X-Wing Alliance review Taking the PC by Force OrngOFlMANDUTERmiffi GENERAL (8 YEARS & OVER) LOW LEVEL ANIMATED VIOLENCE www.lucasarts.com/products/alliance • www.starwars.com Exclusively manufactured and distributed by Metro Games • www.metrogames.com.au © Lucasfilm Ltd A TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorisation. AND UNLESS YOU REACH THE FINAL \ A rival family imposes peril on /I'UjinB \ the future of your livelihood. - ^ The evil Empire’s presence , is looming. Your only hope for survival is to join the Rebel Alliance in epic Star Wars conflicts. As full-scale galactic battles begin, you will be called upon to command Rebel starfighters, including X-wings and other new spacecraft. You and up to seven other Rebel players will clash with BATTLE, IT WILL STAY THAT WAY. Imperial fighters in spectacular 3D missions. Finally, if you’re worthy, you will find yourself in the cockpit of the legendary Millennium Falcon, flying against the massive Imperial fleet in the climactic Battle of Endor. Ultimately, it will be your agility, resolve and combat skills in these maneuvers that will determine your destiny. Not to mention, the fate of the entire galaxy. Well, the ccn&cle that there has been 60 much speculation about has tinally taken some sort ot form,.. Sony have announced the hard- ware specs for their next console "^PlayStation 2 ” or whatever ifs scing to be called. When I wrote the System Wars tea- ture, I spent a lot of time laughing at the tact the Dreamcast outperformed the PlayStation in terms of 3D capabilities by 2000%... and now we"re looking at a con¬ sole that Sony claim will be able to push around 6 to 7 times the amount of poly¬ gons as the Dreamcast! rm going to sound like a bit of a cynic here, butl"m a little sceptical about Sony's next console coming out on time if it is like they say it is. The "graphics synthesiser" is supposed to use 0.18 micron technology.,, which no one has managed to produce before. N€C, one of the leading chip man¬ ufacturers have been trying, with millions upon millions spent on the research and development, so the question is, where's the genie that Sony are using to magic up all this unbelievable hardware in time for a Japanese launch by March next year, at an affordable price? It doesn't add up. We have seen some video sequences of "real time rendered" PSX2 graphics, and it looks like the polygon count was amaz¬ ing, but we noticed pixelisation that showed there was no mip mapping or smoothing, thus, no complete "graphics synthesiser", which do make my doubts about the system being Just like the announced specs quite Justified. Despite my cynicism, it should be noted that many said Sony would not be able to cut it with Sega and Nintendo when they decided to enter the home console mar¬ ket... and they went on to become the leader in this field on their first attempt. So maybe Sony will surprise me and will manage to produce the machine they've described. In fact. I'll be stoked if they do prove me wrong here, as it will mean that gaming technology is taking great leaps for¬ ward. On a completely different note, a big good¬ bye to Steve Scott, who wandered off early this issue. His contribution to improving Hyper's look was fantastic, and we miss him already. At the same time, a big hello to our new Art Director, Brooke. Au revoir till next month's rant. Dan 8 NEWS Sony’s next console - Tech specs announced! World Cup Cricket ’99 canned! Dreamcast Saturn Emulator confirmed, world's fastest super computer and more! 36 FEATURE - CLICHE Ever noticed that there are some things you can really count on in games? We put a bit of a list together to jog your memory. 14 WIN WIN WIN Copies of Cex: Deep Cover Gecko, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and a whole mess of copies of X-Wing Alliance to win, plus a special exclusive Star Wars poster. 18 PREVIEWS 24 EYE CANDY This month, updated images from Kingpin, Prey and Wheel of Time. 26 FEATURE - STOCKPILING A special preview at the extremely impressive lineup of software being brought to us by Microsoft 32 HARDWARE The Gamester PSX dual shock pad, Thrustmaster PC steering wheel. Monster Sound MX 300 and the Pentium III all go under the microscope. 48 REVIEWS 72 PLAYGUIDE Metal Gear Solid - PlayStation 82 MULTIPLAYER 84 ARCADE 85 ANIME 86 NET TRAWLING 87 RETROSPECT 88 CHEAT MODE 92 LETTERS 98 HYPERMART 70 ODDWORLD ADVENTURES NINTENDO 64 42 CASTLEYANIA 44 MARIO PARTY 64 ALPHA CENTAURI 70 DARK VENGEANCE 56 HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC 3 68 LINKS LS 99 68 MS GOLF 99 63 ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 58 STARSIEGE 66 WARZONE 2100 62 WORMS ARMAGEDDON 60 X WING ALLIANCE 46 GEX 3 UNDERCOVER GECKO 68 KENSEI 55 MONSTER SEED 69 POOL HUSTLER 70 PREMIER MANAGER NINETY NINE 69 SHANGHAI TRUE VALOR 54 STREET SK8ER 69 TIGER WOODS 99 48 WCW/NWO THUNDER CONTENTS 8 THE NEXT PLAYSTATION ANNOONCEO! In answer to Sega s Dreamcast, Sony have released the technical specifications of their new console, and if you thought the Dreamcast sounded powerful, wait till you see this! 72 METAL GEAH SOLIO Konami’s Metal Gear Solid can get quite tricky. Fortunately Kevin Cheung has finished the game sev¬ eral times through, and has the solutions for you. X-WING ALLIANCE ^ HEVIEW! LucasArts triumphant return to space combat shooters gets our seal of approval thanks to awesome multi¬ player action. 34 PENTINM III - THE MHST HAVE CPN?? What can you expect out of Intel’s latest CPU? Is it a must have for PC game fanatics? Initial reports sound promising. ISSUE Mai 1999 Publisher; Phillip Kair Editor; Dan Toose Art Director; Brooke-Star Elliott Deputy Editor; Eliot Fish Cover Art; Lucasarts AOVDLTlSilG National Sales Director; Steve Watson Senior Advertsing Manager: Julie Anne-Kwok Advertsing Manager; Aaron Young Advertising Assistant; Emma Beck Ph:D2 9699 0333 Fax: 02 9310 2012 Circulaton Manager: Melissa Doyle Group Accountant Theo Fatseas Subscriptions Enquiries | ph; 02 9699 0319 ! Fax; 02 9699 0334 email: subsCnext.com.au CONTRBLnORS: Kevin Cheung, Tim Levy, Cam Shea, Andrew Robertson. Ross Clarksmith, Singe Graham, Jackson Gothe-Snape, Glenn Merton, David Wildgoose Printed by; Offset Alpine Separations by; Prestige Colour Distribution by; Gordon & Gotch Customer Service Ph; 1300 65 0666 Fax 1300 65 0777 All copyrights reserved by Next Publishing Pty Ltd ACN 002 647 645 ISSN 1320-7458 WnHTE TO HYPBU 78 Renwick St Redfern, NSW 2016 Fax; (02) 93101315 E-mail: freaksceneCnext.com.au 6 »HYPER NEWS THE NEXT PLAYSTATION ANNOUNCED!! After something like a year’s worth of speculation and rumour, Sony have finally come clean on their still-untitled "PlayStation 2” at a games industry get- together in Tokyo, Japan. Surprisingly, half the rumours you heard about the next Sony console have turned out to be true! Before we even look at any of the specs for the machine, listen to this... PlayStation 2 will be fully 100% backwards compatible with all the current PlayStation games! Incredible. So while you’re waiting for new PlayStation 2 games to be released, you’ll be able to pop in your copy of Final Fantasy VIII and keep playing through on your new Sony console. It won’t accelerate your old games, but it will reproduce them faithfully. If that doesn’t thrill you, then pop in a DVD disc and watch a movie. Yes, the PSX2 will have full DVD capabilities and it will use MPEC2 image decompression technology allowing for complex image data for texture maps and background data which can be decompressed in read-time - basically this will mean for truly photo-realistic images in some games. Sony have announced a Japanese launch for the as-yet untitled next PlayStation for March 2000! However, we won’t be seeing the machine here until late in the year 2000. At the moment, everyone is simply wondering how much the console will cost, considering the incredible hardware inside it - which is said to even outperform Intel’s Pentium III in floating-point calculations. So what is the actual hardware like? Here are the offical specs released by Sony... CPU ■ 128 Bit ''Emotion Engine” S> 300 MHz Memory ■ Direct Rambus (Direct RDRAM) 32MB ■ Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2CB per Second Co-processor ■ -FPU (Floating Point Unit) ■ Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x i ■ Floating Point Divider x 1 ■ -Vector Units: VUo and VUi ■ Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 9 ■ Floating Point Divider x 3 ■ 3D CC Geometric Transformation: 66 Million Polygons per second ■ Compressed Image Decoder: MPEC2 Graphics Synthesizer ■ -Clock Frequency: 150MHz ■ DRAM Bus bandwidth: 48CB per Second ■ DRAM Bus width: 256obits ■ Pixel Configuration RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24-bit:8-bit:32-bit) ■ Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 Million Polygons per Second ■ Sound:"SPUz^CPU” ■ Number of Voices ADPCM: 48ch on SPU2 plus definable, software programmable voices ■ Sampling Frequency: 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz (selectable) Disc Device ■ CD-ROM and DVD-ROM lOP I/O Processor - to provide backwards compatibility ■ CPU: Core PlayStation (current) CPU ■ Clock Frequency: 33.8MHz or 37.5MHz (Selectable) ■ Sub Bus: 32-Bit ■ interface Types: IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus(USB) ■ Communication via PC-Card (PCMCIA) »HYPER NEWS Pretty impressive specs, eh? This hardware is reportedly capable of generatirig over i6 million polygons per second, with full lighting and effects (and around 66 million per