Here are reviews of my PC games.

FIFA RTWC

Quite simply – BUY IT!!! With the world cup in full swing it is easily the best soccer game out on any machine for football fanatics. The gameplay is superb with an array of special touches and flicks, crosses, headers, and overhead kicks being made available with simple button moves, but the combinations and results are astonishing. You will be practising the different techniques in months to come!!!

The commentary is spot on even though we may not see the day when John Motson and Andy Gray team up together. It differs from Actua soccer and other games with commentary in that after a few months you still here different comments – it’s that varied. There’s also an introduction to each match from God himself Des Lynham.

There are numerous camera angles, all of which are playable, but you will soon find the best ones to watch your magic gameplay. You can also save you greatest moments and relive them with a reply option.

A very good feature is the team management where you can do man marking, change players attacking bias, numerous formations, players aggressiveness and starting line ups. It really works and gives you complete control of the team and boy are there a lot of teams – Every heard of Vanuatu and Sarawat?!

Another great touch to this game is the customise squad options where you can change the way a player looks not only by their hair and skin colour but their hair style, face, and facial hair. Shame you can’t change the boot colour but I’m sure EA will give this some thought for their next release!

The atmosphere is great with pixel accurate stadiums from around the world and video footage from different countries before each match. There is also a 5-aside option in an indoor stadium. The only downfall is that there are not enough competitions (only the qualifying and world cup) and since the top club teams in the world have been included with their leagues to play, you think the team at EA could have made cup competitions between them.

Still, it doesn’t spoil an excellent game. Get your mates together and play two on each team for fun and frolics but I do suggest buying a Microsoft or Gravis game pad to use the special moves. A 3Dfx card also shows the weather effects on the pitch but is not essential. If you do have one but you will need the patch to run it:

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FIFA RTWC RATINGS

NUCLEAR STRIKE

Gone are the days of Desert Strike on the Amiga and Jungle strike on the Megadrive with their ageing graphics and missions. Great games for their day but prepare now for the follow on from the Playstation best seller Soviet Strike. Fans of the previous Strike games should drop everything and buy this now. Join Earle, Hack and Andrea for another 5 awesome missions to stop the nuclear madmen of the Far East.

The gameplay is much the same as Soviet Strike but this time you can be over 10 different vehicles. There are Tanks, Harrier jump jets, A-10 planes, hovercraft and a number of different choppers to name a few. They are a joy to use (The harrier especially) each with different firepower and armour.

The mission difficulty level is just right and like before you have to think about each phase before attempting it. It is very strategic and you will find yourself protecting trains, commanding an army in the desert, and also watch a nuclear explosion and have to deal with the aftermath. With your co-pilots (who actually do help you this time – check out Cash on the 2^nd mission) you get the usual blow up everything in site as well…..

The cinema footage is here once again and makes the game very realistic and enjoyable. There are also nice touches during the game: Andrea is right on form and protecting the bus on mission 3 is hilarious. There is a new compass introduced, which makes gaming even easier without continually reverting to your map every 5 seconds.

Again a patch is needed for 3dFX card users from the EA site. You will be playing this until you complete it and even for the experienced gamers it won’t be too soon. EA have a habit of producing games like this. Fanatstic atmosphere and very rewarding - In the words of General Earl ‘Make sure you don’t succeed in giving your enemies more confidence’.

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NUCLEAR STRIKE RATINGS

FIGHTING FORCE

Yes we are all awaiting Tekken 3 and have all played the likes of Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streetfighter 2 and Tekken 2 so how does Fighting Force rate among them?

To start with you could say that this is a 3D version of Final Fight but then this is much more than that. True it is not a "spend months learning the combo moves" kind of game but it is one of the best walk through beet em ups I’ve seen on the PC. Unlike Final Fight there are more then just a few moves - Each character has plenty to keep you going and there are a few special moves thrown in for you to find.

The 3D element isn’t ground breaking but the gameplay and enemies are varied. There are 6 possible paths in completing the game and it takes you through streets, parks, trains and the naval base to name a few of the dozens of stages on your way to victory.

One of the great things in this game is that you can batter almost anything (including coke machines, cars, bins) and use almost anything as weapons – T.V.s, railings, fire axes, bottles, car tyres, shotguns, bazookas. You can pick up and use just about anything but you only have limited use of weapons.

The two player element is a great laugh and I’m sure at times you will think you are playing Final fight 98 but if you are after a walk trough beat em up you wont find anything better at the moment.

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FIGHTING FORCE RATINGS

FORSAKEN

Forsaken is a new release on the PC and uses the capabilities of the 3Dfx card to full effect. It has similar gameplay to Decent but from the off it outplays it in all departments. So what’s the beef with the bikers of Forsaken? Well, Earth has become a looting ground after a nuclear explosion and you control a biker through various tunnels blowing up everything in site and looting what you can.

There is a choice of over 10 bikers, each with their own personality and comments during the game. Each biker has their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of speed, armour etc. There are tons of weapons and the enemies are varied and tough so watch out. There is also a deathmatch option to link up and play against eachother.

At first this is a very tricky game and it will take you a few goes to get to grips with beating the enemy scum but once you have mastered the artistry in flying your bike you will enjoy this for months. There is enough variation in the levels to keep you occupied but the difficulty can be frustratingly touch at times.

The comments from the bikers are especially comical. "I think you should know, I have complete power" and "I only let you win" are some of the many catch phases you will begin to know and love from each character.

This is one of the best shoot em ups to grace the PC. With slick 3D graphics and enough gameplay to keep you going for months Forsaken is sure to be one of the releases of the year. Let the looting begin…….

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FORSAKEN RATINGS

ULTIMATE RACE PRO

With the development of 3dfx cards there is no better of way for game companies to show off their latest games then to release driving games.

We are having a massive influx of them at the moment (Formula 1 97, Need for speed II, Andretti Racing to name a few) so how does Ultimate Race Pro rate among them?

URP is free with Creative’s VooDoo2 3dfx card and is only £19.99 if you buy it separately making it for value the best racing game in the market. It doesn’t play bad either….

If you are after a super fast, realistic car game to make you sweat then this is the game for you. With superb graphic and ultra fast gameplay (easily 27 frames per second for most users – reaching the 40’s and 50’s for faster machines). The tracks are of varying difficulty (Day, night, rain and storm) and there are 5 to master although you play them backwards and inverted for the extra toughness.

You race 8 other cars and there are also time trials (which I found myself playing continuously) with a ghost similar to SNES Mario Cart but this time you can save your best ghosts. There is also a two-player link option.

On the negative side there aren’t any competitions – this is a game of lap times both in the race and from a standing start in the time trials. There ought to have been more tracks – the different ways to race each track isn’t as good as having new scenery to race with. Still, the different weather effects are cool and also the way in which it gets darker and starts to rain during a race rather than straight from the start.

Although it has limitations, Ultimate Race Pro is one of the best race games on the PC. No doubt it will be bettered though.

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ULTIMATE RACE PRO RATINGS

Dark Earth

Unreal

Incoming

Quake II

G-Police

Holiday Island

Excaliber

NHL96

Turok

Sonic3D