulletproof tents). ROGUE SPEAR handles ballistic effects by assigning modifying values to weapons, so you can't snipe with an From a graphical standpoint, these games are a marked improvement in physics, lighting, and 3D environments; little won- der, with each game engine being rebuUt from the ground up. ROGUE SPEAR and SWAT 3 look really sharp, SWAT 3 having the edge with more impressive graphics and physics modeling. Sierra used over 500 motion-cap- ture videos for very lifelike character movement. SPEC OPS II's updated Viper engine powers its ominous outdoor environ- ments, 3D sounds, and out- standing lighting effects, including realistic search- lights that seek to pinpoint your position and alert the enemy. DELTA FORCE 2 has improved the most, thanks to a move from a 16-bit voxel graphics engine to a new true-color, 32-bit model. Of the four, DELTA FORCE still uses the largest outdoor environments for endless patrolling maneu- vers: the new game employs indoor environ- ments as well, for hostage rescue and reconnaissance. SWAT 3D is the lone holdout on the inclusion of weather effects, but since the game takes place indoors, it's not an issue. The other games add most of their weather touches for ambience, but DF2's use of fog should help balance sniper-favoring multiplayer matches. DELTA FORCE 2 32 graphics for unlimited outdoor emdronments, commanders screen, weather elements, ballisUc effects, new weapons and equipment, mid- level save and replay, multiplayer on NovaWorld. llhmiia-} ; Frag-fest multiplayer. OPERATIVE: SPEC DPS Ih GREEN BErItS ~| flimaUijtiaCeittBi Zombie I : i ;Sqppottflgei!t;? Ripcord Games ! 04*99 I 1 .^ntitiu. Commando Tactical Simulation. Rib originat Spec I Ops shooter competes with the big boys in a game inspired fay real life Special Forces weapons, equipment and missions. .<.;siot ' : Enhanced training environments, 30 lighting effects^ character skills, armoiy. fluid interface, 30 dynamic missions, mission editor, team command and control. . i.tll? Underdog operative. la IHi ACTION - An easy to use interface allows for quick and agile / gameplay in this fast-paced world. SPELL COMBINATIONS - Choose from over 100 different' spells and weapons to create cunning spell combinations' , and devious strategies. TRUE VISION - This innovative true line of sight system creates a level of suspense and excitement no gamer can resist. INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS - Unlike most / other games in the genre, you can actually ' move objects around, block passages and break w^Is down. TRAPS - Cast traps filled with diabolical spell combinations to ambush unsuspecting victims QUESTS - There are three different paths to follow through this epic quest to beat Hecubah, Queen of the Undead. / MULTIPLAY - Play over the definitive internet battleground, Westwood Online, to either team up with your friends in ' . capture-the-flag or ' dominate them in deathmatch. CHECK OUT WWW.NOXWORLD.COM wv/w.westwooci .com : TACTICAL SIMULATION SITUATION REPORT CGVU’S ELITE SPECIAL FORCES TEAM OPERATIVE; SF COMMANDO SPEC DPS EXPERIENCE; Retired U^. Army Special Forces Commo and Weapons Specialist Currently pursuing graduate vrark in low-intensity conllicL EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT KIM; Make sure your teams are set in position before giving the "go" signal lor an assault Teams in place make for a more fluid and coordinated attack on the objective. OPERATIVE: BIACKHAWK SPEC OPS EXPERIENCE: Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Operations and Intelligence Sergeant and police arson-explosives invesOgator. Served with U.S. Army SF during the Vietnam War. Current investiga- tor for a large metropolitan district attor- ney's office. EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT HIM; Place flash bangs in a room by edging as close to the opening as possible without compro- mising yourself, and then drop them inside the door tor more effective placement OPERATIVE: DOG SOLDIER iPEC OPS EXPERIENCE; Current U.S. Army Special Forces Commo and Operations and Intelligence Sergeant in the Army National Guard. Qualified for spec- ops tactics and target interdicb'on . EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT KIM; Engage moving targets by leading them slightly ahead of their movement direction with your firing reticle. Also, try not to silhou- ette yourself along a hilltop or skyline. OPERATIVE: SWAT GREEN SPEC OPS EXPERIENCE: Retired U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces Weapons Specialist Current SWAT operative for a major metropolitan police force. EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT HIM Clearing a stairwell is one of the more difficult CQB ops. The element should move at a quiet and cautious pace, using mirrors when possible, while stacking tight in anticipa- tion of an attack. OPERATIVE; MAD DOG SPED OPS EXPERIENCE; U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces Medic Reservist. EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT HIM: Snipe 800+ meters from target Moving closer only narrows any chance of escape once the enemy pinpoints your emplacement mmmmm WRAtTH: LEAD PROGRAMMER WUPASS; ARTIST, MINISTER OF PAIN STINKY; ARTIST, WAR PIG QL' PAINLESS: PRODUCER, TOKEN TARGET Ok MP5 from 200 meters without the 9mm round losing energy at point of impact. You’L need to use the right weapon for the job at alJ times. Likewise, wound effects will force you to aim your shots more accu- rately. Each game models wounds according to their location on a char- acter; if the hit is in the arm or leg, the character limps and leaves a trail of blood. Multiplayer is where these games really shine. If you’re looking for a frag-fest, look to DELTA FORCES 2 and SPEC OPS E, both of which sup- port 50-player matches. ROGUE SPEAR and SWAT 3 can be played as a realistic tactical simulation, because team command and control and support are vital to mission success. SPEC OPS n will allow you to pick up a fallen enemy’s weapons and equipment, while DF2 is adding the option of an armory for its online action. The armory will let the gamer restock weapons and ammo and will be the only destructible building in the game-expect to see teams lead armory-destroying charges against their enemies. Typing commands during battle takes too long and leaves you vulnera- ble, so voice support is on most gamers' wish lists. SWAT 3 and SPEC OPS n have no plans to support voice right now-noi surprising, consider- ing how hard it is to do it right. Hopefully, Red Storm wiD improve the shoddy voice technology of RAINBOW SIX. NovaLogic has the leg up on voice technology with its Voice-Over-Net, already working well on the NovaWorld servers, but it's not the ideal solution; it allows communica- tion with only one player at a time rather than your entire team. Without a doubt, all four tactical simulations are looking sharper and more immersing than the originals, and at this point there seems to be no clear victor emerging from the trenches. But I’d bet a few weekend passes to Vienna that ROGUE SPEAR follows in RAINBOW Six's footsteps as the benchmark game of this new crop of tactical sims, while DELTA FORCE 2 will come in a close second. The popularity of NovaWorld gives DF2 a huge boost for quick action seekers. When SWAT 3’s multiplayer feature gets released— several months after single player — the game should be a heavy-duty combatant due to its realistic environments and CQB combat. SPEC OPS n is the underdog of the bimcli, having to fight its way out of the bad reputation earned by its lackluster predecessor. However, don’t count this game out. Its interface and AI upgrades are a huge improvement, and besides, it's a game about Green Berets. What more could an armchair commando ask for? £S3U MESS WITH THE BEST, DIE LIKE THE REST T hresh versus a real Green Beret ~ who wins? It's this kind of question that led us to match up our team of real-life, battle-hardened, special-forces veterans against the development teams of DELTA FORCE 2 and ROGUE SPEAR. With four commandos at my side - and over 50 collective years of real experience under our tac vests - 1 felt somewhat confident squaring off against the NovaLogic team. However, after the first team deathmatch it was obvious that NovaLogic was having a field day. dropping real-life commandos like fattened ducks on the first day of hunting season. While ISP and communicatien problems ham- pered the effectiveness of the pros, there’s no way to candy-coat the fact that our team got whomped, 50 kills to 20. Still, there was some satisfaction in knowing that any one member of our team could easily kill all four members of NovaLogic’s squad with his bare hands. More ISP trouble prohibited two of our spec-ups operatives from joining in the ROGUE SPEAR con- test but SF Commando and. Mad Dog did their best in holding off a skilled Red Storm team. At one point Mad Dog took out an entire feur-man team rushing through the door. The results of this matchup were much better than the odious NovaLogic battle, with our team winning four out of six matches, even though outnumbered four to two. It's a great testament to the authenticity of the game that our real-world training and tactics gave us the edge over the twitch skills of the game developers. COMPUTER 6AMIN6 WORLD • www.coiiipulirBanifls.cPO • OCTOBER 1999 » SICK MOVES Besides Cyber Berry, your arsenal Includes hot routes, one-handed grabs and breakable wrap tackles. » MASSIVE COLLISIONS It’S an all-out assault with career stats, multi-player franchise mode and epic online trench wars. Environmental Audio' By CREATIVE* •s.com A ii’ 1 Madden l\IFL SOOO H IT- • nnuDiiTFR RttMiNR uvnRin FOOTBALL ROUNOUP KILL YOUR TV! WITH THIS SEASON’S LINEUP OF FOOTBALL GAMES, THE PC IS THE PLACE TO BE FOR THE MONSTER HITS, THE CLUTCH PLAYS, ANO THE BIG THRILL OF GAME OAY BY GEORGE JONES IS f OOTe ALL T he year 1999 marks the beginning of the fourth era of PC foot- ball games. In the first era, we talked about text football games, and which ones best simulated the real deal. The second era — the era of FRONT PAGE SPORTS: FOOTBALL— had us gushing over pretty graphics and great coaching options, while simultaneously complain- ing that if only the controls weren't so cruddy, we’d actually be able to play the game. Then we entered the third era. Here we could finally play football games on our PC, but the graphics missed the 3D boat and the gameplay was still a long way off from that of the best PlayStation games. With the upcoming release of MADDEN 2000 and NFL FEVER 2000, we have now entered the football Age of Aquarius, marked by a harmo- nious blending of visuals, animations, and gameplay. It’s a groovy time to be alive, brother. ST. JOHN THE MADDEN A fter eight years on the market, the Madden football series remains the crown jewel of football games. The 2000 edition— which opens with an excellent hip-hop fusion of monstrous, bone-jarring hits and rap lyrics that celebrate the franchise's dominance of the mar- ket— quickly sets a tone for what is easily the finest PC MADDEN game ever. Even easier on the eyes than last year's version, the game's 3D-accelerated graphics (Direct 3D or Glide drivers, although a nonac- celerated version is avail- able) result in big, beefy characters that move with grace and speed. Microsoft's NFL FEVER 2000 has better animations, but in MADDEN, the players are more responsive to your gamepad commands. This means that when Terrell Davis sees a hole in the line when moving laterally on his pitch-out, he can actually make the cut and exploit it. The lifelike animations also mean that when players get tackled, IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME The Great Games challenge mode allows you (o play through tO historic moments of days gone by. they get dragged to the ground or knocked off their feet in a variety of ways. In some cases, particularly strong players can visibly shrug off tacklers and keep on chug- ging. The high fideli- ty of the visuals, combined with John Madden's legendary commentary, takes computer simulation one step closer COMPUTER GAMING WORLD OCTOBER 1999 127 FOOTBAL.!. ROUIMOUP toward the TV viewing experience. This year’s game strikes a perfect bal- ance between arcade action and strate- gic play by offering several different game modes. The Arcade mode gives you a run-and-gun shootout, while the Exhibition and Season modes allow for a more authentic simulation. The previous few incarnations of the game featured tough run-stopping defenses, but MADDEN 2000 makes the running game more viable. While I wasn’t breaking away for 10 yards a carry, neither was I consistently stuffed for a loss every time my backs touched the ball. The passing game and Madden NFL 2000 Amazing visuals and animations; superior gameplay that strikes the right balance; a myriad of cool new features like the Great Games and Franchise modes; LAN and Internet play. The passing mode doesn't visually display the Sidewinder buttons (A, B, C, X, Y, Z], it just spits out numbers instead. EA Sports defense are excellently handled, as usual, with the typical set of special moves enhancing your game. I've always been a fan of the responsive con- trols in MADDEN, and this version does noth- ing to change my opin- www.easports.com IVIFL Fever 2000 Beautiful, true-to-life graphics; unsurpassed animations; realistic gameplay. Game animations sometimes create an unresponsiveness that hinders play. . Microsoft $50 www.microsoftcam .SS—k:}. ion. You can juke with the special juke but- tons, or you can throw fakes at the defender with a little jiggling of the control pad. No matter what game mode you're playing in, you can customize the game in many ways; quarter lengths, graphics, and AI are all fully configurable. You can even change the size of the players from teeny to gargantuan. For an added thrill, you can manage your team over the course of 32 seasons, building a power- house franchise by negotiating contracts with free agents, signing the most talented rookies, and making the management calls that will keep your ECOPJ Passing is a snap in MADDEN 2D0D; unfor- tunately, there is newayfor ^ Sidewinder gamepad owners to see which buttons repre- .•« K sent each receiver, team m contention. If you happen to get fired, you can get picked up by another fran- chise.. .if anyone wants you. THE LONGEST YARD M adden 2000 anticipated our wishes and added one of the coolest features I've ever seen in a sports game; The Great Games mode allows you to replay key moments in 10 dif- ferent legendary games. The first is the 1981 over- time game between the San Diego Chargers and the Miami Dolphins that saw the Chargers score with less than three minutes left in overtime (and carry legendary tight end Kellen Winslow off the field). As you win each scenario, you gain perma- nent access to the two teams involved and you move on to the next Great Game. It’s kind of like beating “bosses” in a fighting game. At the end of the day, gameplay rules over all, but it's these lit- tle touches that keep MADDEN consistently ahead of the pack. From the look of things, MADDEN will head that pack again this year. And, for what some may argue is the very first time, MADDEN 2000 for the PC will make console owners green vdth envy. THE FEVER T he words “Microsoft" and “underdog” go together about as well as mayonnaise and Kool-Aid. But this has been the lot of the Redmond giant ever since they broke into the sports-game game. NFL FEVER 2000 leans toward a more realistic style of play than MADDEN. From the moment you take the field, it is an eyebrow-raising experi- ence— the game's graphics are as close to TV qual- ity as we've ever seen. Whereas EA Sports' graph- ics are more musculaily exaggerated and beefy, NFL FEVER'S players resemble human players. And the player animations are absolutely stupendous. NFL FEVER, which uses a default camera angle that is a little further behind the line of scrimmage than most games, successfully mimics the pacing of football. When a play begins, it takes some time to develop, but once it does, the action comes swiftly. For example, on a roll-out pass play, I was able to make the proper reads on the defense and my receivers, but I couldn't hold onto the ball for- ever — the pass rush was on me in no time. The game boasts amazing, highly detailed ani- In a time of chaos, in a city on the brink of destruction, only you can discover the truth. An RPG / Strategy game. Coming this Fall. Visit www.lith.com for a sneak preview! Arrive :'TROPr>Lis '■•j^rWiTR fc H' oOB'e MONOLITH Odium is a trademark of Monolith Productions, Inc. FOOTBAI-l- ROUNDUP mations, to the point where if you’re on the run with the quarterback and . , - ,-i, throw the ball, you actually see an ani- i-tV"-.- mation for the QB dumping the ball on the run. This extends to running backs, ^ too. You'll see them get flipped, tossed, ^ A clothes-lined, and even pile-driven by * V beefy defensive lineman and lineback- ^0 ^ ers. You can fight back, though— in _ 4 addition to the usual turbo button ■ (which can only be used once per play), NFL Fever also has a “lower your shoulder and put a hit on some- body” button. The rushing game is accurately difficult, meaning that you'll have a hard time gaining huge chunks of yardage up the middle. Running outside the tackles seems a little bit easier-I was able to break off significantly bigger gains in this fashion. Unlike MADDEN however, it's diffi- cult to perform small jukes on the defenders by jiggling the gamepad, which isn't sensitive enough in the game. PASSING GLANCE A s you get used to the play style of NFL FEVER, the action starts making a whole lot of sense. The game's passing model is remarkably strong. Getting a quick read on the pass coverage feels great, and it’s much easier to get the ball to a player at the right point in his pass route, because the receivers’ strong cuts let you know when it’s time to throw the bail. Just like real life. The play-calling mechanism of NFL FEVER features two very helpful and elegant design touches. The play-calling screen has an option named Millen's Call, after the TV announcer Matt Millen. Selecting this box will spit out several recommended plays, given your down situation. Very helpful for less-experienced players or when you need to call a quick play. The second bit of play-calling goodness occurs when you come to the line of scrimmage against a computer opponent. By press- SEE THE HOLE, EXPLOIT IT NFL FEVER’S running game is appropriately realistic-it’s easy to gain a few yards up the middle, but hard to gain more than that MAKE LIKE ELWAY Passing has never been easier in a PC football game. By making hard cuts on their pass routes, receivers signal you when it’s time to chuck the pig. FOOTBALL FOR THE COOROiniATIOni-iMPAIREO T here was a time when you could play a football game without any of those fancy arcade reflexes. That was a simpler time, a time when a man’s brain was more important than the size of his thumbs. Thankfully, there’s hope for the coor- dination-impaired coming from the most unlikely of places: EA Sports. FANTASY FOOTBALL tran- scends the typical ESPN Sportcenter.com rotisserie-league fare by combining all the niftiness of a Web-based fantasy league with some innovative new twists. Most fantasy football leagues pit human- drafted teams against each other every week, relying on the players’ cumulative statistical performances to determine the winners. EA's ver- sion, hosted entirely online, allows you to draft your own teams and then simulate their performance rather than to rely on real-life stats. The Simulator mode, which uses Madden’s sim engine, also allows you to make half- time adjustments and tweak your offensive strategies. The FANTASY FOOTBALL site will feature expert advice and analysis, as well as public leagues with national rankings and major prize packages. FRONT OFFICE FOOTBALL 2000 (FOF), the sequel to the finalist for CGl/i/'s 1998 ing the C button on your controller, you can see all of your receivers (like MADDEN, sans the receivers’ passing icons), but more importantly, you can see the diagram for the play you’re about to run superimposed in the bot- tom-left corner of the screen. Even bet- ter, if you audible, pressing this same button will show you the schematic of the audible play. NFL FEVER does lack some of the frills that MADDEN boasts. You can practice with your team, play through a complete season, or jump straight into the playoffs, where the game seems to get more intense. But the game lacks LAN play, career mode, and the Great Games mode of MADDEN. Still, NFL FEVER is a remarkable first effort and a fine game. It's strong enough that the contrast in style between it and MADDEN shou ld ma ke for some interesting debates. ESHJ Sports Game of the Year award, emphasizes business management over X’s and Q’s. Playing as a General Manager, you are responsible tor set- ting ticket prices, negotiating player contracts, and even managing the TV contracts and concessions prices for your franchise over the course of many years. Thanks to EA Sports, which purchased the game earlier this year, FOF is licensed by the NFL, meaning that you'll be managing authentic NFL teams and real-life players. EA Sports will be making this surprisingly engaging, highly cerebral game available this fall. Fantasy Football EA Sports. $20 sign-up www.easparts.com/fantasyfoot- ball/ Front Office Football 2000 EA Sports, $20 sign-up www.easports.com OCTOBER 1 993 • wwiiv.coniputerganiing.com • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD 130 New Races New Weapons New Gameplay New Graphics You are now entering a new dimension in gaming... How Does a Klingoo Feel at the Helm of a Capital Ship? With more than 2 years of development refinement. Star Trelf : Klingon Academ/' provides the most realistic capital ship experience available. ^ As a Klingon, expect run-ins with competing races, both traditional '' and original to Klingon Academy. You may even have the pleasure of destroying the Enterprise Itself. >■ Experience the first true use of 3D space terrain provldli^ rich rmsslon variety throughout the single-player campaign. >- Ships move and feel lihe true capital ships - not fighters. >■ Quality of ship's crew affects the performance of your warship and Improves with experience. >■ Fire weapons simultaneously across multiple firing arcs. ^ 20 weapon systems. Multiplayer mode (IPX, TCP/IP) Command your warship with sHIII anU daring; or Control multlpln firing arcs with the gunnery you'll find yourself caugnt defenseless In the chair Interface. Order boarding parties to Thollan Wen. capture enemy snips. Get the guide General Chang gives his cadets to turn them into Klingon || ^ warriors! Available at hookstores, software stores and online. Fight In dense nebulae clouds, maneuver through asteroid belts, battle within the accretion dish of a blach hole and more. www.sybex.com SUfJHU' WHHOtt ' SefiwKii-- tttfhilK^'/ f':-:' . . ... HWid'wpfcyftaiitelmB. PvliomolUiiiion Suildti&Siiiinme. Inyknaih, @oridQ1999PoiunmnlPkliiie}.MiigliliKiioin.il^ngtilirescired. Mleihciiapfiighn ond liodigariioic the propertfgliheiiiesetilinbmcic COMING SOON TO: tlY CAMEKS. FOR CjUIEKE. "This game looHed hot, and Is easily the best looHing space combat game we have seen on the PC to date." ■ EarffeFan Online Featuring Christopher Plummer as General Chang and David Warner as Chancellor GorHon, reprising their roles from star Trelf VI-. The Undiscovered Country^' A new race In the Star Tre/i® universe! Fight the Sha' Kurlans wherever the battle leads you. Over 40 ships are exclusive to Star Treli» Kllngon Academy'" and are brand new to the Star Treh'^ universe. COMING SOON www.lnterplay.com/Mingon It's time to leave the vastness of space behind and play out your destiny in the biggest land battle this universe has ever known. Because in Star Trek; New Worlds, you'll experience this classic universe on land in full 3D. It's the year 2292. A Romulan experiment gone awry has launched several previously undiscovered worlds, rich in mineral resources, into the cosmos. Playing the Federation, Romulan or Klingons, you'll counter a flurry of confrontations, territorial disputes and aggressive advances as the race heats up to colonize these worlds before your intergalactic nemeses gain a stronghold. www.interplay.com/stnewworlds STAR TREK® New Worlds™ Software© 1999 Interplay Productions. All Rights Reserved. ©, ™ &® 1999 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Star Trek and New Worlds and related marks are tradmarks of Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Interplay, the Interplay iogo, ’By Gamers. For Gamers.", 14 Degrees East, and the 14 Degrees East logo are tradmarks of Interplay Productions. All Rights Reserved. Binary Asylum and the Binary Asylum logo are tradmarks of Binary Asylum. Exclusively llcensend and distributed by Interplay Productions. Interact with hundreds of never-seen-before Star Trek structures and vehicles Play 3 familiar Star Trek races and interact with 2 new alien species Research, develop and control natural resources to expand and develop your colonies Fully 3D. rotatable and zoomable landscape Intense multiplayer combat for up to 6 players yers ^ I STARTTREI-^^ — - New wofiLdS front Sybex. Ask for il ;il your local bookstore or software store or visit www.sybex.coni. Finally, a starship naval combat game i.yian Tiger Heavy Cruiser - I’towcss ; Hisni(ilor 2x l-lSCis X l‘liaser-l! Experience a 30 year campaign that takes you from Lieutenant Commander of a Frigate to a Rear k Admiral in control of a task force including Destroyers, Heavy » Cruisers, and Dreadnoughts. Br , STARTREK®:SlameelComnund'“Software©l999lnlerjilayPiO(Juc1ions. AIIRignisReserved.’