second without effects), compared to the Dreamcast’s comparitively low 3 million per second with effects, the current PlayStation's reported 300.000 polygons per second, and the Nintendo 64’s 100,000 per second. Clearly a remarkable technological feat, which requires certain hardware (.18 micron) which hasn’t yet been built on a mass-scale as is needed for the production of a games console. Whilst you would imagine that most of the industry is shocked at how powerful the PlayStation 2 appears to be. Sega and Nintendo are both putting on a brave face. In fact, Howard Lincoln, head of Nintendo America has already confirmed that by the end of this year. Nintendo will announce the specs for the next Nintendo console. It’s a complete mystery as to what Nintendo will possibly build to compete with the PlayStation 2. so we’ll all be waiting eagerly to hear what they have to say around Christmas time, but they have confirmed that it will not use cartridges. Sega meanwhile have been fairly quiet, focusing on promoting the Dreamcast as the console to beat, though unbelievably rumours have already surfaced that they have initiated plans for a Dreamcast 2! We simply won’t believe that one until Sega themselves mention it. The next PlayStation may blow everything out of the water in terms of polygon-crunching hardware, but as we all know, it comes down to the games. Will the game developers have the know-how to exploit this killer hardware? More information soon... COMPETITION WINNERS Rejoice! For free games and goodies are yours! South Park Duane Jackson, Vic. Jon Kerney, Vic. Julian Austin, SA. Nicholas Webb, Old. Simon French, WA. Grandstream Saga Walter Bracey, NZ. Steve Milich, SA. Glen Wallace. NSW. Luke Cheung, NSW. Daniel Douglas, las. Tribes Luke Walsh, Vic. Michael Dean, ACT. William Sommer, Vic. Jacob Ranga, Qld. The Teaser, NSW. 00 www.southpeak.com DISTRIBUTED BY AdiVisioH. • Fast-paced, 30 arcade game featuring the off-the-wall humour of Pinky & the Brain • One to Eight Players • Tournament Play available • LAN and Internet Multiplayer options • 20 pre-designed mazes and countless others available through random maze generation • Build your own mazes with the included maze generator • 3 Types play: percentage of territory, timed play, tag/keep-away • Spectacular lights and sounds • Compatible with Gravis-type Joypad, or Keyboard/Mouse K>u if L it w,« s;ffy (MU ' ‘"'V'V I. -'“"t Wd- ■'• * “ YOU Should ^gry ®n •- --. WWW.armymen.com Company. All Rights Reserved. Army Men. Real Combat. Plastic Men., 3D0. and their respective logos, are trademarks or tered trademarks of The 3DO Company in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Directsott Pty Ltd holds the exclusive license to Arniy Men II in the territories of Australia and New Zealand PETT 990528 16 »HYPER MARCH SUBSCRIPTION WINNERS Prize: Shane Warne Cricket ‘99, Gunn & Moore bat and bail signed by Shane Warne. Winner: David Reeves, WA. Runners up who receive Shane Warne Cricket ‘99: Tim Power, NSW; Nathan Davies, NSW. Terms A Condtens: 1. Entry is open to al resklents off Austrate A New ZertsrxJ except eo^Joyees and the immedta«e (amies of Next Pubtehma and te agenaes sssocisled wi»h the efcgfale. 2. Conprtitwn begms 31 March, igQgandenlr>escloeeat6pm 12 May, 1999. 3. to deterrisn»>g efcgibdity the judge’s dedskxi Is final and no oorrespondenoe wi be entered into. 4. VVsTner wi be drawn at 9.00am on 1 June. 1990al Next PuWidwg Ply Ltd. 78 Renwick Street. Redfem NSW 2016.5 Praes must be taken as offered and are not redeemabts for caah. 7. Total prao value it $1908.96 and consists of let Priie: 1 1 Starwars/Hyper poster (valued at $100) A 1 * X-Wing Alliance (valued at $89.96). 20 rurmers up wi win 1 x copy of X-Wing Atence (v^uad at $89.95each). 8. Wxmers wi be notified by mail and reeulto pubhehed in Hyper on tale 30/6/99. The promoter ia Next PuWiehing Pty Ltd ACN 002 645 647 of 78 Renwick Street. Redfem, NSW. 2016. TP Pending INI WIN I IKE 8IINEI SHI WUS nSIll 8 l-NINE MUIIEi!! If you’re anything like us, you probably have at some stage shut your eyes, reached out with your hand and tried to use the Force to move the sait shaker across the kitchen table or fantasised about what you’d do if you had a iightsaber at school... well all you potential Jedi Knights now have the perfect reason to subscribe to Hyper this month - the chance to win a GIANT EXCLUSIVE 1 x 1.3 metre framed Star Wars poster (the same image as the front cover of this issue), signed by the creator of X*Wing Alliance, Larry Holland and the chief of LucasArts Jack Sorenson, PLUS a copy of the brilliant PC game itself - X-Wing Alliance - all thanks to Playcorp. If you’re not quite that strong with the Force to be able to influence that we draw your name first, you still have a chance to win one of TWENTY copies of X-Wing Alliance which we have to give away to some lucky people who subscribe this month. Remember that besides the chance to win these awesome prizes, you will also start to receive Hyper on time and without delay and CHEAPER than buying it any other way. Over 12 months you save 37% off the cover price and over 24 issues you save 44%! Get in this month for one of the coolest prizes we’ve ever had! HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Call US tollfree on 1300 36 1146 MoncJay to Friday 9am-6pm EST Fax a copy of the completed form, with credit card details, to: 02 9699 0334 Cut or copy the form and post it with a cheque or money order, or your credit card details, to: Hyper Subscriptions Reply Paid 634 , 78 Renwick St. Redfern, NSW 2016 check out our website at http://publishing.next. com.au/subs 1 Address I 1 Suburb State Postcode 1 Phone number Email Fill out this coupon and mail it to HYPER SUBSCRIPTIONS, Reply Paid 634,78 Renwick St. Redfern, NSW 2016 SUBSCRIBER DETAILS Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms: n (D O O PAYMENT DETAILS Enclosed is my cheque/money order, or debit my credit card for $79.95/$44.95 payable to Next Publishing Pty Ltd □ 2 years/24 issues ($79.95 saving 44%) □ 1 year/12 Issues ($44.95 saving 37%) □ Bankcard □ Mastercard □ Visa Expiry Date IK Signature PH: Allow 4/6 weeks for 1st delivery HYPER» 17 18 »HYPER PREVIEWS Discworld Noir PC/PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: MAY m CATEGORY: ADVENTURE £ PLAYERS: 1 ^ PUBLISHER: GT INTERACTIVE g Someone’s been playing Grim Fandango,* there’s no question about it. The world of Discworld has gone Noir, as in Film Noir, and introduced is a Humphrey Bogart-esque character named Lewton - a Private Investigator. Out on the streets of Ankh- Morpork, things are pretty seedy and Lewton is just about to stumble upon the case of his life thanks to a mysterious stranger named Carlotta who has just walked into his office. Although Terry Pratchett (the author of the Discworld books) had nothing to do with the story or characters in Discworld Noir (although he did "approve” the game), it looks to still follow along the same wacky lines as the two previous Discworld adventures, albiet with a darker tone. This is classic point and click adven¬ turing, and judging from the previous two Discworld games, Discworld Noir should provide adventure game fans with a few weeks worth of devious adventuring. There doesn’t seem to be anything groundbreaking with this title, just some good solid fun. Guardian Crusade PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: TBA CATEGORY: RPG PLAYERS: 1 PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION Final Fantasy VII has probably influenced a billion games that are released in Japan that never see the light of day here on western shores. Guardian Crusade (called Knight and Baby in lapan) is clearly one of these FFVII inspired RPGs that ruthlessly borrows all the seemingly brilliant elements of the game and reinvents it with it’s own characters. Even as obviously unoriginal as it may seem, there is every chance in the world that Guardian Crusade will turn out to be an extremely playable adventure, and there is the twist in the form of your side-kick Baby. Baby is a bizarre little creature who must be returned to his home by you the gallant Knight. Interestingly, Baby can actually evolve throughout the game as would a virtual pet, depending upon your actions and interactions with it. Replacing FFVII’s mate¬ ria and summons, are Living Toys, which can be sum¬ moned to fight along side you and essentially do the same thing as Materia in FFVII. Another good addition to the gameplay, is the fact that enemies can be seen on the world map, allowing you to avoid the turn-based combat if you so desire. Visually, the game is quite pret¬ ty, though I must say the character design is quite over- the-top and the music sounds like what is piped over the speakers in K-Mart. Could be quite special... PREVIEWS System Shock 2 PC AVAILABLE: TBA CATEGORY: RPG/FIRST-PERSON ACTION PLAYERS: 1 PUBLISHER: EA 1 The first System Shock was ahead of it’s time - a first person shooter which combined role-playing ele¬ ments and adventuring, but all in a sci-fi techy setting. It was so cool, that at least three of us here at Next Gaming thought it was one of the best PC games they’d ever played. Of course, we must wipe away the veil of nostaglia and look upon System Shock 2 with an objective eye. Obviously, the graphics are where System Shock 2 is immediately improved over it’s predecessor - accelerated 3D graphics, with an almost Half-Life like ambience. The engine was a bit slow, but the game is still very much in development, so things will hopefully