Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: December 5, 2001

For generations, zoos have served as recreational centers of fascination, learning, and enjoyment for kids and adults all over the world. With “tycoon” construction simulation games sprouting up like weeds on the personal computer, it is not at all surprising that someone thought about using live animal exhibits as promising subject matter. Now Blue Fang Games has developed a title for Microsoft — Zoo Tycoon — attempting to capture the essence of this form of entertainment. Depicting with great attention to authenticity the atmosphere of zoos, this release allows you to use your imagination to build a personalized animal kingdom like none ever seen before. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: November 26, 2001

Although the adventure genre was proclaimed dead by naysayers, the last few years have seen a steady stream of releases in this category. Nonetheless, I have reviewed a series of decidedly mediocre titles lately, including Adventure at the Chateau d’Or, Road to India, and Mystery of the Druids. Now Polish developer LK Avalon has entered the fray with a new title in this same niche — Schizm: Mysterious Journey. While available for CD-ROM, this product was designed for DVD (the version reviewed here), and takes advantage of the large capacity and improved speed of this new technology. The game takes up both sides of a single DVD, facilitating a gargantuan total of over 10 gigabytes of data. Can this mega-release restore the vitality of the genre? ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: November 21, 2001

Core Design, best known for the development of the Tomb Raider series, has recently moved in a new direction. While still remaining within the broad confines of the third person action genre, the company’s new title is Project Eden, injecting significant mental challenges into the mix. Instead of spotlighting a single heroine like Lara Croft, you control multiple characters and use squad-level management tactics to address the dilemmas you encounter. Although the offering uses a variety of tried-and-true elements from previous releases, Project Eden thus represents a novel combination of them into a squad-based science fiction puzzle-oriented adventure. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: November 12, 2001

Magic and mystery have all too rarely made their joint appearance in the PC game adventure genre. Now German developer House of Tales and publisher CDV Software Entertainment has combined these traditional RPG elements to bring us a fresh entry into this gaming niche, The Mystery of the Druids, a third-person highly interactive adventure title. Instead of being open-ended unpressured exploration, this is a tense, tightly woven, and downright eerie tale deeply rooted in the supernatural. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: November 7, 2001

India is an exotic country possessing a rich and influential historical legacy, and its civilization contains numerous languages and cultures little understood in the West. Thus it is perhaps not surprising that India has rarely been the focus of computer games. Microids has now remedied that omission with the recent release of Road to India: Between Hell and Nirvana. Road to India builds on the mystery surrounding the country by presenting a tale dealing with past and present India, a world that balances ancient traditions with the innovations of the modern world. This is a classic adventure-puzzle offering. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: October 31, 2001

After a deluge in the late 1990s, the arcade racing scene on the personal computer has been mighty sparse of late. After having been spoiled by Psygnosis’ Wipeout XL and Rollcage, Ubi Soft’s POD, Digital Illusions’ Motorhead, Beam Software’s Dethkarz, Crave Entertainment’s Killer Loop, and even Electronic Arts’ more mainstream Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, my expectations in this most exciting racing niche have been raised to a sky-high level, and nothing coming around the bend has seemed to stack up. But now the Swedish company GRIN is just in the process of releasing the much ballyhooed futuristic arcade racer Ballistics — so are my long-unfulfilled cravings finally about to be satisfied? ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: October 15, 2001

For over three decades Spider-Man has thrived in Marvel comic books and on animated television series. After a demonstration of a new technology in which a spider crept into a radiation beam and then bit Peter Parker’s hand, the basis for the legendary superhero was born. Now LTI Gray Matter and Activision have released a computer game attempting to capture the essence of the famous mutant. This third-person action-adventure title is basically of the platform variety, but to succeed you need to be able to do a lot more than web slinging. Confronting a seemingly unending series of grotesque villains, you guide the red-and-blue clad arachnid through harrowing predicaments to save the world. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: October 8, 2001

After LEGO showed it could succeed in the competitive personal computer game market through the release of LEGO Island, the company was off and running. When LEGO Racers was introduced in 1999, it was the company’s first really sophisticated personal computer game requiring 3D video hardware acceleration. Now, despite the dearth of arcade racers on the personal computer market, LEGO Software has gone to the next level and has introduced LEGO Racers 2, a combat racing title, this time developed by Attention to Detail rather than High Voltage. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: September 25, 2001

