@~This issue's "Something Different..." is a two parter as JJ
@~looks at Carmageddon and the add-on 'splat pack'.

1.....................Carmageddon - SCI

             Reviewed by James Judge on a P120

It's the future. Again. Yet another post-apocalyptic vision of
what might be if someone presses the big red "Do Not Press" button
on the nuclear control panel. But this has a slight twist.  Nearly
everyone has turned into zombies, and the best way that the
surviving authorities can cull the growing population of
Neighbours watchers (ie the Zombies) is to organise races where
the winners are awarded cold, hard cash for competing over
ninety-nine circuits and killing as many zombies as possible.

There are no rules, no time limits, and the racers don't even have
to complete the race course to win - they can just eliminate all
the zombies, or all of their opponents to prove their dominance on
any circuit.

Well, that's one version of 'story' behind this great game. The
other is that we're still in the future and a corporation has
decided to run some barbaric races with the winner of each race
being the last to survive. The races are held in highly populated
areas, and civilian casualties are immaterial - in fact, they are
rewarded with money!!

However, this second version was withdrawn after the BBFC decided
that it was just too violent to have the player rushing through
cities, mowing down cattle, beach babes and old grannies in
pursuit of glory, so they refused to grant it a license, unless
the story was changed to the first and the real people were
replaced by zombies, and the blood was changed from red to green.
This is all just in case someone tries to recreate the events
shown in the game, you understand <sarcasm>. Still, let's forget
about the censorship issues here, and concentrate on what is a
great game - no matter what colour palette you are using (you can
get a patch that will restore the game to its pre-censored form).

As you may have guessed by now, Carmageddon is a racing game, but
one with a small difference. How many times have you played a
racing game and wanted to just crash into the opponents and see
them take damage, and finally become incapacitated, so they are
unable to race? How many times have you lusted to take a quick
detour, and mow through the reams of helpless bystanders,
spreading their entrails from one side of the road to the other?
Have you ever felt the urge to go off-road and chase some cows
through fields, honking your horn and whipping them into a frenzy,
before mowing them down in droves? Have you ever needed to perform
death-defying stunts like flying from the roof of a skyscraper at
300mph, in the hope that you survive?

If you answered yes to any or all of those, then Carmageddon is
the game for you.

While it has an engine similar to most of the racing games you'll
find these days (ie full 3D, rotatable views etc.) the way of
winning races is vastly different. Instead of being given, say, 30
seconds to proceed to the next checkpoint, with a further 30secs
added to your remaining time to reach the next checkpoint and so
on until you complete the course, you now have a few different
ways to go about your game. And they are all pretty violent.

The first is to do the checkpoint dash - complete a set number of
laps before your time expires. However, time isn't awarded for
reaching a checkpoint, so must be picked up in either bonus
barrels littered around the or gained by killing the hundreds of
pedestrians on each level, or by smashing into your opponents and
causing their cars damage. Depending on the difficulty level you
have selected and the way you carry out the maiming, depends on
how much you are awarded, so for more inventive driving and
killing, you are awarded more time and more money. Once you have
amassed enough time, you can then go on to complete the requisite
laps.

The second way of completing a course is to run over all the
pedestrians (which includes cows). Once all the pedestrians are
disposed of (and they normally number in the seven hundreds per
level) you get to go onto the next course.  Understandably, this
is the more controversial way of ending a level, and is what has
caused the licensing problems for SCI. Even with the green blood
version, you get screams coming from the pedestrians while you
chase them down, and then large sprays of gore as you run over
them. Look back at the body and you'll see it lying in a pool of
blood and intestines. Run over the body and you'll leave bloody
tyre marks for a while. It sounds terribly violent and sick, and
it probably is. But as long as you realise that it is just a
computer game, and appreciate the violence in a cartoony way ("Bet
that smarts...") then there is nothing insidious about a game
which depicts the death of hundreds of people every game in a
graphic way.

The final way to complete a race is to destroy your five opponents
by smashing into their cars and pushing them over cliffs etc. This
is the standard way of doing it, and is the more fun.

All three ways are available to you at any time, so if halfway
through a race you get tired of opponent trashing, then you can

try and hunt down the peds, or complete the requisite number of
laps.

Graphically this game is top-notch. It runs at a decent rate in
low-res mode and in full screen on the P120 and even the high-res
mode runs OK in a smaller window (two-thirds of the screen).
However, to get the best from the game you'll need at least 24megs
of RAM and a 3D card. Then it is as smooth as a baby's proverbial
and looks VERY good. But even without a 3D card, you can still
enjoy most of the graphical options such as tyre tracks and smoke
from harsh braking, sparking from collisions and lots of little
added touches too.