improve there. The gameplay elements seemed to be identical to the original System Shock, even down to hitting mutants with pipes! All the great things about System Shock were here in spades, and it was obvious that there was so much more here than was immediately apparant - the role-playing side of things seems to have been made even more interesting. As you adventure, you can stop at training terminals and improve your psionic skills, or your strength or endurance - allowing you to become the sort of character you’d like over the course of the game. You also need a variety of cyber skills so you can hack secu¬ rity terminals and fight the evil computer brain control¬ ling your environment. In a way, System Shock 2 felt almost too similar to the original to provide any real excitement. But if it turns out even only two-thirds as good as the original, it’ll still be a must play. combat results in fire-fights with deadly weaponry or psionics, depending on how you’ve struc¬ tured your team, and whilst it’s all real-time everything is still man¬ ageable through the excellent dis¬ play system. Games can be joined at any time, much like most action games, and LAN pro¬ vides support for up to eight aspiring alien gangsters to duke it out for victory. Of course, if you desire there is always room for a bit of trading or diplomacy. Coming soon. Third World PC AVAILABLE: TBA CATEGORY: STRATEGY PLAYERS: 1-8 PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION Talk about whipping up a virtual slushy of^ game genres! Third world is part real-time strategy, part role-playing game, part tactical squad-level combat action and all within an isometric 3D world. The alien world you’re on is fast becoming a battle-ground for gangs of mutants, smugglers, androids, alien criminals and misfits and it’s up to you to assert your dominance over the lot of them! Putting together your own gang of up to five crazy characters (even customising how they look with a cool "facemaker” system), allows you to choose race, class and abilities much like an RPG - carefully keep¬ ing your gang well balanced between brain and brawn. As you win fights and climb your way up the ladder, your gang members learn new skills and develop more powerful technology, hopefully making your rise more swift than you anticipated. Whilst there is certainly a strong single-player experi¬ ence to be had here. Third World is very appealing as a multiplayer game - almost along the same lines as Diablo, it is always better with friends. The real-time HYPER» 19 20 »HYPER PREVIEWS Sega Rally 2_ DREAMCAST AVAILABLE: TBA CATEGORY: RACING PLAYERS: 1-TBA PUBLISHER: SEGA__ Sega Rally Championship is easily one of the most eagerly awaited Dreamcast titles on Western shores. Currently on sale in Japan, Sega Rally 2 has received a mixed reaction from the ever-growing Dreamcast fanbase - some love it. others feel it could have been that little bit better. We can assume Sega would have rushed the game’s development slightly to ensure it’s release near the Dreamcast’s launch, which could explain some inconsistencies in the guts of the game, but should they have held it back to tweak it even further? Clearly, for a home console racing game, Sega Rally 2 is excellent. Here’s what we thought when we put it through the Hyper testing lab procedure... The tracks are the same three from the arcade, with some console specific circuits... Desert, Riviera, Muddy, Snowy. Isle and Mountain, making for some challenging racing in a variety of conditions. Every track has a few different routes to be raced, varying in difficulty, so there’s plenty to see here - this is no simple arcade port. In fact, there’s a 10 PREVIEWS year championship which will test the patience of any hardcore driving game nut - no the game doesn’t literally last 10 years! Successfully coming first in each "year” awards you with a fancy new car to drive, so eventually you can boast a pretty impressive collection of wheels. The game doesn’t appear to be too easy either, so you’ll have to be persistent if you want to unlock everything Sega Rally 2 has to offer. Of course, the multiplayer options are quite exciting, allowing you to utilise the Dreamcast’s modem to get online and play other Sega Rally 2 owners, but we’ll have to wait and see how they incorporate this feature on Australian shores. Visually, the game goes from looking simply fantastic to appearing a little under-done. There’s virtually zero pop¬ up of distant objects, so that’s a major plus (pop-up is probably the greatest flaw in most racing games), but the frame-rate does tend to drop here and there and the odd glitch is apparant. The visuals seem to sway between a gor¬ geous 60 frames per second to a noticeably slower 30 frames per second in most corners, and complex areas of track. The different weather conditions look fantastic though, and generally atmospherics are very pretty indeed. Racing at night works remarkably well for instance, with your car’s headlights actually functioning in a realisitic and useful way - and damn it looks pretty. Sega Rally 2 really does give any PC racing game a run for it’s money, *^'and we’ll all be playing it towards the end of the year. HYPER» 21 22 »HYPER PREVIEWS World Driver Championship NINTENDO 64 AVAILABLE: JUNE CATEGORY: DRIVING PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: MIDWAY Yeah, just what the Nintendo 64 needs - another driving game! Well, as long as it’s really good, I’m sure we’ll all be happy to add it to our collection. World Driver Championship is being developed by the same team which brought us Top Gear Rally, and it’s looking a damn sight better than CT 64. In fact, this could turn out to be the Gran Turismo for the Nintendo console, considering how tasty this game looks so far. Visually, World Driver Championship will offer a high-resolution mode which doesn’t require the N64 Expansion pak, though the screen becomes letter-boxed with this option. There’s a possibility that the expansion pak will be support¬ ed, but we'll have to wait until June to find out. Around 30 cars should be selectable in the final game, with tracks from countries all over the world. As you successfully race a track, new sections of the track becomes unlocked, meaning that there are essentially going to be more than enough variation in terms of circuits to race - especially when you consider the implementation of a mirror mode too. If Midway can get this right, you may never need another N64 racing game ever. Syphon Filter_ PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: TBA CATEGORY: STEALTH/ACTION PLAYERS: 1 PUBLISHER: 989 STUDIOS Syphon Filter is the result of an American games company deciding they can make a game better than Metal Gear Solid. After playing the game for a while, it’s apparant that whilst Syphon Filter does not really deliver the same sort of engaging gaming experience as Metal Gear Solid, it still manages to entertain in it’s own brilliant way. As the secret agent Gabe Logan, gameplay involves marching around in a third-person perspective, performing a number of missions and using a bunch of cool gad¬ gets. For instance, one mission has you picking off snipers with your ultra-cool telescopic gunsight and then entering the buildings off the street and taking them out a bit more up close and personal. If you run out of bullets, you can always whip out your Taser and fry the baddies to a crisp, which is quite hilarious to watch. The interaction with the environ¬ ment is excellent, and there’s more to do here than in most action/adventures. The control system is kind of like Tomb Raider on steroids (what a scary thought) and Gabe can do just about anything you can think of, and more. There are moments of Mission Impossible and Metal Gear Solid style game- play here, but Syphon Filter is no re-hash of ideas - there’s lots of cool new ideas in here to get any PlayStation veteran a thrill. UPCOMING RELEASES The complete guide to what’s coming out over the next month here in Australia Hot stuff on the way... MAY Alien Resurrection Attack of the Saucer Men Castrol Honda Superbikes 2 Darkstone Diablo 2 ★ Expert Pool FA 18/E Super Hornet Hidden and Dangerous Jane's Reet Command Kingpin Might & Magic VII ★ Nascar 3 Nascar Shootout Quake 3 Arena ^ Red Baron Dogfight Shadow Company Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace Street Wars The Ravaging TNT Xtreme Drag Racing Wargamer: Napoleon 1813 'MAY Attack of the Saucer Men Diver's Dream G-Police 2 6TA London Le Mans NHRA Drag Racing Quake 2 R-Type Delta Rainbow Six Rogga Hub Trap Runner WWF Attitude MAY NHRA Drag Racing Quake 2 Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer Quake 3 Arena HYPER» 23 24 »HYPER EYE CANDY EYE CANDY Wheel of Time GT INTERACTIVE Based on the hugely popular series of books. Wheel of Time is an exciting mixture of strategy and First-Person action using the sexy Unreal engine. It was last year’s "pick of £3" for most industry-types, and will no doubt be a stunner this time around also. We’re kinding hoping it’ll be released before then though! GT NTERACT VE Another game lost in Development Hell. Prey was one of the most promis¬ ing FPS games last year, but this far down the track it’s potentially going to end up looking only as good as we expect it to be - not as mind-blowing as it may have been last year. Still, Prey has some interesting features and could yet surprise us all. HYPER» 25 26 »HYPER FEATURE SPECIAL PREVIEW Once a year, Microsoft gather their deveiopment teams to their head office in