PLAYSTATION Colin McRae Rally
(Codemasters) £44.99 * t 9 9
” R. Thrs game’s sellrng pornt rs the success of ace rally driver Colin McRae, currently the best rn the world at steering cars round muddy tracks But really, Col/n McRae Rally could get along ,rust frne Without the celebrity endorsement You'd buy Tekken 2 wrthout Bruce Lee’s say so and so rt rs here. Thrs rs a racrng srm Wrth thrills to spare
Colin McRae Rally allows players to drrve twelve world-class rally cars from the Skoda Felrc'ra to the Subaru Impreza WRC 7- at speeds of up to l60mph on some very trrcky terrain You compete rn the world rally championships, attempting to achieve wrnnrng trmes In order to progress through all 48 rndrvrdual stages over eight different c0untnes.
What makes Colin McRae Rally GXClIlllg rs the way Codemasters have achieved a nice balance between realrstrc handling and let-her-rrp playability. lrnagrne Gran Tur/smo crossed wrth Motorlread and you’ll be getting the picture. Covering ground from Britain's muddy forests to Sweden’s rcy roads, you’ll be hard pressed to avoid the crashes whrch, let's face rt, are so spectacular they’re worth losing the race for. Cool. (PR)
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108 mmsr 23 Jul—6 Aug 1998
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PLAYSTATION
Vigilante 8
(Activision) £39.99 -¢- 9 Without a doubt, the 705 were the time for combining cars with extreme violence. From films such as Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and Mad Max though to real-life stuntman Evel Knievel's suicidal rocket bike, the whole decade seems to have been obsessed with high-speed motorised carnage.
Enter Vigilante 8, a 30 driving shoot-'em-up which aims to take advantage of this appeal by strutting onto the market in a pair of maroon rayon hipster flares
and a soundtrack so funky you expect Bootsy Collins to
appear on the credits.
You can choose from six jive-talkin’ cool cats at the start, including Charlie's Angels and Shaft clones, each with their own set of mission objectives to achieve before the later levels and secret characters can be accessed. Tekken-style special moves can be used to beef up your attack and you can pick up all the usual power-ups along the way to prolong the violence. Luckily for pedestrians, this violence takes place in the wide-open spaces of airfields and cotton farms rather than the bustling streets of San Francisco, which means, to quote a better man than me, 'You can run, but you
can't hide.’
Unfortunately, like so many 70$ ideas (such as wife-
swapping and fondue parties) this all works much better in theory than it does in practice. Vigilante 8 never quite successfully combines its driving and battle elements. You end up doing one or the other, which can lead to some rather dull bonnet-to-bonnet combats, and although the special weapons on offer are powerful enough to destroy the various pickups and 4x45 that oppose you on your missions, hitting your target with one of these things is about as easy as dancing convincingly in platforms.
If you're a fan of the successful Twisted Metal series then you’ll love this, but there's no getting away from the fact that when it comes to combining retro appeal with car violence, you're still better digging out your old copy of SpyHunter. Do drive angry. (Paul Owens)
Hard drive: Vigilante 8
Total NBA 98 (SCEE) £34.99 9
Is prck-up-ahd-play hit)". on your lzst of game gualrty must-haves? If so, the" Total NBA 98 may not be for you However, If you Irke your sports SIl"S to have depth, a decent learn-ng curve and bags of longevty, then thrs could be a good rnvestrnent
The first thrng to stress rs that thrs :s a hard game The .‘rrst tune you take or‘ the computer, you're E‘ke'y to get your ass wl‘upped Irke a donkey at Amntree You’ll try to score and you'll nnss tw:ce out 0‘ three, you'il try to de‘end and
you”? grve away a ‘ou', you"! try to do flashy slam-dunks and you'll ‘a'i pt'fu‘lly
But grve t tune and pract'ce and thrs cou'd we} become one 0" your ‘avourzte games Tne graphics are sat'sysng enough, With players chunky and we’f-defrv‘ed More Irr‘por‘tar‘tiy, you can Eearn to become a skfiled player, n‘aster'ng you" de‘ensrve technlgue and conduerrhg the Total Control Dunkrng ‘eature hat allows you to pu" oil shots whc h are nearly ‘rnpossrb'e ‘or the opponent to prevent
PTus, t“*s 's a 'nass've ;an‘e You can choose f'ro'n 29 teams, 'nc 'udn‘g over 350 NW dua players You can a‘so plar‘ and contro complex strategies There's so n‘uc "‘ mom to Total NBA 98
than t)();."( :ng a pa" around, but you"?
need to put the hours :n 0R)
Viper
(Ocean) £39.99 9 ~ --~
When alren forces attempt to conquer the planet on'y one man can save Earth. Edd e Crane, UllOl of the deadly Vrner attack nelrcopter
V/per s a 3D hellcc)pt(“' shoot 'em up,
although 't 's ‘on rarl' \\’l)l(ll means that you move forwards along a predetcmhrned route, your choices restncted to 'e‘t and r'ght moverrtent and dec'd‘ng wnrc h Ttt‘e greer‘ man to D'dS'. ‘rrst Steerzng your masszve chopper :ooh, mrssus'l through the crun‘birng crtyscapes of a devastated planet, you must use guns, bombs and
n‘=ss*es to take out as many aliens as possible
Your opponch appears .r‘ a number o" forms gu" emplacements, arr-borne alien c'alt and massive end bosses These come at you so t'ast and In such numbers that thrhgs durc kly become chaotic and overwrought Thrs game really depends o" ’uck and a lrghtnrng- guIcT-c trigger ‘rnger more than on skrll
The obgec t've 's to progress through as many levels as posszble, eventually lrberatrng 'nankrnd Avomlrng death 'sn't easy, but there are numerous power-ups such as energy and shrelds wh'c h s'nould proiong the agony for a whle
V/per :s exc'tlng and spectacular, If a i'ttle too hard and relentless (PR)
Circuit Breakers (Mindscape) £39.99 r‘r e + If Gran Tons/no 's the Radrohead of rac ng srrns rr‘volvrng, serious, technically accomplished - then C/rcfurt Breakers rs therr Catatonia (lldlISlllcllK, populrst and prone to break rnto road rage at any given rhoment Mrndscape's ultra-addictive racer rs, basically, Wacky Races meets Smokey And The Band/t, as erght toy cars (and boats) compete over a series of terrains that take rn swarnpland, the arctic waste, Venice, the Jungle, the h;ghway and many more
Apart from the undeniable fun of the rac rng, C/rcurt Breakers rs lent an edge by the many power-ups \NlllCl’l litter the courses and enable you to cheat In