News

Another 3D Doom-type game is on the way. Shareware users will
recognise the name Duke Nukem. There have been 2 shareware
platform games featuring him, but now comes Duke Nukem 3D from 3D
Realms. The action is set in various places such as a moonbase and
post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.

Graphic adventures are appearing thick and fast. I've mentioned
Buried in Time, the follow-up to The Journeyman Project, before.
It is now due for release in August through US Gold and uses
photo-realistic images and FMV. It is a game where you travel back
and forth through time in an effort to correct changes in history
which you are accused of causing in the first place! Complicated
stuff.

The follow-up to Ecstatica, Urban Decay, will, like the original,
have a voluntary age certificate because of the violence in it. It
is set in modern times and features guns rather than swords.

The HP Lovecraft-inspired Prisoner of Ice is loosely based on the
story Mountains of Madness. It is a point and click adventure with
excellent graphics and a good plot but is, evidently, fairly
linear with a bad case of 'hunt the pixel' and too many vague "you
can't do that" messages.

The Orion Conspiracy is also a point and click adventure but fares
rather better though it needs at least a 486 with 8 meg of RAM. It
has a very powerful storyline with a dark SF background with a
mysterious death and the machinations of a large corporation, and
adult themes such as racism and sex.

Bladerunner fans will be pleased to hear that a game is on its way
which is based on the film. It isn't due until 1996 but is being
programmed by Westwood Studios so it should be of high quality.

For a change, you play a vampire in Vampire : The Masquerade, from
GT which is an interactive movie game based on an RPG from White
Wolf.

Big name stars are being roped in for voice-overs for a cartoon
adventures from Virgin called Toonstruck which is due later this
year. Some of the actors who are taking part are Tim Curry (one of
my favourites!), Dom DeLuise, Christopher Lloyd and David Ogden
Steirs (Winchester from M*A*S*H).

Youngsters with dreams of power can have their own small empire of
sorts with SimTown which is available on CD. A simpler affair
than its big brother SimCity, it features larger graphics and a
degree of personalisation in terms of the people and places in the
simulation. The player can even choose the colour of the Sims'
clothes, favourite food and sad or happy saying. The usual
economic factors still have to be taken into account and
controlled; it isn't all light-hearted fun.

The Magic Carpet data disk, Hidden Worlds, is already out on CD
featuring 25 extra, harder levels and 10 multi-player levels, new
features, an ice age setting and new and more powerful spells.
RRP œ19.99. Meanwhile Magic Carpet II will be out later in the
year and will be entitled The Netherworlds. This will have
night-time levels, new enemies, more spells and more complex
missions.

Rebel Assault 2 is being worked on by LucasArts for later release.
The graphics will be more detailed than the first game.
Incidentally, LucasArts' The Dig is _still_ in development and now
scheduled for an autumn release.

On the bargain front, here are some recent releases - Shadowcaster
(Hit Squad, œ14.99), Three Worlds of AD&D consisting of Ravenloft
Strahd's Possession, Dark Sun Shattered Lands and Al-Qadim The
Genie's Curse (Mindscape, œ39.99), Bloodnet and Megarace (Telstar,
œ34.99) and Syndicate and UFO (Telstar, œ34.99).






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