Seattie to give a demonstration of their upcoming titles, they name this event, Gamestock. Hyper was there to get an extra early look at what Microsoft have on offer. Two years ago, Microsoft’s games division used the catch phrase, “Microsoft Knows Games’’. At the time, this was the subject of much chuckling, but it was only a short matter of time before they dropped the some¬ what arrogant slogan, and went about simply doing it right by taking on experienced game developers who had a proven track record. Soon enough games like Age of Empires and Motocross Madness appeared, and with some of the impressive titles on the way, Microsoft are emerging as a successful games publisher, rather than “That big company who is trying their hand at games”. It would seem obvious that Microsoft believe there is a large enough market for car based titles out there, even after recent releases like Powerslide, Deathkarz. and others. Three of their upcoming releases are car based, although one of them is more of a first person shooter that happens to involve driving cars. Interestingly, none of these games are sim style racers, so perhaps some market research has shown very few actual ”sims” succeed. / - 95 ^ fiaitv (.Stpi - Many years ago, there was a pen and paper game called Car Wars, based on the idea of auto-vigi- lantes battling one another in custom built cars. This game has inspired a few computer games over the years, but most have been extremely lacklustre. Lustrous is a word that springs to mind when you first see Full Auto, as this car combat game features some impressive lighting effects and shiny environmentally mapped cars. Players choose from a diverse selection of car types, and then go about tailor making their vehicle for the arena or mission at hand, with engines, weapons and extras available. The missions vary from straight out destruc¬ tion, exploration, high speed chases, through to defending bases. As missions are complet¬ ed, the player earns cash to spend on improv¬ ing their vehicle. Some of the weapons avail¬ able break away from the stock standard ideas - like the web gun which "sticks” the target to the ground or wall with a successful hit. Besides simply racing and deathmatching, there is also a capture the flag mode, which is something rather different for a car based game. A good way to sum up Full Auto would be to call it a very souped up Vigilante 8 or Twisted Metal 2. The action is faster, the visuals sharper and more impressive. Should be a hit with those that like fast paced multiplayer action games. / - iS To carry on the tradition of their "Madness” titles, we see another arcade racing title, this time with a very urban theme. Midtown Madness is a bit of a destruction derby style racing title set in the streets of Chicago. There are a variety of racing scenarios, to help give the game a bit more dimension. We spent most of our time playing the waypoint mode, where you simply have to drive through a series of waypoints, in any order you like, in the fastest time possible. You can take whichever way you like so strategies develop once you get to know the area better (I’m sure the folks in Chicago will be rather good at this game). There’s classic circuit racing (why you’d want to bother in a game where the whole novelty is that you don’t have a circuit we don’t quite know), free driving, and a cops and robbers mode. To help add to the chaos, you’re not only forced to deal with the other racers, but every¬ day traffic as well, so you could say it’s a bit of a small scale Cannonball Run. There’s already talk of a follow up title set in London. Maybe it will be used as a simulator for taxi cab drivers. 9yet94jpft,' G^nit/ / - S cHa^ - SOOf) Okay this isn’t exactly a car game, but there are enough cars in the game for it to be thrown into the same basket. An overly simplistic way of describing Loose Cannon would be to call it a first person shooter where you can also drive a car. The game is set in the near future after an eco¬ nomic collapse, and the United States has become totally crime infested. You play a mercenary who is up against the leader of a crime syndicate. The action moves from city areas, and out into rural districts as well, with the player using vehicles to move from one mission loca¬ tion to the next. The city areas will feature traf¬ fic, people wandering about, and even a func¬ tioning police force. There are 15 customable vehicles, each hav¬ ing their own handling, and traits. Some vehi¬ cles may seem useless in most situations, but may be necessary for certain missions for get¬ ting around inconspicuously etc. The potential for manhunt missions in this game are quite awesome, where you may be following someone in a high speed car chase, which ends up with you having to pursue them on foot into a building, or into some foothills or some other place you can’t drive. Should be an interesting tangent for those that like first person shooters. HYPER» 27 28 »HYPER FEATURE SPECIAL PREVIEW fT/he (9n^lln^e(9n3iauffht Here's a bold move, developing Internet only games. Microsoft do not seem afraid to go this way though, and with the "MSN Gaming Zpne" they. . : have plans to launch some killer "massively multiplayer" games. The downside here is, unless Microsoft set up Australian servers, we cap’t expect decent performance out of these games. Australia has a very high number of Internet users per capita, so perhaps once these Internet only games come out, Microsoft will invest the money in a server down here. j Ca// / - ihfiutanf/t lefease t/aie: ^uatiei Here we see another online RPC in the making. If anyone out there has played and enjoyed MUDs, they will instantly warm to Asheron s Call. The game is played in a 3D environment, with an interface vaguely similar to Heretic II. While not having the quite the same sort of visual flair as H2, for an online RPC, this is definitely a leap forward. The character creation system allows so many options on skills and appearance that each character created will seem unique. However this is not as impressive as some of the gameplay concepts that Turbine have come up with. To get around the problem of veteran players not wanting to give new players any help, there is an incentive system. A player can swear allegiance to a higher level character, and every time they earn experience points, the person to whom they have sworn allegiance also gets a small amount of experience too. This way, someone who helps people will reap the benefits as "weaker" players pass on a trickle of bonus XP, and it can work as a pyramid structure, so you can get XP from someone v^o is sev¬ eral steps down the chain of allegiance. To help prevent any one spell from being "the dominating force” in the game, there is a "magic economy". If a spell is cast frequently across the game world, then it becomes less potent. In MUDs, it was often a case of getting to a point where you learned a certain spell, and then you jumped drastically in power, in Asheron’s Call, it will be far more balanced. Of course, unless there is an Australian server available, it would seem unlikely that Asheron’s Call will take off down here considering there is an Australian Ultima Online server. PREVIEW FEATURE S P E C I A O^/iegianre ^ei cHirtosq/t y*iaf^eM3f /~350 ^3iintaie(i te/raie ffaie.‘ 4ih gt4at/ei ’9^ If you liked Tribes, or at least the concept behind Tribes, and you’re a fan of space combat games, then Allegiance should be of great interest to you. Allegiance not only offers online team based space combat on a scale far greater than ever before (like the simple skirmishes in games like X- Wing vs TIE), but also offers more variety in what craft you can pilot and what roles you can play. Ever wanted to be a turret gunner on a space sta¬ tion? You can. This is actually quite similar to Tribes, but with the numbers that Allegiance can handle, and the fact that it’s a different style of game to actually play, this could be THE online team based game for all of you that aren’t into first person shooters. Allegiance will keep track of the efforts of individuals, and since the game will only be playable online on ’’the Zone” there will be a global rank¬ ing system, meaning you’ll be able to see when the world’s number one player logs on, etc. To enhance teamplay concepts, as the players earn money within in the game, they can choose how this money is spent for the team’s tech tree development. Or alternatively, players can redirect their earnings to another player, so someone can take on the role of spending the teams earn¬ ings, thus creating a specialist role. This was one of the most exciting titles at Camestock in terms of what new things it could offer, but unless we see an Australian based server, this may be one we miss out on. HYPER» 29 30 »HYPER FEATURE SPECIAL PREVIEW With the success of Age of Empires, Microsoft seem confident that they can do strategy games right, and their course of actions seems like a split between something safe, and something new. The safe option was obvious, release a sequel to Age of Empires, and what we see here is the natural progression. Age of Empires 11 : The Age of Kings q/' 2 : O///* q/ e/opet/ »en»6/r Siuffios /•tS te/ease Sep - O^oe Although it may not have been the best selling strategy game across the board. Age of Empires was definitely well received by the gaming community and has developed a sizable following. Good news for the fans, the sequel. Age of Empires 11 : Age of Kings, looks to include enough new features to make it a little more