“.®Sei999 Paiamoui * Ptttures. All flighls Reserved. Portions ©1979-1999 AraariJIo Oesifln Bureau. All Rights Reserved. Potlitw © Quicksilvi Sohware. Inc. All Rights Reserved. Some elements based upon the board gan«s created by Amahtio Design Bureau. Star Trek a registered trademark ol Paramount Pictures and Siartleei Command and lelaled marks are trademarks ol Paramount Picture All flights Reserved. Inierplay, the Interplay logo, 'By Gamers. For Gamers.’. 1A' East and ihe 14' East logo are Irademarks i Interplay Productions. Quicksilver Sotiware arid the Quicksilver Sollwaie logo ate Irademarks ol Quicksilver Sottware, Inc. Exclusive licensed and dlstdbuted by Interplay Produclions. All other trademarks and copynghls are Ihe property ol their lespeclivo owners. 4 DisnipUif-S 3 I’iiaser Is 6 1‘iiascr 2s 3 T'rai.iors 6 Transporter Size Class: 3 worthy of the name Star Trek Using data from the best-selling strategy board game, Star Fleet Battles; Starfleet Command" puts you in the captain's chair for the most amazing real-time space combat experience ever created. Dozens of multifunctional display panels offer instant access to every critical system. Weapons, Shields, Sensors, Transporters, Marines, Mines, Engineering, Science, and Energy Management. Every good tactician knows there's a fine balance between speed and raw power. Choose from four classes of ships and over 50 3-D rendered hull designs. COMMAND www.interplay.com/sfcominand.html All shots iirc actual gameplay screens. Numerous multi-player options include 'Pass the Tribble’ and cooperative Starbase Assault with up to 6 players. Or go head-to-head via modem or serial cable. 4 I’liolon Torpedoes S I'ransporter Size Class; 3 J Pledge allegiance in the Klingon Empire, the United Federation of Planets, the Romulan Star Empire, the I tydran Kingdom, the I.yran Star Empire, or the Corn Confederation. Multiple tutorials and technicals will introduce the controls necessary for you to take command. READY TO TAKE COM/V\AND? From Starship captain to fleet admiral, this is the one strategy guide you'll need to emerge victorious! Available at bookstores, . software stores and online www.sybex.com smEx. : ™ or ® Psygrosis Ltd. All rights reserved. Designed and developed in Germany by Wings Simulations, Panzer Elite'* is poised to take the high ground as the most realistic platoon-based WWII tank simulation yet seen for your PC. Germans Do Details Models created from original tank blueprints and accurate measurements from actual working WWII tanks at the Panzer Museum in Munster, Germany. Germans Do Powerful Game Engines Woods are made of individual trees and bushes. Different terrain affect movement and performonce. Destructible buildings, trees and foliage provide realistic tactical options. Germans Do interfaces Fully supports ony combination of mouse, keyboard and joystick. The Tank-Mouse Interface and pop-up windows allow easy access to all necessary controls and commands. Germans Do Historical Accuracy 80 historically accurate missions covering Normandy, Sicily, Italy and North Africa. Feotures Instont Action, Single Mission and Full Campaign modes of play. Germans Do More Than Just Tanks Featuring over 80 different units including infantry end 22 playable tonks. Germans Do Realism With over 30 realism settings. Panzer Elite accommodates the distinct needs of novice and hard-core players. However, Germans only play while using the highest reolism settings. Germans Do Network Play Supports up to 6 players over LAN, modem or serial link, 4 players via Internet. Atari Arcade Hits I Austin Powers: Operation Trivia BeatDown Dragoon: The Battles of Freaerick the Great F-1G; Aggressor Fighting Steel Jeff Gordon XS Racing Official Formula 1 Racing PGA Championship Golf: 1999 Edition Stuka Dive Bomber Unreal Mission Pack: Return To Na Pali Ultimate 8-Ball SsT'- the handful of animated cut scenes intended to stitch the game’s sections together sound like a David Mamet play as performed by some- one with Tourette’s...” Charles Ardai, reviewing KINGPIN: LIFE OF CRIME Dungeon Keeper 2 NEED FOR SPEED HIGH STAKES Another checkered flag! Railroad Tycoon II: The Second Century Might & Magic VII: For Blood and Honor 4.5 154 Need for Speed; High Stakes 5 143 HOW DO WE RATEP We Review Only Finished Games — No Betas, No Patches. Outstanding The rare game that gets it all right. A must-play experience. Very Good Worthy of your time and money, but there are draw- backs. agf. Average Either an ambitious design with major flaws, or just vanilla. COMPUTER GAMING WORIO • cgw.gemespnt.i • OCTOBER 1939 139 Jrom (inprcssjons-Cjame^^ the makers of ^aesaru ||j',, comes f^araohj the most ^ ir^pressive dty-bull^ing. - ^me ever made. . Can'c...movc...arms...slo\ving...dcnvn. How many ships do they chink wc can ram in one day? That's it, I’m taking this up with chc union. Immerse yourseir in the !;? grandeur 'of ancient g^ii the m^stenous kingdom, ioegide the river Nile. a ^^-wiiization for the centm ;^'^^iiou pass along your^ '* r ' « ■ ■ ' ^ .^tieg:|fe^ Trom generation tbj.' ^etittt'atio'n, creatingan The Pharaoh’s palace is filled with loot, They'll never notice if a little i: might anger the Gods, but you me rowing in a galley all day. Next stop, the Beer Maker's. Stealing is thirsty work. missing! piiwaiiW^i Wa^ the largest monunjejics-to^-rasd^- • assembled brick-by-bricfc Nevkr a' , city -building g^c been' so beautiful! Qeer Jvia>^cr Shay whacya will, I gotta keep cashting niy brew. The Pharaoh dcmaiishetl the bcshc. And that’s what heesh gonna get. Hail Oshirish, may the barley crops grow shtrong! Adjust tile difficulty - froinieasq^to'exp^ and use tlie same point and-chck^iniSi^-apt asCae^rlll. ' Nile Parmer Nobody tokl me chat when the Nile floods ] have CO work on the pyramids. Why didn’t I go CO embalming school like Mom wanted? AVAILABLE FOR (4 ERRS T' 0 O I O • Mac T;d-o I o '*4.^ - 'w,w')Wssier);isi(u3fes.porti(>'wi'\y.pi^^^^^^ -d 1999Si^Oii-Un^ift-‘li!!R)gliliRKqi5d.jWj;WjaSlpdi(h.-^rjs5i()ns>1l«!ciNBu^^ ’ha?jOfra/ij Impesslols Gjni*^%i^K8ils5'Jr'feg^leff3 (fSdijjafts oj Sfen^n-lmeJFit.TtB Mfclowli •m ^'-w. r*H4-. '■”9t^liiii»-...-.^..0nm n #t “A-v-Vl ^ ^ ''* W. If You VVarit, ou C an 5e5 urie VVitK ^our Hairless CLat. SPORTS / RACING REVIEW NEED FOR SPEED: HIGH STAKES Is a Dream of a Racing Game Auto Eroticism Awash in a Sea of Options HIGH STAKES offers so many different racing modes it borders on ridiculous. There are well over a dozen tracks that can be run normally, backwards, mirrored, or mirrored and II backwards. There are 1 3 cars to choose from, with new cars available for download on the Web (www.earacing.com). The new career mode is an awesome addition to single- player gameplay, featuring a financial model that requires you to win circuits of several races to advance. As you win, you'll earn money that you can use to repair your vehicle or to upgrade to a better car. The Hot Pursuit races (introduced last time around) are still a blast, especially when the police use coordinated tactics to trip you up, Then again, I really NEED FOR SPEED: HIGH STAKES reviewed by Greg Fortune also available as multiplayer options, so you can get online with your friends and play "cops and robbers," run a single race or a tourna- ment, or race for pink slips, The game is supposed to let you partici- pate in a beta test for EA's upcoming Internet racing, but as of press time in late July, EA still hadn't gotten that running. Let’s Rock The most amazing thing here besides the tremendous selection of racing modes is how well they are all executed. There are no turkeys here. Whether you want to outrun the police, be the police, race alone or in a pack, you will not be disappointed. The Al opponents are challenging, but not invincible. The tracks are beautiful, well designed, and fun to race again and again. The cars' driving model is a perfect blend of a simulation and an arcade game - made even better with stellar force feedback effects. The result is cars that behave the way you'd expect them to in varied conditions, without being so pure that the game is inaccessible to novice drivers, A note to the purists out there: You aren’t going to be able to micromanage your cars in NFS;HS. You can buy upgrades to your cars to affect acceleration, braking and handling, and that's about it. But as far as I'm concerned, if I wanted to adjust the toe-in on my front wheels, I’d be out working in an alignment shop - not playing computer games. N eed for speed: high stakes is a racing enthusiast's dream. With a new financial model, new exotic cars, over a dozen tracks, and more rac- ing modes than a Ferrari has gears, this game truly has something for everyone. Sporting an absolutely beautiful engine that is balanced nicely between arcade and simula- tion, NFS:HS is a blast to drive. With a number of new sin- gle- and multiplayer enhancements, it's easily the best ver- sion yet of this stellar racing series. WHICH WAY DID HE GO, GEORGE? The replays are great to watch and to point out where you blew your line (and why that tree ate your car). CGW RATED PROS Beautiful engine; awesome track seiectinn; lote of cars; more racing modes than you can shake a stick shift at. CONS Creates unhealthy desire for cars we can’t have. The Final Lap enjoyed being the police and getting Where other publishers would have split this much gameplay to drop a spike strip in the path of a info a game and two expansion packs, EA once again delivers a $100,000 McLaren FI. Call it envy if product that offers more than anyone could have expected. The you like. only thing 1 wish EA had included is a bag of coffee. This is one Honestly, I could think of only one of those games race that was left out - a demolition that will have you derby - and using a Ferrari for that up at two in the seems pretty stupid anyway. The good morning, with your news, in any case, is that you can significant other damage these cars now - though the screaming at you effect is more a cosmetic one than to come back to one you'll notice on the track. bed. Mine did. I All of the single-player modes are didn’t. Requirements: Pentium 2D0 (or P16B w/3D acceleraliif canl), 32MB MM, 5DMB hart drive space. Recoinmentled Requirements: P26B (orP233 «/3D aoMlaralDf cart), 35bMB hart drive spaa. 3D Support Gflde, DiredBa Multiplayer Support modem, serial play. IPX netwoit lirtenisi: 1 CD per player. Publisher: Electronic Arts • Developer: Electronic Arts * Price: S49.95 * Contact: www.neeElforspeed.com lamliorgliiiii.itg.iiet/ Official M Lamborghini site. Weil-designed ^ and informative, g vrww.needforspeed.coni/hs.jic/v va nityplatc.asi) Create an NFS vanity piate for your wallpaper! ESRB Rating; Everyone mmm.gtgBmu.iom] Surveillance. Tailing. Deliveries. Heists. And serious 70's muscle cars. Film your own classic 70's car chase using incredible Director-Mode Mission-based gameplay plunges you deep into a life of crime. PC CD ROM 1 1. IRHK M THE lUCES ARE ALIGNING. EHE ARMIES ARE GATHERING. THE APOCALYPS«ijl^PPROACHlNG. AND PEM:E is curled up in the fetal POSlTlia]a.^HIAlPERING. I I LOt)K.S LI ICE TURN'BASED STRATEGY GAMING IS ABOUT TO GET A SHOT I N THE ARM. . .IT Wl LL HELP SOLIDIFY AND STRENGTHEN THE GENRE." - IGNPC.COM “ INCREDIBLY DETAILED GRAPHICS MAKE PHIS THE MOST LIKELY CONTENDERTCTTETE FANTASYTURN-BASED CROWN." - PC ACCELERATOR C liiiive uutuiiiuticiikst combat) nr tunt* iiused tactical cciniliat. Cnnjure over I III! spfILs spread ns er 7 spheres ol' roadie. Attempt to ibrge strategic alliances with 12 dlCl'ereiit races, including humaas, elves, i'rusUinKs. ores, dwarves and the undeud. Over lUI) dItTerent ilKhtin)! units und mure than 50 unii)ue hentes that uruw in experience und power. The wise ones have seen an omen of doom in the fonn of a star in the night sky. The age of peace has ofllcialiy been bludgeoned to death. I he ellhi court lies in ruin, and two factions have emerged. Battle flags have been raised, and silence has enveloped the land. This is the calm before the storm. You cannot chotKse to avoid the apocalyptic battle that looms on the horizon. Hatred and the need for revenge hu^■e a very long shelf life. Make critical (lecUlatvi involving siege units, heroes, uipturcd towns, mugic .spells, immunities, and stcaitli. Bullle your way ihruugh viist upunurcu.s. breach the iiuler wail in cily sieges and explore dark dungetins, www.ugc«rwcmiiers.coiii REVIEW ACTION i Kill Your Way tB the Top in Xantrix's Shooter Blood on the Streets T he role of brutality in art and entertainment has been argued over at least since Plato, and the phe- nomenon itself is, of course, older still. Nothing in Saving Private Ryan is more brutal than the descriptions of battle in The Iliad, heaven knows, And nothing in a modern computer game is, either. Yet the arguments rage on, especially in the wake of a senseless modern tragedy like the shootings in Littleton, Colorado earlier this year. Games like Xatrix's KINGPIN do little to calm things down. Set in an urban environment peopled with ■I " ' ' " thugs and junkies, KINGPIN is one long killing spree punctuated with occasional puzzle solving. The plot is opaque at best - a throwaway about one thug seeking revenge against a bunch of others - and the action is bloody in the extreme. Toss in a soundtrack by bad-boy rappers " Cypress Hill and lots of explicit, gory visuals and what you've got is a poster boy for the anti-DOOM crowd. But here’s the snag; the game is actually quite good. Not perfect, no - but so much better than the average first-person shooter that no objective observer could fail to see it. So what is a gamer to do? If the level of gore disturbs you more than the quality of the game entices you, you don't have to put the disk in the drive, and you don't have to let your kids play it either, (There's also a “low violence" mode, if you're the sort of person who likes halfway steps.) But for the many of us, KINGPIN has enough to offer that it more than makes up for the more egre- gious excesses of which the game is guilty. KINGPIN: LIFE OF GRIME reviewed by Charles Ardai STREET SMART The MFCs may not be the brightest thugs an the planet, but they will help you take down enemies like this. ■' h i if -i 1 ' -'K-TriiiTfe-r- i ... * ate.,' fc- ■ ' . : -d'. r. .M ...Arf;-., - ,.auli a. THAT'S GOING TO LEAVE A MARK A ssmirle of tlm game’s most extreme vlo- lEflcf^Scnt to resoHG a mobste'r'sjcitlne^pfid girlfriend, ypu fiitd'hBr ivilli lier head chopped off. Pipe Dreams To set the tone, the game opens with not one but two savage beatings. The first you receive; the second you inflict. Your first weapon is a length of lead pipe, found in an alley. With money scavenged from your victims’ pockets you buy your second, a crowbar, which you then use to beat up a couple of rent-a-cops guarding a warehouse. This gets you a shotgun, which you use inside the warehouse. And so on, through level after level of increasingly fast- paced combat against foes ranging from ordinary street toughs (with and without pit bulls) to well-protected mafiosi. The environment in which this all takes place is astonishingly rich, and the combat itself is correspondingly detailed. There are no generic locations here - every brick wall, tunnel, tenement rooftop, sewer, and dock is rendered with great care - and the combat is not generic, Every shot you fire that hits an enemy hits him or her somewhere specific, and the impact is reflected in the wound that CGW RATED PROS Suspenseful and engrossing game- A, play in a novel vv setting; great visuals, atmos- phere, and level ms Four-letter words slathered on with a trowel; violence so graphic it makes Saving Private Ryan look like Mary Poppins. results. A pistol shot to the thigh will result in a bloody leg and a crimson trail on the ground as your victim limps away. A machine gun burst to the head from up close, on the other hand, will leave a decapitated corpse on the ground and lumps of flesh scattered for some distance around. Not all of the fighting is left in your hands, In each of the game’s seven sequences you have the opportunity to hire fellow thugs to fol- low you around and do your bidding. Without fail they end up dying, but before they give up the ghost, a combination of your orders and some rudimentary Al enables them to fight on your behalf, giving you a chance to prevail in some of the game's otherwise lopsided battles. And fighting's not all there is to do in KINGPIN (although it is the II 233. 64MH RAM, 570MB hani drive space, 30 acceleration lequiieil.- Rncommsnded Requirements: Pemkim II 300. 128 MB RAM. 570MB inl-ilffn space, 3D acosleialion repired. 3D Support: Most Glide and Open GL cards.- Muttiplayer Support Most Glide and Open GL canls. Publisiier: Interplay • Deveiuper: Xatrix Entertainment • Price: $49.93 - Contact: www.interplay.coni ESRB Rating: Mature; animated blood, gore and violence: strung language (low violence version includedl PEViEW vast majority of what you do}. Each sequence contains goals beyond the killing, and attaining those goals requires creativity on the player's part. Whether it’s as simple as manipulating water pumps to uncover a sunken corpse or as complicat- ed as shutting off the electricity in a refinery to enable a safe- cracker in your employ to get past the fence guarding a safe, the puzzles here are well inte- grated with the story. Although it's not always clear why your character agrees to go on the quests other characters send him on (“Won't you rescue my kidnapped brother?" asks one complete stranger, and you do), the quests add struc- ture and drama to the game in a way that the game's overarching plot never quite does. Thug’s Bugs The absence of a stronger top-level plot is a shame, but it's not a serious problem; after all, how many shooters have any real story at all? More of an issue is the game's dialogue, which was scripted by someone with a tin ear for, but also a love of, profani- ty. Everyone you meet, friend or foe, greets you by cursing in your face, and the handful of animated cut scenes intended to stitch the game's sections together sound like a David Mamet play as performed by some- one with Tourette's Syndrome. How many times can the word "fuck” be used in a sin- gle sentence? More than you can imagine. The only reason it's not offensive is that it sounds so silly. Other problems include Al limitations for the NPCs; your men sometimes get stuck on objects (one of mine spent ten minutes hopping around, trying to follow me out a window I'd just jumped from), and they often make stupid mistakes in the middle of a firefight. There are also various problems with the graphics (enemies vanishing into walls or hovering in mid-air, characters’ skin rippling like a waterbed) as well as with the load times - restoring a saved game can take forever. And how does it add to the realism of the game for every woman in it, from pumped-up assassins to strung-out crack whores, to have identical enormous breasts? But this sort of micro-criticism, though valid, is a distraction, much as abstract criti- cism of the game’s level of violence is. What makes KINGPIN so satis- fying is that it succeeds in immersing you in an environ- ment, much more than most other games have. As stunning as HALF-LIFE is, for example, I've never felt as deeply immersed in its locations as I did in the impeccably rendered and convincingly familiar city streets of KINGPIN. And as scary as HALF-LlFE's headcrabs are, KING PIN's filthy rats and vicious dogs and even more vicious humans gave me a more visceral jolt, KINGPIN offers an effective and memorable thrill ride, well paced and well designed. More than that I don’t believe is fair to demand. When did we start expecting to get our models of moral conduct from our comput- er games? All I can say is that you won't find any here. But if what you're looking for is a compelling piece of entertain- ment, that you will find. Assuming your stomach is as strong as your trigger finger is fast, KINGPIN will blow you away. On the Defensive _ How. scared are game designers . | and publishers about the new anti-- ; violence backlash? Plenty, Judging j ; from this "editorial" by KINGPIN : designer Drew Markham which all ' ! new users must read before com- pleting their installation: I rr tight of the recent acts of youth-related violence that have taken place across America we thought that you should know how ; KINGPIN was initially conceived. KINGPIN was never intended for children. This is a game with mature themes made for a mature audience. There was never any attempt to market or influence children to buy KINGPIN. In fact, magazines in which advertise- ments ran were carefully selected to only have an adult audience. We also took special care to insure that the “Mature” rating appeared very prominently on the package as well as within the game. As the creator of KINGPIN i sought to make something that would appeal to a mature audi- ence. My influences in making this game were mostly cinematic, and f : wanted to explore those themes : and share them with other adults ' who have similar tastes. As a par- I ent, I also realize what my role is in protecting my child from influ- ences that might have a disturbing effect. I certainly do not consider : KINGPIN appropriate fare for my - child, but I cannot sit back and hope that the government or some • public interest groups will protect her; that responsibility is up to my wife and myself alone. As soon as we as a society abdicate our per- sonal responsibility towards pro- ; tecting and caring for our children : we give up our basic freedoms as Americans; freedoms that have been hard fought and even harder won. As parents, we must look into our own backyards and see what our children are doing and become ; more personally involved with their activities, ideas and friends. -mrw.pianefkingpin.com The premier news site for KINGPIN- .S related happenings. •§ S Kingpin.pcgame.com A central location for KINGPIN mods, cheats, tweaks and strategies. COMPUTER EAMING WORLD : g w . g a m e s p a t . I • OCTOBER 1399 ‘ is gonna; rock! Choose your Itacernate wisely^ because (rh^'re! the iojtily one wkchinsypur ba^ Any nobody knows who will be ieflt ^tanoinS bricfe, the smoke dears. For registration, contest rules ; and regulations, go toi Myli/lg&$f3Rlft0R3XOIVl mGamlng ZONE Mictosoft 0 1 999 Hsstiio Ifitetaclive, Inc. iUI RlQhls fleserveO. MIcroPross Is i FASA Corporation. MechWairior. BatlleTecIi, SattleUech, and 'Mecb Microsotl Corporation. All RIplils Reserved. Used under license. All ‘Actual model: FLSTF Fatbov i 1 ■n midLc^j mt i/ ■ tdurhament to ever hit M ■ gJLl Be the Prince, It s everything you hoped for, and like nothing you expected. Remaining' Faithful to its time-honoroil legacy. Pri/hr oj Pci\1) elevates the Prince 1^.5^ to new heights with the Fast-pacetl combat oFa Fighting game and the depth and challenge Nights ad\'eniure. Stunning animation. Advanced 30 technology’. Completely :n. It s all here as \ ou )ourne\’ bach to exotic I2th Century Persia and answer the game’s most compelling question: Is it m you ;ame Windows'® 95/98 Journov through 7 on\'ii'onineniji iucliuling uii opiiloi Pcrsiati palace, a lumaslic dirigible, ami 'ribetan ciill'! Use ilei'i precision ami razor sharp liming to destroy count- less loes-eac.h with combat Al that aditists in real lime. Stealth ami agility are your only hope against huiulreih ol traps like sc\’thes, uuilloiinos and spriiiir-load spikes. ^ollr bow and euc.haniei.1 arrows can silence distant opponents and solve on^rontneiiujb^zzles. ;/VlDlA in you REVIEW RPG/AI3VENTURE New World Computing Chooses Story Over Looks Seventh Heaven N ew World Computing’s MIGHT AND MAGIC series soared back to prominence in early 1998 with the release of MIGHT AND MAGIC VI: THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN. While it provided gamers with an expan- sive world, dozens of quests, and addictive character develop- ment, it lacked a compelling plot, and ultimately became tedious- ly combat-intensive. Instead of going back to the drawing board. New World Computing opted to weave a more involving storyline and to tweak the game's engine in response to gamers' most com- mon complaints. The result of NWC’s machinations is MIGHT AND MAGIC VII: FOR BLOOD AND HONOR, a successor that offers significant gameplay improvements, but graphics that look a bit dated. MIGHT AND MAGIC VII: FOR BLOOD AND HONOR reviewed by P. Stefan "Desslock" Janicki Archie and the Ironfists Picking up after the end of the wars depicted in NWC’s spin-off HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC III, the plot of FOR BLOOD AND HONOR also wraps up a few loose ends from MIGHT AND MAGIC VI. With good King Roland Ironfist pre- sumed lost in Enroth, his wife Catherine has established unstable peace on the neighboring continent of Erathia. White her subjects suspiciously watch the forces of the bordering eiven nation, Roland's brother Archibald has become the