Platform games represent one of the very oldest genres on the personal computer. 2D side-scrolling titles like Commander Keen originally started the PC game revolution, and during the last several years we have witnessed some real classics in the side-scrolling platform genre: Monolith’s Claw, Epic Game’s Jazz Jackrabbit 2, GT Interactive’s Oddworld, and Amazing Studio’s Heart of Darkness — titles which have taken this genre to a whole new level. There, of course, has been a parallel development on the console of Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Crash Bandicoot. There have even been spectacular 3D platform titles such as Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Now a new company, Stardock Entertainment, is attempting to enter this long-standing niche with a basic 2D effort. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: September 18, 2001

Sometimes the name of a computer game is downright misleading. Contrary to what you might think, French developer Monte Cristo’s soon-to-be-released Gadget Tycoon (a sequel to its earlier release Start-Up 2000) is not another clone of Microprose’s RollerCoaster Tycoon, nor is it in the genre of Dynamix’s Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions. So what kind of offering is this? In many ways, it defies categorization. The title actually has more in common with a pure business simulation like Enlight’s Capitalism Plus. Gadget Tycoon is a management simulation that transports you into the world of assembly line manufacturing, where what you do is a lot more like running a plant than being an inventor. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: August 15, 2001

A few years ago, there was a clash of the titans among FASA’s BattleTech MechWarrior franchise, Sierra’s Earthsiege/Starsiege franchise, and Activision’s Heavy Gear franchise. Since that time, each has gone its separate way, with the Activision series sadly dormant, the Sierra series thriving but with an online action emphasis represented in Tribes 2, and the MechWarrior series branching into a tactical command focus with its MechCommander offspring. Unfortunately, the first attempt, the original MechCommander released in 1998, was not an unbridled success. Now Microsoft has released a new and improved version, MechCommander 2, but is it up to snuff? ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: August 13, 2001

More than any other game, Infogrames’ original Alone in the Dark opened the door back in the early 1990s to the adventure-horror genre on the personal computer. This landmark offering’s mix of combat, exploration, and brain-teasers created a huge splash in the gaming marketplace. Now, more than half a decade after the last release in this series, Infogrames is giving us a fourth installment: Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. While the balance among action, adventure, and puzzle-solving in this latest installment is pretty similar to that of its predecessors, can it live up to their brilliant legacy? ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: August 6, 2001

Often unusual game companies from unusual settings can inject a needed spurt of originality into computer gaming. Developer Neo Software and publisher JoWooD Productions both are from Austria, a country not yet internationally known for computer recreations. Together they have produced a new title, The Sting!, which combines simulation and real-time strategy in a manner decidedly different from anything I have seen before on the virtual screen. Not in any direct way related to the classic 1973 Paul Newman / Robert Redford movie of the same name, this offering is full of surprises from the moment you install the CD. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 24, 2001

Far more than George Lucas’ Star Wars or any other outer space movie, Paramount’s Star Trek television series, and its subsequent movie and television spinoffs, is by far the most successful science fiction space franchise of all time. So it is not surprising that many computer games have been released exploiting this fame. None has lived fully up to expectations (except for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force), and some — such as the eminently forgettable Star Trek Pinball — have been downright wretched. Does this latest real-time tactical strategy release — Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars — fulfill the promise of its rich legacy? ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 16, 2001

While the British company Rage is known for fast arcade action, associating England with the rowdy redneck mentality would be a major stretch. However, when the decision was made to publish its off-road racing title through Interplay, with the company’s successful Redneck Rampage franchise, somehow the product of this marriage in the topsy-turvy computer gaming world ended up being Off-Road Redneck Racing. Taking on such venerable competitors as Infogrames’ now defunct Test Drive Off-Road series and Wizardworks’ still ongoing Dirt Track Racing series, Off-Road Redneck Racing allows players to experience the freedom of driving rugged vehicles on unpaved roads in hillbilly country. But can this odd union of developer-publisher elements work? ( read more… )