progressive than your average sequel. The simple changes are the obvious ones you’d expect like improved pathing and Al, larger maps, hotkeys for unit groups etc. The more significant changes are 13 races to play as, with each race having very distinct differences in appearance (far more so than in AOE), and this also carries on to unique attributes, units, and tech¬ nologies. The tech tree itself now has over 100 nodes, which is more than far more than you could develop in the course of one game, so using different tech tree strategies can have a huge affect on the out¬ come of the game. As an alternative to simply crushing your enemies, victory conditions can also be set to victory by either economic supremacy, or by building and defending the wonders of the world (Civ anyone?). There is also an additional game type called Regicide, where the aim is somewhat like chess... Kill your enemy’s king while defending your own. Considering most strategy games on the horizon are featuring pic¬ turesque 3D visuals, perhaps Microsoft may hurry this one ahead to "beat the pack" so to speak, so as not to end up looking like the old school game in the new wave of pretty RTS titles. ^ottqneji: ,^tor///e$ ^^ere/opet/ C^nti/ .yVrfjry/'fj/ /- tV ^jiifttaiet/ te/ease tiafe: kOee *99 ~ i^e6 2000 It would seem Digital Anvil have come up with a very clever way to com¬ bat the common problem with RTS games... Ever noticed that once you amass a large number of units and send it forth, that once it has a couple of encounters, you can pretty much tell after the first fight wether or not this force can go on to wipe out the rest of the enemy forces? It’s all too common that the strategy is all in amassing the units, rather than actu¬ ally having to do anything clever with them. Conquest has a supply sys¬ tem, which prevents ships from being able to perform at their optimum after they start engaging in battles. You can keep a chain of supply ships going to your fleet, but of course you may need to escort those as well. There are two races to play through the game with in single player, and four races available for multiplayer. Each race has its own traits and special units, similar to Starcraft. The interface is very much like that of Myth, where you can pan around, zoom in and out, etc. All the units are in 3D, but in terms of controlling your forces, it behaves like a 2D game, with units automati¬ cally positioning themselves at different heights, rather than the player having to arrange them. Players also "develop" Fleet Admirals, who gain experience from bat¬ tles won, and thus learn new tactics, and can go on to control larger and larger fleets. This helps makes the overall focus of the game more on strategical decisions, rather than lightning fast mouse clicking and interface control like in Starcraft. It will be interesting to see how this ends up faring with Homeworld, another space fleet strategy game coming up soon. SPECIAL PREVIEW FEATURE fjjh e ce Microsoft’s "star” development team would have to be Digital Anvil, which is headed up by Chris Roberts, and Erin Roberts. The pair are best known for their work on the Wing Commander games. Two of their upcoming titles are "more of the same" from these two, but that is not a bad thing, because they seem like they’re really set to take things to new heights. Ad' u^eate hOmc "99 - 2000 You could say that Erii^ Roberts is “carrying on the Wing Commander baton" with Starlancer. )[n fact, besides the break away from the "Colonel Blair" plotline, this coulid easily be mistaken as Wing Commander VI. Predictably, this title jhas slightly better visuals than other space com¬ bat games to date (the ittost common trend in this genre). In most aspects Starlancer is not breakiiH| new ground, rather it is simply doing it better in every major field. Fot example, there are more than a dozen craft you can pilot, and over 8o tjflpes of craft in the game in total, which is a far greater lineup than in aiy other space combat game before. Let’s not stop there... There’s 6,000 urilque speech samples, over 25 minutes of FMV cin¬ ematics, and 40 music tracks to help make this a true audiovisual treats. Digital Anvil claim th^it the game will feature far more "neutral activity” than we’ve seen in a spaice game, with other ships just "carrying on about their business", but this was not really implemented in the version we played. Attention to detail seams to be a major part of the focus of this game, ranging from the abilit/ to feed the fish in your living quarters, through to being able to see yogir gun turrets rotate as you fire (shells popping out and all) when taking an external jview of your craft. There is one new fe|ature thougn, and that’s the ability to play through the game as a jlultiplayer experience, rather than just as a sin¬ gle player game. No, We don’t mein you can fly some skirmishes with mates, we mean you fet to play^rough the whole plot with your friends. The developers' claim you’ll |be able to save and still be able to continue if one of you i»n’t show ut) for a particular session, resulting in an extremely versatili way of playing through the game. Actually, the real draw card of all of Microsoft’s upcoming games was one that we "weren’t allowed to play". There were no screen shots avail¬ able, however we will be receiving some at E3. The game in question was Freelancer, another Digital Anvil title, with Chris Roberts producing this outstanding looking title. As the name implies, you play the part of a mercenary, and just for a change, Chris Roberts has set the game in space... All jokes aside, he and his team look to be doing it better than anyone else has before by a long shot. To point to the most similar game to Freelancer, you couldn’t look past Privateer 2. Like Privateer 2, Freelancer is a game where you can travel from system to system, buying and selling commodities, tak¬ ing missions, and from what I saw, unlocked a storyline. There were four main factions controlling various systems, each fac¬ tion being descendants from a nation of Earth, with the Americans, English, Germans, and the Japanese. There is also an alien race that dominates a small group of systems on the corner of the system map (it just screams interstellar war imminent). Visually, this game was better than any other PC title I have seen to date. The lighting was so frighteningly real. The demonstration we were given was more akin to watching a sci-fi film than a computer game. Besides the in flight visuals, things "on the ground" were also very impressive. Each player can tailor their character’s appearance to suit. "What do you mean each?” I hear you ask... The thing that really makes Freelancer a potential legendary title is that it will support large scale multiplayer gaming. So in other words, you can log onto some ongoing server and fly around with heaps of other gamers, where everybody’s actions have an affect on things like the economy, police activity, etc. More news and info on this title after E3. although we can break the bad news to you already... this title is not due to be released till well into next year, possibly not till Christmas 2000. HYPER» 31 32 »HYPER HARDWARE MONSTER SOUND MX300 PC TYPE: SOUNDCARD RRP: $249 DISTRIBUTOR: DIAMOND MULTIMEDIA The Monster SQund MX300 is the next in the Monster Sound series from Diamond, providing us with a fully A3D 2.0 compliant card. This PCI soundcard is extremely well designed, providing both CD and DVD Dolby Digital support, DirectSound3D and full Aurreal 3D 2.0 sound, with a hard-wired Vortex 2 processor on-board and 4 speaker output (with the option to upgrade with a daughter card). The Vortex 2 takes the load off your CPU when it comes to processing the audio, which will generally improve performance in most games - with Tribes I noticed a subtle framerate increase. The Vortex 2 provides 76 DirectSound 3D streams in hardware, meaning that it’s never going to be straining to process everything a game can throw at it. [ *1 r I WAVfVilhT -r I I ‘ 1 ‘ _ • • • .* ^ ^ ’ m trx p m r J »41 % • _1 I * .......... - - • ' • O'*** “ f T • E , /- ;; n • 1.1 ■ W-,. /^‘vrwTBt (cMVtn anil ommmn unjraua CMom 9mA ma.ai- ^uBLmt r>-:- E^S ‘ MsM A3D 2.0 is currently the most powerful API out there, with Creative’s EAX coming in a very close second. Most developers are supporting both, though EAX has the slight edge. A3D 2.0 is a superior API though, so it should almost definitely be supported in all the major gaming releases. A3D 2.0 has some very sexy features - besides positional 3D sound (things behind, above and to the side of you), A3D 2.0 can do wave tracing, in which sounds "bounce” off the architecture of your environment amongst other impressive features. You only have to fire up Half-Life with the MX300 to hear how amazing it sounds. The gameport on the card is also a cut above the rest, utilising DirectX acceleration circuitry to provide unparalleled peripheral response. The MX300 also comes bundled with some good software - a full copy of Recoil, the Half-Life Day-One demo, an MP3 player, WAV editing tools. Media Works 98, Stereo Recording Session, and the Zoran DVD software. The MX300 control panel also has a ten-band graphic EQ, which is great for tweaking MP3S or just a plain old audio CD. Installation was a breeze, and the cutting-edge sound quality was immediately apparant - highly recommended! TmIm >€ CMWt, I.w Fighter $150 Sure, there’s no throttle, but this stick feels great, and will last you for yonks. Microsoft Force Feedback-Pro $269.95 