I've Still Got A Friend!!! - Part 2

                       by James Judge

@~Concluded from last issue

6) Quake - iD (œ15 now!!!!)

Heh, heh, heh. Heh. Heh, heh, heh. Heh, heh.

Says it all really. This is my favourite game for multiplayer
anarchy. Many hours have I spent fragging and being fragged. Then
fragging some more. The idea with this game is exactly the same as
Doom et al, but is made so much better because of the inherent
beauty of the Quake engine.  Now up to 16 player can play at once,
and if you want to see some scary examples of obsession, take a
look at the Internet Quake Clan sites where it seems people live,
eat, breathe and excrete this game every waking second.  Linking
up is simplicity itself as once a stable network has been created
Quake does everything else for you. All you have to do is select
someone to host a game, give yourself a name and dress colours and
then head out for full-on anarchy.

You can play on any of the single-player levels, or the single
multi-player level included in the Quake package. However, far
more satisfying is digging out a few cover CDs and using some of
their multi-player levels which are perfectly tailored for the
maximum killing ability.

What also comes into its own are all the PD patches you can get
which will give you interesting weapons and abilities - firing a
guided missile in a single player game of Quake is moderately fun.
Chasing your best friend with one through an entire level, all the
while he is screaming his head off beside you is hilarious -
especially if you miss, for some strange reason.

I could go on for hours about all the different patches, levels
and what-not that are available and how they'll make the game more
fun. Instead I'll just say suck it and see. Watch out, though, as
collecting maps and patches can get to stupid heights - once we
all met up and my two other cohorts had removed the Quake folders
from their HDD, so I told them to take a copy of my folder. Little
did I realise my version of Quake had swollen to about 700megs
what with patches etc!  Still, now it's down to a more manageable
95megs.

As with Doom, you can each take a copy from one CD and play
without the little silver disc. However, the legality of this is
highly dubious and this reviewer by no means condones this, or
even admits to having done it himself. No sir!

7) Red Alert - Westwood (œ35 still)

Along with Quake this is the other seminal must-play multiplayer
game. Linking up through Win 95 is a breeze, but this is the game
that we've had the most stability problems with - some sessions
the regularity of crashes has been preposterous, resulting in an
extended Quake session instead. It isn't too bad when a player
disappears, however when the host's computer decides to die, then
the whole game must be rebooted.

The multiplayer version of the game is exactly the same as the
Skirmish option available in single player mode. You must build
your base and army up on a multiplayer map and destroy all other
factions as quickly as possible.

You can alter the tech level on each map, so you can fight with
just infantry or go to the other extreme of all tech being
available (and this is the best way to play as it creates more
tactical opportunities). You can alter the number of starting
units and credits as well as how many AI players will be joining
the human players. But be warned - the computer AI is notoriously
difficult to compete with. We all seem to get wiped out straight
away by this added opponent (and you can have up to eight of the
blasted things running!) without even getting a chance to trade
fire with one another. However, Mongoose seems to have no problems
in this area, so maybe we're just being dumb.

Red Alert really blossoms in the multiplayer environment and games
can soon last for hours on end, depending on how well you and your
opponents are matched skills wise. My little networking group are
all of the same ability (more or less) so battles are wonderfully
long and intriguing, but if someone does develop a new tactic then
that is quickly assimilated and used by all others (or protected
against) in subsequent games, making it more and more involved.

The different maps available also define the length and type of
battle and many more can be picked up on the Internet.

Easily the best multiplayer strategy game out there, as they are
like a good pair of old, broken in boots that keep leading you
down different paths before you even know it. Excellence at work
(and our crashing problems seem to be less frequent since someone
has returned to using an Intel processor instead of a Cyrix and
someone else has changed their computer completely).

Everyone needs a CD to load up their level, however as you get two
disks in the Red Alert package, then that helps. Also you are
given about a minute before the level starts, so you can load two
computers from one disk if you are quick enough. And if you're
really quick (and lucky!) then three computers can use the same
disk, but we've only managed that once... Owners of any of the
add-on disks can also use those to load multiplayer games, so that
frees up the original two disks and... well, you get the idea.

