Top Ten Adventures @~To register your votes, just send in your choices, number them @~1st to 10th and preferably give brief comments on why you voted @~for each game. 10 points are awarded for 1st place down to 1 @~point for 10th place. ------------------------------------------------------------------ James Judge's New Top Ten A new year, a new top ten. Some things come and go, but some things stay the same - like my top three games (more or less). I thought I had better revise the revised revision of my original revision of my first top ten. For me 1995 was a terrible year for games - I saw no games that grabbed my attention and said 'buy me, buy me' so 1995, for me, was the year of shareware, and even those offerings were poor in contrast to what had gone before. So, apart from a couple of changes the games in this new top ten are more or less the same as last year for me. Only one shareware games gets a mention, the rest being a collection of old and new games that have continually graced my screens during this year of discontent. But still, this year seems to offer slightly more hope than last year produced. Great games are set to come out such as Descent 2, Quake, Return to Krondor, Civilisation 2 and Dungeon Keeper and there are a couple from the end of last year that I have yet to see (Command & Conquer and Duke Nukem 3D being a couple). So, if deadlines are met then this year seems to offer far more in the way of playability for your cash than last year ever did. On with the top ten in traditional reverse order. 10) Multi-Dimensional Thief - (TGC version) - Joel Finch This game is the only shareware game in this top ten. I've included it because it is a damn fine example of what is possible with a bit of time, some talent, a funky games creator and oodles of humour. With SVGA graphics, a good parser and nice puzzles this game is the best text adventure I have seen for quite a while. 9) Bloodwych - Image Works Yes, it's still there. Why? Because it's my homage to the best RPG for the ST and a game that has kept me happy for many weeks. The innovative two player mode is also good. Yes, it has decrepit graphics, yup the sound is poor and it is based around a familiar formula, but it was one of the first 1st person games to include character-monster interactions and trading and also had atmosphere to die for. This'll probably be the last time you see it in my top ten, so wave a fond farewell to it... 8) Simon The Sorcerer Point 'n' clicks are the poor man's text adventure. Well, that's what I thought before I got a CD-ROM. This game was extremely easy and over in a few brief hours, but it was the first graphic adventure that I had seen with full speech and I loved it. The game had a wicked sense of humour and Chris Barrie's voice was the perfect complement to the tone of the game. The graphics were good too - they may look a little dated now, being in standard VGA, when compared to some of the latest releases but this suits me fine as the game was 100% cartoon. Can't wait to get my mitts on STS2... 7) Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession - US Gold This game has been a little bit of an enigma for me. After playing it nearly constantly for a few days after I first received it I left the game to do some important stuff in the real world. When I came back to it Alex's solution was floating around and so I had a quick shufty at it and saw that he mentioned a number of things that I had not come across. Feeling extremely annoyed with US Gold and their beta testing methods I instantly gave up the game for being fatally bugged (I had come across a number of smaller bugs). Now Brian B. has told me that those parts missing should be missing on my version. Wow! I've now re-installed the game and am plugging away trying to get up to where I was last time (so close to the finish...). The game is very large and has great graphics - a really good attempt by SSI for their first Ultima Underworld style RPG. Interesting plot which continues to unfold and lots of little subquests packed into a relatively small area. Great fun for the RPGers amongst us. 6) Colonisation - MicroProse I eagerly awaited getting this game as it had the revered name of Sid Meier attached to it. Unfortunately it came to pass that he only put his name to the game and someone else developed it. Still, never mind that - it's still darned good. For anyone who has played Civilisation will be instantly at home in this game, here you must take a few settlers from mainland Europe and colonise America, taking care not to kill too many Native Americans, setting up trading routes between your individual towns and the home country, waging war with fellow Europeans (over beef imports and fishing quotas no doubt, not to mention single currencies and metric systems), finally declaring independence from your home country and facing the full wrath of the imperial armies. A very in-depth game that can get lightly monotonous if you're not 100% into it, that's why it didn't appear any