guildmaster of the death-worshipping necromancers; he has resumed his scheming ways by hatching a plot against the realm’s virtuous sorcerers. Each of the leaders has an agenda, giving MMVil a more complex plot than its predecessors. After completing a tutorial set on a small island and winning a title of nobility, you can freely explore Erathia at your own pace, under- taking quests and either assisting or thwarting one of the political factions. Ultimately you’ll have to align with either the forces of light or darkness-but you can put off this decision until well into the game. Once you've made your choice, the game's interface will change to reflect your moral inclinations, and the game's plot will kick into high gear as the inhabitants of this world respond in kind. The different ethical paths also affect character development and significantly improve the game's replayabiiity. CGW RATED PROS EKpansive gaming worid; involving storv; solid tradi- Honal-st^e RPG with some new interface tools. Honal-st^e with some ☆ interface tc ☆ CONS Outdated graph- ics; mediocre 3D ☆ support; interface could use tweak- . ing; some areas are tediously com- hat-intensive. Long Live the Evolution While the developers clearly worked to make the background plot more relevant and involving in this episode of the series, MIGHT AND MAGIC VII is still primarily a hack-and-slash game, at least in compari- son to more story-driven RPG fare such as the FALLOUT games. Gameplay essentially consists of stomping monsters in order to gain enough experience points for your characters to evolve to god-like levels. While virtually all role-playing games emphasize character devel- opment to some degree, the MIGHT AND MAGIC games require players to drastically enhance their characters’ abilities in order to succeed. Killing tons of monsters to transform your characters from puny spark-tossing neophytes into two-handed sword flailing titans of destruction will occupy the bulk of your time. That said, character development and creation options have been beefed up by the addition of a new “grandmaster" proficiency level for skills, and by several non-human character races. Monks and thieves are back, and you can have goblin, eiven or dwarven party members, which should appease series veterans who were dissatis- fied with the limited party member choices in MIGHT AND MAGIC VI. The character classes are also more distinctive this time around, due largely to skill proficiency restrictions imposed upon the classes, which prevent all of them from eventually evolving into formidable archer/warrior/magic- user hybrids. Only a few spells and skills have been changed since MIGHT AND MAGIC VI, but the new additions vary the gameplay notably. Several of the new spells, such as Invisibility, Stun, and Berserk, give players additional options for dodging imposing con- frontations, and grant a welcome reprieve from the wall-to-wall combat that otherwise domi- nates exploration. ALL THE PRETTY HOUSES The automap now allows you to get the names of buildings, but the names aren't as descriptive as you might like. What goes on in the “pretty house"? Requirements: Pemium 133, 32 MO RAM. 375 MB hard drive spara. DiteclX B.1 campayble video card. 3D Support: Dirsrd 3D. Multiplayer Support: None. Publisher: The 3D0 Company • Developer: New World Computing • Price: $5D « Contact: www.3do.CDm ESRB Rating: Teen; animated violence. REVIEW Colored Lighting or Visible Colors? Although initially promised, 3D graph- ics hardware sup- port proved to be too impractical for the development team to incorporate into MIGHT AND MAGIC VI. Direct 3D support has been included in MIGHT AND MAGIC VII, but it isn’t implemented very well. While the Direct 3D version adds some nifty colored-lighting effects, it makes the colors of characters and creatures look less detailed and distinguishable than they appear in the software version. The soft- ware version is quite good, but looks out- dated compared to recent hardware- accelerated offerings, such as Verant's EVERQUEST. Sound effects have been completely recy- cled from MIGHT AND MAGIC VI, but the new musical score is excel- lent. There are no fatal bugs in the game, but there are a few graphical quirks with the Direct 3D version that can cause tex- tures to display incorrectly. The game occasionally crash- es with EAX 3D sound enabled, although that problem may be attributed to Creative Labs' drivers. In spite of the lack of groundbreaking improvements, FOR BLOOD AND HONOR is definitely a high point for the MIGHT AND MAGIC series. Although the game is still very combat-intensive (even for a role-play- ing game), there aren't as many creatures to contend with as there were in MIGHT AND MAGIC VI. Battle-adverse gamers can take advantage of the new spells and skills that allow gamers to minimize fighting and enjoy other activities. The game has been well designed with varied environments and lots of little rewards for diligent explorers. The devel- opment team has even thrown in an enjoy- able, although not particularly challenging, Magic the Gathering-[ype card game. Although the game's dated graphics and rigid interface may limit its appeal beyond fans of the genre, the fact that virtually every aspect of MIGHT AND MAGIC VI has been improved upon should more than satisfy fans. All told, MIGHT AND MAGIC VII is a stro ng ins tallment in a great RPG series. wvnv.xmission.comfVoTEoilick/mm'^.' Magic Grounds, a ^ ' great all-purpose MM7 site loaded with info. S vjww. 2 rsbin.com/arcQstmc:ii;e.htni Amazingly ofases- S sive site about the built-in Arcomage card game. ^ ■ ''n'jw.angeifire.camtea2fcoaljefk/caalieik.ntini Cool Jerk's RPG center. Good maps, hints, tips. Money is much easier to come by in MIGHT AND MAGIC VII than it was in THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN, and even if you run low on funds you can now do some trading or resort to stealing. The addition of crea- ture vs. creature battles, which are occa- sionally scripted but can also be instigated using the Berserk spell, adds some enter- taining depth by giving you fortuitous NPC allies, and by allowing monsters to devour the cardboard townsfolk that othenwise meander aimlessly through your realm. Interface Consistency or Stagnation? When MIGHT AND MAGIC VI added smoothly-scrolling 3D graphics and the option for real-time gameplay, veterans of the series were pleased to discover that the new game played much as the previous installments. Since MIGHT AND MAGIC VII adds the ability to move in turn-based mode, the game feels more than ever like the older games in the series - which is both good and bad. In some ways, it’s a shame that the series hasn't evolved to allow players to move individual characters separately, as even when performing dan- gerous tasks - such as scouting or lock- picking trapped chests - you’ll expose vul- nerable characters. It’s also impossible to view the gaming world without the obstruc- tion of the interface sidebars, even though there are keyboard hotkeys to access all interface items, There is still no option to allow you to view and navigate the 3D world more conveniently with the mouse, even though this has become standard in first-person perspective games, and was incorporated several years ago by RPGs such as Bethesda Softworks' DAGGERFALL. MIGHT AND MAGIC VII has, however, incorporated a few subtle but significant interface improvements. You can now access the inventory of your party members while inside a shop, allowing you to identi- fy, repair or sell items using the party mem- ber with the highest merchant skill. You can now right-click on the automap to identify the names of buildings - which unfortunately can be non-descript (and you can't add your own annotations). The auto-notetaking function has also been enhanced, as it now records the locations of master and grandmaster (but not expert) trainers if you’re informed of them by other char- acters, but not - inexplicably - if you happen to bump into those trainers on your own. ^^^WTpWsf^RTHY SUeCESSOR TO DIABLO^ IS NOT DIABLO 11™. Fully rulized 3~D environments. A vist ind beautiful world of castles. IpBBi^iuojeplis. ciynSFaiid forests.'Mile and female versions of the warrior, the thiejl. the priest. 'sorceterrOver ot evil beings. 321e3tels of dungtons.-Grisly swordplay ilid nund-blowing Jects, A ^aycr-coii^tt(dx*n!^ tptu the aoili^o zoom in. zoom out. and swivel 360 Jegreds; A le unprecedented ability to control two characters qucst^encrator for ncail T-wt« n^ultaneously. It will relesse your tortured soul from the devil and deliver you into the grip ot a far greater evil. ' '*0ie world is living under thcaign of a cruel' dragon^ Villagers arc turning to stone. Ariftics of skeletons, swarms of w|sp|. and lumbering ogres lurR everywhere. Evil is^rcadibg like a vine. And only you can stop it. Scattered across the kingdom arc seven ancient magic crystals. Without tncm. you have no hope. You will creep through dungeons, explore wilderness and Rladcs. and encounter traps, curses, and puzzlofi o^our quest to unearth the c rystals. It will take courage. It will take cunning. It will take yot^r mind entirely off Uiablo II Dttbtooe.the DiikilOBcIogoiBiitiic Dclp&iie logo ire tndcmirlci ofDcIpUac Sohwart Icic. CilberiagofDni; olDctclopcn. Ibc. All other trii)eini>luiBdliid«ni(^es iiepropeitica of their feapective owD(^i^997 Gaihcn WWW. REVIEW STRATEGY DUNGEON KEEPER 2 Is a Demonic Delight Devil’s Advocate DUNGEON KEEPER 2 L et’s face it: You’re evil. Just good, old-fashioned bad. But because you don’t virant to do serious time or have your mom get really, really mad, you don’t show it You swallow all those cutting remarks, return that lost wal- let, and when you're stranded on a mountain with your soccer team and with no hope for survival, you ■Mi» I I deceptively assent that of course you should wait for someone to actually die before you cannibalize them. And swallowing all that nastiness has left you with an achy-breaky, cold, black heart. Well, my amoral friend, what you need is DUNGEON KEEPER 2, Reveling in all that's good about being bad, DK2 is the best time a budding little monster can hope to have. And for all you goody-two-shoes out there, be warned: This game is so unbelievably fun you may find your- self slipping over to the dark side. reviewed by Robert Coffey Requirements: Pentium 166. 3ZM6 RAM. 30DMB herd drive space. Recamtnended Requiitsments: Pentium 266. 64MB RAM, 3B acceierster. 3D Support; Direct3D. 3D Support: Most Glide and Dpen CL cards. Multiplayer Support: Modem (2 players). IntemeL UN (2-4 players): 1 CD per player. Publisher; Electronic Arts • Developer: Bullfrog Productions • Price: $39.95 • www.dungeonkeeper.com ESflB Rating: Mature; animated blood, gore, and violence. Movin' on up! With equal parts SlMClTY-style man- agement and traditional real-time com- bat, DK2 is a hybrid game similar in some ways to CAESAR III but with a significantly more infectious and demented sense of fun. As a dungeon keeper, it is your job to carve out under- ground chambers, mine gold, and wage war against the self-righteous forces of good as you strive to work your way up to the sunlit world above. By “zoning” parts of your twisting subterranean keep as torture chambers, libraries, casinos, and more, you are able to attract creatures through magical gate- ways called portals. Managing the dark angels, rogues, and warlocks you attract is part of the game's challenge. Every creature has basic needs that must be met; You’ll mine gold to pay them, and build lairs and hatcheries so they can rest and eat. But the creature management goes deeper than that, with every creature having specific needs, desires, and “flower" above every creature's head quickly updates you as to the creature's mood, current needs, hit points, and experience level for easier management. Additionally, the game will alert you to any dis- satisfied creature so that you can immediately address its problems. As an omnipotent being, you can use the almighty hand that is your cursor to pick up troublemakers and relocate them or just slap them around to get them to do their jobs faster. Unlike a more traditional RTS like STARCRAFT, DK2 gives you no control over the creatures you have in your army. You have to build rooms and hope that you can attract the critters you’re looking for. This affects strategy in a vays: You have to decide lat your priorities are (do you build libraries so warlocks come and upgrade your spells?), and it forces you to adjust your approach when you attract a mix of creatures that don't exactly fulfill your wish list. While the lack of control over unit generation may frus- trate some gamers, more adaptable players will welcome the unpre- dictability. Fighting the Bad Fight But what's the point of having a pack of rat-visaged vampires if you can't go wreak some mayhem? Fortunately, DK2 has ample opportunity for battling the forces of good. Combat is a very unusual affair insofar as your lack of direct creature control extends to the battlefield as well. While all your dungeon denizens have different strengths and weaknesses in a fight (dark elves are great at long-range defense but vulnerable to melee combat), you can't really tell them CGW RATED PROS Great balance of management and combat; evil to its nasty littie core. CONS Can’t replay mis- sions; shortish campaign; can’t play as good guys; plodding multi- player. MOVING IN . • A horde of creatures invades ' j an enemy room. Note the y-Vy “flowers" above the crea- ^ tures’ heads indicating their A : health, skill level, desires : and disposition. 158 OCTOBER 1999 :gw.gi • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD Spcoiai Aitvi-rrisiiii; Sect special Advertising Section T 'he problem with computers is they always seem to have problems. That’s why more people in the world depend on Norton software to keep their PCs out of trouble than any other. And the smartest way to keep your computer working just became a no-brainer. Because now there's new Norton SystemWorks"‘2000, with k improved versions of all our award-winning programs. ^ Inside one box is everything your system needs to find and fix glitches. Zap viruses. Free-up unused space. Wisk away unneeded files. Guard against crashes. Even update your computer automatically. All in one smart suite, for one sweet price. 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It’s our exclusive method to insure our programs look, act, and work alike. (Okay, that might sound simplistic to you, but our competition is still baffled how we accomplished it!) In short, we’ve made a powerful software suite EDITORS’ )H0ICE„ 1999 Windows Magazine 1998 “...does even more to help Windows users deal witli the headaches of system crashes, missing or corrupted files, computer viruses, and otlier facts of Windows life.” —PC Week 4/99 ik IkMor, N'citldn ITilib'cs. ii)d WnFix arc U S. rcgL-JtuJ iraJciitiris of.'kmjniccCotpjr.iUoii and its siihvilianis .S'cmnn i(llK), Nonnn S\McniM'ork'.S\Tit.uiM; Mmio) Paso, kiftflriginal. Nnnon ’*th Smiccs and Zip-ll arc ir.idiinark. d Stnuiiliv IVitporauim and lb- suh- ^]dMril^.’Vlmdm>^karc!a.^lc^ltll^aIlcntlJ^i ofMiciusofl Corporalion in ihc I'niicdSlaiK and olhcrtouiiljii?.. Ollier iiriiHb and prodiinvaa' lr.uliin.irlc> of ihdr n^pctua' holdcr/s SYMANTEC. FEELING HORNY? The horned reaper is your most powerful creature, but it can only he summoned for short periods of time and for large amounts of mana. ^ V , 4m - - Hk?T' where to go and what to do. You can pick them up and drop them where you want them to be - trolls up front, skeletons behind the enemy - but you surrender control at that point. It can be frustrating at times, this powerless- ness. But there are ways you can influence a battle. You can cast thunderbolt spells to knock down the enemy, you can heal your troops, or you can set off a devastating inferno if you've claimed enough land to accrue the neces- sary mana to cast the speil. By keeping your troops healthy and in charge of a fight, you can prevent the morale lapses and chaos that will result in their fleeing. But the most efficient way to take charge is to possess a creature. Casting a posses- sion spell transforms you into the creature, taking you to a first-person view. In this mode you enjoy combat and morale bonus- es, though you lose the ability to cast any spells other than those that the possessed creature may have. Possession is also a great way to penetrate and destroy enemy defenses prior to a full-scale invasion. About those defenses: You've got a number of them yourself, and their skillful deployment is frequently crucial to victory, since you’re not the only tunneling terror. Spike traps impale invaders, lightning traps electrocute them, and magic doors attack them while denying entry. The catch is that the traps dip into your mana reserves for maintenance. Some 20-odd missions comprise the sin- gle-player campaign, a great mix of simple invasions, timed missions, and some spe- cial-objective scenarios as well. For exam- ple, one late mission asks you to capture, torture, and convert to your side three hero princes; the catch is that you have to take them all simultaneously or the others will escape. It's a delicate mission that hinges on planning and timing and is unlike any- thing in any other game. Unfortunately, you can’t go back and replay missions after completing the campaign, a real shame considering there are points in the game where you must select one mission from a set of three to advance. Multiplayer games are great fun, if a little long to resolve, but you still can't play as the good guys. A skir- mish mode lets solo players enjoy multiplay- er games alone. What really makes DK2 a joy to play is the design of the game, an unmitigated triumph of dark humor and creativity. Even in software mode the game is gor- geous, with beautiful lighting and spell effects and funny creature animations. But the real highlights are all the little things; The imps dragging fallen enemies back to your prison, the dominatrix mis- tresses torturing themselves to pass the time, the outstanding voice work of your dungeon-keeping mentor, the monster dancing when a casino jackpot is hit, and the sounds of the creatures, especially the maniacal cackling of a horde of homi- cidal skeletons. You could spend your time just watching this game and have a belter time than you would playing a host of others. I haven’t had a better time playing a game all year. REVIEW Better Homes and Dungeon Keeping O nce you can build prisons, build ‘em. Prisons will generate an unlimited number of skele- tons. These fearless warriors make great shock troops and are especial- ly effective at entering enemy terri- tory and taking out defenses. * Pluck higher-level enemies out of your prison and torture them. Keep them alive with heal spells until you convert them. This is a great way to augment the limited number of crea- tures your portals can generate. - • Bring a couple of imps along on big invasions so they can claim enemy rooms, allowing you to cast spells as you enter enemy territory. • Expand your dungeon in one direc- tion at a time. Nothing is worse than having to divide your forces because you’ve stumbled onto enemies in multiple locations. ■ Before breaching rooms packed with enemy units, build sentry or . lightning traps outside your planned entry point. Then knock out two sec- ; tions of wall so your traps can : attack more enemies, especially those support troops in the back. * Don't use your thunderbolt spell offensively. You’re better off using your spell points on healing your own units during battle so they sur- vive and earn experience. Instead, use thunderbolt defensively to knock down ranged troops until your forces can reach and attack them. www.gamespot.cam/fU(itures/ ^ diingeonkeepur Hints for the I original DUNGEON KEEPER S www.bullfrug.cum More on ^ Bullfrog games B SlLEMTHlfKTmff The latest simulation in the critically acclaimed SILENT HUNTER series recreates the desperate battles in the Atlantic which pitted Hitlerb infamous U-boat forces against British and American convoys. An impressive list of features, beautiful 3D graphics and unrivaled game-play reconfirm the SILENT HUNTER name as the .^aaa definitive underwater simulation! wvn IHiOAT COMBAT SIMUIATOR WINDOWS=° 95/38 CD-ROM Eilr.-!-! TO'.', Technical Consultant for Silent Hunter II, joined the German U-Boat army in October 1937. Over the course of the war he commanded the U-57 and the U-552. sinking 14 ships (82,000 tons] in the North Atlantic and along the North American coast. After the war Topp joined the West German Navy serving in several high-ranking staff positions with NATO. (jj Real-time ocean and weather special effects. ^rAdvanced scenario and patrol editqr ^ for unlimited gameplay. Ci) New hot and heavy wolf pack campaigns — join other U-boats as you attack convoys. fj) Multimedia presentation includes lush graphics, detailed interviews and interactive sub toun HUNTER II, Combat Simulator (p Texture-mapped 3D ships and aircraft can be viewed from multiple camera angles. Cp Enhanced dynamic campaign game is the most detailed and realistic environment yet seen in a naval simulation. TO ORDER: Visit your retailer or call; 1 > 800 * 716‘8503 inrith Visa/MC (North America only). 0999 flC MuiiiffltiJii Inc. and Us alfdeits and uxkms A) miiiis iner/w. The SSI logo is a itgislereti iinMiuik anu Silciii Hnniei and ine Digdal CemlaS Senes loads aie iradeniaits of TLC Mu-Timedia Inc. Wnfovs is a legisTe'ed Itademafk oi hademark cil MKTOsonCaipoialloninllieU.S aU’aiolhefcaunliies. AUQlhalraiKmaflearidieaisliitdlradeinaiksaiellKpidpeilyoniieiiiesiieclivetioldefs.FtiiscdiwpliOlogtaphisusedtydUpeiinissIdnliwnThetusleesoItlielmpuialWsUuseiifn.Lgndan (WMFIMMS1 IIJILEGENp' :hn GT Gfiii'n )OfK> o'nnubcnJcrclflii PlcblKhiuJ und Uicttibulcil By GT Intciociiyii Subwcirti Cuip ' ruspectivu comcunips. — '■ *. ' ■ ■■ ■'4 1 i, • . ,3 . L • • PlTJNDB1^#H' The time has come to seroe pcide. ^lory. And power. own needs, ' forced in the white hot crucible of technology, a new millennium of ijamin^ is born, plunge deep into the most encjuisite environments ever seen and taste the forbidden fruits of sorcery, treachery, unique multiplayer campaigns and artifacts of absolute povuer. / A new d Seize it. •OUICR. '--I*** - ii . V®! ?| ^ 1 S' Terror grips the land. The potuetful and evil Sorcerer Silver has abducted the women of Jarrahfor his treacherous purposes. Take control as David, a simple hero on a quest to find his beloved and to defeat the almighty Silver. But it won't be easy. In order to succeed you'll need to recruit allies, master swordplay, learn the art of magic, and venture through hostile worlds teeming with Silver's corrupt followers. Silver ■ Begin the quest, become the hero... Travel through hundreds of beautiful loeationSt rich in detail.. .and packed with danger Marvel at vivid special effects, powerful mapical spells, and the mighty weaponry that you'll acquire on your Journey Your mouse is your sword. Use it in real time combat to vanquish foes, including demons, dragons, and other insidious creatures AVAILABLE AT MAJOR SOFTWARE RETAILERS OCTOBER 1999 www,silvergame,com INFOGRAMES REVIEW WARGAME A Realistic WWII High Seas Slugfest Battleship Brawl E T he Designer’s Notes for FIGHTING STEEL (FS) make it clear that this is a game with focus. The focus is naval surface combat - no air- craft or submarines. The focus is the beginning of World War II, before Allied numbers and technology began to tip the scales. The focus is also tactical - battles start at the moment of contact. With such a narrow focus, you'd expect FS to do its thing really well. Indeed, the design succeeds in accurate- ly portraying the major fac- tors: visibility, weapon sys- terns and damage. However, the game feels rushed and incomplete. There are many bugs and glitches. For single player they are minor and don't affect play, but the multiplay- er problems are more serious. By the Rockets’ Red Glare Fighting steel's 3D engine gives you a panoramic view of the action. The ship mod- FIGHTING STEEL reviewed by Bob Proctor PREPARE TO DROWN A few minutes later, the Bismarck, surrounded by 18-jnch shell splashes, rolls over and sinks. Size does matter! els are accurate and the effects - explosions, smoke, fires and splashes - are good. Watching the turrets turn and belch forth a broad- side is exciting, and the sound is superb. One wish- es for a greater variety of effects, but that merely underscores the quality of what’s here. The 1 2 historical scenar- ios are either UK vs. Germany in the Atlantic or USA vs. Japan in the Pacific, For additional play, there's a Battle Generator that creates battles for instant play, as well as a Scenario Editor. Both have data for 97 classes of warships from the four nations, ranging from battleships to destroyers. Both the Editor and Generator create historical or fantasy battles. Historical means that you can’t use a ship that wasn't actually available at the time of the sce- nario, and that factors like crew quality, damage control, and dud rates follow his- torical patterns. In a fantasy battle, all restrictions are off and you can do anything you want. Want to see how Bismarck would fare against Yamato? Have at ill Unfortunately, due to the strict focus on the period before 1943, many of the USA's best designs are missing - including Iowa- class battleships, Alaska battlecruisers, Baltimore heavy cruisers, and the large CGW RATED PROS EKciting battles; good graphics and sound; open- ended design; a decent manual. CONS Very narrow focus; weak cam- paign game; assorted bugs. Sumner and Gearing destroyers that came late in the war. The interface works fairly well, but it uses too much screen space and requires more button click- ing than it should. The camera control panel, for example, could easily be half as big. The control win- dow takes up the bottom one-third of the screen, and forces you to switch among six command stations and from orders to status. There are several little annoyances that can slow you down but don’t affect play: Views don't stay centered when zooming; mes- sages are lost once they leave the screen; and the Ship Viewer (database) does not open to the cur- rently selected ship. Finally, there is Division Commander mode. This means that you command a single division of ships instead of all the divisions. In some of the larger battles, a force may be divided into four or five divisions, so many friendly ships may be out of sight, as well as beyond your control. This mode is best-suited for multiplayer, adding the elements of teamwork and identification to the mix. Will it Have Critical Mass? Potentially, FS could be as successful as SILENT HUNTER, another realistic game that had a scenario editor and sold a couple of expan- sion packs. However, FS has had a much less auspicious start and may not generate the sales to get the bail rolling. Let’s hope SSI gets on top of the bugs quickly, as this could be a fun game in both single- player and multiplay- er modes, wetcome.to/markgame Information tables and scenarios. ^ www.fightingsteel.cQm ’ The official site. www.german-navy.de/games.litm History and photos of WWII warships. Requirements: Penlljm 200 MHa 64MB RAM, 4x CB-HOM. 30 can! with 4MB merrorv, 175MB Iiub space. Rec sopfldcanl. 