Review by: Chris Harding
Published: July 28, 1998

About thirteen years ago I was living in Slidell, Louisiana. I was a freshman in high school, played on the football team, and had a part-time job at Arby’s. When I wasn’t at school, playing football, or working at Arby’s, my best friend Harvey and I could be found at the Mini-Mart, up the street from our neighborhood. I would tell my parents I was going over to Harvey’s house; he’d say he was coming over to mine…and instead we’d ride our bikes to the Mini-Mart. We’d spend about two hours every weeknight at the Mini-Mart, and all day Saturday, popping quarter after quarter into a video game called Gauntlet.

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Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 26, 1998

Though it may seem amazing to some of you who view game reviewers as pig-headed, close-minded individuals who make a final irrevocable judgment of a game’s worth within ten seconds of seeing the first screenshot, most of us actually reconsider our initial evaluation of games and change our opinion of them as we gain more information on them and play them more thoroughly. So when you check out The Adrenaline Vault to find out about a given game and then compare a preview to a final review, you will often find a distinctly different tone in each. In my opinion, this pattern of difference is highly desirable, because it shows that reviewers are willing and able to admit (almost never explicitly, of course) that their first impression of a game was off-base.

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Review by: Pete Hines
Published: July 23, 1998

Several decades after the Cybrids were defeated, mankind fell back into its old ways and greed brought on the struggle for power. Eight corporations are now at war for control of the Typhoeus System, and in this race coming in second is of little consolation. In Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars you take control of one of these corporations and attempt to lead your forces to ultimate victory. The game is an interesting blend of base management, strategy, and battle tactics, and can be played in either real-time or turn-based mode (the original was turn-based only). ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 22, 1998

I must admit right off the bat that there are few subjects that intrigue me more than pirates. My home is full of pirate books, and ever since I was a boy I have been fascinated with the pirate life. On the computer front, I have played all of the major recent games drawing heavily on pirate lore, including Microprose’s Pirates! and Pirates! Gold, SSI’s Buccaneer, Imagisoft’s Redhook’s Revenge, and even the more lighthearted Shipwreckers! by Psygnosis and the Monkey Island series by Lucasarts. While I have enjoyed all of them, each had its limitations; some lacked great graphics (Pirates! And Redhook’s Revenge), some lacked solid gameplay (Pirates! Gold and Buccaneer), and some used pirates as the setting but were not really connected much to the details of pirate history (Shipwreckers! and the Monkey Island series). ( read more… )

Review by: Chris Harding
Published: July 21, 1998

While browsing the “new releases” section of my local software store the other day, a very cool thing happened. I usually visit the store once or twice a week, always interested in seeing what’s new. The store I visit puts all the games they’ve received in one particular area, making it the only spot I frequent. My experience each visit is relatively the same. My wife keeps asking me why I keep going and looking at the same stuff over and over again. She says I do the same thing with the refrigerator, but we won’t get into that here.

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Review by: David Laprad
Published: July 20, 1998

The knock came, as it often does, in the morning. I opened the door, and there stood one of the finest humans on the face of the earth — the mail carrier. With unhurried deliberation, he handed me a small, square parcel that could contain just one thing — a game! I tore into it right then and there. What would it be? A 3D shooter? The latest RTS challenge? The possibilities were endless!

But wait. What was this? My eyes scanned the cover. The box contained an “interactive fishing simulation.” ( read more… )

Review by: Chris Harding
Published: July 19, 1998

What would happen if you took all the good stuff from the Tomb Raider franchise, combined it with a successful story line such as Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy series, and then added a multiplayer feature? That is, in essence, the question that begs answering when playing Eidos’ latest foray into the action adventure world, Deathtrap Dungeon. A few years ago a small game developer called Core, a sexy and sophisticated game heroine named Lara, and one hell of an aggressive marketing plan put Eidos Interactive on the map. The game, as you all know, was Tomb Raider. Soon after the original Tomb Raider’s release, Eidos affiliate Asylum Studios began working on Deathtrap Dungeon, a Tomb Raider-like game set in the Fighting Fantasy world. Eidos appeared to have the dog by the tail; they could do no wrong. However, last year’s release of Tomb Raider 2, although wildly successful, was received by many as lacking the style and overall design that made the first so innovative and fun. When Eidos failed to show Deathtrap Dungeon at this year’s E3, I was afraid it was because the game wasn’t living up to expectations. A few weeks ago, with some reservation, I picked up my copy of the game. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 15, 1998