higher. Still, a very good game that will keep me killing Indians for many months to come. 5) Ultima Underworld 2 - Origin The follow up to the first fully 3D RPG, and what a game. With great graphics, cool sounds and brilliant attention to detail the sprawling levels and continually unfolding plot puts this head and shoulders above all of the other Ultima releases. One day I shall complete it, one day... 4)Descent - Interplay Having seen this on a friends P120 I died and couldn't play this for ages on my lowly 486. Still haven't completed it but it's damned good. Doom but in complete 3D and claustrophobic mines and laser. Cooo-oool! 3) Doom/Doom 2 - iD Software Thanks to Doom 2 I've had a resurge of interest where these two games are concerned and have found loads of new and interesting WAD files with which to adulterate the two games. Doom 2 is definitely the superior with the introduction of a new weapon and levels that are nearly impossible, but that's how I like it - me, my shotgun and a few shells against the untold forces of hell all of whom have one thing on their mind - causing me as much pain as possible in as many interesting ways as possible. Oh, and I get to save the human race as well. Roll on Quake! 2) Betrayal At Krondor - Dynamix Since my last top ten I have actually completed this game, which was something of an anti-climax, but still a great game that has all the ingredients for a really detailed, in depth RPG that is more plot-oriented than monster-slashing (which makes a very nice break from the majority of RPGs). Because of its heavy links with the best books of all time (the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist - get 'em if you can, you don't know what you're missing. The first book is called Magician) I am slightly biased about this game and if it weren't for this familiarity with the plot, the characters and the world UU2 would probably be in this place. Poor graphics and small nuisances where the control system is concerned are more than made up for by the difficult riddles and excellent plot which keeps on going right up until the last dungeon, where it peters out. Still, top notch stuff that should be played by everyone - the government should make it law! 1) Dungeon Master No, only joking. 1) Civilisation - MicroProse What can I say? This is the first strategy game which popularised the turn-based, grid style game which had once been the area of people who wore anoraks (orange with the yellow pull-cord around the hood), black thick-rimmed glasses and carried thermoses around with them while quoting loads of technical info about the firing distance of the Mark 12 Viper missile which can be found on.... Yes, you get the picture. Civilisation is great, Civilisation is God. Ignore the graphics, ignore the sound - just look at the game play. Look at the one hundred and one things that you can do, look at the completely random levels, look at the host of things that you can build and create. Look at the dim but difficult to beat opponents who'll give you just as good a run for your money as the most devious human opponent. Just look and you will see that Civilisation offers far more gameplay than any other game I have seen. With Civilisation for Windows out (the same but with a better interface and graphics) and CiviNet (yup, play the game against human, let me say that again, HUMAN opponents) this game looks to last, and last it has. Civilisation 2 is just around the corner and even the thought of that starts me quivering. Well, that's it for this time. I'd just like to mention a couple of shareware games which I have seen over the past year which, while in no way standing up to the commercial offerings, have provided just a little bit of entertainment for me late at night. The first is Deathwatch 1, an RPG; Brick Layer, the best Tetris clone yet to be installed in Windows; and Inner Space, a great little shoot-em-up which has you zooming around your hard disk, blowing up your programs. Oh, and one last honourable mention is Lemmings 2, which is now, against all odds (and much to my surprise) available for the ST! @~Hehe .... the annual Lems2 comment - will I ever live it down? @~Probably not ... Sue ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~The Top Ten for 1996 is, so far: 18 pts Civilisation 16 pts Ultima Underworld II 10 pts Dungeon Master, Sentinel 9 pts Chaos Strikes Back, Day of the Tentacle, Aliens, Betrayal at Krondor, Descent 8 pts Doom/Doom2, Dungeon Master 2, Guild of Thieves 7 pts Ravenloft 2: The Stone Prophet, Lurking Horror, Jet Set Willy 6 pts Ishar 2, Elite, Frontier:Elite 2 5 pts System Shock, Secret of Monkey Island, Nord and Bert, Colonization 4 pts Ultima 8: Pagan, Populous, Lords of Midnight, Ravenloft 1:Strahd's Possession 3 pts Little Big Adventure, Lands of Lore, Wolfenstein 3D, Simon the Sorcerer 2 pts Bloodwych, UFO:Enemy Unknown, Sim City 1 pt Multi-dimensional Thief, Death Gate, Captive, Emerald Isle @~Votes so far by Alex van Kaam, Laura Duncan, Adrian Sill and @~James Judge. - o -