Soundwise, you've got your standard racing noises - vroom, vroom,
squealing of brakes and the squelch of cows as they go under the
bumper. But the soundtrack is something that needs mentioning and
encouraging. Instead of some in-house produced plinkety-plink tune
widdling away in the background you've got commercial artists
producing thumping hard-rock and drum'n'bass tunes which
complement the frenetic on-screen action to a tee. Admittedly, it
isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I was pleasantly surprised to
find one of more favourite bands chugging away in the background
when I first loaded it up (Fear Factory, for those interested).

Controlling your car is a simple matter of four directional keys,
a handbrake, a key to enable wheel-spin and, most importantly, a
key to sound your horn (which is pretty feeble and, in my opinion,
needs beefing up). Everything is fully customisable, and you can
set up to three alternate layouts, if other family members or
friends regularly play too.

On the longevity stakes, Carmageddon does well too. You have two
cars to choose from to start with, but soon more will be available
too as you incapacitate them in-game and are able to use them in
subsequent races. Also during the game you'll get the chance to
upgrade your vehicle, adding a more powerful engine, better armour
or destructive capabilities.  Then you've got your three
difficulty levels, not to mention the different ways in which to
complete each race. Following that you've got the fact that each
map you play on is huge, meaning that you can spend a great deal
of time just looking around, trying to find the hidden bonuses
etc. that will make your gaming life a lot easier. Then there are
the 36 levels over which the carnage takes place - admittedly some
of the maps are revisited, but there is enough difference in
pedestrian and bonus placement (not to mention the AI of the
computer opponents will be better the second time round) to make
this immaterial.

Finally the game is fully networkable over a LAN and is well worth
the effort, especially to play some of the multiplayer-only
levels such as Sumo or Colloseum.

To sum up. If you fancy a mindless game that will take a great
degree of skill to master, then Carmageddon is the perfect game.
It's refreshing to see a new design team (Stainless Software)
producing such a competent piece of software for their first
effort. The only reasons why you won't like this game are that
racing/arcade games aren't your chosen poison, or your morals are
so high that the very nature of the game will cause you offence.

Luckily I love arcade games and have no morals, so this was a
brilliant investment for myself.

2..............Carmageddon: Splat Pack - SCI

             Reviewed by James Judge on a P120

Rejoice one and all!! The BBFC's ruling has been reversed and
Carmageddon can now be sold with real-life pedestrians intact and
red blood splashed around as much as you like.

Still, that has no relation to this expansion pack for
Carmageddon, other than upon installation, your original game will
be re-instated to its intended colour palette.

This pack is, in reality, exactly the same game as the original,
but with 36 races on completely different tracks. For the
Carmageddon fan this will be more than enough to fork out œ15 for.
However, there's more. Oh yes, there's lots more.

Along with all the original cars (most of which have been given a
far better 3D model to play with) you now get fifteen new
opponents, who range from the small and quick Mike O'Cane (who
drives a Mini Cooper a la Italian Job) to the huge and deadly
Mother Trucker (who drives a truck similar to that in the
Spielberg film Duel) with lots of variation in between. They also
seem to have more distinct personalities than the original racers
from the first game.

Added to that you've got a huge range of new pedestrians to mow
down, from sheep through to priests and gigolos. There are also
new soundbites, so go and harass a granny and you'll hear the
plaintive cry "I was in the war!!". Excellent!

The other major change is the graphics. There is now the official
3DFX patch which will also work with the first game but needs
24megs to run. However, this is well worth the efforts as the
results are outstanding!!


Even without a 3DFX card, the graphics are greatly improved from
the original. All the cars and scenery are far more detailed with
loads of new polygons and textures, but now we've also got
see-through water and smoke, which adds a certain class to the
game without having to fork out for extra memory ad a new 3D card.
There is a slight degradation in frame rate, but after a few
minutes this is barely noticeable and you can just enjoy the new
eye candy that is presented to you.

And that's it, basically. You'll need at least another 40megs of
HDD space to install the game, on top of your original Carmageddon
installation, but other than that the requirements are the same.

If you liked the first game, you'll love this. The new levels are
slightly harder than the first selection, and require more skilful
driving, instead of being able to go the quickest. The new
opponents also require greater thought in their destruction -
especially the big ones like Mother Trucker and the guy who drives
the Big Foot. Oh-er scary!!
                              - o -