3D Support: BiiactX. Multiplayer Support: Up to four players over Inlemet or LAN; modein and direct catiie. Publisher; SSI • Developer: Divide by Zero • Price; $60 > Contact: www.SSIonline.CDrn ESRB Rating: E; animated violence. d Requirements: Penilurn 266MH^ travetabte GCTGBER 1399 • '.Damespol.CDm • CCMPUTEH GAMING WOHID 7J? lK.ft*tSpace. Inlerpliv. Ihe Interplay 1^3 antf 'By earner*, Fer Gamer*. ’ are Irailemarti* o( Interplay Production* Vriillon aoa I VsUftoa^ijo era tradtOHria^FVeliliDn. Inc. All other tradetrrarks and copyrights are property ol their rcspectrve o'enera All rights reserved. •WITH MUCH BIOOEfif'DOGS Encounter 70 ships of varying size and power. Attack up to 8 players via LAN or TCP-IP. Fly 30+ missions, including enemy strikes Take control of a Vasudan squadron and set a Then log onto Parallax Online to track your wllhin an asteroid field, and command up lo course to attack the massive Shivan fleet. online ranking. 11 squadmates in battle. Nebula effects. the likes of which have never been seen before, add a new dimension to your battle strategy. Encounter weapons of mass destruction including the 'beam weapons* that can penetrate and latterly carve gigantic capital ships in half. . . . Create your own single and multiplayer missions* with the easy to use FRED 2 (FreeSpace Mission Editor 2.) REVIEW SPORTS PGA Championship Golf 1 999 Edition Gives Us a Great Mouse-Swing but not Much Else Par for the Course CGW RATED POOS EMcellent mouse- swing option; Jk - easg-to-usB course architect CONS Different ☆ setup mic be apprei cartoony Different shot setup might not be appreciated; cartoony uisuals. Publisher; Interplay • Developer: Sierra Sports • Price: $30 • www.sierra.com < ESRB Rating; Everyone Requiremente: PeiiliJir 133. 32MB RAM, CD-ROM. BOMB tiard drive space. Recommended Requirements: Pentbim II 266, 64MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM, IIDMB hani drive space. 3D Support: Roce Multiplayer Support: Up le 64 players (In loumainenl mctlB) via woanal (TCP/IP), UN, mcdein. Swingers Only PGA CHAMPIONSHIP goes out of its way to be different. While alt the standard golfing options are available -1 2 types of play from medal through Ryder Cup format, an offline tournament mode, Internet multiplayer {restricted to www.won.netl . varied difficulty lev- els, seven courses including notables like Sahalee and Royal Birkdale, and so on - Sierra made some interesting tweaks to try to set its game apart. For starters, forget about lining up your shot via an aiming pole; here, shots are readied by rotating the golfer’s feet and choosing a proper setup, Strategy is very important. To succeed in this game, you'd better know what a draw is. I had a tough time dealing with this approach. Even as a student of the game, I found this intensive and limiting. It also turns golf into too much of a strategic chal- lenge. Maybe that's how it is for the pros, but most of us are recreational duffers who are doing great just to hit the ball straight. Another noteworthy addition is the TrueSwing 2000 mouse-swing option. A dramatic advancement on the "move mouse/swing club” concept introduced in FRONT PAGE SPORTS GOLF many moons ago, the revamped swing interface feels more natural than anything else on the market, Although it's still nothing like swinging a real golf club, it affords you unprecedented control over the computer equivalent. A remarkably easy-to-use course architect is also featured. Instead of building courses hole-by-hole, you start with a quick sketch of all 1 8 and can then fuss with the details to your heart’s content. This program might not be as powerful as that bundled with JACK NICKLAUS 6: GOLDEN BEAR CHALLENGE, but it is far more user-friendly. Physics are quite good, if not up to the exacting standards of the LINKS LS series. My one major qualm is with the lack of real breaks on the greens. Even the most pronounced slope doesn’t require much in the way of compensation. 1 hit almost every putt either straight or a fraction to one side with great success. In the Rough While crisp and clean, the distinctive graphics are too cartoony for my taste. Golfers are little more than animated mannequins, devoid of any facial features. Is that Tom Lehman or an extra from Pink Floyd's The Wall? Only Sierra knows for sure. Courses are nicely drawn, yet plain, Giving us seven to choose from was a good idea; giving us seven that are more or less identical was not. Audio effects are missing in action. There's no satisfying clunk as the ball drops into the cup, and the crowd's reac- tion to shots is a static-like murmur. Play- by-play is provided by Nostradamus and Jeane Dixon - uh, make that Mark Lye and Grant Boone - although the mistaken identity is forgivable since the twosome have an uncanny knack for predicting where your ball is going to drop. When one says that you might be heading for the rough, that's exactly where you're going. This proves to be very annoying and kills the suspense of watching the ball in flight. Unless you absolutely, positively can't leave home without a fantastic mouse-swing shot option and a honey of a course architect, there are better golf games out there than PGA CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF. JACK NICKLAUS 6 offers a far more attrac- tive package along with a com- prehensive course designer. LINKS LS 1999 offers an unsurpassed physics engine and gameplay. Sierra hits par with this game, but against excellent competition, that may not be enough for everyone. F or the longest time, I was afraid that Sierra’s PGA CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF 1999 EDITION had been lost in the shuffle. After all, the Sierra Sports division hasn't exactly been the poster child for corporate stability of late. Considering how FOOTBALL PRO '99 bit the dust in January, I wouldn't have been sur- prised if this promising release had also vanished into the ether. My worries came to naught when the game finally shipped in late May. But now that it has arrived, I realize my concern was for nothing. PGA CHAMPIONSHIP is one of those titles that is so nondescript it’s hardly there. You'll play the game a lot, maybe even incessantly for a few days - as I did - and then completely forget about it. This is the computer equivalent of the solid character actor who is instantly recognizable by face, but not by name. If ever there was a game that needed the American Express card, this is it. PGA CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF 1889 EHITIQN OCTOBER 1999 • • COMPUTER GAMING UVOfllO CHOOSE ANY CD-ROMs FOR PLUS 1 MORE AT GREAT SAVINGS! (See details below.) Freddi Fish 4 The Hogfish Rustlers Ctiilflren's EOu 5196407 Pent90.16mb American Greetings: Crafts Deluxe HomeyPersonal 5200902 16mb Starcraft Starlegy Game Pent90,16mb Half-Life Game The Year Edition Arcade Style 5209606 Penl133,24mb Operation Trivia Game Shov/ Trivia 5201009 Pent90, 16mb i ^cdi^Schoolhouse Rock: ’".^Thinking Games Deluxe Children’s Edu., WC Diablo Role Playing, Pentium 5209200 5203005 ■'5208806 '-'Deluxe Children's Edu., WC Blue's ABC Time Activities 5193503 Children's Ent., Pentium, 16mb Blue's Birthday Adventure 5193404 Children's Ent., Pentium, 16mb Higher Score On The GMAT GRE LSAT 5192604 College Prep, WC Higher Score On SAT P»T&Aa Deluxe 5192901 College Prep, WC Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover 5200407 Personal Grovvih, Pent90, 16mb You Don't Know Jack: Irreverent Collection 5191200 Game Show Trivia, WC, 16mb Ultimate Collector For Beanie Babies 5188107 Home/PersoRal,16mb . ^ '■ 52D5802 Children's Edu., Penl90, 16mb How To Select CD-ROMs Your System, vuriiVDelta Force '■?)'"/Arcade Style, Pent166,32mb Multirole Fighter Flight Sim., Penll66, 16mb Quake II Quad Damage Arcade Style, Peni90.16mb 5194808 Starsiege Tribes 5185806 Aduenlufe.PentlSe, 32mb Reader Rabbit's Success System Ages 6-9 5184502 Children's Education, 16mb King's Quest: Mask Ot Eternity 5184304 Adventure, Penll66, 32mb Return To Krondor 51842D5 Role Playing, Penl166, 2-tmb All selections are available lor PC only. 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For more titles. ..to order., .or for more information, http://www.columbiahouse.com/cdrom 6th Grade 5183504 Chilbren's Education. 16mb 'uwijDrakan: ^HW/order Of The Flame 5204607 Adventure, Penl166, 32mb Heavy Gear II 5172309 Arcade style, Penl133.16mb Starsiege 5181904 Arcade style, Penl133, 16mb Gabriel Knight Mysteries; Limited Edition 5186101 Adventure Carmageddon 2; Carpocalypse Now 51827D4 Arcade Style, Peni200.l6mb Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus 5182605 Arude Style, Pemi66. 16mb Dr. Brain Thinking Games 51B2506 Ctiildren’s Ed, Pent90, 16mb After Dark Games 5182308 Arcade Style, 16mb After Dark: Totally Twisted 5149000 Home/Personal.WC After Dark Deluxe 5148705 Hom&Personal 5207204 /J^XAmerican Greetings \w«»creataparty Home/Personal, 16mb Quicken Family Lawyer 2000 General Reference, WC, 16mb KTotal Annihilation '-Kingdoms Strategy Game, Peril 66, 32mb Spelling Blaster Ages 6-9 5175906 Children's Education, WC, 16mb Heretic II Arcade Style. 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Hawaii, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, APO and FPO addresses please write for separate offer. Applicable lax added to all orders C-1099-CGW 01999 The Columbia House Company H m iD'iijjy jVJys r’iim y specialist. Your mfssron: Eliminate Gordon Freeman. VALVE REVIEW SIMULATIOIM/SPACE F-1 B Action Without the Brutal Learning Curve Falcon Lite EYE'BALL IT Although you're on the Instrument Landing System, you really don’t need (i The weather is always good, and putting the flight path marker on the end of the runway will get you down sately. Africa On $900,000 A Day The storyline casts you in the role of Reyas, com- mander of a mercenary F-1 6 squadron under the direction of a shadowy CIA operative known as Icarus, who uses the Aggressors against Maldonado, the typical evil drug lord bent on world dominance. A merci- fully few clicks will gel you past the introduc- tions to select your game type, arm your aircraft and get you launched. The four lin- ear campaigns with 10 missions each are all based on the African conti- nent. You must successfully complete each mission before you can move on, and targets are always in the same places, shortening the learning curve. Given that you are a mercenary, success is rewarded with cash and another mission. But this storyline is never fully devel- oped. There are no cut-scenes, just some congratulatory text to move you on to the next sortie. The cash you earn is simply a means of keeping score; you can't buy better weapons or repair your aircraft. The mercenary storyline could and should have been used to give this sim depth and atmosphere. F- 16 : AGGRESSOR CGW RATED PROS Nice graphics and simple game interface; forgiv- ing flight model and simplified controls for ☆ ☆ CONS Good story setup wasted by weak eKecution; cockpit views lacking; weak enemy Al; impossibly accu- rate/powerful weaponry. Publisher; Bethesda Softworks • Developer: General Simulations, Inc. • Price; $39.99 • Contact: www.bethsoftcoin ESRB Rating; Everyone; animated violence. Requirements: Windows 9d/0a. Pentium 133MHz. 32MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM drive, 2MB DirectX 8.0 rximpatible video ord. BOMB tree hard tlrive spaite, plus 200MB lor swap tile, 28.6K madeni Inr Irdemet play. Recommended Requiremonts: Pentium 200MHz. 32MD RAM. 8 x CO-RDM drive, 2MD DltBCtX B.0 compallble video card, 4MB 3Dtl card. 3S0MD (me hard drive space. 3D Support: DintdOD or sottwam DlmclDraw. Multiplayer Support;TCP/IP over InlomcL IPX over LAN. serial via trull niodam cable. lift/drag relationships. At “corner velocity" and higher (450 knots -I-), it seems very pitch sensitive and twitchy. It's tough to get a “guns kill" in this sim until the turn-fight slows way, way down. And the weak enemy Al pilots accommodate you here, bleeding their energy to the point of stalling to turn on to your six, rarely extending or using the vertical. With missiles on your rails, the Al planes are easy meat. Saddling up on their six for guns is no challenge, but hitting them is, due to the twitchy pitch characteristics. A joystick scaling routine would help a lot, but is missing from the simplified game interface. Weapon employment/effecliveness presents a similar situation. The basics are all here in an overly simplified form. All of them use “high F 'tG Aggressor won’t impress the hard-core flight sim group. The flight and weapons model- ing, enemy artificial intelligence and linear cam- paign layout can’t hold a candle to the detail of other F-1 6 games like FALCON 4.0. On the other hand, F- 16 AGGRESSOR is a well-designed title for less demanding fliers, especially those just beginning to experiment with flight sims. Passive Aggressor Once in the cockpit, you’ll find this F-1 6 incredibly easy to fly, Most players will blitz through each of the five training missions in a single pass. The landing GAS ATTACK! This tanker is taking a Maverick amidships. The Mavericks are the weapons of choice for most ground targets; they almost never miss and will destroy nearly every target. REVIEW power" modeling; a single Maverick will kill most ground targets. Forget the many modes of the radar; all you need to do is change the range now and then. While targeting key con- trols is a bit clumsy, once you're pointed at the target area it's easy to lock-on and kill. The only concern is to be well Inside your particular weapon's range when you shoot; you’ll rarely miss. If you're not a hard-core flight simmer, these features make the game fun to play, with a high level of success in moderately diffi- cult situations. F-16 AGGRESSOR does a particu- larly good job with graphics. The cockpit gauges are easy to read, the HUD is sharp and clear, and the terrain is realistic despite the occasional “seam” in the tiling. Target objects in the game, like tanks, are light on detail, but exterior views of your aircraft are beautiful. Enemy plane sizing is unrealistically small {a mistake common in almost every flight sim), but you can “zoom in" on the HUD to compensate. The one major gripe against the visuals is the pilot's view options. There are a slewable view and nine “keypad” fixed views that, with the exception of the HUD view, focus mainly inside the cockpit. The lack of “snap views” to quickly scan outside the aircraft is a major oversight. This “straight ahead through the HUD" emphasis once again underscores the entry-level aspect of this sim, since most vets keep their heads on a swivel. Debriefing Taken as an entry-level flight sim, AGGRESSOR gets the job done. The inter- face is simple to navigate, the aircraft is easy to fly and fight, success is not difficult to achieve, and multiplayer options allow the competitive instinct to run free. These are the things that will draw a beginner deeper into the realm of flight. But other etements- more interaction and depth in the storyline, a dynamic campaign, and greater emphasis on the economic aspects of a mercenary operation-would more fully absorb the play- er. F-16 aggressor's weak flight and weaponry modeling and enemy Al won’t cut it for veterans. But hey, that's why we have FALCON 4.0. 2317 www.janes.com The source for aircraft data. 1 allserv.rug.ac.bef-'svhastel All F-IBs, all the time. age modeling. season. tain unforeseen circumstances, their corner braking is inconsistent and It also sports several other simu- sure to result in surprising rear-enders. lation trappings; race and champi- Graphics are impressive, with clean lines, light-sourced cars, textured onship modes, believable environ- roadways and well-worn racing lines. There’s an incredible array of ments, real team and event spon- viewpoints, superb replay, variable fog levels, and TV-style picture-in- sors, a reasonably authentic driving picture views of on-track action. model, and a garage facility. It is a The game’s even better audibly, Engines sound like FI engines and challenging exercise far removed are accurately source-sensitive, tires squeal when you need them to from racing’s more forgiving squeal, and the underside scrapes the ground with a grating clamor. In “arcade" sub-genre, but lacks the a true flash of brilliance, the designers introduced hissing wind, which detail and subtlety of the more changes in pitch and level when you’re riding in the draft of another car. hard-core sims. Bottom line? This is a low-priced journey into racing sims that, while The game presents a solid and far from perfect, brings the sport to the masses without getting silly, precise ride that is nicely respon- - Gordon Goble Requirements: Pontiuin l33Mhz. 16MB RAM. EOMB hard drive spuce. 3D Support DliECtSD, 3illx Glide. Multiplayer Support Serial, modoir. IPX or TCP/IP. I Publisher: Eidos Interactive * Developer: Lankhor • Price: $29.99 • Contact: www.eidos.com • ESRB Rating; Everyone Settings, Characters Add Color to 8-BALL Gameplay ULTIMATE R RAIL Hustler’s Paradise A smoky bar with leather-clad bikers and their babes bent over a stained pool table. An elegant, chandelier-lit pool room. A crappy coin-fed table in the back of a bowling alley. ULTIMATE 8 BALL allows you to play in any of those venues {as well as in some you’d never imagine) against a cast of ' wildly colorful characters, Don’t expect VIRTUAL POOL 2 realism in the ball physics. The low table friction makes you feel as though you’re playing on glass, with balls rolling far further than expected. The action off the rails can also seem a bit odd, and english effects can be exaggerated. Still, the play feels good enough to convey a fairly realistic game of pool. The most appealing aspect of ULTIMATE 8 BALL is the playing envi- ronment. You can play a single match, a tournament, or a “hustle” ties like Speed Pool. Your selection of opponents and locations is initially limited, requiring you to succeed in the “hustle" to make further options available. The intriguing assortment of opponents, including Elvis look-alikes and New Wave girls, is both a strength and a source of disappointment. Although each player has a unique home table and playing environment, the characters have absolutely no interaction with you. No taunting, no teasing, no conversation, and no visual response to anything that occurs during the game. It's a real letdown. Still, it's a blast playing in the unique and often bizarre pool halls and i\lo real interac- . tion with oppo* nents; tables are unusually fast. against up to 20 computer charac- ters. The 1 4 game variations mix standards like Eight Ball with oddi- bars against the equally distinctive Al characters. Add in the 14 game variations, and you’ve got a game that provides a lot of fun for the money, - Jelf Lackey Requirements: Pentium tGBMhz. ISMB RAM. 5M6 tianl drive spats. Recommended Requirements; PsflUum 290, 32MB RAM, 4QMB hard drive space. 0 Support: DitecIRO. Muttiptayer Support: IPX or TCP/IP. retiilefn, serial connsclian. Publisher: THQ * Developer: Mirage Ltd. • Price: $18.95 * Contact; www.thq.CDin ‘ www.sinistarunleashed.com «y Qamgi loc. ind used under llcent* by TN I giffli e 1949 THQ IM. All ligbli leMrved. UIMCOMPROMISEID DUTY, JOIN THE ‘SWAT 3 looks ready to take HONOR ANO VALOR ELITE THIS NOVEMBER Los Angeles^ 2005. Violence and terrorism have reached American shores ahd LAPD SWAT is on alert, As port of this elite tacticol organization, you and your team have the weapons and all the training necessary to protect, to serve and - when needed - to use deadly force to keep the peace. Welcome to SWAT 3; Close Quarters Battle, You have at your command Lead your five-man team tlirough 16 stunning photo-realistic missions filled with more than 150 motion-captured characters. a five-man team prepared to take on more than 100 of the most vicious terrorists and criminals Unparalleled AI causes suspects and victims alike to respond individually to your every action^ ensuring you‘ll never ploy one mission the same way twice, Los Angeles has to offer. Use real-life SWAT tactics and an arsenal of weaponry to combat crises ranging from "hostage rescue" to "VIP escort" in the most realistic, first-person tactical Select your team and configure their arsehol using stote-of-the-art weaponry. Utilize stealth ohd dynamic tactics such as "slicing the pie" and deployment of diversionary devices to outsraort your simulation ever created opponents i^merica.S)1999^hi^grames North Amerm Ail rlghts^^^Fv^. denamos are prjfflrty of their respective owners. trademark of Infogij All other trailer^ COMBINE STEALTH, INTELLECT AND FORCE TO SURVIVE TOTAL CONTROL OF THE CAMERA FROM 1ST TO 3RD PERSON PERSPECTIVES DOWNLOAD THE DEMO AT WWW.OUTCAST-GAME.COM .1' .'V^ ■g' REVIEW CaUICK HITS UNREAL MISSION PACK: RETURN TO NA PALI ast year’s best-looking shooter just received an upgrade. Not only does the NA PALI expansion pack patch UNREAL for stable multiplayer gaming, it's also com- patible with UNREAL TOURNAMENT. Survive 17 beautifully rendered levels, including one particularly challenging mission that takes place on a downed Terran Spacecraft. Take on new aliens - 7 like the spidery Spinners and reptilian Predators - with a new arsenal of weapons, including the blistering combat assault rifle, devastating rocket launcher with smart bombs, and a cool new potent grenade launcher with remotely detonated grenades. If you’re still playing UNREAL, NA PALI is a no- brainer. - Raphael Liberatore Genre: Action • Publisher: GT Interactive • Developer: Legend Entertainment $25 * www.unreal.cDm * ESRB Ratiiin: Mature: intense violence. G amers who fondly recall lining quarters across the screens of games like TEMPEST and MISSILE COMMAND will enjoy this faithful revival. Sure you can get illegal bootlegs for free off the Net, but do they come with the original cabinet art, not to mention clips of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell waxing philosophic about inventing PONG? SUPER BREAKOUT, ASTEROIDS, CENTIPEDE, and the venerable PONG itself round out a package intended for 30-year-olds just dis- covering nostalgia. - Charles Ardai Genre: Puzzles/Classics • Publisher: Havas Interactive ■ Developer: Berkeley Systems * S3Q • www.sierra.com ESRB Rating: Teen I t must have seemed like a win- ner of an idea to cross-breed the spy spoof Austin Powers with the game show spoof YOU DON'T KNOW JACK. ^ Both exist to make fun of the pop-ouiture excesses of the '60s and '70s, after all, and they share a sim- ilar taste for scatological innuendo. Who better to freshen up the JACK for- mula than the year's most shagadelic swinger and his hapless adversary, Dr, Evil? Well, judging by the results, almost anyone. Disappointment sets in quickly when you realize that the Austin Powers and Dr. Evil voices in the game are han- dled by someone other than Mike Myers, and while this impostor's impersonation isn't bad, it's not quite right, either. Gameplay hews close to the venera- ble JACK model - opponents buzz in to answer multiple-choice questions - but some of the new question types introduced are just poorly designed. Some questions rise to the inspired level you expect from Berkeley Systems (“Pale Rider": Clint Eastwood movie or brand of condom?), but many fall flat. And the ones that actually require knowledge of Austin Powers trivia rather than of general pop-cul- ture arcana will please only hard-core fans of the films. It's a drag, baby, and should have been left in deep freeze. - Charles Ardai N ever quite receiving the press Napoleon got, Frederick the Great’s military evolution is just as interesting. Art of War’s definitive set of his battles accurately portray ★ A ★ A Frederick's career in this highly enjoyable regiment-level, turn-based title. Meant to emphasize Frederick's tactics H ot-B has busted the proverbial cap in their own asses with the dismal BEATDOWN, a tedious and overly- simplified attempt at a real-time strat- egy game set in the ‘hood, It is one of the worst games we have seen this year. A real-time strategy game set in a mod- ern, urban, gangland setting (the box pro- claims it a new genre: Urban- Action/Strategy) has potential. The resource management (pimping ho's and selling crack) is novel, at least. But BEATDOWN isn't much more than dragging a group of color-coordinated hooligans around a bor- ingly, repetitive, isometric map, looking for another group of color-coordinated bad- asses to kill. Add a clunky interface, moronic Al, and extremely un-fly graphics and you've got the recipe for some wack shizzat. - Tom Price DRAGOON: TOE DAniES OF FREDERICK THE GREAT Genre: Strategy/War • Publisher: Art of War Publishing • Developer: Boku Strategy Games • $40 • www.boku.siniplflnet.com OEATOOWM Genre: Strategy * Publisher: Hot-B • Developer: Soar Software • $30 • www.urbancDnflict.com • ESRB Rating: Teen; animated blood and violence. 