Review by: Chris Harding
Published: August 27, 1999

We were living on the corner of 14th and Oak in a small three bedroom home built in the 1920s. It had hard wood floors that creaked in harmony as you walked over them and the cold, swirling winds would waltz the entire structure back and forth during the cold winter months. Like most Friday evenings, I had arrived home from work after dark. Dinner had been cold for over an hour before I got there, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t interested in anything that would delay my objective. Without bothering to change clothes I made my way to the study in the back right corner of the house. It was a secluded room at the end of a hallway with only one light source that had burned out weeks ago. I was confident this would be the night, the night I finally defeated the rogue AI Shodan and saved Citadel Station. This had been my nightly routine for the past three weeks; playing System Shock like a religious ritual, without fail and without interruption. ( read more… )

Review by: Scott Steinberg
Published: August 24, 1999

When it was released back in 1997, the original Legacy of Kain didn’t make too many waves. That’s not to say it wasn’t a good game. Quite the contrary, actually, as it was an entertaining Legend of Zelda-style action RPG that followed the exploits of a vampire who had risen from the grave to take revenge upon his slayers. While it introduced a few neat little touches to the genre, like the ability to quickly drain a stunned opponent of blood, for the most part it went unrecognized amongst the slew of titles that found their way onto shelves that year. Nonetheless, the game enjoyed something of a cult following, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest title in the series, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, for quite some time now. ( read more… )

Review by: Adam Swiderski
Published: August 11, 1999

Once upon a time, there was a young gamer in search of a new challenge to occupy his attention. He discovered a game called X-COM: UFO Defense and was unavoidably hooked. The idea of taking a squad of soldiers into battle against a variety of foes in a turn-based framework gave him this funny feeling down in the pit of his stomach that he wasn’t able to identify, and it worried him slightly. After consulting with some of his gamer friends, however, he discovered that this sensation was known as “addiction,” and was not to be feared, but embraced. To that end, our intrepid gamer began to seek out another fix for the jones he had cultivated with X-COM. It was thus that he stumbled upon a little gem called Jagged Alliance from Sir-Tech. But what he found when he booted it up was something very unexpected. He was not in command of a cadre of well-trained marines, but a ragtag collection of mercenaries who expected to be paid for their participation. Their weapons were not science fiction armaments, but the type of firearms you might find in that month’s issue of Guns & Ammo. And, most interesting of all, the mercs under his control were not the sort of courageous yes-men found in X-COM, but a bunch of individuals with their own agendas, some of whom caused them to disobey direct orders. In Jagged Alliance, the gamer found an experience that took the turn-based tactical model of X-COM and ran with it. And they all lived happily ever after. ( read more… )

Review by: Chris Harding
Published: August 6, 1999

My first exposure to Illusion Softworks’ Hidden & Dangerous came at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. Amongst all the glitter, loud music and hormonally imbalanced Lara Croft fans, Hidden & Dangerous shone brighter than the rest as a rare diamond in the rough, and I knew that, given enough time and care, it could turn out to be not only the best tactical combat title we’ve seen to date, but perhaps one of the best games of all time. ( read more… )

Review by: Jason Purdy
Published: July 6, 1999

It’s a truly interesting world that we live in. I installed Kingpin on my computer the other day (man does not live by consoles alone) and was met with an editorial on violence, kids and the media along with the EULA. It seems that everyone is afraid of stepping on the wrong toes and that the glorification of violence equals the death of a title. Strangely enough, though, this social climate seems to be pumping out criminal games at a higher rate than ever before. Granted, they’re a little more cautious about what they’re doing than normal, but the message is still the same: “It’s good to be bad.” Or, at the very least, it can be a hell of a lot of fun. ( read more… )

Review by: Adam Swiderski
Published: July 3, 1999

In early 1997, the designers at Activision were faced with a dilemma; namely, how to follow up on the success of one of the most popular, genre-defining games of the decade, (MechWarrior 2), when the license for the title’s back-story was no longer theirs to wield. “No problem,” they said, and promptly pulled a surprise move by securing the license for Dream Pod 9′s giant-robot RPG, Heavy Gear. In nine months, the venerable company cranked out a new science fiction combat sim built on the foundation of the Mechwarrior 2 engine and released it to a curious public. Unfortunately, Heavy Gear did not live up to its potential. It was sprinkled with bugs, lacked the degree of creativity that had gone into its predeccesors and — perhaps worst of all — did not jibe with the universe on which it was based. Many industry pundits saw this as the end of an era, and as Activision’s swan song in the giant robot arena. ( read more… )

Review by: David Laprad
Published: July 1, 1999

I remember the first time I saw Descent. It was in the computer lab at college, and although we were not supposed to be playing games, that never stopped anyone from a furtive deathmatch in the rear of the room. A friend of mine had downloaded the shareware version from the Internet and installed it on a then cutting-edge 486-33. We had spent countless hours deathmatching in other pseudo-3D titles, but were wholly unprepared for the paradigm shifting experience Parallax’s title would bring to the first-person action genre. We were uncertain at first about the fully rotational perspective and had trouble orienting our softened awareness to the truly three dimensional environment, but in time, it reigned supreme in our LAN soirees. As popular as the series has been, it curiously remains one of the most under appreciated accomplishments in gaming. Descent introduced new dimensions into the FPS genre and was the first to grab the baton from id Software and move multiplayer competition to the next level with eight participants instead of four. It also required a more carefully wrought strategic approach than its gravity-borne siblings. In essence, Parallax’s gem taught a generation of action gamers how to play within a certified 360 degree world. ( read more… )

