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PLAYSTATION Pitfall 30: Beyond The

Jungle (Activision) £39.99 - v u

Take your pick: Pitfall 30

Anyone pining away for the lack of a new Indiana Jones mowe can seek solace in this excellent 30 platform game. You take on the role of Pitfall Harrer, a gallant explorer who likes nothing better than chicks, booze and savmg lost CiVilisations from tyranny. Your task here is to free the Moku people from the yoke of The Scourge by gadding about a deadly enVironment filled With scorpions, rock—throwmg monkeys, demon bats and other hideous creatures.

What raises Pitfall 30 above other decent platformers is its excellent 360° enVironment and a Wicked sense of humour giVing rise to cool details like getting Bruce Campbell, star of the Evil Dead mowes, to mice Harry. Funny, addictive, dynamic and not a bullwhip insight. (PR)

Dark Omen (EA) £40

Attempting to fill a niche between strategy wargaming and all-out action, Dark Omen is a herOic failure. You control a mercenary band of warriors, Out to hack and slash away at orcs, goblins and zombies (known collectively as 'Greenskins') in return

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PLAYSTATION

ReSIdent EVII 2

(Virgin) £49.99

Unlike rock 'n' roll, the current video game consoles have few absolute classics. But Resident Evil, 1996’s zombie-blasting gore-a-thon was certainly one of them. lnevitably, there was going to be a sequel, but how to improve on the twisted excellence of the original? The answer, as those sick geniuses at developers Capcom have shown here. is simplicity itself: double the size and make it ten times more horrible.

Resident Evil2 is nasty, brutish and long. No Tomb Raider-style tedious trekking either; from the off, it's action all the way. You start off surrounded by zombies, alone in the wreckage of a city, and your chances of survival don't improve much from that. Walking corpses want to eat you, hideous things want to drop from the ceiling on top of you. and what normal people there are want to shoot at you in case you're a member of the living dead. Life sucks when the human race is all but

wiped out.

You start playing as either a cop or a girl searching for her brother, but must switch over to the other character once you've completed the game with the first. You

to locked areas.

walk around Racoon City working out why the dead are rising from their graves and trying to put them back in them as soon as poss. Armed with only a small knife, a pistol and a paltry supply of ammo, you must spend a lot of time picking up new bullets and better weaponry. You've also got to locate keys that will allow you access

Ultimately, what makes Resident Evil 2 such a fabulous game is its brilliantly evoked atmosphere. Visually it's

stunning; a range of camera angles lend a filmic feel,

while the sounds effects - wailing, echoing footsteps, tearing flesh, are spine-tinglingly fantastic. Undead dead good. (Peter Ross)

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for cash which you can then spend on boosting your army.

So far, so good. But the interface is rather awkward, and you never really feel completely in control of your bloodthirsty band of swords-for-hire. Moreover, as this is a conversion from a PC game, it really ought to be played With a PlayStation mouse. If you don't have one, then that's gorng to add to your frustration as you struggle With ioypad control.

The other annOying thing about Dark Omen is that it's jUSI too difficult. In order to Win at higher levels, yOu must try not to lose too many troops in earlier conflicts. This means replaying missions ad nauseam until you manage to Win as convmcingly as possible. This could have been so much better. (PR)

Orc on the wild side: Dark Omen

Diablo

, (EA) £40 ,. ,. x

The Khandaras kingdom is up shit creek Without the proverbial paddle. There's ciViI unrest, bloodshed and an all-pervasive sense of eVil. So, it's up to yOu ~ choosing to play a warrior, rogue or Wizard to defeat the forces of darkness and liberate the peOple. Although this is pretty cliched stuff, it's good to see another role-playing game for the PlayStation. And Diablo does have some nice features. Arrivmg at the town of Tristram, you deCide to check out a scary old cathedral (as you

. do) and so plunge into a satisfying

labyrinth of adventure For added realism, the action takes place in real- time, With you VieWing proceedings from the tried-and-tested isometric perspective. What's more, the dungeons are generated randOmly every time you play, so there's no repetition to detract from the game's longeVity, and two players can combine their efforts in the fight against all things fOul. All in all, sixteen satisfying levels. (PR)

Reboot

(EA) £40

Are you obsessive about the novels of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson?

~ Do you sit awake at night compulsively

rewatching B/aderunner? If the answer is yes, then you’ll definitely love Reboot, ln-house's new cyberpunk shoot 'em up. If the answer is no, then y0u’ll probably find it pretty good fun

all the same.

Based on an animated series of the same name, Reboot casts you in the role of Bob, resident in a massrve

computer, who must save his technological home from Megabyte, an eVil dictator who plans to take over the computer by placing tears in the system code and destroying Bob and his cyber-buddies. You must ride through seven game arenas on a hoverboard (difficult to control at first) mending tears and destroying enemies.

The gaming arenas are very impressive detailed and colourful 3D enVironments and the gameplay is enjoyable and addictive (PR)

Snow Racer 98 (Ocean) £34.99

This is the only snow-boarding siin out at the moment which can give Coo/ Boarders 2 a run for its money But while CB 2 is an all-action, speed- crazed, arcade-ster classic, Snow Racer 98 is a closer apprommation of what snow-boarding is actually like.

Cool Boarders 2 is all about performance over rigidly set courses, but this game allows greater chOice of route and greater freedom of movement Within that route. Jump off peaks and perform stunts, swerve through the trees and try to discover shortcuts it's this kind of explorative potential that Will keep Snow Racer 98 in your console long after lesser games have been frisbeed to the back of the cupboard.

It looks better than Cool Boarders 2 as well. While lacking the stunning graphics of Ocean’s V-Ra/ly, the Visuals are still satisfyineg chunky. What’s more, if you're fed up acting cool on a big plank, you can choose to compete on skis instead. Stick that in your stalefish and smoke it. (PR)