186 OCTOBER 1939 : D vu . g a m e s p 0 1 . 1 • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD New Expansion Pack Features... JUST WHEN you THOUGHT THERE WERE NO MORE HEROES - THINK AGAIN; ; OF MIGHT AJSID MAGIC AN EXPANSION PACK OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. © 1999 The 3D0 Company, All Highls Reserved. 300, Heroes of Might and Magic, Armageddon's Blade, New World Compuling, and their respective logos, are trademarks and/or service marks ofUie 3D0 Company in Ihe U.S.and other countries- All other trademarks belong to their respectve owners. New World Computing is a division of The 3D0 Company Moke Than 2o New Heroes Six New Challenging Campaigns New Mystical World - The Elemental Conflux More Hero Classes Moke Monsters More Dragons New Advanced CAA rPAiGN Editor New Random Map Generator Unlimited Oameplav Extensive Customization And LAN, Modem or Internet Play* www.mightandmagic.com REVIEW QUICK HITS and command control, DRAGOON covers the years 1757 to 1760 over the course of 1 6 scenarios. The game improves upon the graphics, sound, and interface of the previ- ous games in the series, but the aesthetics are still far from state-of-the-art. In spite of this, DRAGOON will remain the definitive work on this subject, even if it does lack play-by-email and net-play capabilities. - Jim Cobb MAM HFVIIAB II Genre: Wargame • Publisher; Strategy First $30 * www.strategyfirst.com ESGB Rating: Teen; animated violence. T he most touted new feature of MAN OF WAR II i$ its first-person perspective. Such a view would seem ideal for portraying the chaotic scene aboard a man of war during the Age of Sail. Unfortunately, MAN OF WAR ll's "full-immer- sion view” can be both confusing and anti- septic, voiding its advantages. MAN OF WAR ll's full-view shows the decks of five types of warships. Using the cursor, you move your view from the stern up to the bow. The graphics show nearby vessels well, but something is noticeably absent: everything. You're on a ghost ship! There are no guns, no crew, and no stand- ing rigging, which might be acceptable if other aspects of the view worked well. Unfortunately, maneuvering around the deck and down the companionways reminds me of a bad first-person game with the main- mast as obstacle. Worse, the control con- sole surrounds the view, diminishing the “immersion" effect. Finally, the virtual cap- tain is invulnerable, immune to shot and impervious to boarding actions. The game is not entirely without merit. The gunnery model, multiplayer game, and fleet actions are handled quite well. But MOWN makes it only halfway to a decent sequel. It is an improvement on its prede- cessor, but the designers are still hampered by the original game engine. - Jim Cobb RAILROAD TYCOON II: THE SECOND CENTORY R ail fans should love RAILROAD TYCOON II: THE SECOND CENTURY. Not only does this comprehensive expansion set offer new industries to service and a campaign of 18 scenarios (six representing wartime and the post-WWII era, six represent- ing the technology shift from steam to diesel, and six representing the near future), but it also offers new locomotives, easier track-laying, and better cargo-handling. This add-on doesn't quite reach the coveted five-star status we'd like to give it, because the game still lacks an UNDO command. Even with the improved interlace, it's possible to click in the wrong place and spend unnecessary money on track that must immediately be bull- dozed. Still, RAILROAD TYCOON II: THE SECOND CENTURY enjoyably expands the horizons of its prede- cessor, much like railroading expanded the world’s economies in the early to mid-century. - Johnny Wilson Genre: Strategy • Publisher: Gathering of Developers ■ Developer: PopTop Software • SAO • www.godgames.com • ESRB Rating: Everyone O ne of the most vivid images to emerge from World War II was that of the JU-87 Stuka diving out of the sky, swooping down on its target like a hawk screaming down on a terrified rabbit. Data Becker has provided a taste of what it was like to pilot these unique planes with STUKA DIVE BOMBER, an add-on package for ^ ^ ^ ^ MICROSOFT COMBAT FLIGHT SIMULATOR (MSCFS). The pro- gram provides ten variations of the Stuka, including versions which were re-equipped for lank busting and oddities like the carrier variation and the ski-fitted "Snow Stukas.” Also included are five Berlin airport scenery files. The manual claims that a utility to allow the Stukas to be flown in campaigns is on the disk - it isn't, but it can be down- loaded from the Data Becker Web site. The new aircraft are fun to fly in ground- pounding missions and appear to be mod- eled correctly, However, given the limitations of the Stuka, they're best used in single mis- sions, as the campaigns will have you flying inappropriate sorties like CAPs against Spitfires. Still, this is a package worth look- ing at if you're a MSCFS fan. - Jell Lackey ■ItiidilililiLmiifilri^f Genre: Driving * Publisher; ASC Games $40 « Developer: Real Sports * www.jeffgor- donracing.com • ESRB Rating: Everyone D espite the stock car racer’s name attached to rt,JEFF GORDON XS RACING is about as far from real racing as you can get. Instead, it’s set in the future, where race cars are capable of speeds * over 300 mph ^ and can morph back into pristine condition after a collision, with- in seconds. Gameplay is very fast and very simplistic, and the arcade-like action is tun- neled into a pretty but constrained environ- ment that will likely grow dull and repetitive within the first dozen hours. Although the 1 1 fantastical circuits are interesting - with tunnels, crossovers, raised ramps, ungodly jumps, hairpins and wide sweepers, enormous loop-lhe-loops, teleportation devices and alternate routes - they’re just too short at this kind of speed. With lap times often under 20 seconds, and sometimes closer to - get this - 10 sec- onds, I was able to run all of them twice 188 OCTOBIH 1399 :gw.gi spot.com • COMPUTER GAMING WQRLD llEGACYorTi.i CREATOR Daughter of a General, forbidden from battle, yet driven by duty. Whatever the consequences, sometimes a MONOLITH //a\n 5 Issues Free! Save 42 % $27.94 One Year/12 issues. Like getting 5 issues FREE! Save 48% $27.94 Two Years/24 issues. Like getting 11 issues FREE! REVIEW QUICK HITS and win the XS Championship in the span of a single afternoon. With no pits, garage, or upgrade shop, don't expect things to get more interesting off the track. A little something called Jeff’s Racing School sees Mr. Gordon tutor in various aspects of racing, but his pearls of wisdom are more hurl than pearl. Add a lack of multiplayer support and you have a game that, despite the relentless Pepsi ads (among other shameless sponsor ads throughout the game), is far from the Choice Of A New Generation. - Gordon Goble PRD 18: VIIDBLD TDUB GDLf Genre: Sports • Publisher: Psygnosis $40 * Developer: Intelligent Games www.psygnosis.com • ESRB Rating; Everyone I t takes balls of Surlyn^'^ to release a golf sim today, with perennial heavyweights i LINKS LS and JACK NICKLAUS continually adding features to already proven systems. So how can a new player like PRO 18: WORLD TOUR GOLF hope to compete? Frankly, it can't. PRO 18: WORLD TOUR GOLF intro- duces an innovative twist with its 4-click swing system, in which a second gauge measures your virtual wrist snap. It sounds strange but works very well, allowing sig- nificantly more ball control than 3-click systems. A promising start, but things go downhill quickly. Graphics are flat and crude, with golfers and terrain having the pasted-on look of three-year-old golf sims. Once you hit, you're rewarded with a long pause and screen freeze before switching to a reverse view of the ball landing. Long pauses also occur while waiting for the computer golfers to swing, eventually causing the less patient among us to scream at the screen like hecklers in other golf sims. Bail physics are less than stellar, and trees are mere holograms for your ball to pass through. The best thing that can be said about PRO 1 8: WORLD TOUR GOLF is that is has no obvious bugs. There's absolutely no reason to select this game over the high quality golf sims already on the shelves. - Jeff Lackey WEST FRONT BATTLE PACK 1 A fter all the uninstalling, installing, and downloading of patches needed to get running, you’ll feel that you truly deserve the add-on riches TalonSoft offers in WEST FRONT BATTLE PACK 1. Not only does this expansion pack give you 50 new sce- narios covering all the various theaters from 1 940 tol 945, it also provides nail-biting, bal- anced entertainment that will give fans of the game more ^ ^ ^ ffiofisy’s worth in both single and multiplay. TalonSoft didn't make many changes to the original game system, save for some Al tweaking to improve the units’ ability to handle indi- rect fire and the capacity to retreat more intelligently. But once beyond the installation difficulties, this add-on is a tactician’s dream come true. - Jim Cobb Genre: Wargame * Publisher: Gathering of Developers • Developer: TalonSoft • $30 * www.godoames.cani • RSAC Rating: Violence 1; damage to realistic objects. SOMEWHERE, GEORGE HAD MADE A MISTAKE. His Catalan opening had been flawless. Yel, ssiitehm, his opponent had forced Ids retreat and now held him in check. With his only remaining rook lured out of position and pinned, the situation appeared hopeless. This isn’t Chessmaster, he thought, there is no replay option in this game. His mind raced back to the magnificent chess sets of Chessmaster. The lessons learned. The gambits and endgame strategies. The Chessmaster opponents against whom he had matched wits and sharpened his game, as he progressed through tutorials in various levels. The voice of the Chessmaster, coaching him. And suddenly, in his hour of need, he heard the voice again: “Counterattack in the center... N-Q4.’’ Why hadn't he seen it before? INTRODUCING THE NEW CHESSMASTER. IT CAN MAKE ANYONE A GREAT CHESS PLAYER. GAMEBOYcauft. (Nintendo) m » D S C A P !■ Chessmaster 6000 is still available for PC CO-ROM. Look for Chessmaster 7000 for PC CD-ROM this fall. For more information, check out www.chessmaster.com ©199&-1999 The Learning Company and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Chessmaster is a registered trademark of the Learning Company Properties Inc. NinlerKlo, Game Boy. Game Boy Color and the Official Seal are trademarks ot Nintendo of America Inc. ©1989, 1998 Nintendo ot America Inc. Play^tion arxt PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. Ail other trademarks and registered irademaiks are the property ol their respective holders. In the interest ol product improvement, intormalion aird specifications represented here are sutjject to change without notice. =FFF... HARDWARE IN SEARCH OF THE ULTIMATE GAMING MACHINE • REVIEWS • NEWS GPU Shoot-out Intel Penduin III vs. AMD Athlon by Daue Salvator and Loyd Case Ifs high noon in the fight for the fastest chip in gaming. Backed hy its posse of standards and computer manufacturers, Intel’s got lots of muscle. But it no longer has the fastest gun. T he landscape was littered with the burnt CPU chips of those who dared challenge the mighty Intel. National Semiconductor had thrown in the towel, selling off Cyrix, its CPU- making arm. IDT and Rise struggled to gain a foothold at the low end of the market, where Intel's Celeron could squarely outgun them in price/perfor- mance. Finally, one last challenger remained that posed any kind of threat: AMD. AMD's K6-2 and K6-11I processors had fared well against the jugger- naut, but always lacked comparable floating-point performance, a key consideration for gamers seek- ing optimal 3D performance. But AMD had a trick up its sleeve: the K7, AMD’s 7th generation chip. And for the first time, Intel had a fight on its hands. The K7 has arrived under a new baimer, Athlon, and this new CPU is taking no prisoners. Bloodied by repeated price wars with Intel’s Celeron and Pentium II, AMD is hoping to use Athlon to reverse its fortunes and start dealing some blows of its own. AMD is in a must-win situation, since it can- not afford another war of attrition with Intel, whose manufacturing and market share leave it in better stead to wage such war. But even if Athlon can win the performance battle, it hasn't won the war. Intel, who sits on 80 percent of the CPU market, is not going to go down easily. Intel is firmly entrenched with system makers — not only with its CPUs, but also with system chipsets, motherboards, and numerous industry standards that it defines (PCI, AGP, USB). AMD faces the challenge of besting Intel’s chip performance, and also of delivering CPUs in quantity, along with stable, compatible sys- tem chipsets and motherboard reference designs. But we must now set these weighty issues aside and address the biggest question of all: Who now has the best gaming CPU out there? And the Winner Is... Fellow gamers, we find ourselves at a historic moment. This shoot-out marks the very first time that Intel hasn't come out on top as the best gaming CPU. That's right folks, read it now and let it sink in later: Athlon bests Pentium III clock for clock. For those in the love-to-hate- Intel camp, it is a time of much rejoicing. For Intel devotees, it’s time to sit back and ask "what the hell happened? " For over a year now, Intel has been using their Pentium II core to cover the three main CPU market segments: low end, mainstream, and workstation/server. The Pentium III brought us SSE, those special instructions that help make 3D games go faster, but that aside, this CPU core hasn't fun- damentally changed since Pentium Pro. Meanwhile, AMD has introduced two generations of CPUs: first the K6, and now Athlon. With Athlon, AMD is going for the jugular with a CPU that out- guns Pentium 111 on integer and, more importantly. OCTOBER 1099 < > COMPUTER GAMING WORLD 194 HAROWARE There Can Only Be One G uns were drawn, bits were fired, and when the smoke cleared, there was only one chip standing: the AMD Athlon. The Athlon matched or exceeded the Pentium Ill’s perfor- mance in nearly every benchmailcing face-off. In one of the most important areas of chip performance for games, floating-point math, the Athlon posted significantly better marks than the Pentium III. But speed Is not everything in the chip game: There's the price, and then there’s delivery of the chip in sufficient quantity to match demand. Intel is sure to best AMO in price, and there’s some doubt about AMD’s ability to deliver chips in quanti- ty. So if you want the ulti- mate chip for gaming per- formance, look to the Athlon, but expect to pay a premium and to do some hunting around. How Much Faster Is It? AMD Athlon 600 439e faster Pentium III 600 3l^«iaster>i floating-point mathematics per- formance. As you’ll see from our tests, the results are faster benchmark scores and, most importantly, faster game perfor- mance. In just about every game we threw at these GPUs, Athlon was either faster than or equal to Pentium III at the same clock rate, which is no small feat for AMD. So AMD has taken Round 1, the performance battle. But it must also win the war of deliv- ery, manufacturing these speedy CPUs in quantity along with solid chipsets and compatible motherboards. And that, despite Athlon's superior performance, could still trip up AMD. Intel’s Pentium 111 GOOIVIHz: Still a Strong Contender Intel, despite being bested this round, is still a very ferocious tional Pentium III CPUs, since Intel's next generation Pentium III — code-named Coppermine — ■ wiU have 256KB of L2 cache right on the chip running at the chip's full clock speed, and it’s rumored that Coppermine will use a socket format. The current Pentium Ill’s cache bus and system bus are actually separate (Intel calls this design Dual Independent Bus), allowing cache access to be executed separately from system memory access. There is 32KB of Level 1 (LI) cache, separated into a 16KB instruction cache and a 16KB data cache. Contrast this with Athlon’s 64ICB instruction cache and 64BIB data cache, for 128KB total LI cache. Like the Athlon, the 600MHz Pentium III uses a 0.25-micron manufactur- ing process, so cooling fans are a must at this frequency. Intel’s instruction set competitor. And they're certainly not sitting still, with at least three new desktop PC CPU architectures in ^ develop- ment simul- taneously. The has the cache separat- from the chip, running at half speed (300MHz). This will likely be the last of the tradi- GADGETS FOR GAMERS I t’s not Kit, The Talking Trans Am, but Clarion’s AutoPC is another step closer to the computing car. This AM/FM/CD H M in-dash AUlOPu "" four-channel 2nny Atkin amp, as well by Oenny Atkin INSIDE HARDWARE Loyd Case 200 Killer Rigs 202 Tech Medics 204 Reuiews 20G Plantronics Stereo Headset Asus MEW Motherboard Madcatz PantherDH Digital Joystick Turtle Beach Montego II Entrega USB Hub CH Products USB Gamepad HAROWARE ing 3D graphics transformations and lighting goes by the sexy acronym SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions). SSE works with single precision (32- bit) floating-point instructions and can operate on up to four pieces of data in a single cycle. Some of the new instructions also speed up memory trans- fers, particularly transfers of graphics data. The Road Ahead Until now, Pentium II/lll's strong suit has been its X87 floating-point performance. This fast floating- point unit (FPU) handles transform and lighting (T/L) calculations in 3D graphics, making Intel CPUs optimal for gaming. Despite the existence of fast 3D cards and even SSE, it's been the FPU that's done the transform and lighting calculations in 3D games. With respect to floating-point performance (once Intel’s ace in the hole), Intel now trails Atlilon’s new and improved FPU. The now-venerable 440BX chipset is another limi- tation. The entire front-side bus — both access to the North Bridge (the circuitry through which the CPU talks to system memory) and from the North Bridge to the system memory bus — runs at lOOMHz. AMD’s chipset accesses its North Bridge at 200MHz. By this time, we expected to see both the Coppermine CPU and Intel’s 820 chipset on the market, complete with faster bus access and RAM- BUS DRAM (RDRAM), but the 820 chipset has been delayed. Rumors have it that RDRAM performance hasn’t met expectations. Beyond Coppermine, Intel is working on its 7th gen- eration archi- tecture, code- named Willamette, but it isn’t due to surface until the second half of 2000. Rather than just another incremental evolu- tion, Willamette will involve a substantial rearchi- tecting of Intel’s CPU core. It will still be a 32-bit architecture like current chips (called IA-32) but will likely deliver great increases both in integer and floating-point performance. Intel will be more than a year behind AMD in delivering their 7th genera- tion chip, giving AMD a fightiirg chance. More near term, we've heard that Intel will be adding its SSE instruction set into a lower-cost Celeron product, though Intel is still keeping mum, so we don’t have a release date as yet. AMD Athlon GODMHz: Welcome to the Winner’s Circle We had been hearing rumblings about Athlon’s performance potential, and we wanted to believe. But given our past experiences with AMD CPUs, we were skeptical as to whether AMD could really pull it off. Well, they did. And as it turns out, not only do they beat Intel at the same clock rate, but they’ll most likely have a 650MHz Athlon shipping before Intel ships a 600MHz Pentium III. What real- ly impressed us wasn’t just AMD's clock-for-clock performance versus Intel, but the system’s stability as well. Not one of our test games crashed or ever The Price War CPU street Price AMD Athlon 800MHz $950 AMD Athlon 55QMHz $725 Intel Pentium III 550MHz $625 Pentium til 500MHz $405 AMD Athlon 500MHz $500 Note: At press time, Intel was gearing up for yet another round of price cuts, so check the Web or your local dealer for the latest prices. Source: PriceWatch How We Tested How They Stack up Perfermance Results far Athlon vs. Pentium III I n testing CPUs, there are three perfor- mance areas to consider: integer (whole num- bers), floating-point (decimal numbers), and floating- point SIMO (the ability to work on multiple pieces of data at once). To test integer performance, we ran WinBench’s CPUMark99, which simulates the integer workload gener- ated by leading business applications. To evaluate floating- point performance, we used a combination of tests: WinBench’s FPUMark and our own 3D GameGauge, which uses games that make heavy demands on the CPU’s float- ing-point unit to do transform and lighting of 3D graphics. To evaluate FP SIMD (Intel’s SSE versus AMD’s 3DNow), we again used a combination of tests. 3D WinBench has two tests to evaluate GPU performance running DirectSO’s transform and lighting (T/L) engine. One tests the speed of doing just transforms, while the other tests both trans- form and lighting performance. But there's a technical issue that we need to cover here, so brace yourself. If you’re not into techie detail, just know that Athlon still wins the FP SIMD contest and move on. DirectSD has a feature called guard-band clipping, a process that determines which part of an object at the edge of the screen is on or off the screen. We tested with guard-band clip- ping enabled, so that this function was performed by Intel’s SSE and AMD's 3DNow. The two architectures delivered roughly the same perfor- mance, though AMD is a bit faster. But in transform perfor- mance atone, AMD is much faster, to the tune of about 65 percent. This is important, because games are more likely to use the transform part of D3D’s T/L engine, rather than both transform and lighting, since lighting in a game is what gives it a distinct look and feel. Game devel- opers in the past have written their own T/L engines to achieve their own unique look. But of the two, lighting is what brings the unique look/feel, where as transforms (the movement of poly- gons from scene to scene) is a more generic process. "A memory upgrade pays for itself in just over a day for managers." PC Compuling Magazine ©1999 Council on Computing Power HARDWARE brought Athlon to its knees. In each of the three main performance cate- gories — integer, floating-point, and FP SIMD — Athlon scored a knockout. In the 3DNow versus SSE battle for FP SIMD superiority, AMD once again bested Intel. We used 3D WinBench’s Transform and Transform and Lighting tests, which measure the CPU’s ability to crank out tri- angles in Direct3D (see How We Tested). We then turned to three games that have been optimized both for SSE and 3DNow: POWERSLIDE, DESCENT 3, and EXPENDABLE. Running at a lower resolution of 640x480 to shift the workload more onto the CPU, Athlon trounced Pentium III by 20 percent on average. And in looking at 3D GameGauge results running at 1024x768 (our standard test resolution), Athlon was still 10 percent faster. So now Intel finds itself in the unusual position of giving up the performance lead across the board (integer, floating-point, floating-point SIMD). Since it can’t win this round on performance, Intel will no doubt play the price card, dropping prices on the Pentium III to maintain a price/performance advan- tage, a strategy that has served it so well in the Celeron-versus-K6-III battle. So the 64-gigabyte Question is: Given that AMD now has the perfor- mance edge, what will their pricing look like? As you can see from The Price War table of press-time street prices, AMD is pricing Athlon slightly higher than a Pentium III of the same speed, but not sub- stantially so. At press time, there was some concern that AMD might not be able to meet consumer demand for their new performance champ, leaving gamers and system makers scrambling to lay hands on this hot new chip. AMD is in the process of build- ing a new “fab" (chip factory) in Dresden, Germany, but it’s not yet online. We'll keep you posted on availability as we hear more news on this front. 