The most comfortable of the PC Force Feedback joysticks available at the moment. Gamepad Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad $79.95 Love em or hate em, Microsoft make great peripherals, and this is no exception Mouse Microsoft Wheel Mouse $59.95 Works as a three button mouse, and the middle button allows window scrolling. N64 Memory Pak Gamester Tremer/IMB $44.95 Four times the normal memory storage AND variable Rumble settings. The all in one "Pak” Memory 64 DLX $29.95 Not only does it have four times the standard memory, but it’s only $5 more expensive than the standard Pak! Rumble Pak Gamester Tremor Pak $24.95 This rumble pak DOESN’T need batteries, making it excellent value. Tremor Pack Performance $19.95 Two rumble modes, with the strongest being REAL strong. Great for those wanting to put it into a wheel. Gampad Mako Pad 64 $59.95 Expensive, but its design allows you to hold the controller and press every button without moving your hands. Docs Controller $39.95 $10 cheaper than the Nintendo standard. Feels better, and comes with auto-fire and slow as well. Racing Wheel Gamester N64 Rumble Steering Wheel $149.95 Includes analogue pedals and a built in Rumble effect Mad Catz $129.95 Cheapest of the actual wheel controllers, includes a gear stick, and built in Rumble Pak. Not amazingly sturdy though. HYPER» 35 36 »HYPER When you’re falling in love with the latest game in the market, it’s very easy to become so engrossed in the gameplay that you iose sight of what’s reaiistic. And if you’ve piayed enough games within a particular genre, some things just become standard. The following is a list of Hyper’s favourite gaming ciiches, designed for the jaded gamer in all of us. FEATURE Faultline construction rule: All enemy bases will be built on a faultline so as to ensure that a steady flow of lava can con¬ veniently be piped into rooms throughout the levels. The Aquarius Non-Intervenius Rule: Even if you’re wearing full body armour and carrying a rocket launcher, you can still swim around like a fish. Tardis like body syndrome: Regardless how tiny the body, approximately 20okg of blood and gore will fly in all direc¬ tions when an enemy is shot to bits. WHO SAID THE ARMED FORCES ARE OVERPAID? LOOK AT WHAT THIS POOR GIRL HAS TO CARRY \Big arsenal phenomenon: 'Jot only can our intrepid hero carry as many [weapons as he or she can find, they can also nove at full speed regardless of the weight [they are carrying. )uick draw: Even when changing between two guns that are both about as big as the player themselves. The amount of time required to do so is pretty nuch zero. le considerate enemy rule: Ml evil empires/demons/tyrants order their linions to place ammo and health packs throughout their strongholds, even though their own weapons don’t use these ammo types sometimes. “Falling cat” rule: All creatures falling a great height will remain in an upright position the whole way down, and not even have to bend their knees once they hit the ground. Falling lo meters is no dif¬ ferent to falling lo cm. Hard of hearing: The twenty monsters in the surrounding rooms will not come to investigate any sounds you make, even if you’ve just set off a small nuclear explosion. Sticking your toe around the corner in a dimly lit corridor will alert them however. The Rocket Jump Rule: Rockets can always be used to increase the height of your jump, even though you should theoretically be blown to smithereens by the blast wave. Patient monster rule: Regardless of how long your enemies have been stuck in this tiny enclosed space, they will always be awake, and ready for combat. The Armour from Hell Rule: When you’re wearing armour, nothing can kill you. Not even a direct hit from a rocket. dventureGame / The Law of Sedative Solutions: Situations that would be easily be solved with an act of extreme physical violence must be solved, instead, by a tediously passive yet outra¬ geously implausible solution - such as chess pieces, multiple switches or magic passwords. LOUD CLICKING FROM CLOCK .. COULD IT MEAN SOMETHING? The Clock Insecurity: Something always happens when the grandfa¬ ther clock hits a particular time. I "he hidden key rule #1: it least 2 keys in an adventure game will be lidden in a top draw of a desk that you houldn’t be going through. “he oui le hidden key rule #2: /our adversaries will never keep their keys in a olace a normal person would, like their pocket. Obscure developer’s pu 2 :zle: Every adventure game will contain at least one puzzle that only the developer will understand. Everyone else is forced to abandon traditional notions of logic and resort to trial and error. Ill-fitting Footwear Rule: Every character in an adventure game either has badly-fitting shoes or a carrot wedged someplace uncomfortable, causing them to walk in a very unnatural fashion. The Water Obsession: Always look behind the waterfall. The Cryptic Art Phenomenon: You can always count on a painting to have some kind of riddle. HYPER» 37 38 »HYPER FEATURE never. Inhibriation resistance law: Regardless how many times you drink in a pub or tavern, your characters will not become drunk. All characters in medieval fantasy games have specially enhanced livers. Broken record rule: A horrible disease affecting the populace of towns in RPCs, where every time you speak to a character again, they say the same thing. Sometimes this disease affects the community as a whole, so different people all say the same thing. Ugly sword rule: Without fail, the best weapon that you can find in the game will look completely stupid, especially next to the second best weapon, which will look infinitely cool. Extremist eating habit rule: An RPC will either require the characters eat constantly to a point where it is annoying and obtrusive to interesting gameplay, or absolutely The open house law: when the adventuring party wanders into somebody’s home, they will not be questioned or asked to leave, even if they start going through the resident’s belongings. The doomed parents law: Any parental figures of members of the party will die during the course of the game. They will pass on any belongings they own to the party. niill fiiM&ns l»irc cnous^t power to so up tf»e demons this time? The lovesick puppy: The most attractive female in the game will always fall in love with your main character. She will always be single, and have no hang ups. She will, however, require rescuing from the forces of evil at least once in the game. Deaf ears rule: Any attempts to decline a gift or some form of reward will always be dismissed. You will be given the reward/gift/help regardless of your desires. Pointless purchase rule: After spending all of your party’s savings on an extremely powerful weapon, you will find it for free after the next battle you encounter. Loyal minions rule: Even after slaughtering hundreds of guards in plain sight, then next guard who walks along will not hesitate to throw himself upon your sword in the name of his soon-to-be-dead king. Gold bearers: Each monster in an RPC is actually part of a secret cult whose soul mission is to bring you gold pieces. Despite having absolutely no use for money, monsters shall carry some with them. Even monsters without limbs or means to carry objects can have gold on them. Exclusive club law: If you've already got 6 characters, regardless oi how desperately you need a newly-befriended character, you’re going to have to kick out the character you spent the most time and effort on developing in order to induct this new character. The Final Fantasy Rule: It’s never the final fantasy. FEATURE girl, usually dressed in her school uniform or with an option to dress her as such. Rvu Obligatory characters rule #3: Every fighting game will feature a burly unshaven American male with a bad haircut and a very annoying voice. Forearms of steel rule: The act of simply sticking out your forearm in front of you will prevent any bodily harm from attacks aimed at your head or torso. The Charter of Male Victory Stances: All male characters must say something that implies they are as stupid as they look. « The Charter of Female Victory " Stances: - All female characters must either kneel, bend over, or present their cleavage, and say some¬ thing either cute or slutty. Fhe Law of Equal Opportunity: instantly fall lifelessly to the ground, even In the interests of political correctness, the line- though he or she had a full life-bar just before- The Law of Solemn Respectability: up of characters in any fighting game will vary in hand. Even though it might be filled with cute girls, »ex, age. height, and weight. And judging from supernatural monsters, and fluffy animals, every the buff male characters in rough-trade outfits, it Absence of plot rule: fighting game contains one male character who is ^ould seem that differing sexual orientations are No fighting game shall ever have a decent or pure of heart, searching for truth and justice as ilso catered for. plausible plot, if any. However, fighting games he seeks to hone his fighting skill. may be used as the basis of a plot for a big-bud- Fhe altered gravity law #1: get motion picture. The Frustration Phenomenon: ^s soon as a character is knocked off his or her Every fighting game has a cheap character, feet, the gravity of the earth and moon will mys- The Clone Law #1: teriously switch, allowing you to land more hits Every fighting game has at least one pair of char- Foot sweep law #1: into your opponent before they eventually float acters whose moves are exactly the same. A 