When a game company considers releasing an updated version of a classic arcade shooter from the 1980s, it faces two clear choices: either release it with the exact look-and-feel of the original game, as Microsoft did in its Arcade release a few years ago, or attempt to update the game with all of the latest bells and whistles, the way Activision is planning to do with its forthcoming release of Asteroids 3D. I will let you know right away that I vastly prefer the second approach, because I believe that the exciting arcade gameplay can be dramatically enhanced by the latest 3D-accelerated graphics and sound. ( read more… )

Review by: Pete Hines
Published: July 14, 1998

Soccer. Football. Futbol. The beautiful game. No matter how you refer to it, soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Fox Sports takes a stab at bringing this sport to life in Fox Sports Soccer 99, a game based on the same engine used in Actua Soccer 2 not too long ago. I’ll not bore you with details about how to play soccer and such, but rather present the way the game is played in Fox Soccer. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 13, 1998

As most of you faithful readers know, recent trends in computer gaming have not reflected brilliant outbursts of creativity. While many technical advances have occurred, most releases simply embellish the basic structure of those that came before. One method of moving in an innovative direction when there are not many revolutionary new ideas floating around is to create a game which mixes the approaches of several different genres. While each part is not novel, the particular combination of play elements can make for a refreshing new experience.

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Review by: Chris Harding
Published: July 12, 1998

Over the past five years FASA’s Battletech has waged war across the PC gaming desktop. The Battletech series of games got a huge kick start in 1995 when the long awaited Mechwarrior 2 hit shelves. The game, although much maligned for its lengthy development cycle, was, and is still revered as one of the best fantasy-action simulations ever. FASA, at that time, had licensed their Battletech universe to developer and publisher Activision. Following up their Mechwarrior 2 success, Activision used the license to ship two other titles, Ghost Bear’s Legacy and Mercenaries. After a falling out with Activision, due to the delays in Mechwarrior 2, FASA founded their own internal development team, FASA Interactive, and signed a publishing deal with Microprose. It was then announced in 1996 that FASA Interactive’s first game would be a real-time strategy adaptation of the Battletech universe, called Battletech Honorbound. I can remember fantasizing about the possibilities of a real-time Mechwarrior game. At the time I was deep into Command & Conquer, and the idea of replacing my Mammoth Tanks and Nod Buggies with Timber Wolves and Hellbringers made my mouth water. Two years and a name change later, FASA Interactive has delivered on their promise. ( read more… )

Review by: David Laprad
Published: July 9, 1998

I can uphold this burden no longer. I must confess to sitting here, blinking at the screen and fighting sleep after a marathon gaming session of epic proportions. It has been ages since a game has gripped me in this manner, and I have been reminded of the reasons for devoting so much of life to this splendid pastime. However, this game, which was brought to life on the PlayStation, has been fraught with difficulties, and although it is a true classic, there are a number of peculiar deficiencies. The combination of its brilliant, content-rich design and frustrating technical aberrations has made this a notable PC title, and the en vogue topic of discussion in gaming forums.

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Review by: Pete Hines
Published: July 5, 1998

Dominion: Storm Over Gift3 originally began as simply Dominion under 7th Level’s development studios. Then 7th Level got out of gaming and Ion Storm bought the rights to the game so they could finish and distribute it. According to the people I talked to, and based on versions of the game I got to play, the game was nearing completion last summer. I was curious to see what exactly Ion Storm had done with the title and how much different it would be. To be honest, it looked and played pretty much the same as far as I could tell. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: July 3, 1998

Computer game companies spring up in many ways. Lately, we have witnessed increased movement by traditional manufacturers of toys and hardcopy games into the potentially lucrative PC games market. Among the more noteworthy entrants are Playmates Toys (the parent company of Playmates Interactive), Tiger Toys (the maker of hand-held electronic games, who recently released Lights Out 3D for the PC), Lego (the Danish building-block company that recently released the successful Lego Island CD) and of course Hasbro (a company that has successfully transformed several Parker Brothers games for the computer). While the risk and marketing strategies are quite different, this transition seems to be quite a natural one. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: July 2, 1998

I am, as I sit here writing this review, fulfilling a dream. You see, long before I worked for the Adrenaline Vault, before I even owned a Pentium, I was a happy little gamer with a happy little 486. And although many games passed through the digital domain of my hard drive, there was one that had a permanent home there, a masterpiece I would return to over, and over, and over again — X-Wing. As a self-professed Star Wars geek, I tore into X-Wing like a man possessed, determined to bring the Emperor’s pathetic fleet to its knees. Actually, my goals were two-fold: to completely annihilate the evil Galactic Empire, and fill in my uniform with every patch, ribbon, and medal a Rebel pilot could earn. ( read more… )