2313 Rome Wasn’t Built... W hat if you had the hottest CPU in town, but nobody couid use it? AMO’s situation won't be quite that bad, but the company faces an uphill battle with motherboard makers and sys- tems suppliers if they want Athlon to have a wide market penetration. Intel cur- rently ships about 60 percent of all motherboards In the world. Companies like Dell, Gateway, and others depend on Intel motherboards in their high-end sys- tems, If you’re talking about the kind of volume a Deli generates, you’re talking a lot of motherboards. AMD's new chip fits into a slot, much like the current Pentium III line, but the slot is different. The slot is called Slot A; the A stands for Alpha, since it Is based on DEC/Compaq's Alpha CPU bus and socket. AMD is dealing itself a better hand by developing a chipset that motherboard makers can deploy into Slot A mother- boards. However, whenever a chipset is built, It needs to be extensively tested to make sure all of the 12 zillion expansion cards on the market will work with it property. Via, Ali, and others have run into problems with their chipsets. Being the market heavyweight means that most peripheral manufacturers will design to Intel's chipset. It will be up to AMD and other chipset makers to make sure that the motherboards and core logic work with the huge combinations of cards that are out there, There can't be a repeat of the AGP 2x fiasco, when several alter- native Socket 7 chipsets didn’t work correctly with AGP 2x graphics cards. If you are thinking about upgrading to the Athlon, make sure the gear you want in your gaming rig will work on an Athlon motherboard. The Athlon looks like a very good CPU, so the extra upgrading effort may be worth it, but don't ignore the need to check motherboard compatibility with your add-in cards first. How We Tested (connnuedt We then did a series of game tests at a lower resolution (640x480x16), because the 3D card becomes much less of a bottleneck at this resolution; it draws the scene much faster, and shifts the processing burden hack toward the CPU. We also tested using six games, including three (POWERSLIDE. DESCENT 3, and EXPENDABLE) that have optimizations build into them for both FP SIMD archi- tectures, To round out the mix, we added QUAKE II, HALF-LIFE, and BATTLEZONE 2. Athlon again won the day, its performance about 19 percent faster on average. Our test systems were as identical as we could make them, except for mother- board and CPU. Common components included a clean install of Windows 98SE, DirectX 6.1a, 128MB of SDRAM, a 32MB TNT2 Ultra graphics card (chip clock 150MHz, mem- ory clock 183MHz) running nVidia's 2,04 reference drivers, a Soundblaster Live sound card, and EIDE storage compo- nents. We included Pentium III results to serve as a baseline for comparison. *GUARD'BAND CUPPING ENABLED **GAMES USED: POWERSLIDE, EXPENDABLE, DESCENT 3, HALF' LIFE, QUAKE II, BATTLEZONE 2 3DWi ich Transform ihting * 1 >1 <1 n • n I COMPUTER GAMING WORLD Falcon Gaming PCs can handle THE BIGGEST GAME OUT THERE. In the wastelands of the 31 st Century, the machines rule the battlefield. To join the tight, you need Mechwarrior 3*! To survive, you need a great machine. To win, you need to play it on a Falcon. To get your hands-on a 'lVIech, visit your local retailer or go to www.mechwarrior3.com. To get your hands on a Falcon Northwest Gaming PC; 1 -BSS-325-2aa 1 WWW.FALCDN-NW.CaM . All Rights Reseived. BattleTetfi Malirial © 1999 FASA Cotpotaiion. MechWamit, BaiHeTech. BailieMach, and Mach ate iradeir'jtks ot regsdetM trademarks ol FASA Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. Ail rights reserved Used under license. All olher itadmarks are the property of ihetr respecii.« holders. HARQWARE Under the Hood BY LOYD CASE A Day in the Life Walking the Line Between Technology Heaven and Hardware Hell Y ou may think that a game hardware reviewer’s life is non-stop parties and helping supermodels optimize their gaming rigs, but the reality tells a dif- ferent tale. This month we give you a peek behind the closed door of columnist stardom, and show you a typical day on the never-ending quest for the best gaming hard- ware out there. Of course, all names, genders, companies and entire industries have been changed to protect the not-so-iimocent. the guilty-as-hell, and, most of all, me. With my wife and kids out and about starting their day, the house had suddenly grown quiet. It's the eye of the hurricane, I reflect, as I fill an oversized mug vdth coffee, lace it with cream and sugar, and head downstairs to my lair. The coffee is much need- ed, as I had been up pretty late running benchmarks. It takes four power switches to turn everything on: One for the network hubs, two for my production system, and one for the Pentium n testbed, which pulls double duty as my server. I sit back, suck down some caffeine, and watch the SCSI adapter initialize its BIOS. Ah.... So Much for Serenity The phone rings, shattering my contemplative repose. It’s a marketing guy for a small maker of PC speakers. He asks me, "Have you received the speakers you requested for review?" We're off to a bad start. This marketing guy is the type that gives his profession a bad name. He had been very pushy about sending the speakers, so I'd reluctantly given in. The speakers were small, electric blue, and terrible, I feel ray annoyance meter creeping up into the red. "They’re up and running now,” I say, keeping my tone noncommital. "Great,” the guy gushes on. "Say. can we get a quote?” I unscrew the phone receiver from my ear and stare at it incredulously, then put it back to my ear. "Excuse me?" I say. “A quote. We'd like a positive quote from you, ya'know, something we can put on the side of the box." Again, I stare at the phone. Several choice phrases flash through my head, but I muster some semblence of tact and inform this clown that I’m not in the business of generating quotes, and certainly not in the business of uncritically endorsing products. "But I've seen your stuff quoted," he whines, "What you see are snippets from real reviews that companies quote. I have no control over that, and I don’t write reviews with the intent of getting quoted. Now, I have some deadlines, so I’ve gotta go.” I hang up the phone. The day is off to an inauspi- cious start. Testing, Testing... There are three more graphics cards to run through the testbed in yet another big graphics card roundup. It used to be that CGW only had to test one batch of 3D accelera- tors once a year, but now it’s up to three. I check the man- ufacturer's web site for a new driver, but there's none, so I install the latest driver from the product setup CD. Five minutes and one reboot later, WinBench 99’s Business Graphics WinMark test is zipping along. While WinBench is rurming, I check my emaU - 39 mes- sages have arrived since 11 o’clock last night. I sigh and begin wading through the mao. Many of the letters are from readers seeking some kind of technical help. I answer a few, and file away a few more for my new technical Q&A column. It's a sad statement about product support that people are reduced to emailing a magazine editor for answers. I check the test- bed. WinBench is finished. I change the color depth, reboot, and fire up 3D WinBench, and launch the quality tests. Mail Call The doorbell rings, 1 bounce up the stairs and open the door. It's the FedEx guy with two boxes for me. One is huge, and contains a PC system. “I'll get the other one," he says, as I sign for them. He goes back to his truck, drags something out, and staggers up the steps. The box is smaller than the PC box, but heavier. "Here," he gasps. I take both boxes downstairs. The mysterious, heavy box contains a complete flight control panel and yoke. It looks really cool and incredibly expensive. I’m momentarily glad I get stuff like this on loan. I check the testbed and find that 3D WinBench has halt- ed; the refresh rate it needs doesn’t match the one detect- ed. I swear and change the setting to lOOHz. WhOe the 3D WinMark test runs, I fire up the Killer Rig and install the mini-cockpit. I discover that it’s USB, and smile. Five minutes later. I’m airborne in a P-38 dishing out Allied justice. Then I surface, jot a few notes for a future review, check the testbed, and record benchmark results. Tur nin g off V-sync for 3D GameGauge testing requires a registry hack, so I run REGEDIT and make changes. It takes about two hours to complete one series of 3D GameGauge tests, even with everything pre-installed. I start some of the game tests, and hope to return to my P- 38 for a whUe. But sure enough, the 3D card being tested is showing corrupted textures. So, I fire off an email to the product manager who had been promising new drivers. The doorbell rings again. It’s my daughters, back from camp. I look at ray watch: it's 4:30. They had left over eight hours ago. I realize that I've forgotten to eat lunch. I smile at them. “Want a snack?" wit looks really cool and incredibly expensive. I’m momentarily glad I gel staff like this on loan.lG [|||H OCTQBfR 1S99 : S w . g B m e s p D I . I COMPUTER GAMING WOHID Now THIS... IS WAY BEYOND Ultra. If you need fast..step up, strap in and get out on the edge with the all new ERAZCR "X graphics accelerator from ELSA. Its hyperfast NVIDIA goes way heyond until you operations of texbite-fiying Transform/Lighting and 256 hits of Quad pipe does to 3D — you he in the dark ages, haby. Plus, right now, ERA20R X is available with EISA's cool 3D REVELATOR gaming glasses...^ sooo jump on it., you still here? IEL5R1 888. 560. ELSA or www.elsa.com/AMERICA HARDWARE Killer Rigs When you’re ready to put your dream rig together, check out uifinjw.aamesPDt.com/features/o c workshooS/indeK.html for Loyd’s step-by-step guide to getting your Ultimate Gaming Machine up and running. YOUR SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE GAMING MACHINE BEGINS HERE!!! I Thrustmaster TQS •SUS* More control than anyone needs. I Mitsubishi DiamondPro 2020u • $1,300 • Perfectly fiat; good USB support. I Optiquest V35 • $420 • Solid 19” monitor at a ; budget pjice. _ ' Pioneer 6x SCSI DVD • $180 < New Pioneer Slot Drive DVD. I Pioneer DVO-1 03 I Slot drive DVD. $130 < Dniiiaii D in ■ ■ rOiMGi If iy Component Motherboard Manufacturer Asus P2B-F Price $135 -“7. CPU Pentium III / 600 $800 It’s on too of the heap, for now, Memory 256MB of PC133 cetlilied HSOKAM $398 Just think, a auarler-oiqabvte. Disk Controller Adaptec 2940U2W $349 00 mecabytes per second. Primary Graohlcs Hercules Dvnamite THT2 $245 FasiBSI INI! oard araand. Secondary Graphics 30fx Voodoo2/1000 $99 Slnole VoodoD2 for Glide oompatibilitv. 3.5” floppy drive Teac $20 still galta la kave one. Hard Drive Quantum Atlas 10k $025 Runs a little warm, hut it's wav fast. Backup lomeaa Jar 2 $300 2 flips of backup. Hard Drive cooler PC Power and Coolinn Bav-Cool $49 Keel) that Allas 10k cool! Primary Audio Turtle Beach Manleoo II Quadrilla $99 For four sneaker OirectSound. A30 and EAX. Rear channel speakers Jamo CS-5 $420 Ultimate rear channel powered speakers. Modem Cooper Rocket DSL modem $400 DSL at long last, Networkina 3COM Etheitink 10/100 PCI $70 For Iraaalngyoat buddies. Networkino Hub Netnear DS108 $170 Multlolaver and DSL modem support. Power Supply Turbocool 300 $129 More power. Scotiv! Mouse/Pointina Device Looilech USB Mouseman Plus $49 Off the leash. Action Game Controller Gravis Gameoad Pro USB $60 Great sports controller, too (net two). Rudder Pedals Ttirustmaster Elite RCS $79 Nearly oerfect foot placement. Driving Controls ECCI CDS 4000 $1,129 Drivers wanted. 1 Total $8,209.00 The Fine Print: All recommendations based on actual evaluations and testing. Prices listed are average low quotes from Web price search engines like www.comnutersho D Der.CDni or www.Dticewa1ch.cam . - Compiled by Dave Salvator and Loyd Case In-Win Q500 full tower ATX • $115 < I New improved ■ model. I Elan Vital TIO-AB* I $B2 • The case for I upgraders. LFT-11 • $500 • Beautiful imaging, clean sound. Boston Acoustics BA-635 • $99 • Went| back to our favorites. Thrustmaster F22 Pro • $129.00 • It just feels right. CH Gamestick 3D USB • $55 • Solid stick. ■Lean Machine Component Manufacturer Motherboard Abit BX6 rev 2,0 CPU Pentium 111/450 Mernprv 128MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM Disk Controller Built-in UDMA/33 Primary Graphics Voodoo3/3000 Rappv Drive Teac Hard Drive Western DInital Expert 9.1 Primary Audio Diamond Monster Sound MX300 Secondary Audio NA Modem Diamond Suora 56e Network Card D-Link 10/100 Elhernel Power Supply Built-in, 235W Keyboard Looilech Newtouoh Mouse/Pointlng Device Logitech PS/2 Wheel Mouse OCTOBER 1 999 ■ ■ COMPUTER GAMING WORLD • HARDWARE HARDWARE “Which 3D Card Should I BuyP” i f there’s one question readers have asked us more than any other, this would have to he it. So, you’ve got the question, we've got answers. Look for this 3D card guide every month here in CDW. Choosing the right 3D card depends on your CPU and yeur motherboard. So we have two recommendations for you. Choice A. If your CPU is a Pentium 233MHz or slower, or your motherboard is all PCI (no AGP), or you've got a motherboard-down AGP graphics chip with no AGP slot, then get 3dfx’s Voodoo2 1000 board. At about $100, it will do a very good job with current games, and a pretty good job with games coming out soon. And the best part is that when you swap in a new motherboard/CPU, you can migrate the Voodoo2 hoard to the new setup. Choice B: If your computer's motherboard has an AGP slot, then go with Hercules' Dynamite TNT2, which is currently the fastest 3D gun in the West. At about $180 street price for the 32MB version, this card is actually quite a deal. Even if you're running a Pentium II 233 or 266MH2 CPU, when you upgrade your motherboard/CPU, you can migrate the card into your new setup, and it's got room to grow with whatever CPU you mate it with. Product Watch Intel’s Next CPU and System Chipset Delayed i f you ask Intel, the official line is that the yields at high frequencies of the next generation Pentium III have been lower than expected. The next Pentium III, code-named Coppermine, will have 256KB of Level 2 cache built onto the chip itself, running at the full clock speed of the processor. It will also be made using the new 0.18-micron process, much tighter than the 0.25-micron currently being used. The new manufacturing process will make for higher clock rates without causing a heat wave. Also slipping is Intel's next core logic chipset, the 820 (code-named Camino). If you ask around, the Camino is the real reason for the Intel delays. Camino will support a new type of memory called RAMBUS DRAM (RDRAM). Rumors abound that RDRAM hasn't been hitting the performance tar- gets Intel wants. With AMD and alternative chipset vendors taking a very close look at PC133 SDRAM and double-data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), this is a real problem for the CPU behemoth. If RDRAM can’t deliver a sub- stantial perfor- mance premium over the alterna- tives, Intel will have to scramble to find an alter- native, something they're not accustomed to doing. Expect both Coppermine and Camino to ship later this fall, or even early this winter. -Loyd Case Price S135 The SUnny 5 PCI slots. Sofimenu. 440BX. S300 Finally made the move. $120 128MB at last. $0 $150 Stability, soeed and coolinn. $20 Still Qotta have it. $190 7200RPM from Western Diaital. $82 430 and clean audio for under a C-note. SO $106 Solid Derformance. Qood orice. $29 Great for those LAN oarlies. SO $45 In with the new. out with the Natural. $18 Better than the “gaming" mouse. Total $1,981,00 1 P€RFORMANC€ PC SYSTEMS HYPGRSONIC VIDEO SYSTEMS MODIFIED BY INNERWORKS" SONIC 5TANDARd'~S549S 600MHZ DYNAMITE TNT2 POWERHOUSE Intel Pentium III 600MHz w/ SSE Instructions CoolerMaster Pentium III CPU Cooling System Intei440BX, lOOMHZBus, lAGP, 5PCI, 2I5A, 2US8 Ultra ATA/66 Controller Onboard 256MB SDRAM CAS2 18.2GB Western Digital 7200rpm Uttra66 Hard Drive 32MB Hercules Dynamite Ultra TNT2 w/TV out 12MB 3Dfx/STB Voodoo II 1000 (Glide) Innerworks 3D Optimization System Innerworks Dual Video Cooling Architecture Toshiba 6X/32X 3rd Generation DVD Drive Creative Labs Soundblaster Live! Value Cambridge Soundworks PPS 2000 Digital Surround with 25W Subwoofer and Remote Volume Control 3C0M/USR Sportster 56k Fax/Data Modem Logitech MouseMan Wheel 4 Button USB Logitech Enhanced Keyboard w/ Palm Rest Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro USB Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad 1.44MB Floppy Drive Desktop Microphone Hypersonic PC HX45 ATX Tower Case Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition DirectX 6.1 & Latest SSE Compatible Drivers Hypersonic PC System Recovery CD Hypersonic PC BIOS 8i System Optimization Hypersonic PC One Year Comprehensive Warranty Hypersonic PC Three Year Toll Free Support SONIC BOOm"S3I9S 600MHZ DYNAMHE TNT2 POWERHOUSE Intel Pentium III 600MHz w/ SSE Instructions CoolerMaster Pentium III CPU Cooling System Intel 440BX, lOOMHZ Bus, lAGP, 5PCI, 2ISA, 2USB 3 X 168pin DIMM Slots, up to 768MB RAM Ultra ATA/66 controller Onboard 384MB SDRAM CAS2 22GB IBM Deskstar 7200rpm Ultra66 Hard Drive 32MB Hercules Dynamite Ultra TNT2 w/TV out 24MB 3Dfx/STB Voodoo2 1000 3D II 5LI (Glide) Innerworks 3D Optimization System Innerworks Dual Video Cooling Architecture Toshiba 6X/32X 3rd Generation DVD Drive Creative Labs Soundblaster Live! w/ Digital I/O Cambridge Soundworks FPS 2000 Digital Surround with 25W Subwoofer and Remote Volume Control 3COM/USR Sportster 56k Fax/Data Modem Logitech MouseMan Wheel 4 Button USB Microsoft Natural Keyboard Logitech Wingman Force USB Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad 1.44MB Floppy Drive Desktop Microphone Hypersonic PC HX45 ATX Tower Case Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition DirectX 6.1 6i Latest SSE Compatible Drivers Hypersonic PC System Recovery CD Hypersonic PC BIOS 8i System Optimization Hypersonic PC One Year Comprehensive Warranty Hypersonic PC Three Year Toll Free Support WWW.HYPeRSONIC-PC.COM 203 HARDWARE Tech Medics by Loyd Case and Dave Salvator Vo^^#e Got Questions, WeVe Got Answers Do Pentium II Motherboards support Pentium III processors? Not in all cases. Pentium example, the original II systems using the older Intel SE440BX (not the 440LX chipset don’t sup- 440BX-2) doesn’t support port Pentium III. These are Pentium III. Also, if you typically in systems with have an off-the-shelf 333IVIHZ Pentium II system from Dell, processors or slower. If Gateway, or other major you have a 35QIVIHz suppliers that use Intel Pentium II or faster, you motherboards, you may may be in luck. Even also be out of luck, but then, though, not all check your motherboard motherboards will work manufacturer’s web site with a Pentium III. For to be sure. We get mail. Lots of mail. Huge quantities... Well, you get the idea. Readers send us all kinds of intriguing techie ques- tions. We answer as many as we can directly, but because we find that you’re often asking similar questions, we figured we’d answer the mest frequent- ly asked enes here. If you’ve got a hardware headache, send us mail at cgw_hardware@zd.com. © I just installed Windows 98 SE and noticed a yellow exclamation mark in the Device Manager next to “Advanced Power Mangement Support.” I found this just after my PC spontaneously rebooted. I also noticed that the power fan stopped working. So I looked at the properties sheet for Advanced Power Management and forced it to use APM 1.0 mode. That got my fan sort of working (I think that could be the problem) and the yellow exclamation sign disappeared beside the power management sup- port device. Was this the problem? O You don’t want to enable APM 1.0, as it’s an older standard not widely supported. What you need to do is to enable the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) set- ting in your BIOS setup program. The exclamation point will disappear from the Device Manager, and your ATX power supply will behave properly. © I have a Pentium III 450 on a SE440BX motherboard (latest BIOS), and I get a “Serial Presence Detect (SPD) device data missing or inconclusive” whenever I boot up. This occurs after the com- puter performs the memory check. What does this mean? What can I do about it? I have PCIOO certified memory, which 1 bought back when I owned a Pentium 11/266. O You’re probably fine. You probably purchased early PC10D memory, which lacks the tiny SPD (serial pres- ence detect) ROM that all memory mod- ules now have. All the ROM does Is tell the system what type of memory it is, and what parameter settings (such as CAS type and so on) should be used. 0 1 just bought Diamond’s Viper V770 Ultra card, hoping to improve the looks of the games I play. However, I’m quite disap- pointed. First, QUAKE 2 will only run in software mode. The game won’t change to QpenGL (as if it doesn’t see my hardware card). Secondly, I also bought KINGPIN, but it won’t load OpenGL, saying it didn’t detect my hardware card. The card installed okay, as per the instruc- tions. Both UNREAL and HALF-LIFE look great, though. 1 have a Pentium III 500 MHz Aptiva 731 running Windows 98. I updated the drivers from Diamond’s site. The support at Interplay could not give me any direction to fix my problem. © You’re most likely running your desktop resolution in 8-blt color mode. TNT and TNT2 chips slave their OpenGL color bit-depth off the desktop resolution, so if you bump your desktop color-depth up to IB- or 32-bit, both KINGPIN and QUAKE II will run with 3D acceleration, since they require at least 16-bit color to run in OpenGL mode. © I am planning on building a new computer and I have a question about the video card(s) I am planning on putting in it. For my main video card I am buy- ing a Diamond Viper V770 Ultra. I was also planning on putting in a Creative Lab’s 3D Blaster Voodoo2 for Glide support, but do I really need to spend the extra money for its support of Glide? I am not a die hard first-person shooter, and 1 don’t live and die for frame rates. But I have heard some games will only run on 3dfx video cards. O lt’s true that some 3D games only support 3D acceleration if there’s a 3dfx-compatible card present. But there are relatively few of these (something like 22). A few games used to run better in Direct30 on 3dfx hardware, but that's rapidly changing. We suggest waiting until you have a compelling reason to add a Voodoo? card before you buy. /23I7 204 DCTOBEfl 1 990 • c g w. g a m e s p o t . c o m • COMPUTER GAMING VUORID WIY SON IS A VICTIM OF BAD GRAPHICS. BAD HARDWARE Reviews [NTREGA MUITIFUNCTIDN USB HUB Requirements: Windows 98 or Windows 9S 0SR2.1 system. Price: $140 Manufacturer: Enlrcga Contact: www.entreoa.com When Reach Exceeds Grasp The Entrega 7‘port multifunction hub is a way coot idea; L 1 2Mbit/sec throughput of the USB bus to add four extra USB ports serial ports and another parallel port. ^ I just wish it worked. The four USB ports work great. But the parallel and serial ports are problematic. Some devices, like a modem I attached, wortced fine. But I couldn’t get a Wacom ArtZ graphics tablet to even detect the serial port. I also attached an HP 722C inkjet printer to the parallel port. Both the USB parallel port and printer were detected fine, but I could never actually print anything. Also, Windows 98 detected the printer as a new device every lime the system booted, Given that this was a clean install of Windows 90, I'd say it was problematic. Now. the 722C is a “dumb” device that depends on the PC to do the actual print rendering. It’s possible that a printer with its own RAM and controller would work fine, but I wouldn't bet on it. Don't expect to use another parallel device like a Zip drive, either; there's a “For Printers ONLY" warning sticker next to the parallel port connector. USB devices, such as a Microsoft Freestyle Pro gamepad, a USB mouse, and a keyboard, all worked fine. I've used other Entrega hubs with good results, but if you’re hoping for additional connection options for traditional serial or parallel devices, take your business elsewhere. -Loyd Case PLANTRONICS BS1 STEREO HEAOSET Requirements: Sound card. Price: $B0 Manufacturer: Plantronics Contact: www.plantrDnics.CDm It's All on Your Head I t's midnight, your family’s asleep, and you’ve finally got some time to jump on your rig for some serious gaming. But as you prepare to do battle online, you realize that ★ A ★ ★ you're going to have to play your game audio at whisper level so as not to traumatize the wee ones. What to do? Headphones seem an obvious choice, but now that voice communications is getting big, not to mention voice recognition pack- ages like Game Commander, maybe you should consider a complete headset. Telephone headset Plantronics has decided to jump into the “hi-fi headset" market, and their HS-1 head- set deserves a serious look, The HS-1 uses 45mm neo-dyium speaker drivers and delivers very solid sound across the spectrum. Low-end response was beefy, and mids and highs were nicely defined as well, both for music and gaming audio. And these things could handle plenty of volume. The HS-1 also has a noise-can- celing microphone that worked well with the Game Commander speech recognition utili- ty. When not in use, the microphone nests neatly in the headphones and stays out of the way. About the only thing missing from this solid offering is a splitter for your sound card’s audio output where you'd plug the headset into one output and your speakers into the other. But that's a shortcoming that a quick trip to Radio Shack can mend. -Dave Salvator Requirements: Joystick port or free USB port Price; $39 Manufacturer: Madcatz Contact: www.ma(lcatz.cQni Great Expectations M adcatz enjoys a unique honor among first-person shooter fans. Their •k -A 'A Panther XL controller - a Joystick joystick/trackball combo controller - is the only shooter controller to have any real fans. Others have tried, and others have failed, but Madcatz has cultivated a following. Building on that success, Madcatz has now released their Panther DX digital joystick, which nixes the trackball in favor of five well-placed buttons. The DX can connect via USB or your joystick port, and there's even a port where you can connect your rudder pedals. On paper, this looks like one slick stick, but in actual play we came across some glitches that kept the DX out of the winner’s circle. I took the DX for a spin through ENEMY ENGAGED: APACHE/HAVOC and FIGHTER SQUADRON, and while the stick was con- nected via the joystick port, it fared well, with smooth movement and response dur- ing gameplay. The dial-a-throtlle configura- tion isn’t my favorite, but it gels the job done, and allows minute adjustments. The “paw-pad,” upon which your left hand rests, is comfortable, and the five buttons (three for fingers, and two for your thumb) are eas- ily accessed, The trouble began when I tried connect- ing the DX via USB. The controller was rec- ognized and appeared happy, but after about a minute it would lose its connection and become unresponsive while appearing to be connected in the game controller con- trol panel. Disconnecting/reconnecting brought it back to life, but after a minute or so, the cycle would repeat itself. And whether connected via USB or joystick port, my Thrustmaster Rudder Control System pedals were never usable despite repeated calibration attempts, A driver update may address these problems, but the extras that make this controller interest- ing don’t appear to be ready for prime time. -Dave Salvator TURTLE BEACU MBMTEBO II QUABZILLA Requirements: Free PCI slot; Windows 95 or 9B; Pentium 75 or better with 16MB or more RAM. Price: $99 Manufacturer; Turtle Beach Contact; www.tbeach.com Fashionably Late T he battle for the ears of gamers rages on, and the latest entrant into the audio hardware fight makes the choices . . . * . even harder. A A A A 7 Last year’s OCTOBER 1999 :ew.gi im • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD photos: Michael Falconer Crarxk Up Your Computer! 