35kg girl will always be able sweep a 150+ kg to the ground. behemoth off his or her feet with a simple swing The Clone Law # 2 : of her leg along the ground, irrespective of the Fhe altered gravity law # 2 : In-game clones somehow always end up fighting futility of every other attack. Female fighting game character’s breasts are not when two people are challenging each other. effected by gravity, regardless of size or weight. Foot sweep law #2: rhey remain horizontal or even upright at all times. The Adamantium Skeleton Effect: The computer will always fall for the foot sweep. Nobody’s bone ever breaks in a fighting game. Fhe Panty Law: Nobody’s neck is ever broken accidentally. Foot sweep law # 3 : \\\ fighting games contain at least one female A human opponent never falls for the foot sweep, rharacter dressed in a skirt, typically the Asian Obligatory characters rule #1: schoolgirl, whose fighting movements just ’hap- Every fighting game will feature a sagely old The Useless Blade Rule: Den’ to give you an eyeful of her panties. martial arts expert dressed in a simple ghi. An opponent has to be impaled at least several times before they hit the floor and supposedly Fhe Ring-out life sucker rule: Obligatory characters rule #2: die. And even then, they’ll happily bounce back \x\y character who steps out of the ring will Every fighting game will feature a petite Asian to their feet for round 2. tTTI q-vtj 1 HYPER» 39 40 »HYPER A sleepy time of the year as tar as release sched¬ ules 50, this is that ''Christmas is well and truly ever" bit The fact that €3 is around the comer also seems to keep some sames at bay ter a while too, AO ireVe not seeing the entourage of games like we were a couple of months ago. Nintendo 64 owners may be a little mitted at the lack of titles on otter again. Castlevania is okay, but considering it's a medieval 3D action adventure, it's easy to compare it to Zelda, which is a very tough act to tcllow. Mario Party is also a little less inspiring than Smash Bros, prompting the question, where are the Nintendo 64 titles? The console is no longer young, there shouldn't be such a drought. PlayStation owners don't have it any better real¬ ly this month either, although Gex 3 is a decent reviewed ee page BO continuation of the series, we're in one of those rare months when Sony aren't distributing a pil¬ lar title. Finally a PlayStation skateboarding game arrives, but like many of the snowboarding titles, it does the sport no Justice. So what is good this month? Well, Heroes of Might and Magic III is an absolute corker, as is Alpha Centauri, but fer novice PC gamers out there, be warned these are both turn based strat¬ egy games, and they're not everyone's cup of tea. X-Wing Alliance is the game we can see appealing to the larger audience this month, as it perpetuates the high standard of quality that we've come to expect from Star Wars space com¬ bat sims in the past. In fact there was only one really disappointing title on PC this month, and that was Starsiege, which wasn't a bad game, but Just wasn't quite the head turner that Starsiege: Tribes was. Dan NINTENDO B4 GAMEOfnEMONIH CASTLEVANIA Reviewed on paye42 PLAYSTATION GilMEOEni MONTH mi Reviewed on page 46 GAMEBOY 70 QDDWORLO ADVENTURES 58 STARSEIGE 66 WARZONE 2100 62 WORMS ARMAGEDDON NINTENDO 64 60 X WING ALLIANCE 42 CASTLEVANIA 44 MARIO PARTY PLAYSTATION 46 GEX 3 UNDERCOVER GECKO PC 64 ALPHA CENTAURI 70 DARK VENGEANCE 56 HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC 3 68 LINKS LS 99 68 MS GOLF 99 63 ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 68 KENSEI 55 MONSTER SEED 69 POOL HUSTLER 70 PREMIER MANAGER NINETY NINE 69 SHANGHAI TRUE VALOR 54 STREET SK8ER 69 TIGER WOODS 99 48 WCW/NWO THUNDER mwmmmman Available: When the game is expected to be on sale. Release dates are subject to change without notice for a variety of reasons, so this may not always be correct Ask your retailer if things don't show up. Category: What type of game it is Players: The number of players a game allows to play it at once. Publisher: Simply the company that publishes the game. Price: The recommended retail price. This is subject to change without notice. Rating: The OFLC's verdict on the suitable ages for the game. Required: The hardware required to play the game on your PC. Desired: The hardware we think you need to get decent performance out of the game. Supports: Which peripherals and hardware you can use with the game. Plus: Notable good points about the game. Minus: Notable problems with the game. Visuals: An indication as to the overall quality and impact of the graphics in the game. Sound: A rating that includes not only sound effects, but music as well. Eameplay: A measure of the depth, features and fun that you come across when playing the game. Overall: The verdict, in a number. HYPER» 41 »HYPER REVIEWS NINTENDO 64 Castlevania _ Cam Shea was taught everything he knows by Buffy, which certainly helps explain the whip fetish... Cl Updating classic eight or sixteen bit titles for this gener¬ ation of machines can be a tricky business. Nintendo’s in house gurus have, on the whole, been very successful in their efforts to translate the classic franchises to the N6 a. Games like Mario 64 and Zelda 64 retain the magical essence that made the previous titles so much fun, whilst truly exploring the possibilities that an exponentially more powerful system (not to mention 3D mechanics) offers. Konami held back from 3D with their first foray into the post sixteen bit world. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for Playstation was a standout title that took the series to a new level whilst remaining true to its roots. Konami are now taking the plunge into 3D, and the result is... well, mixed. After an amazing fourteen games in the series, some fans may feel the change refreshing, whereas I sus¬ pect that many will be disappointed to see much of the lush artwork, animation and style lost in the translation. HAVE AT YOU VAMPIRE SCUM... Castlevania features two selectable characters. There’s Carrie, the young girl talented in magic, and Reinhardt, the seasoned vampire hunter out to take Dracula down. The two characters are distinguished by their general abilities (speed, jumping and strength) as well as weaponry. Carrie has a projectile attack and rings, whereas Reinhardt has the trademark whip and a dagger for close encounters. The characters also take slightly dif¬ ferent paths, with three unique levels apiece. 2D GAMEPLAY IN A 3D GAME. HMM... The gameplay is average. There’s an over reliance on standard platform fare, a relatively small cast of enemies and poor AI routines. There are also limited pick ups, and only four subweapons - holy water, throwing knife, cross and axe. Frustrating gameplay elements abound, including a lot of climbing and platform hopping. These elements simply don’t succeed. There are far too many jumps over certain death, and difficult climbs. Replaying certain sections can get very annoying, and the levels aren’t overly large either. Whilst this kind of level design was acceptable in earli¬ er Castlevania games, the jumps and climbs lack the kind of precision that they need to be anything but frustrat¬ ing. The camera plays a large role in the many inevitable deaths, as it often sits in poor positions and even THESE CHARACTERS ARE A LITTLE LOOSE... Character control is loose, but fine once into the game. There’s the standard array of moves and they’re easily acces¬ sible. Each character can jump, climb, hop back and to the side, crouch and slide. In addition to a primary and sec¬ ondary weapon, there are subweapons that can be picked up. There’s also a lock on feature when in combat. Unfortunately, its implementation pales in comparison to Zelda’s. Although partly due to the nature of the game, combat tends to feel like it’s out of the player’s control. It’s a little too automatic, and is often little more than a matter of running along and repeatedly pressing attack. YOU RE TOO UGLY TO LIVE! obstructs your view. Much of the game is simply hacking and slashing coupled with the old "flick switch to open door" routine that has become dated. Even a day/night cycle fails to breath life into the title. On a more positive note, there are frequent save points, which help make the jumping sections more bearable, and plenty of well executed cinemas that move the story along, and give the game a level of sophistication. These cut scenes feature good direction and subtle touches. THE STIFFS ARE A LITTLE STIFF... The Castlevania games have traditionally featured inspired artwork and animation, and in these depart¬ ments Castlevania 64 falls somewhat flat. Some of the enemy animation is good, but the main characters are rather stiff. The bosses are quite impressive though. The graphics are cleaner than many N64 games, but are low in detail and a little uninspired. There are some nice touches, but Konami simply haven’t exploited the poten¬ tial on offer. An area in which Castlevania does live up to its her¬ itage however, is in the sound department. The previous titles have always had excellent scores, and the music in Castlevania is no exception. Although sparse at times, it helps immerse the player in the game’s dark world. The sound effects are also first rate. Despite the many criticisms, Castlevania is a compe¬ tent title and a fun game, it just feels like a distant rela¬ tive of the series that has had so many gamers glued to their screens for so many years. AyiULiHLE: Now _ CATttBIY: iGtiii/AdYenture PUmS: 1 muim maaiiii _ PBICE: $99.95 _ lATHIt: TIA _ 8UPP0ITS: Mem pak PLUS Vampire tonking action, and cool cut scenes. MINUS Could have been markedly better in gameplay and design. