News

The team at Adventuresoft who brought us the hilarious Simon the
Sorcerer and Simon the Sorcerer 2 have released a new Windows 95
CD-based graphic adventure, The Feeble Files. You are a
downtrodden Grenelon called Feeble, living on a planet a long way
from Earth. Your planet is run by a god-like creature, the
OmniBrain, who keeps the populous under control using happy pills.
During the course of the game, you will have to overthrow the
OmniBrain and his minions. Your helpers are Delores, a
revolutionary and SAM, a psychopathic robot killing machine. The
voice-overs sound impressive, two of them being performed by Peter
Tuddenham of Blake's 7 and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten from Red
Dwarf.) The graphics have been produced on Silicon Graphics
computers and the game, RRP œ29.99, has taken 2 years to produce.
Incidentally, the third Simon game is being worked on as you read
this and will be released early in 1998.

ReadySoft Inc have released a follow up to 1994's Robinson's
Requiem - the game where you amputate your own limb! Survival is
once more the name of the game as you hunt down some characters
called the New Crusaders on an alien world. Once again, the health
aspects of the game take over from the gameplay - there are 22
health-related ways to die including hypothermia and high blood
pressure. On the plus side, there is a large gaming area and good
enemy AI.

There are lots of new games in the pipeline, many of which were
previewed at the third annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)
in Atlanta in June. Here are brief details of a few:

Overseer from Access will be the next episode in the continuing
adventures of Tex Murphy and is a prequel to the Pandora
Directive, taking place 6 years previously. I'm looking forward to
Zork:Grand Inquisitor from Activision and Wheel of Time from
Legend/Epic MegaGames, based on the books by Robert Jordan though
it IS described as a 3D adventure and uses the same engine as
Unreal. X-Files fans won't have to wait too long, they hope, for
X-Files:Unrestricted Access, coming from Fox Interactive (how
appropriate!) and featuring FMV in a website environment for part
of the game. Still on familiar themes, the third Interplay Star
Trek game will be Star Trek:Secret of Vulcan Fury; the storyline
is written by D C Fontana and should should be true to the Star
Trek universe. Another sequel due soon is Dragon Lore II from
Interplay; having been made a Dragon Knight in the first game,
Werner must now find himself a dragon! Further adventures on the
way include Enigma from Koei, SirTech's Armed and Delirious,
Journeyman Project 3 from Red Orb Entertainment and Sierra's
King's Quest VIII:Mask of Eternity and Quest for Glory:Dragon Fire
(though these series have now also gone to a 3D engine)

Battlespire is an action-RPG set in the Elder Scrolls universe and
also in the same setting, Elder Scrolls:Redguard will be more
action orientated. Deathtrap Dungeon from Eidos based on Ian
Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books, will also be an action RPG
using a 3D third person view. Eidos have another similar game
coming out called Forsaken. You can also look out for Fallout from
Interplay, a post-nuclear holocaust RPG, Wizardry VIII, and Might
and Magic VI, Mandate of Heaven. What HAS happened to Lands of
Lore II? Answers on a postcard, please.

Acclaim's Constructor is similar in many ways to SimCity being a
city-wide strategy game. Maxis haven't been idle; apart from
SimCity 3000, they also have SimSafari on the way and Tycho
Rising, a space colony sim.

Sierra have several new games coming soon including Half Life, a
Quake clone which uses the same engine. Hexen II is on its way
from Activision and also will use the Quake engine, featuring 30
levels of blood and guts (no doubt). They are also releasing Sin
which, guess what?, uses the Quake engine. Also from Activision,
Quake II will use the new Quake Unified Engine to stay one jump
ahead of the imitators, and will also feature improved AI.

Finally some tentative release dates - Monkey Island 3 should be
out this month, as should Populous 3. SimCity 3000 which should
have been out in September has been put off until after Christmas.
Tomb Raider 2, Earthsiege 3 and Quake 2 should hit the shelves in
November. In January 98 we will be able to buy Star Trek:First

Contact while February brings Ultima IX and March heralds the
release of X-Files.

















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