PowerSlide and Thief: The Dark Project
A PC Buyers Guide Special Report
A growing number of games developers have found that providing a downloadable demo of a game is a great way to generate much-needed press and give gamers a chance to try before they buy. In this PC Buyers Guide report, we'll look at some of the best downloadable games of 1998.
Weighing in at only 6MB, the demo version of PowerSlide is one of the fastest and best-looking racing simulations available. It's at www.ratbaggames.com. In the game, you race futuristic vehicles around an abandoned dam site. It's a lot of fun and, even on an mid-range system (we tested it on a P180 with a Permedia2 accelerator with excellent results), the performance is amazing. It's Voodoo-enhanced, if you have one of 3DFX card, too. Highly recommended if you enjoy fast and furious racing action. This game is a blast.
For those that enjoy a little more strategy and don't mind waiting for a 35MB to download, Eidos' Thief: The Dark Project is a visual treat. In it, you are a thief and your job is to skulk around in the shadows, staying on carpets to avoid being hear and generally being as sneaky as possible. If you're cunning enough, you'll be able to pickpocket guards for their keys and steal the King's coveted chalice. A training session, teaching the essential skills of sneakiness, is provided.
Other new games we've tested recently:
Jane's WWII Fighters, from www.ea.com is the most visually stunning WWII aerial combat simulation we've seen yet. The planes are gorgeously detailed, and the clouds and terrain effects are among the best we've seen. It's a huge download, at over 55MB and the demo version campaigns are limited to a measly six minutes, but what fine minutes they are!
Half-Life, developed by Valve Software and released by Sierra (www.sierra.com), is one of the richest first-person shooter games we've ever seen, from both eye-candy and game-play perspectives. Its hardware requirements are fairly rich, too. It requires over 210MB of hard disk space when installed from CD. It is an exquisitely detailed, darkly moody (and sometimes downright scary!) game that requires jumping, ducking, problem-solving and gawking in awe at spectacular decor and nicely rendered 3-D scientists, ghastly monsters and, during an introductory tutorial, hologrammatic tutors in the "Black Mesa" underground nuclear compound in which the action takes place.
The plot is better than average here. Basically, you are a theoretical researcher at an underground quantum physics laboratory. An experiment in which you are participating goes horribly wrong and, in the aftermath, a dimensional doorway opens up that allows a lot of very nasty creatures to enter the complex, which is now in a shambles. To add to the suspense, you are woefully under-equipped with weaponry and information, at least initially. (A walk-through can help if you get stuck.)
The cheats and hidden extras are plentiful in Half-Life, too. A hidden console can be accessed by appending "-console" to the HL.EXE command that loads the game. Games can -- and should -- be saved enroute, and a multiplayer option allows up to eight-way play. (This feature is not available in the Day One OEM version mentioned below.)
Half-Life is garnering much praise from the gaming community, as a growing number of favorable reviews will attest. At this time, there's no downloadable demo version available, but an abridged version of the game, titled Half-Life: Day One is bundled with Diamond’s Monster Sound MX300, Guillemot International’s Maxi Gamer Phoenix (a Voodoo Banshee board), and ThrustMaster’s Frag Master Joystick. According to Valve Managing Director Gabe Newell, the OEM release is around 20% of the full game. Recommended.
EA Sports' Nascar Revolution is a new race game that includes many of the innovations that has made EA one of the leaders in the videogame business. Nascar racing vehicles, in case you don't know, are basically super stock cars on a competition track. Electronic Arts has motion-captured the actions of the pit crews and the game provides a detailed view of the activities required to change tires and fill 'er up. In the 30MB demo version, the announcers comment on your racing performance and get all edgy if you make a hazardous move. Overall, it wasn't one of the most exciting racing games we've played, but it has plenty of authenticity, including licensed images of the drivers and actual cars (completely plastered with actual advertisements!)
Meanwhile, LucasArts (www.lucasarts.com) is making the best of its Star Wars franchise with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. A playable demo shows how delightfully close state-of-the-art PC game graphics now can come to the sort of imagery and special effects one a few years ago could find only on the silver screen. In the demo, you can pilot one of five craft through Begger's Canyon to avert a rogue squadron attack. Recommended for Star Wars fans!
Also on the LucasArts site is the playable demo of Grim Fandango -- about as far away from Star Wars as you could get, this one's a sophisticated RPG (role-playing game) adventure in which you -- like everyone else in the story -- are dead. It's a sort of Mexican-flavored film noir, with plenty of attitude and clever puzzles. (Press the F1 key for tips on which keys to use.)
There are exciting new developments in 3D hardware, too. Metabyte has announced EYEscream stereo 3D glasses (US$129) that support most existing titles without modification by supporting stereo 3D at the API level. Once you've been "inside" a 3D world, looking at a flat screen doesn't quite cut it anymore!
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