80 brain-fiying watts of power. Bone-thumping bass from Yamaha's Advanced Active Servo Technology.™ 2-Way satellites with immaculate highs and aggressive mids. Welcome to the new breed of Yamaha multimedia speakers. The new Yamaha YST-MS50 and YST-tVlS55D (with USB) are the best speakers for games and music on your computer. They'll even blow away your stereo. Get them for as low as $129* at your favorite computer and electronics stores. ^YAMAHA The \% Your Computer Should S ound. MULTIMEDIA SPEAKERS • CD-REWRITABLE RECORDERS • HEADPHONES • SOUNDCARDS Pof a bfochurt, call (800|823-S414 ext. 5217 or visit www.vamaha.corr. ’Estimaied street price for YSI-MSbO (Yamaha floes not set retail prices). ®I999 Yamaha Corporation of America, Consumer ProtJucts Division, P.O. Sox BGOO, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600 HARDWARE Montego, based on the Vortex 1 audio chip, was a smash suc- cess. So a lot of us waited for Turtle Beach's spin on chip-maker Aureal’s much more capable Vortex 2 chip. We waited...and waited. Well, the wait is over, At first blush, the Turtle Beach Quadzilla hardware seems almost as physically awkward as the product name. The full pack- age includes a primary card and a small daughterboard that adds four-speaker support and digital audio output, but takes up a slot panel in the back of your PC to do so. The MIDI quality was on par for the Vortex 2 chip; that is, good, but not stellar. The 3D audio sounded good through two speakers and even better through four, but the best 3D audio rendering came through headphones. Using CGWs Pentium 111/500 testbed. Audio Winbench reported a 2.95% CPU utilization streaming 16 voices through DirectSoundSD at a 22KHz, 8-bit sampling resolution. Turtle Beach uses 18-bit 0/A converters for cleaner output, so there was little ambient hissing at high volumes. The software utilties are slick, especially the audio diagnostic tool. If you’ve ever struggled with sound problems, this little gem is nearly worth the price of the card. The Montego II is one of the best Vortex 2 boards I've seen to date. The only draw- back is the daughtercard, which eats up a precious slot. But if you have the slot to spare, then check this card out. Your ears will love you for it. -Loyd Case Requirements: Windows 9B, USB port Price: $30 Manufacturer: CH Products Contact: www.ctiprDducts.com Slick as a Greased Weasel ■ have a problem. It’s not an uncom* mon problem, but one I am loath to admit. When ■A -k -A i playing games with a gamepad, my hands sv/eat. Profusely. This is generally not a problem with gamepads that have a rough, textured surface, like those made by Gravis or Microsoft. But the glossy finish of CH Products' new USB Gamepad can cause the controller to slip out of my hands like a greased weasel at the most inop- portune limes (like when Johnny Wilson is serving up a crushable curveball in HIGH HEAT 2000). The "balarang" as we've been calling it around the office (due to its resemblance to Batman’s stalwart utility belt item) is quite a good Gravis/Playstation-style gamepad, with a lot of thought put into its ergonomics. In fact, the CH Products' USB Gamepad is comfortable almost to a fault. Your hands are pretty much locked into position, which might be good for your tendonitis, but it presents problems for those who fidget. The controller fit perfectly into my hands, but mine are bigger than average. Those gamers with the button layout of the Gravis gamepad fused into their brains might have trouble get- ting used to the usual button placement of the CH pad, but this Sidewinder devotee had no problem. Overall, the CH Products USB Gamepad is a very solid game con- troller-you rarely go wrong with USB- but it might not be for everyone. Maybe just those with a towel handy. -Tom Price What Were They Thinking? T his is a slick little motherboard. As motherboard installations go, it was a piece of cake. The only installation hassle I had was to make sure that the custom INF file (a driver, of sorts) for the Intel 810 chipset was properly installed. But after actually testing the thing, 1 have only this to say; if you’re a gamer, run like hell. I’d probably feel that way about any motherboard using the Intel 810 chipset. In its infinite march for increasing profits and greater world domination, Intel has built the graphics controller into the motherboard chipset. But Intel has used its old 1740 core as the graphics chipset, which even in its heyday was a weak performer. It also has built-in audio, but most of the audio chores are actually done in software, with just a hardware CODEC (compressor/decompressor) chip onboard. I tested the MEW with a 466MHz Celeron CPU - certainly no slouch in perfor- mance. However, 3D GameGauge performance was an anemic 15.9, less than half the average score of cards tested in our recent roundup. The 3D WinBench score was a paltry 349, and WinBench's 2D Business Winmark was 91. Something smells, and it ain’t the fish. The only good news about this graphics chipset is that you can deacti- vate it and replace it with a PCI card. Voodoo2/2000 anyone? Asus isn’t really to blame here; Intel is, for trying to foist off such a mediocre piece of crap on the world. If you see a real- ly cheap PC for sale, check to see if it's using the 810 chipset, If it is, slap a warning sign on the system to steer away other gamers and leave - quickly, -Loyd Case ASUS MEW MDTHEBBDflBD/INTEL PBID DC1DH CHIPSET Requirements: Socket 370 Celeron Price; $165 Manufacturer: Asus Contact: www.asus.coni UCTOBEfl 1999 igw.flamespol.i • COMPUTER GAMING WORLD HOW TO GET AN UNFAIR GAME AOVANTAGE. Option #1; Painful, exotic surgery. Option #2: Game Commander. This won’t hurt a hit. Never again will you be fragged into fine chunks while you look for the right key for "deathbeam." With Game Commander, any custom keystroke or key combination can be pre-programmed to a single voice command. Scream "Die Pig!" to launch an Alpha Strike at thelOO-ton mech barreling down on you. Yell “Wingman, Break and Attack" and your computer wingman will peel off to nail that incoming bogey hot on your tail. All without ever unclenching your clammy fist from the joystick. Don't believe us? Download a free demo at www.gamecommander.com. And get a cutting edge without using one. lis of Mindmaker, Inc. A |TOP PICK April 30, 1999 June 1999 IG AM E m 1 ' m "Game Commander is amazing to use. Sim jockeys may have finally found something better than keyboard templates and even more complex KOTAS controllers. Check it oul" — Loyd Case July 1999 Computer Gaming World mindmaker- GAMER’S EDGE TIPS • TRICKS • CODES • CHEATS • WALKTHROUGHS Might And Magic Vii Blood, Honor, and Some Really Weasely Tricks by P. Stephen “Desslock” Janicki M ight & Magic VII is a game for the party animai - the roie-playing party animai. Your suc- cess hinges upon picking the right party members, deveioping their skiils, and propping them for battie. Since each character class has distinct advantages, choosing your party members is a major decision. Race doesn’t matter, so feel free to choose whichever races you'd like, but character classes are extremely important, The default party comprised of a Knight, Thief, Sorcerer and Cleric may not be particularly original, but it’s actually one of the better combinations, A Sorcerer is nearly essential, since the Lloyd's Beacon and Starburst spells and the identify skills are so useful. A character capable of disarming traps is also important, unless you’re witling to have an expensive NPC tag along with your party. Archers are useful all-around characters, as they can cast many powerful spells, are extremely good with missile weapons, are decent melee fighters, and can disarm most traps. The grandmaster spell abilities of a Cleric are also very useful, as they can render your party immune from instant death spells and can heal the entire party. Druids and Rangers are widely skilled if you want to use them as substitutes for a core character class. Knights are naturally the best melee fighters, but the additional magical abilities of a Paladin are handy. Exploration and Character Development Once you clear out the Harmondale area, go to Erathia or the Tularean Forest, which are both considerably less difficult than Barrow Downs. Nighon is only accessible through the mountain entrance underneath Stone City, and you can reach the Evenmorn Islands only through the Tatalia docks, after you complete the Priest elevation quest. The barrows in Barrow Downs and the maze in Nighon are great places to pick up gold if you're running low. Elevate the primary skills of your characters as soon as possible. There are two expert trainers for each ability, but only one master and grandmaster trainer. Only one character in your party needs to develop the Merchant, Identify item, Identify mon- ster, Disarm trap. Stealing, Alchemy and Repair skills. Perception, Learning, Body building, Meditation and Armsmaster are good sec- ondary skills for all charac- ters to concentrate on once their primary skills have been raised to the master level. Save items such as cloaks, rings, boots, amulets and hats that give bonuses to your primary attributes (might, intelligence, personality, endurance, accuracy, speed and luck), even if none of your characters are going to wear the items on a regular basis. They'll allow you to increase your ability scores to net skill points by completing the burning pillar contests, locat- ed throughout the realm. They're also handy for meet- ing the elevation requirements of some master trainers (ability bonuses will count, but temporary bonuses granted by fountains and wells will not). Use NPCs effectively. If you’re going into a new area where you'll be earning lots of experience points, pick up NPCs like teachers that will boost your experi- LORDY Hand-to-hand combat is sometimes a real ly bad idea. Unless you have grandmaster level protection from magic, use missile weapons and spells (including slow) to take Minotaur Lords out from a distance. Don't rely solely on your natural abilities; stock up on attribute- enhancing items and resist the temptation to sell them. OCTOBER 1 399 • cgw.gainespot.com • COMPUTER OAMING WORLD 210 GAMER’S EDGE DEATH FROM ABOVE Meteor Swarm, which can be cast by both archers and sor- cerers, and Starburst are extremely effective spells outdoors, especially when your party is flying out of range of melee weapons. ence points, and then dismiss them (or pick up a banker NPC) prior to collecting gold and looting corpses. If your characters are inept at disarming traps, pick up an NPC thief, but avoid aquiring any treasure until you’ve disarmed all the traps in the area and dismissed the NPC. When playing Acromage, use cards that boost your Quarry, Magic and Zoo level (and reduce your opponent’s ratings) before any others, unless you need to quickly elevate your tower to avoid destruction. Once you start outproducing your opponent, you’ll be able to win easily by building your tower or by just accumulating resources. Pick up the bow skill for all of your characters right away. In real-time mode, your party will be able to take out almost any opponent with missile weapons (even the dragon on Emerald Island), but you'll have to learn to master the keyboard “ranged combat rumba": launch arrows, turn 90 degrees, and move your party forward to dodge incoming fire; turn to face your opponents again and launch more arrows. The strafing keys are too slow to be effective. Once you get the Fly spell, you can dodge incoming fire in turn-based mode by moving upwards and downwards. When outdoors, Starburst and Meteor swarm spells are extremely effective at wiping out armies of enemies. You can maneuver into posi- tion to launch a fly spell to great effect, and can also retreat quiddy from pursuing enemies. Avoid hand-to-hand combat with monsters like Minotaur Lords that can kill instantly. Instead, hit them with slow, paralyze and berserk spells, and then pick them off with missile weapons or offen- sive spells. Effective spell casting can clear out areas such as Nighon's Maze, which otherwise would be too deadly for lower-level characters. For a low-level spell. Sparks can be very effective at close range, Prepare for major battles by casting all of the defensive spells you have, such as Bless, Heroism, Haste, resistance spells. Protection from Magic, Regeneration and Stoneskin. Melee weapons are often the most effective way to quickly take down enemies indoors, but ensure that your characters are as well protected as possible before charging into battle. Trading Places If you're hard up for gold, you can always earn some by lugging around a big, ugly crate of goods to a prospective buyer. Since the crates take up so much room and the reward for completing a delivery isn't significant, trading wouldn't be worth your time if you didn't have the trading table on this page, which specifies exactly where to make your deliveries. There are two separate delivery chains, each with three stops, but one is ten times as lucrative as the other and will cost you ten times as much for raw materials. Using the Town Portal or Lloyd’s Beacon spells, you can quickly rack up as much money as you need. Location Barrow Downs (Rivenrock Residence) Tatalia (Calindra’s Home) Avalee (Infemon’s House) Eralhia(Hil!ier Residence) Tularear Forest (Kerid Residence) •••' Harmondale (Farswell Residence) Buys Selfs Sand Glass Bottles (2,000 gold) Wine Sand (2,000 gold) Arrowheads Griffin Feathers (200 gold) Griffin Feathers Wood (200 gold) Wood Arrowheads (200 gold) Genie lamps are extremely useful Items; they are found lying around in barren areas such as Bracada Desert and Nighon. Genie lamps bestow different powers depending upon the date of fheir use. Avoid using them on weekends, as char- acters will be turned to stone on Fridays, killed on Saturdays, and eradicated on Sundays (some day of rest!). The benefits granted by a genie lamp will be different each month, as you can see from the Year of the Genie table, and will get successively stronger during each week of a month. Skill points are probably the most useful bene fit, at feast early in the game. Year of the Genie + tp one ranrinm rpsistanrp COMPUTER GAMING WORLD • • OCTOBER 1099 mm mwBjm wsAsrm^o f mym . xb : wferijifrite Gsf’TAIN OF MY SOUL CAUGH^pi^^raPETTFEU®' BE'FWfiE^W-^PlTEFUL GODS, YOU FOR MORlgi ^Pp yOUR FIFE. HERCUIES, ACHIELES, H AND THAhiShTIEST OF HER^IS IN YOUR EPIC STRUGGE^ : ETERNAL SEAT ATOP OLYMPUS. TEN LEGENDARY HEROES CUSTOMIZABLE FORMATIONS f / PERFECT YOUR WAR PARTY AND TAKE IT WITH YOU ONLINE IN THE ULTIMATE MYTHOLOGICAL REAL TIME STRATEGY EXPERIENCE VWW.INTERPIAY.COM/INVICTUS f invictus: In Ihe Shjdnw of Olympus 01999 Intsrplay Productions, Invictiis, Id DeRrees Kast, llic M DcRrets Past loRii, Inteiplay, Ihc Inlcrplay loRo, and "ily Gamers. For Gamers." are trademarks of interplay Productions, (Juicksilvtr and the Quicksilver loRo are trademarks of Quicksilver Software Inc, Windows 9,i/98 are trademarks of Microsoft Cori). All other trademarks and copyrighls are the property of their respective ownets, All rights reseAid, GAMER’S EDGE Hie Journey of a Thousand Hours Begins With Your First Charaoter by Andrew Park I f you value your social life greatly, then the best advice I can give is to avoid EVERQUEST aitogether. Otherwise, you may catch the addiction, and iind yourself forsaking food and real-world social interaction in favor of monster slaying, treasure hunting, and meeting the other people who happen to be there for the monsters and treasures as well. If you still want to game on, then by all means stay and read this guide. I know how hard it is to start out in the land of Norrath; the only items out of the box that will be of any real use are the CD and the reference card that describes the keyboard shortcuts (with which you should familiarize yourself as soon as possible). The thoroughly uninformative game manual and the game’s own quirky user interface won't do much to help get you started, so I will. Momma, I Wanna Be a Hero It wouldn't be an RPG without character creation at the beginning. You have a pool of 1 2 races and 1 4 character classes to choose from. Seven primary statistics make up the rest of your character: strength, stamina, agility, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence and charisma. Don't take the choice of deity tightly, as religion determines both your starting point, and how the various factions treat you, Alt the races have innate abilities and quirks that make them suitable - or unsuitable - for certain classes. Erudites, being the smartest race in Norrath, have the high intelligence points needed to make them good spellcasters, Agile Halfiings have innate abilities to sneak and hide, so their best bet is a career in roguedom. There's no “best race/class combination," as just about any combination will work to an extent. However, at some point in your EVERQUEST career, you’ll want to develop a mainstay character, Good test characters to get accustomed to the basics of the game are either a half-elf warrior based in Freeport, or a halfling warrior based in Rivervale. Both of these race/cfass combi- nations have the ability to see in the dark (infravision): and they begin in safe, well-populated areas with plenty of easy monsters to fight, minor quests to perform, and other players with whom to irrteract. The (Hot] Keys to Success After you've created your first character, get ready to jump into the world of Norrath. The first thing you should do is look around; use fhe F9 key to change your perspective to one of five different camera angles. FI 0 will choose between the default minimized-view (which you should use at the beginning), half- screen view (which you should stick to after you've familiarized yourself with the hotkeys), and full-screen view, Now, bring up your inventory (if you didn't play the tutorial to learn how to open it with the mouse, then just press “I" on your keyboard). You should have five bread cakes, five wafer skins, a weapon, a note, and a book of discord, The bread cakes and water are essential; run out of these, and you'll eventually become so hungry and thirsty that you'll suffer continual exhaustion and become unable to recuperate from your wounds. Equip your starting weapon (a short sword, a dagger, or a club) and then have a look at your note; this is the slip of paper you turn in to your guild master. Right-click it once to read the contents and find the name of your guild master, then seek him out. Lastly, you should get into the habit of assigning hotkeys to important actions, such as fighting. You can do this by left-click- ing and holding down over an important action button, then dragging it to your hotkey box in the lower left-hand corner of your screen. You can now access that action by pressing the corresponding keyboard number; if you assigned melee attack to the first slot, you can toggle it on and off by pressing “1 ." You'll want to hotkey all your important abilities; for instance, warriors and monks should hotkey kick; barbarian, ogre and troll charac- ters should hotkey slam (both examples are for use in combat). Y«u try to punch m. but ffOssl . Vcu tave no Mca what tkth«n you ar« facing. Vou try to lafKJ’ a litroe rat, but m;£l RATS! To start combat, tar- get your victim, then hit one of your com- bat hotkeys or "A" for auto-attack mode. 214 OCTOBER 1S99 • e g w. ga m es p o t .c d m • COMPUTER GAMING WORIO Rotating camera and map plus over 200 3D modeled units. Manage leadership assignments to customize your army for battle, 51 1 «! GAMER’S EOGE EVERQUEST How to Pick up Elves Now that you’ve gotten used to the basics, you can get to the meat of the game-meeting other people. Just press Enter and type whatever profound wisdom you have to say, in a con- versational tone. Use the /tell command for direct and discreet messages for specific players; respond to /tells with the /reply command. There are also three general channels that can be heard by anyone in the area: /shout (for calls of help, warnings or group requests), /auction (for buying and selling goods), and /ooc (for out-of-character discussion). Thankfully, excessive chatter can be filtered out using the options menu. Interacting with computer characters is slightly different. It's often a good idea to /consider them first (either press the “C” key, or press Enter and type in /con, or right-click on them); this will reveal how tough the character is, as well as how they regard you (with respect to faction standing). If a powerful char- acter regards you threateningly or is ready to attack, it’s best to turn and run. Of course, when you get past the city gates, you'll find mon- sters that won't be too interested in chitchat. Before you engage, /con the monster to make sure you can handle it. At ONE MEAD TOO MANY Use the F9 key to get additional camera views of your drunken self. Career Changes EVERQUEST may focus on combat, but there are NPC-related quests, trade skills, and player interactions to break it up. Trade skills allow characters to become proficient in such formidable arts as pot- tery, brewing, smithing and tailoring. There's no Heald Institute in Norrath, so being a successful tradesman requires your character to purchase the appropriate “How To" book and materials, and have at it. Trade skills, like all other skills, will only improve with repeated use, One thing to remember is that the land of Norrath is constantly changing. The next time you log in, don't be surprised to see a patch with a number of minor tweaks or fixes added by the designers. Since the beta test, several things have changed; level requirements for skills (at press time, bash has been lowered from a level 9-12 skill to level 6; dual wield has been lowered from a level 1 5-1 7 skill to level 13-16), faction shifts and quest completions have been changed, This sort of constant flux has the unfortunate side effect of outdating the information, but also serves as the designers' dynamic set of checks and balances to keep the playing field as level as possi- ble and, ideally, to make the game as enjoyable as possible. Hopefully, you'll now be able to make some sense of the gameworld, and progress smoothly into Norrath. lower levels, a green, blue, or even a black/white con should be all right, but more dangerous yellow and red /cons should be avoided. After combat, there'll be a body to loot (either your target's or your own). Right-click on the corpse first, then loot by right-clicking on the items. You probably gained some experi- ence from the battle; the orange bar in your persona menu will indicate this. Once all five bars are filled, you'll gain a level. Thumping on weak monsters yields less experience, so you’ll soon need to seek out tougher opponents. In order to tackle the nastier beasts, you should band together with some like-minded adventurers of a similar experience level; a well balanced party of healers, magic users and fighters can collectively bring down monsters several levels higher than their own, fTT?? For more tips, check out www.gamegui[les.com/gui(les/eurauest for BameSpot’s comprehensive Game Guide. ooctooo^ Ycu have no idea what cTiraclton you aie fa You Itunk you «e heading NoilWVest- You have no idea whel drecUon you are fa You have no idea what ctieclion you are la You say, tiM Priest of OiscoreT Priest ot Kscoid says 'Oreelif^ Oeorgeiof Orders Ifyouhaveeorrieseetanglliepalhi that you give me your (Tome ot Order and C youtheway Oniythenwliyoubeiteedft restrtwVs. BRING IT! If you get bored of being morally bound, give your book of discord to this Priest to turn on the player- killing mode. ICTOBER 1S9S • cgw.g. • COMPUTER CAUING WORLD YOITARE THE U.S, Mobilize armored unit into Kazakhstan. 