SCANNER
Games and Internet
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PC Tank Racer (Grolier Interactive) £34.99
Turret syndrome: Tank Racer
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102 THE lIST ' 155.3 2999
PC Silver
(lnfogrames) £39.99
In the pantheon of role playing video games, two titles are omnipotent — The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time for the Nintendo 64 and Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation. Now, with Silver, lnfogrames are aiming to make it a triumvirate.
lnfogrames certainly fancy their game as a heavyweight contender. They loudly and rightly trumpet that it has been in development for an incredible three years, that there are 200 fully-rendered locations, and that the game includes 50 individual personalities and 50,000 words of dialogue. Silver has a great deal in common with its Japanese competitors — the cartoon graphics, the sense of the epic, and the whimsical plot.
lnfogrames may be in heavy denial when they compare their saga with the tale of Romeo and Juliet or Orpheus and Eurydice, but the plot is engrossing nonetheless. You play David, the proverbial knight in shining armour, whose task is to save 100 women from an evil magician who wants to sacrifice them to a demonic deity. You are aided in your task by a mammoth 60 varieties of weapon, as well as five companions, who you can assume control of.
The very simple and intuitive control system is mouse- based — you click on the character you want to control and then click on where you want them to go. More
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Woo-hoot I feel precious metal: Silver
complex controls can be accessed by clicking open a pie menu. The combat system sets this game apart from FFVII. In that title, combat was turn-based, but Silver follows a real-time model. Hold down Ctrl, move the mouse around, and watch David slash his blade about in a corresponding manner.
So, have Zelda and FFVII finally met their match with a Western take on a genre the Japanese have traditionally excelled at? Well, Edge, the all-formats gaming magazine, got their hands on an early copy and were decidedly lukewarm in their opinions. Silver might have to settle for the bronze. (Peter Ross)
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Baby, I'm board: Mario Party
PLAYSTATION
Viva Football
(Virgin Interactive) £39.99
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NHL Face Off 99 (989 Sports) £34.99
Possr'nly the fastest sport you can play an your li‘.‘l)(} room, KO hockey (ontintres to he a fatotrrrte on the (onsoles .N'Hl 5310 Off 99 follot'xs in t"e footsteps of some of the best sports srms :r ".st()"y and has (le( rtletl that :f it's not hroke t‘re'r don". fix rt Anyone '.'.!".o has p'ayeo' rte notkey on any (onsoie xvii! irirrt‘eorately feei at home here, with presentation and gr r‘replay as familiar as a (old ptr<k in the fare Players are easily (or-trolled, passes and shots are rr'imetlrate ano' t'tere's strl! the (“.(‘l'-t)()l)tlldl' fistr( trfls \"Jhat has changed 's the level of (reta'l Al' 26 NHL teams are here, the (onr'nentary rs even more r'ealrsti( and the ptaye's are ee'“i\.i .2‘eirke There are more passing xar‘rat ons, ()LH k—( nange strategies and (lefe'rsri.e ss'lrs t"‘ar‘ eter oef'ore lor‘ those math a n‘alti-tar), .rp to ergnt human players (an take part, so (‘H’tt gran (an get a gan‘e r‘\-HL late Oil 99 is more an (“{OiillIOl) than t(“.()ltlll()". .n f((‘ hotkey games, out rs as aoor< Me and "e‘.'.ar'(l‘ng as yoa (oarrl want ll)’
N64 Mario Party (Nintendo) £39.99
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