SCANNER
Games and Internet
PC Championship Manager 3
(Eidos) £29.99 * t at 1i :9:
Champ/onsnrp Manager 3 rs heaven. Everythrng that made the prevrous versrons godlrke remarns rntact and as rnfurratrngly addrctrve as ever. However, the creators, Olrver and Paul Collyer have been out and about, questronrng tnerr adorrng publrc and the results are there for all to see. The rnterface rs now more rnturtrve and open, player statrstrcs have been expanded, and there are a frrghtenrng number of tactrcs to mrsuse You can now plan the trarnrng regrrne for your team as well as burldrng for the future through your reserve squad, Game statrstrcs and commentary have both been developed, so you can better evaluate how your team are performrng.
There are too many other lrttle rmprovements to mentron but the overall ImpreSSIOH rs one of awe, Thrs rs as complete and concrse a prece of prograrnmrng as you are ever lrkely to see, and rt wrll unrelentrngly gobble up your precrous trme. Expect to lose contact Wrth the rest of humanrty. (ID)
Warzone 2100
(Eidos) £39.99 a 1* 9r ir tr
Crawlrng from therr bunkers, the survrvors of a nuclear holocaust decrde to recapture therr former way of lrfe. To accomplrsh thrs, weaponry must be burlt, technology must be researched and other survrvors must be merCrlessly crushed As you may have guessed, thrs rs a real trrne strategy game, but what makes Warzone 2 700 better than all those Command <9 Conquer clones rs rts style.
There rs essentrally one huge map whrch you drscover and conquer, mrssron by mrssron, Thrs means that bases burlt rn the frrst level play a part rn later conflrcts, whrle new bases must be defended rn case they are regurred later Tactrcal skrll rs also regurred as the abrlrtres of your varrous combat unrts drffer erdly - a couple of carefully placed mortars mrght achreve more than any number of tanks Warzone 2700 rs enthrallrng and rnvolvrng, wrth a style all rts own It looks beautrful,
100 THE “ST 29 Apr—13 May 1999
e~marlzscanner@list.co.uk
PLAYSTATION UEFA Champions
League (Eidos) £44.99 * at ‘k i:
As footie games stand at the moment, you can either play domestic clubs in domestic competitions or international teams in international competitions. There is, however, one area of the beautiful game which has remained untouched — domestic clubs in international competition. Eidos have decided to fill this gap with a recreation of The Champions League.
The problem with this is that unless your favourite team happens to have qualified for the final
rounds this year, you must choose an unfamiliar squad to play with. This will reduce the interest factor for most people, a drawback which could have been lessened had the qualifying rounds been included. However, if you can ignore this flaw, the game itself is rather fun. The football is played at a leisurely pace, forcing a greater degree of tactical awareness than is normally required in these games. Slick one-twos and precision crossing produce greater results than simply running at the opposition. Many hours will be spent learning the little touches and turns which gain you
that extra yard of space.
The animation is neat and tidy and the player Artificial Intelligence is generally adequate. It is also
International bright young things: UEFA Champions League
frighteningly easy to foul your opponents, with the notoriously tough European referees accurately depicted. The set-up menus are very small and fiddly, but are soon forgotten as you fight to progress through the competition. You can also experiment with some past winners of the tournament, but unless you have a deep footballing knowledge, this may be lost on you. A special mention should also go to the commentary. With Bob Wilson, Brian Moore and Big Ron Atkinson all pontificating at length, love them or hate them, you'll never be bored. UEFA Champions League is a solid, if
limited, piece of software and if only half of
Manchester United's fans buy a copy, it'll be number one in the charts for months to come. (lain Davidson)
plays great and rs a frne addrtron to an otherwrse bland and overpopulated genre. (ID)
Redfine (Accolade) £34.99 a a .t
Have you ever been chasrng those pesky zombres on Carmageddon and thought how lovely rt would be to step from your car and zap them on foot? Well, now you can. Sort of. Red/r'ne combrnes both car combat chaos and Quake-Irke face to face battlrng As the local gang's rookre, rt rs your ICE) to take on the drrtrest JObS rn the struggle to become the top bad boys. To ard y0u rn thrs dishonourable ambrtron, Red/rne provrdes a garage of well- armed motors and an armomy of lethal hand weapons. Each level mrxes the two profrcrencres rn an almost seamless fashron and the story trundles
Conflict interest; Warzone mo
along merrrly.
What prevents Red/me from successfully mouldrng a new genre rs the fact that rt rs not very excrtrng to play. The drrvrng sectrons are rather clumsy, whrle the frrst-person combat falls short of the marorrty of rts peers. The mrSSrons are frlled wrth open spaces, preventrng any sense of tensron and the enemres feel more Irke posrtroned obstacles than a part of the story. Wrth better level desrgn, Red/me c0u|d have been groundbreakrng Unfortunately, the novelty value rs not enough to demand purchase. (ID)
PLAYSTATION
Need For Speed: Road ChaHenge
(Electronic Arts) £39.99 '* 1k fr
They have frnally grven up numberrng the Need For Speed games and settled for a subtrtle. In thrs case, Road Challenge explarns all you really need to know abOut thrs game <rt's the same old NFS game on publrc roads from arOund the world. Progress through the competrtron stages, collecttng more money and faster cars untrl you become krng of the entrre racrng world. There are also time trrals, srngle races and the ever-popular Hot Pursurt run from the polrce. All thrs rs slrckly presented and there are many optrons Irke added traffrc and weather whrch you can experrment wrth. Thrs rs a graphrc
. Success too — the tracks look lovely,
wrth rollrng hrlls, quarnt vIllages and
wrndrng motorways, as well as dastardly shortcuts and V!CIOUS obstacles to master.
Unfortunately, Road Challenge suffers from the same problems as all the other NFS trtles. You feel Irke you are drrvrng wrth boxrng gloves on, the cars take a week to respond to your commands and nothrng feels very realrstrc If y0u enroyed the prevrous hundred trtles, you’re bound to enjoy thrs, but non- affrCronados shOuId steer clear rlDl
Asterlx
(Infogrames) £39.99 wt
The Asteer stones seem to have lasted longer than the Roman Emprre ever drd Now you can Jom rn thrs relentless battle agarnst the maraudrng Legrons, gurdrng those rndornrtable Gauls Asterrx, Obelrsk and Getaer as they try to r'eclarm therr homeland.
Thrs rs a turn based board game whrch bears more than a passrng resemblance to Rrsk Spread yOur armres around yOur terrrtorres whrle launchrng attacks on the stuprd Romans Beat them and you clarm therr terrrtory. Certarn terrrtorres requrre y0u to gurde a character through a platform puzzle, runnrng, Jumprng and frghtrng, untrl you collect all the tokens. Unfortunately, the strategy rs unrnvolvrng and the platform sectrons are woefully poor. Thrs has been marketed as a cute lrttle game for krds, so all the characters are accurately represented rn therr cartoonrsh glory. However, there rs