'ence iinese Lay minefields in jtactical mode. ^ove to maps. ' ^Conduct reconnaissance. to strategic points the to rthTLaui^Pari- strike tdlhe Ea^, Switch to platoon commander of an electronic warfare unit. i:t\$]bilize antiaircraft weaponry. Launch air offensive to the North. ★ Two tanks are destroyed by U.S. helicopters. Return to maps. View U.S. artillery enter minefield. •k Switch to helicopter platoon commander. Head East. VICTORY IS IMMINENT. MSgllHMEi ji "" i o . a' a a iJl ’ .-J' "> I'JItMiti ol Kpsik l•lfU g1 Novaliioia. Inc. AlloUw uattnuiU are progeny of inert teepecUw c GAMER’S EDGE c GW n n (1) a Cheats, Hacks, G Hints 1^ ! I Tip If you’re not playing KINGPIN in god-mode, the secret to survival is having some friends willing to take a bullet for you. The crowbar vendor in the opening scene is the first sucker you can hire, and while he has no chance against the gun-toting thugs by the stairs, he’ll increase your chances of getting through the encounter alive. After that, you’ll find most of your friends in bars. Hire all you can - it’s by far the best use of your cash. Codes Start the game with the command line “4-developer 1” (i.e., “c:\Kingpin\kingpin.exe -t-developer 1”). Then use the (tilda) key to bring down the console during the game and type the following codes: IMMORTAL .. NOCLIP ...God-mode ...No-clipping mode Use the following commands with the GIVE variable (i.e., GIVE ALL, GIVE CASH, etc.): ...Gives you all items (except cash). ....Gives you ### dolli CHECK OUT -THE COM 'IIIK REVIEW^ To access bonus teams, click on Help then About. , , When the developer's splash screen appears, right-click twice on the word “Wizhang" on the second line of the copyright statement. Bonus teams include Robots, Microsoft and Wizbang, niDiltown Madness Enter the following as your player name to unlock the respective cheat: Showme Cops... Big Bus Party ... Tiny Car Jet Planes vacompact ..Police displayed on the map. ..All city bus traffic. ..All compact car traffic. ..Ail airplane traffic. ..Select the VW Bug in cruise mode to drive a VW Rabbit. ...Select the Ford F350 in cruise mode to drive a van. ...Select the Ford Mustang GT in cruise mode to drive a limo. vataxi Select the Cadillac in cruise mode to drive a yellow cab. vaboeing_smal! Select the City Bus in cruise mode to drive a mini-jet. vavan... valimo... F-22 LIGHTNING 3 While playing, press [ctrl]4-[enter], enter any of the following (in all lower- case letters), then press [enter] after each one: Black oil Refuel fight the future Replenish ammo Ghostpit Invisible plane i want to believe No crashes the truth is out there Unlimited ammo this isnt happening Repair damage trust no one God mode UIEM: AVENGING ANGEL one Press [enter] for console, then enter one of the following: esmilton csyhwh csstigmata csrosary eshealth csshroud csessence csitems csguns esammo eshost cswire cshalt csvanish Enable cheats God-mode All guns, ammo, health, essence, angelic powers and items All angelic powers Full health Full armor Full essence All items All guns Ammunition No gravity (flight mode) Wireframe level map Stops time Kills all enemies SOUTH PARK Press [esc] during game play and select Options. Click in the lower left corner and enter one of the following codes to activate the corresponding cheat func- tion. EGOTRIP Big enemy heads BEEFCAKE Invincibility SWEET All weapons with unlim- ited ammo DELTA FORCE Press the key to bring up the con- sole, then type in these codes for the desired effect: Iwillsurvive God-mode Raindropskeepfallinonmyhead Call for artillery strike (5 shots). Can be re- entered for more Takeittothelimit Unlimited ammo Closetoyou Enemies do not see you Letmego Level selection muHHil^yor furbalfs with up to 16 pfayors vfa a IAN - go head-to-beed or Join cooperative mlsstons on a IAN or the intmetf -0^'AI HICHT'SIMUIATOR LiairiNnS’” rlnlel^i^ts’requireii. 01999UCI.!uilmcdaiiic.amlilsallriiaesan(lrts(i«nsw8.AlltlgtiiS!i3er\’ftl,TlieSSIld^’isar«g®Bcair,!ilcmstkaii(llhcDigiUICimilHiSeii6slogoisatrai)efrjriio!nCHiillime(irj|iK nankciphotogrjpti OK3isuhlW)T[)tiiitugi'OieckSi«l9M.Wmdoi'fSisafflpsi«tciIlrS((cmjikorlijtfeiTwti0lMuDsoltCoipoialioiini(lieU.S snd/otoiiiMMunlfies. AH oilier trademaiksamlfegiaeicdiiafienuAs are tMpropcilyflllMir respective (loldcrs. ALCONS BEWARE: here’s a NEW bird of prey * . . on your tail. ^ FLANKER 2.0 features stunning graphics and streamlined playability - without compromising the technical excellence of its famous predecessor! 1?^ the Su-27 Flanker ■^{' jSsing a new 3D graphics ^ ' engine and improved flight dynamics - or take off from ^ the deck of Russia’s Admiral ^ Kuznetzov aircraft carrier in fe i . your new Su-33. From the 'Interactive training sessions tojthe Ultra-realistic flight model, thfspremier combat flight sim is reat^ to pounce! US/hii GAMER’S EGGE CGW TIPS Heavy Gear li I f there is one thing that affects Gear power more than anything else, it’s fire control. When modi- fying your Gear, always try to get a Fire Control rating of at least two, or even higher if you can get the Threat Value low enough. One way of doing this Is to only take light weapons that fire rapidly and carry lots of ammo (such as autocannons). Fire Control not only gives you valuable targeting information, but it also enhances the dam- age your weapons inflict, A Gear with a Fire Control rating of three with only a medium auto- cannon is significantly more lethal than a Gear with a Fire Control rating of zero or one who is equipped with heavy bazookas, guided mortars, and so on. Got a great tip for your favorite game? Want to see your personal strategies in the pages of CGIH^ Want a cheap and meaningless prize? Just send your tips, tricks and strategies to cgw_letters@zd.cDm (please put CGTIPS in the sub- ject line) and we'll choose one entry each month, if we pub- lish your entry, you’ll get a fabulous* prize pulled out of the infamous Computer Gaming World BozoBini 'Prizes won’t actually be fabulous, more along the lines of crap we don’t want anymore. Anyone sending In “nude raider’’ codes will be mocked relentlessly, once we've fully tested the code, of course. I f being a Black Talon is still too much for you, then you might consider cheating outright First, bring up the console by pressing the (tilda) key. then type either one of these codes to achieve the desired effect set camli God-mode set mission Auto-complete mission For more in-deptli inlermation. you can always cliock out tlie Game Guides on GameSpol Here's a guide to tlie latest Guides. KINGPIN www.gameguides.com/guides/kingpin/ DUNGEON KEEPER 2 www.gameguides.com/guides/dl<2/ NEED FOR SPEED: HIGH STAKES www.uideogam8S.com/features/psx/needspeed3hs_ gg/index.htmi HOMEVUORLD www.gameguides.com/guides/hw/ FINAL FANTASY VIII www.ganieguides.com/guides/ff8/ NFL BLITZ On the Versus screen, press Turbo, Jump, and Pass to change the respec- tive icons below the helmets. The num- bers in the following list indicate the number of times each button is pressed and the direction in which the d-pad must be pressed to aotivate the code. 2-5-0 Left Fast passes 1-2-3 Left Super field goals 5-0-0 Left Turn off stadium 2-1-0 Up No first downs 3-4-4 Up No interceptions 1-5-1 Up No punting 4-3-3 Up Invisible 5-1-4 Up Infinite turbo 0-4-5 Up Super blitzing 2-3-3 Up Power-up teammates 3-1-2 Up Power-up offense 4-2-1 Up Power-up defense 0-3-0 Down Fog on 0-4-1 Down Thick fog on 2-2-3 Right Unlimited throw dis- tances 0-5-0 Right Big football 3-1-0 Right Team tiny players 1-4-1 Right Team big players 2-0-3 Right Team big head 4-0-4 Left Power-up speed 4-2-3 Right Super passing 2-2-2 Right Night game 0-3-2 Left Fast turbo running 3-2-1 Left No head 1-2-3 Right Headless team 1 NHL ‘99 Enter these codes during the game: 1 CoUe Effect 1 MANTIS Gives players elongated arms, legs and necks. NHLKIDS Makes players kid-size. HOMEGOAL Gives home team a goal. AWAYGOAL Gives away team a goal. PENALTY Causes a penalty. INJURY Causes an injury. ZAMBO Puts the zamboni on the ice. VICTORY Starts fireworks over the rink. FLASH Camera flashes from the stands. SPOTS Turns on the pre-game spotlights. CHECK Every player automati- cally body checks an opposing player to the ice upon contact GRAB Similar to CHECK but with a stick hold instead of a check. OCTOBER 1S39 igw.g: ipot.com • COMPUTER 6AMINB WORIB ‘iSMMmMiiS PC; SPORTS HINT BOOKS 3D Ultra Pool 09/99 AVPExtiBmaVollaybail 03/00 08/99 Baseball Mogul 3000 Binswk Pro Pool 3D 2 CFL99 Cnampionship Mgr 3 Deer Avenger 2 Expert Pool Exlieme Horse Recing FIFA Soccer 2000 10/99 Flmtsione’s Bowling Gme 11/99 Golden Tee Gll 98 Add-On 08/99 High Heal Baseball 2001 03A}0 KnockoviK-ngs 09/99 Links IS 2CX)0 09/99 Madden NFL 2000 08^ Maslicrfi Eflrrr Wair Spl50a/99 NASCAR Racing 3 10/99 NBA Live 20DO \m NFL Blitz 2000 09/99 NHL Hockey 2000 09/99 Odd Ftmla 1 Rcng 99 12/99 PBA0owling2 10/99 RckyMtnTrphyHntr2 08/99 TNN Eklreme Drag Racing 09/99 Trans-Am Racing 68-72 09/99 Tiopny8vck3D 09/99 World Cnamp Boxing Mgr 09/99 $39.99 $19.99 $39.99 $19.99 $39.99 $39 99 $19.99 $41.99 S3S.99 $19.99 Bravehean C&C2 Caesar 3 Daika 11/98 11/99 07/99 04/99 $18.99 $6.99 $35 99 $44.99 $42.99 $18.99 S47 99 $42.99 $44.99 $42.99 $24.99 $35.99 $13.99 $19.99 $42.99 $19.99 $44.99 Dark Stone Diaei9 2 EverQnesi Oil Guide Force Commander Gabriel Kmgbt 3 Gangstert Hcmtworld Indy Jones InlrnlMcdn 10/99 Kinggin; Lile Crime 05/99 Mechwarrior 3 06/99 osm 06/99 Prey Prince ol Persia 30 09/99 Revenant 09/99 SimClIy 3000 01/99 TeamFDnfess2 12/99 Total Annhitn Kngdm OSG 07/99 TolalAnnibllallon2 11/99 Ultima 9 Ascension 09/89 Unreal Tournamenl 08/99 Warcrafl 2 Platinum 07/99 X-Com Alliance 07/99 X-Wing Alliance 05/99 'PERFtaDARK' is a first person shcotsr with a twisting plot line set in the near future, Control special operative Joanna Dark as she completes missions & wastes tons ol bad guys. Motion captured villians, dynamic lighting & explo- sive effects, surround sound and 3 difficulty lev- els with increasingly smarter Al in each stage. Single or multiplayer aclicn. Nintendo (Adventure) Reieose: 12/99 NM . 'FINAL FANTASY VIII' Featuring I complex marriage of tully comput- er-generated backgrounds and real- time 3D battles. Final Fantasy VIII promises to elevate interactive entertainment to a new level with a balance of story, graphics, system gain com- ven if they Reieose: 9/99 COMPUTER GAMES: ACTION COMPUTER GAMES: ADVENTURE lOth Planet Alien Vs Predator Battlezone 2 Seneatb C&C; Commando Daikalana Delta Force 2 Descent 3 Descent: Freespace 2 Duke Nukem Forever 9 $39.99 9 $39.99 9 $48.99 9 $44.99 9 $33 99 9 $38.99 9 $39.99 Slavezero 11/99 $37.99 29.000 Leagues 09/99 $38.99 Soldier ol Fortune 10/99 $44,99 7lh Guest 2 lllh Hour 11/95 $9.99 Spec Ops 2 09/99 $44.99 Amerzone 09/99 $42.99 StarTtk KIngon Acadmy 10/99 $48.99 Badlands 09/99 $48.99 Star TtkDS9 Fallen 11/99 $44.99 Dukes Kazzard Rce Hme 01/00 $29.99 Slatlancer 11/99 $48.99 Gabriel Knlglil 3 09/99 84899 iSiCall Halt LI Hall Llle Oppsing Frc Heavy Gear 2 Hidden S Dangerous Interstate 82 Kingpin- Life Cilme MDK2 Max Payne Messiah Monyr Navy SEALS Onl Quake 3 Arena Rainbow Six Gold Rogue Spear 08/99 09/99 08/99 SHOGO: Legacy ol Fallen 09/99 'DAIKATANA' Slash your way through lime v/ith the aid of your trusty sword. 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Incredible graph- ics and challenging artificial Intelli- Eidos (Action) longesi Journey Myst Collector's Ed Mysi Mstrpce Edition Nocturne Omlkron: Nomad Soul Overseer Pharoah Princ« ol Persia 30 Queen: The Eye Quest Glory 5: Exp Pk Quest tor Glory 5 Return to Krondor System Shdck 2 TeamFoiress2 Tomb Raider 4 08/99 $45.99 Gorky 17 09/99 $44.99 02/00 $46.99 Grim Fandango 10/96 $29.99 11/99 $38.99 Gruesome Caslle 01/00 $47.99 10/99 $48.99 Hype: Time Quest 09/99 $39.99 07/99 $19 99 Indy Jones IntrnlMchne 11/99 $4899 08/99 $47.99 Inbcrenl Evil Hnled Htl 09/99 $18.99 09/99 $42.99 JackQilandO 12/99 $43.99 Sanitarium Scooby-DooiMyst Fun Pk Shadow Man SoulBrInger StarTtk insurtecllon Star TtkVySr Elbe Frc Tender Loving Care Tonic Trouble Traitor's Gale Wheel olTime Wild Wild Wesl Zork: Grnd Innuisilor 07/99 $24.9' 09/99 $39.9! 09/99 $39.9! 10/99 $39.9! 08/99 $42.9! 08/99 $28.9! 10/99 $46.9! 12/99 $39.91 09/99 $39.9 03198 $19.9 10/99 $45 91 0949 $39.9 09/99 $36.9! 0649 $29.9! 1248 $29.9! 1248 $27.9! 07/99 $38.9! 0548 $19,9! 0949 $29.9! 08/99 $38.9! 0949 $47.9! 11/99 $48.91 0340 $44.91 0649 $24 91 0949 $34.91 09/99 $39.91 0949 $43 9 11/99 $42.91 1047 $39.91 COMPUTER GAMES: SIMULATION $17.99 $17.99 $16.99 $17,99 $12.99 $16.99 $17.99 $17.99 $16.99 $17.99 $16.99 $16.99 $1699 A-IOWarthog AMA Superbike Anarchy Armored Fist 3 B-17 Flying Fortress 2 Babylon 5 Into the Fire Casitol Honda Sbike 20000949 $42.99 Comanche - 0949 $4699 0849 $39.99 0949 $41.99 08/99 $38.99 10/99 $38.99 3 $48.99 Jane's F/A-1B Jane's USAF jBtFigMer4 Jel Watriof-Vletnam Ka-52 Team Alligator LeMans 24 Hours MS Combat Flight Sim MS Flight Sim 2000 MS Flight Sim 2000 PE 1149 $45.99 SlatIUp 1049 $38.99 SU-27 Flanker 2 01/00 $44,90 SU-27 Flanker 2 Add ( 0949 $44.99 Tankllps 12/99 $44.99 Teen Alligator 03/00 $28.99 Test Drive 6 1148 $48.99 Test Drive Le Mans 1049 $48.99 Test Drive Ott Road 3 0949 $44.99 1149 $49 99 0240 $29.99 0949 $37.99 0949 $44.99 Thtusi, Twisl & Turn 09/99 $44.9' TOCA Racing 2 09/99 $44.9 Total AdtenallneiDrg Rcng 0949 $199 /-Rally Wild Metal Country Wings ot Destiny World War X-Wing Alliance 0949 $44.9 11/99 $44.9 01/00 $39.9 09/99 $44.9 0349 $45.9 ConOrmed Kill Deep Fighter Desen Fghters F/A-18E Super Ho FI '98 Falcon 4.0: MiG 2! 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Features 4 bil- lerent authentic vehicles, an advanced Al, fully Interactive 3D environments, and historically accurate weaponry, Psygnosis (Simulation) 1 COMPUTER GAMES: HARDWARE SONY PLAYSTATION Ace Combat 3 Army Men Air Attar Broken Sword 2 Clock Tower 2 Cool Boarders 4 0849 $42.99 0949 $44.99 0949 $39.99 1149 $42.99 Crusaders Might Magic 0849 $44.99 CyberTigerGrrlf Echo Nighl FIFA Soccer 2000 Fatal FuryWId Sietlslorm Soul Calibur Souih Park Rally Space Invaders Suikdden 2 Test Drive 6 Thousand Arms Controllere 03/99 $26.99 CH F16 Fighterstick 11/96 $94.99 CH Flight Sim Yoke USB 09/99 $94,99 CH Game Card 3 Auto 0241 S2S.99 0849 $42.99 CH Gamesbck 3D USB 1148 $45.99 0949 $46.99 CH Joystick Swilchbox 1247 $23.99 CH Pro Throtlle 0346 $64.99 Giavia Xtrmnit Gme Pd 0748 $43 99 Gravs PC Gm Pd Pro USB 0349 $29.99 Interact FXFF Rcng Whl 0349 $37.99 Saitek X-36 Coni Sys Space Orb 360 TM Attack Throttle TM Elbe Ruddr Pedals TM F22 Pro TM Nscr Frc GT Reg Wnl 124B$149t 1049 $44.99 0749 $39,99 Tomb 1049 $44.99 Tomorrow Never Dies 09/99 $42.99 Triple Play 2000 inal Fantasy Anlhplogy 1049 $44.99 Vigilante B 2 Dtlense Grand Thelt 1049 0949 $39.99 0849 $48.99 0949 $42.99 0849 $48.99 LlechWM Gaming Mduse 0549 $39.99 DrkRevlin 0949 $42.99 Llech WingMan Free Jsik 10/98 $99,99 0349 $ Jade Cocoon Jurassic Patk:Warpalh Knockout Kings 2000 Wipeout 3 Legacy Kam Soul Reavr 0&49 $42 99 NINTENDO 64 MS SIdeWndr Dual Strk 10/99 MS Sidewinder FF Whl 1048 $159.00 1049 $42.99 MSSWnrirFStlProPad 1048 $65.99 0949 $44.99 MS SWndt Game Pad Prd1049 $48.99 0749 $44.99 POPI L4 Dig Game Card 1248 $49.99 0949 $44.99 Saitek Cyhdtg 30 Jslk 1148 $52.99 Saitek P2000 Tib Pad 0749 $44.99 SabekR4FtcFdbkWI I14S$169.99 ar Silver Slar Story 06/99 $53.99 Army Men:Saige'S Hetoes07/99 $5699 I Madden Football 2000 08/99 $44.99 Carmageddon 64 Ni«ii Gear Somi VR Mist 1049 $39 99 Casllevania Spec. 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Final Fantasy VU PC $19.99 Commandos PC $19.99 Tales Sword Coast PC $19.99 Rainbow Six Gold PC $19.99 www.(iili)sliits.(om oral 1-800-699-4263 Battlezone 2 PC $39.99 SU’27 Flanker PC $49.99 Planescape Torment PC $39.99 Dreamcast System DC $199.99 FREE GAME OFFER! 518.99 CivZTsslDlTime 08/99 $29.99 Colonization W9S 06/99 548.99 CommanQos 09/98 539.99 Cmr7in(los:Bynil Call Duty 04/99 526.99 Commandos 2 11/99 $24.99 Cononesl 09/99 $44.99 ConoNewWorldDIx 11/96 $39.99 Conques1NewWoitd2 11/99 $26.99 Corsairs 07/99 $27.99 C/eatuies3 10/99 $25.99 Crealuies Adventures 08/99 $44.99 Crusaders UghtSMagio 01/00 $19.99 Cutihroats 08/99 $19.99 Dark Colony 08/97 $44.99 Dark Reign 2 02/00 $17.99 Dark Reign MP1 04/98 $46.99 DIplomaoy 11/99 $29.99 Disciples: Sacred Lands 09/99 $19.99 Dominion Slotm 06/98 Airlines 1 or 2 ea. 06/98 A>is& Allies 11/94 8attlelech4thEd 12/94 Crimson Skies 01/99 Deluve Diplomacy 12/94 GrealWaratSea 4 06/99 Harpoon Box Sel 11/96 Llonhean 10/97 Monopoly Deluxe 0$/98 Necromunda 11/95 Motile Armada 05/99 Republic ol Rome 12/94 Risk 03« Robo Rally 01/96 Samurai Swords 04/97 Seniers ol Caun 11/96 Union Pacific 05/99 Victory 0&99 War To End All Wars 06/93 We tne People 12/94 . COMPUTER GAMES; STRATEGY tint tniur kge Empires FinI Congst 07/98 kgc ol Empires 10/97 Age ol Empires 2 10/99 Age ol Empires Gold Ed 04/99 AgeolEmprsCngst Ages 10/96 Age ol Emprs Rise Rme 11/98 Age ol Wonders 11/99 Alpha CenUurl 02/99 Alpha Cnlrl Alien Crssire 10/99 Army Men 2 03/99 Army Men 3 10/99 Army Men Air Attack 03/00 Axis & Allies 09/98 Axis S Allies Iron Blitz 10/99 Aziec 09/99 ialtlecrscrSOOOADVE 12/98 !attleciul$er3020AD 12/99 iraveheart 06/99 ISCRedAlen 11/96 'CIVILIZATION II: THE TEST OF TIME' Build an empire to span history. Make every critical social, econom- ic and polilical decision. Compete against history's greatest leaders. Negotiate with rival empires. Construct Wonders of the World. Command powerful armies. Devise and control technology. Influence history's landmark events. Mkroprose (Sirotegy) Release: 9/99 PC CD $46.99 Imperium Galaclica 2 $9.99 Incoming Forcas $46.99 daggdAlIncDdlyGame $44 99 Jagged Alliance $37.99 Jagged Alliance 2 $26.99 KKNO 2 $48.99 Knlghls S Merchants $34.99 Legend of Ihe Five Rings $9.99 Lords of Magic $46.99 Magic & Mayhem $19.99 MTG Duels Ol Plneswikr $45.99 Magic Spells ot And $44.99 Magic the Gathering Gold $14.99 MasterdlOrlon of Orion 2 ivilztn Call Pwr Miss 11/99 iyinzallon 2 03/96 iv2MulllplayefGold Ed 12/98 $9.99 $49 99 $19,99 $14.99 $25.99 $29.99 $24.99 $19.99 $19.99 $39.99 $29.99 $24.99 $24.99 Dune 2000 Dungeon Keeper 2 Eetlh 2150 Emergency Room 2 Reel Command Force 21 Force Commander FreeLancer Gangsters Gms Email: Risk Heroes M&M 2 Gold Heroes of M & M 3 Hero MM3 Amgdn Bid 09/98 $15.99 06/99 $39.99 09/99 $44 99 03/99 $29.99 05/99 $38.99 08/99 $45.99 11/99 $4899 12/99 $46.99 12/98 $29.99 11/99 $14,99 12/96 818.99 03/99 $39.99 09/99 $27.99 Railroad Tycoon Railroad Tycoon 2 RHTycn 2; 2nd Century Railroad Tycoon 2 GId Rebellion Risk Risk 2 Rival Realms Roller Coasier Tycoon Rulhless.com COMPUTER GAMES: ROLEPU YING . nanchronox 02/00 $39.99 sheron'sCall 12/99 $48.99 ildur'sGate 12/98 $39.99 ildts Gate Tie Swrd Csl 05^9 $19.99 i1drsGaieExpPk2 12/99 $23.99 llduiGalev//EP1 10/99 $48.99 Silver 10/99 ans 08/99 $43.99 Swords S Sorcery ilk Slone 07/99 $42.99 TheSummoner imiss:RisepltheKuTan09fl9 $42.99 Ultima 9 Ascension 09/99 iusEx 02/00 $39.99 Vampire; The Masquerade 12/99 iiblo2 11i99 $48.99 Werewolf: Apocalypse 12/99 12/99 Planescape Torment 09/99 Rage Mages 2:Necromncr 08/99 Revenani lOw Sepierra Core 10/99 SnatleredLighlw/BoQk 07/99 05/97 $12.99 12/97 $29.99 09/99 $48 99 08/97 $9.99 04/99 $29.99 01/00 $41.99 10/99 844.99 09/96 $9.99 03/98 $12.99 07/99 $39 99 10/98 $3499 10/98 $19.99 12/99 $42.99 12/97 $ 19.99 05/99 $39.99 02/98 $18.99 10/97 $12.99 11/99 $28.99 11/94 $19.99 11/96 $9.99 12/96 $15.99 07/98 $22.99 11/99 $1999 10/99 $48.99 09/99 $44 99 09/99 $37.99 11/97 S9.99 01/99 $27.99 11/97 $19.99 09/99 $45.99 11/99 $44.99 11/99 $48,99 11/97 $26,99 11/98 $24,99 03/99 $29,99 10/95 $19.99 11/98 $34.99 05/99 $28.99 08/99 $44.99 03/98 $23 99 11/96 $19.99 11/99 $38 99 07/99 $12.99 03/99 $27.99 11/98 S9.99 04/00 $44.99 04/97 $19.99 11/98 $27.99 Settlers 3 Mission ( Settlers 3 Mission 2 ( Seven Kingdoms 2 C Shadowpaci 1 SiroCity 2000 Spec Ed C SimCity3000 C SimMars C Soldiers ai War c Spaceward Ho! 4 1 Star Trk Armada C Star Ttk Gen BUh Fed 0 Star Tfk Nev/ Worlds 1 Star Trk Slahll Comm 1 Slarcralt 0 Slarcrafl Brood Wars 1 Starcrati Retribution 0 Stars Twlnpack 0 Starship Diplomacy 1 Slellar Frontier 0 SuOmarine Titans 1 The Sims 0 Theme Hostpital 0 Theme Park World 0 Total Annhltn Kingdoms 0 Total Annihilation 1 Total Annihilallon 2 0 Total AnnllnCrClgcy 0 Toll Annhltn BItl Teles 0 Uprising 2 1 Wall Street Tycoon 0 WarCratl 2 Battle.net Ed O' WarCralt BItl Chst Pllnm 1 WarTorn 0 Waroiati2 1: Warhmmr40K Rites War 0 Warlords 3 Ol Warlords 4 1 WariorOs Battlecry 1 WaiwindW9S II Warzone2l00 0- Wooden Ship Iron Mn 11 WorlOcrafI Pro Oi Worms 2 O' Worms Armageddon Ot X-Com Apocalypse 0( X-Com Terr Irm Deep o: X-Com UFO Delense Ot Yool's Tower 0/ COMPUTER GAMES: WAR IOISI Airborne Normandy 10/98 $19.99 12 O'clock High 10/99 $44,99 Battle ol Biiialn Bombing the Reich Cmpgns Amer Civil W CrvilWarGeneralsS Close Combat 2 03m $29.99 11/99 $55.99 lOm $55.99 lOm $4B.99 11/97 $19.99 01/99 $48.99 It/99 $48 99 07/99 $1899 12/99 $39.99 11/97 $9.99 'DIABLO II: INFERNO' Journey across Distant lands, fight now vil- lains, discover new treasures & uncover ancient mysteries. 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Soulti Operational Art War Oper An WarExp Pk 1 Op Art Wr Dish Eagles OpnnI An Wr2 Mdn Wr Op An Wr2 Fish Ksvo Op Art Wr 2: Elite Ed Pacitic Batllas Panzer Gen SOAisauil Panzer General 2 Rising Sun 1 Road to Moscow 1 Shogun: Total War Sid Meier's GeUysOrg Smolensk 10 Moscow 1 Sieel Panthers 4 1 SleelPnlhrs2Cmp1 I Warhmmr 40K Universe ( 06/99 $25.99 B $24.99 09/96 $24.99 09/96 $21.99 06/99 $25.99 02/95 $22.99 10/95 $19.99 04/95 $1199 07/95 $13.99 03/96 $21.99 06m $21.99 (U.m $1199 01/97 $27.99 03/96 $26.99 10/98 $27.99 02/95 $24.99 02/95 $24.99 'AGE OF EMPIRES II: AGE OF KINGS' Proceed from the Dark Ages to the Fuedai, Castle, & Gunpowder Ages in 13 civilizations. Create forma- tions & garrison units, & choose directions. Board & capture ships, & choose unit behavior with aggre- sion levels. Includes random maps, campaigns. & scenarios. Separate economic & military diplomacy. Mkrosoft (Strategy) ime from IIm HritiponJing B]t. Rtqueil invil be mode Rt lime of erder. 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Taxes i charges due with ist payment unless included in i financed, in which case your monthly payment will b PRE-LOADED SOFTWARE OPTIONS »ed Systems)* 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive* 2 Universal Serial Bus (USB) Ports* (VIcAfeeVirusScan* MS' Windows' 98, Second 1 Money 99 Basic* Upgrades: APC Back-UPS Office, add S99* HP LaserJet' llOOse, addS399 Vfiy DELL DIMENSION XPS T600 NEW DELL DIMENSION XPS T6Q0 NEW DELL DIMENSION XPS T600 PENTIUM III PROCESSOR AT EOOMKz PENTIUM III PROCESSOR AT GOOMHz PENTIUM III PROCESSOR AT 600MHz 128MB 100MHz SDRAM • 128MB 100MHz SDRAM • 13.6GB'' UltraATA Hard Drive • 17" (16,0" vis, .26dp) M780 Monitor • 16MB Diamond Viper nVidia TNT AGP Graphics • 40X Max^ Variable CD-ROM Drive • Turtle Beach Montego II A3D"320V Sound Card • harman/kardon HK-195 Speakers • 3Com' USR V. 90 ' PCI Telephony WinModem • Dell QuietKey Keyboard • Logitech MouseMan Wheel (PS/2v) • NEW 1-Year Dellnet ISP Service'' $1899 S57/Mo., 48-Monlh Purchase Plan“ g E-VALUE CODE: 39130-500818 • 13.6GB' UltraATA Hard Drive • 17" (16.0" vis, .26dp)M780 Monitor • NEW 1 6MB 3DFX Voodoo 3000D AGP Graphics • A/fWSXMax'^ariable DVD-ROM Drive • Turtle Beach Montego II ASD" 320V Sound Card • ABVACS-340 Speakers with Subwoofer • 3Com' USR V. 90 ' PCI Telephony WinModem • 100MB Iomega Zip BUILT-IN Drive • MS Natural Keyboard Elite • Logitech MouseMan Wheel (PS/2vl • /VfWI-Year Dellnet ISP Service'' $2199 $66/Mo„ 48-Month Purchase Plan^^ ^ E'VALUE CODE: 89130-500821 • 128MB 100MHz SDRAM • 27.3GB' UltraATA Hard Drive • NEW 19" (17.9" vis,,26dp) P990 Trinitron' Monitor • NEW 32MB Diamond Viper 770D nVidia AGP Graphics • NEWBX Max’" Variable DVD-ROM Drive and Decoder Card with TV Out • NEW SoundBlaster Live! 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Taxes & shipping charges due with 1st payment unless included in the amount financed, in which case your monthly payment will be higher. Pentium ///