H
\
Games and Internet
PLAYSTATION Toy Story 2 (Disney) £29.99 it t at r
The groundbreakrng computer anrmated movre Toy Story rs back and, not unsurprrSrngly, a computer game rs released to corncrde. Although armed speCrfrcaIIy at chrldren, Toy Story 2; Buzz Lrghtyear To The Rescue (longest name of the year so far) has much that the more mature platform fan wrll appreCrate
As the trtle suggests, you control Buzz as he frghts to save hrs pal Woody Through a varrety of 30 envrronments, he must utrIrse hrs wrde range of space age abrlrtres to collect tokens, some lyrng openly on platforms, others requrrrng a challenge to be solved before becomrng avarlable. All of the support characters can be found around the levels, helprng or hrnderrng Buzz's progress and brrngrng the whole game to lrfe.
Indeed, Toy Story 2 rs crawlrng wrth character and humour, as enjoyable to watch as rt rs to play. Buzz can take a whrle to get to grrps wrth, and some of the challenges are rnrtrally unclear, but there rs a good deal of slack burlt rnto the game to help the younger, or more drgrtally challenged, player. You’ll be playrng thrs to rnfrnrty and . . . how does rt go agarn? (ID)
PLAYSTATION Fighting Force 2 (EldOS) £29.99 t «k *
When the developers at Core got therr hands on a copy of Metal Gear Solid last summer, they must have sworn longer and louder than any drunken sarlor. Why? Because the trtle that they were workrng on at the trme, Fighting Force 2, must have looked lrke nothing but a cheap rmrtatron.
Even after srx months more work, the frnal game smacks of M65 You play a c0vert, undercover, secret servrce operatrve rnvestrgatrng reports of
98 THE lIST 3—I7 Feb 2000
e~mail:scanner@list.co.uk
N64 REVIEW
Armorines (Acclaim) £44.99 at at t *
Hands up who loved Starship Troopers? Although The List film section waxed lyrically about its pseudo-fascist undercurrents and its discourse on relative social dynamics, plenty of people just gawped at the fields of giant insects being machine-gunned into gory little pieces. How much fun did that look? Pulling the legs off ten feet tall beetles. Heaven for a childish mind.
And now Acclaim has blessed us with Armorines, a first-person shooter which lends more than a passing nod to Paul Verhoeven‘s mucus-fest. An alien race of insects, unsurprisingly called Bugs, have decided to take Earth as their own. Varying in size from dog-sized Tics to massive Queen Bugs, they are ruthless, fearless and as unpleasant a form of cannon fodder as you could wish for. There are also a very large number of them. Earth's defences seem inadequate until those in control send in the Armorines, a small group of super-soldiers able to withstand a nuclear strike. This is you.
The fight against the Bugs is split into various missions, covering all four corners of the globe. Each mission has set tasks to accomplish, furthering the story and breaking up the almost unceasing violence. The locations range from Siberia to South America, providing an ever-changing backdrop to the mayhem, and are presented in the unmistakable N64 clean and crisp graphical style. The Bugs are all pretty terrifying,
Post-millennium bugs: Armorines
particularly when at touching distance, and move in a quick, spider-like fashion. Be prepared to waste a good few rounds in panic fire.
There are a few multiplayer options to try out with mates, including a compelling co-operative mode. Even the Bugs are available to try out, although not in quite as impressive a fashion as Aliens Vs Predator. Unfortunately, unless you have a television as big as a house, the split screen may force you into sitting cross- legged with your nose buzzing against the flatter, squarer tube.
Lacking a huge amount of imagination - thus longevity — Armorines is still great fun. Pest control never felt so good. (lain Davidson)
rllegal experrmentatron by a multinatronal company. As each waypornt of each mrssron rs reached, the plot thrckens and your task gets harder. Unfortunately Fighting Force 2 has nerther the rngenurty or refrnement of M65 and relres on combat for its appeal. There are a multitude of hand- to-hand moves to learn, but all too soon a prstol rn the hand replaces any
Creating a Buzz: Toy Story 2
pugrlrstrc flarr.
The 3D levels are very baSrc, though decorated with a few nrce touches, and the constantly appearrng enemy takes stupidity to new levels. Fighting Force 2 would have been great four years ago. Now it is rust a mrnor diversron from more involvrng games. (ID)
DREAMCAST Jimmy White 2: Cueball
(Virgin Interactive) £39.99 1* i at *
Thanks to the controversral chorce of Wrndows CE as the Dreamcast
r operating system, many of the PC '5
more user-friendly trtles are berng converted to Sega’s machine. Jimmy White 2: Cueball rs one, and such rs the Quality of the converSron you w0uld be hard pushed to choose which one rs the console and whrch rs running on a Pentium III.
The anrmation of all the games — pool, snooker, darts, etc — rs first class and the hrgh score Iedgers have also been kept, Surreptitrously coaxrng you rnto Just one more game. Unfortunately, the one thrng that made the PC game such a JOY to play has been rgnored: namely the rnteractive mouse cuerng action. If they had transferred thrs to the Joypad,
whrch has an analogue stick perfect for the task, thrs w0uld have been another must-have for the Dreamcast locker
That sard, Cueball rs strII a fantastrc game and, as the Joypad rs easrer to pass round than a PC mouse, rt rs the better chorce for those wrth frrends. The closest thrng to real snooker yet seen on a console. (ID)
PC Jane's USAF
(Electronic Arts) £34.99 at t ‘k t *
It rs gettrng to the pornt now where one flight srmulator looks very much lrke another. As they all strrve to srmulate the same thrng wrth as much accuracy as possrble, rt’s the detarls, the mrnutrae, the ’feeling’ of the game that prove to be the marn seIIrng pOrnts. Jane’s, the foremost CIVIlIan authority on mrlrtary hardware, have now stuck therr oar rn wrth a trtle based on the Unrted States Arr Force. Eight of the USAF’s frghters are available to fly rn four campargns, rangrng from Vietnam to a frctronal war over Amerrcan sorl, The graphrcs are stunning, the detarl rs staggering and the entrre game — from opening menu to close combat dogfrghtrng — rs surprisingly frrendly. The trarnrng