8) Total Annihilation - Cavedog (œlots, but probably about œ35)

Just to be completely honest up front - I don't own this game and
have only played it a couple of times multiplayer.  Therefore, the
fact that I was playing against two people who owned the game and
gave me a good drubbing within the first five minutes may just
skew my opinion of this damned game.

We had a few problems getting the game up and running through Win
95, but that was mainly due to one of the three people using a
different version than the others (they had loaded in some patches
from the Internet, giving their game a different version number).

For the five minutes that I played the game it was very good. I
managed to make at least two units before my base was decimated.
After that I just sent my Commander up to someone's base (I don't
even now whose it was!) and let him get destroyed, wiping out at
least one of their structures.  Hmmmmn, maybe I need a bit of
practice.

However, watching and learning from the two masters at work, I
could quickly see that this game easily offers the same level of
depth that Red Alert does in multiplayer games and with the better
graphics and greater variety of troops it seems that, as with Red
Alert, this is a game that will just keep getting better with age.

Copies can be spawned from the original CDs, and, as with Diablo,
this is an "OK thang" in the eyes of the distributor.  Cool.

Read Alex's review for the full story on this game, but the
multiplayer part works well, and I was very impressed with the
unfolding battle that I was watching after my five minutes of
doom. Again, another game that can take ages to play with human
opponents.

9) Syndicate Wars - Bullfrog (about œ12 methinks)

Anyone remember Gauntlet? Good. Imagine that in full 3D with loads
of big-explosion weapons and innocents running down the road on
fire. That's Syndicate Wars multiplayer in a nutshell.

Having played the singleplayer game avidly, I was looking forward
to a multiplayer thrash at it, but after finally getting my wish I
was greatly disappointed.

You still take on four agents who can be kitted out with any of
the tech in the game (the actual weapon selection for each agent
is the same for each player and is decided on by the host of the
game. This means that everyone knows what weapons they will be
facing) and control them in one of the cities around the world.
But now, instead of fighting against your opposite faction (the
Church if you were playing with the Syndicate, for example) you
now take on your human opponents as well as an undefined number of
computer controlled teams, all of whom are deadly in the extreme
and really get in the way of a good multiplayer bash.

The game is definitely fast-paced, but due to the size of levels,
it is quite common for a single team having to trudge all the way
across town to meet some opposition. Then the nature of things is
for everything to explode, one team getting decimated and the
other team partially (earning their controller a point) who are
then picked off by the computer teams (thus losing that
hard-fought point instantly).

If the computer teams weren't there and you could stop yourself
from using the most powerful weapons there, then a half-decent
game could be had by one and all. But what with human nature being
what it is and the presence of the computer AI the multiplayer
aspect of this game is a huge disappointment.

10) Warcraft 2 - Blizzard (œdunno)

This is one game that I've played quite a bit multiplayer but
never on my own. Strange. Still, copies are spawnable from the
original CD and this is the preferred and recommended way of doing
it. Cool!  Like Red Alert and TA, this is a great game multiplayer
but with wizards and warlocks this time round.

Even tough it looks slightly more dated than either of the others,
it is still a very worthwhile game, even for the humour prevalent
in everything you do.

The only downside is the limited number of units, so you must keep
inventing some new tactics to stop the game from becoming boring
and repetitive.

Setup is easy and there were no stability problems, so if you
prefer wizards to tanks, then this might be the multiplayer
tactical gaming experience you've always been waiting for. It dead
good fun. Yes mi'lud!

THE END

So, that is it for now. The ten games that are worthwhile getting
your mitts on for multiplayer action. Undoubtedly Quake and Red
Alert are the best two, and if you want to emigrate to America and
start playing in the PGLA, then you might even make some money out
of it. However, Total Annihilation looks as if it will grow into a
Red Alert toppler (once I've figured out how to last more than
five minutes and two units down the road) and Warcraft 2 is
definitely worth a go, especially as you only need one CD to get a
game going.

For those of you out there without the patience to sit through a
few hours of tactical fisticuffs, then Quake is on the top of the
quick and violent games pile, with Carmageddon a close second.
However, Descent, even though it is almost as old as Quake, is
still worth a look.

Yeah, I reckon with those five games you and some friends can
quite easily have many hours of fun becoming the most bitter of
enemies.


                              - o -