Review by: Chris Harding
Published: May 28, 1999

Microsoft and their partners have done a nice job at cornering a niche in the racing game market. Previous hits in their Madness series include Avault five star award winners Motocross Madness and Monster Truck Madness 2. The newest member to the pit crew is developer Angel Studios and their very original title, Midtown Madness. Like the entire line-up, Midtown is a racing title, but not in the classical sense you may be thinking of. ( read more… )

Review by: Doug Trueman
Published: April 6, 1999

The first thing the Volkswagen Beetle brings to mind is an image of a light gray car with a white 53 painted on the side. Many years ago, countless elementary school classmates and I were forced to watch this car’s adventures, and my entire generation now knows and fears movies like Herbie Goes Bananas and Herbie Goes on Vacation. After mentioning this review to a friend of mine, he lamented, “Those movies used to be what my teachers would show when they wanted to slack off for an afternoon. I’ve seen them all.” ( read more… )

Review by: Pete Hines
Published: March 17, 1999

I’ll admit straight out that I’m a junkie of the Heroes of Might and Magic series. I’ve played HOMM2 so much I practically wore a hole in my CD, mostly playing multiplayer games with our recently departed editor, Emil. We played dozens of games, usually co-op, by e-mail and every single one was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Knowing its predecessor inside and out helped me prepare for the arrival of HOMM3 and I had my laundry list of things I wanted to see in the game. Those of you who have played the game understand the real appeal HOMM has; addiction is an understatement. For those of you who have never played a HOMM game or have never tried a turn-based strategy game before, allow me to describe the game’s basics briefly. ( read more… )

Review by: Pete Hines
Published: March 8, 1999

Once upon a time, civilizations battled for survival in a race of technology and combat that left only one survivor. Then, they did it again a few years later. Now, in the tradition of Civilization and Civilization 2, comes Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (SMAC). This turn-based strategy game takes the fight for survival to the unfamiliar expanse of space, where factions fight to survive and assert their doctrine on the other inhabitants. On route to another planet a meteor strikes your spaceship, waking the passengers from their hypersleep and throwing plans awry. Several factions develop among the passengers, each of whom has designs on how to survive and conquer the planet below. Each faction has a unique leader and philosophy that gives it a particular advantage or strengths over the other factions and makes them very different from one another. For example, the Spartans favor war and the Morgan Conglomerate seeks the almighty dollar. You select which one of these factions you want to lead and begin the task of establishing a foothold on the planet below. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: March 3, 1999

It was almost two years ago in 1997 that I first became addicted to a gaming genre which I call 3D arcade combat games. It all began when I first excitedly laid my hands on Blue Byte’s Extreme Assault. This game, a landmark classic if every there was one, was among the first full-featured applications of 3Dfx technology and contained gorgeous graphics, exquisite music and truly fun shoot-em-up gameplay using a variety of vehicles in a fully immersive 3D environment. While since that time its graphics have been surpassed by Rage’s Incoming, and its music cannot quite match that in Digital Image Design’s Wargasm, no other game of this type has approached the blast I got from the frenzied combat action so perfectly crafted in each Extreme Assault scenario. ( read more… )

Review by: Chris Harding
Published: March 1, 1999

Computer gaming has changed a great deal since we last took to the skies in an F-16A Fighting Falcon. The more than four year development cycle of Microprose’s Falcon 4.0 is really more of a caricature of the entire industry, rather than just the life-cycle of one long-overdue game. It’s quite telling, especially when you examine the then and now. In 1993 Spectrum Holobyte released Falcon 3; its chief competition came shortly thereafter from a game called F-14 Fleet Defender, ironically from Microprose. Things were certainly a lot different back then. Bill Gates wasn’t even the wealthiest person in America much less the world. Companies like Novell and WordPerfect were just as dominant in the marketplace as Microsoft. A high-end computer gaming system for playing Falcon 3 consisted of a 386DX/40, 4MB RAM, 2400 baud modem, and ran on DOS 5.0. Back then Falcon 3 changed the face of gaming, by implementing many of the features we now see everyday: polygonal engines, real-world physics, and modem-based multiplayer gameplay. It was a landmark achievement, and living up to it would be one of the tallest orders anyone could ever undertake. ( read more… )

Review by: Chris Harding

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “ingenuity” as “skill or cleverness in planning or inventing: Inventiveness, Ingenious; marked by special aptitude at discovering, inventing, or contriving.” I don’t think there is a better definition of the talent at Chicago-based Bungie Software. This company is just brewing with ingenuity and a knack for creating the unexpected, and it was no surprise that this summer they were named as one of the fastest growing private companies in America by Fortune Magazine. Bungie’s corporate performance can be largely attributed to 1997′s smash hit Myth: The Fallen Lords. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo & Pete Hines
Published: January 23, 1999

In the grand tradition of the old Gold Box AD&D games, Baldur’s Gate (BG) from BioWare/Interplay (Black Isle Studios) attempts to recapture the kind of engrossing, “can’t-stop-playing” RPG experience that entertained so many people in the 80s and early 90s. Playable in either single- or multi-player, you guide a party of up to six characters through an expansive world of mystery and danger. The game is set in the Forgotten Realms’ Sword Coast, and your journey is centered around several burning questions, including: 1.) Why is someone trying so hard to have you killed?; and 2.) What or who is behind the problems with the iron in the Sword Coast region? We’re not going to get into the whole area of AD&D rules and describe the specifics of how the game works (THAC0, dice, etc.), but rather stick more to the way BG plays. ( read more… )