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 79 89 80 OIIRALI Castlevania has lost some of the magic in its iourney to 3D. and in the post Zelda 64 world, is definitely a try first title. HYPER» 43 44 »HYPER EVIEWS NINTENDO 64 Mario Party It's me Mario... er no, Cam Shea actually. WHERE DO CONTROLLERS GO WHEN THEY DIE? _ I’ve already had a couple of con¬ trollers croak on me, but Mario Party looks set to add a few more to the graveyard out back. You see, many of the mini games revolve around spinning the analogue stick as fast as you possibly can, and they’re already such fragile dang things. The sensible thing to do is to get each person playing to bring (and risk) their own controller. The genre that no one takes seriously - interactive boardgames, has been given a new lease of life. Mario Party will not be to everyone’s liking, but credit to Nintendo and Hudson for providing the gaming public with an interest¬ ing take on the four player gaming experience. Mario Party is set out much like a board game, with six characters - Mario. Luigi. Yoshi, Wario, Peach and Donkey Kong, and six (plus two unlockable) boards to play on. Each board is based around a character’s theme, like Peach’s Birthday Cake, Wario’s Battle Canyon and Luigi’s Engine Room, and have a recognisable theme, tricks and traps as befits the character. The goal of the game is simple - to amass more stars and coins than your opponents. Sessions are always played as a four player contest, so computer players fill in if you don’t have enough friends over. Came boards are radically different, with all manner of different gameplay devices. meet mishap with Bowser, and so on. There are also other characters hanging around on the board. Boo, for instance, can steal coins or stars from other players, whereas Toad is the star merchant, and if you have enough coins, you can buy one each time you see him. YOU'LL NEED THREE FRIENDS TO PLAY THIS GAME PROPERLY... DOH! GO DIRECTLY TO GAOL PEACH. DOESN'T REALLY WORK, DOES IT? Once into the game, the mechanics are very simple. Each character rolls a number from one to ten, and moves the according number of spaces. There are all manner of different squares to land on, some good, some bad. You may receive coins or have them taken away. You may win an extra turn or lose one, you may play a mini game. After each player has had one role of the dice, a ran¬ dom mini game is played. This is where the competition really heats up. All the players are involved, but depend¬ ing on the space that each player has landed on, games can be 3 vsi, 2 vs 2, all characters working together or all characters against each other. There are over 50 of these mini games in all, and they range from great fun to rather poor. They are all quite simple, and cover every- MARIO KART ON DREAMCAST O'****# thing from frantic button mashing events (press a button the fastest) to simple puzzles and platform style games. Generally speaking, the controls are a little sloppy, but the variety of silly ideas is impressive. Some cool mini games include a skateboarding run where you have to beat the others to the finish line, all while jumping over blocks and trying not to fall off the path that’s rapidly disintegrating behind you. Another is like a variant of Kai's Power Coo where each player is given a picture of Bowser and must morph his face to match the example. Yet another involves blowing up huge inflatable Bowsers. The winner is the character who pops him first! HUDSON DON'T POLISH MARIO AS MUCH AS NINTENDO DO... Mario Party isn’t overly polished graphically. The boards look damn good, as do some of the mini games, but others are rather rough. Who cares though? Certainly not the friend that you’re lambasting over the head for maliciously stealing a star near the end of the game. There are three different length settings and games can take between an hour and four hours. At the end of a game, an additional three stars are awarded, and the winner is declared. Whether the winner is deserving or not is always debateable. Although skill is involved in some of the mini games, hard earnt coins and stars can be lost in the twinkle of an eye through nothing more than luck. This doesn’t matter so much, as the riling and dissing that goes on between players is entertainment enough. A BORED GAME? NO. IT'S NOT MONOPOLY... Mario Party has more depth than one might assume. Not only are two more boards unlockable, but after each game, all the coins earnt during the game can be saved in the mushroom bank. Once you’ve saved enough, you can buy your favourite mini games to play at anytime, or introduce many extra features into the game. Mario Party won’t appeal to the hardcore gaming crowd. The random nature of winning and losing, cou¬ pled with the slowish pace, will prove more frustrating than fun. That’s not to say that Mario Party is purely a kids game though. I’d recommend it to almost anyone interested in a none too serious four player fest. Once you’ve accepted the mechanics of the game, you may discover a strangely addictive and social game. miUBlE: Now CATESIIY: Ictiio/Pvzile/ loird pat thiogy PUYfU; 1-4 PIIUIHI; Nintendo PRICE: $99.95 liinNG: 6 SIPPRITS: Rumble Pak PLUS Lotsa mini games, lotsa friends, lotsa fun! MINUS Little skill involved, a VERY lonely one player experience. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 78 78 88 oniMi Mario Party is a game that you'll either love or hate. Give it a go with three friends to find out. HYPER» 45 REVIEWS PLAYSTATION Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko Kevin Cheung couldn't resist the idea of rescuing a Playboy centrefold... ALTERNATIVES Cex 3 is one of those games with universal appeal, as the mascot-based action appeals to younger audiences while the humour and hard-core plat¬ form action will probably appeal to slightly maturer audiences. Spyro is the first obvious alternative for the kids out there, but MediEvil is easily the classier product out of all of them. Ever since Spyro proved that the PlayStation is capable of vast three-dimensional action games of the Mario 64 vein, many companies have since made their own attempt at a similar game of their own. That’s how games like MediEvil came about; and even though Crash 3 isn’t really a fully immersive 3D game, it still had some pretty impressive visuals. In any case. Cex 3: Deep Cover Gecko is the latest offering for the genre, bringing with it Cex’s own brand of wiley humour and off-beat satire. Is it as good as Spyro or MediEvil? In a manner of speaking, yes; but there are certain failings that action-game pundits will want to take note of. BABES IN CYBERSPACE In this latest instalment of Cex, our brave lizard-pro¬ tagonist is a super spy on a mission to rescue a very blonde and very well-endowed Playboy centrefold from a Virtual Prison. Those of you who are accustomed with the likes of Spyro or Banjo Kazooie will be in familiar territory as Cex must travel into different levels in search of magi¬ cal remote controls, which should eventually grant him access to other levels and ultimately wherever the damsel in distress is being held. In the process of finding these remote control devices, Cex will also have to complete different sub-quests within each level. Cex 3’s gameplay is brought to life by some very impressive graphics. Much like Spyro and particularly MediEvil. the use of more efficient texture compression methods has allowed for the creation of some of the most magnificent 3D environments on the PlayStation. There are a lot of soft and coloured textures that give both the characters and environments a well-rounded look. To give you an idea of the majesty and detail behind the backgrounds in Cex 3, you have to understand that games like Spyro and MediEvil got away with using copi¬ ous amounts of repeating textures because the inherently bland nature of caves, grass, and so on allowed for it. Cex 3. on the other hand, is much more intricately designed. You could walk into a library, and it would be adorned with bookshelves, carpet, chandeliers, wood panelling... none of which would get away with repeat¬ ing textures. Heck, there are even some instances of gor¬ geous reflective texturing along marble floors! GRAPHICAL COMPROMISES The sheer level of detail only becomes apparent when you switch to first person mode and look at the action from any angle you choose. The disappearing point stretches all the way to the opposite end of the area, and you can see where absolutely everything is located. This is as distinct from Spyro, which used soft pop-up and a close disappearing point, which made it impossible to familiarise yourself the overall environment. The drawback to this high level of detail is a very harsh one: the large amounts of textures and geometry is pushing the PlayStation’s warhorse processor very hard, which has resulted in dropped frame rates and slow¬ down, which further translates to slightly jerky controls. Even so. Gex 3 comes off as a highly polished and entertaining game. A lot of it’s appeal has to do with the satirical humour and wise-cracks made by Gex, which are all related to the theme that Gex is playing under. The Control Room, for instance, looks like Joel Schumacher’s ungodly version of the Batcave, while the Sherlock Holmes level resembles something out of lumanji. The wise cracks are all mildly funny, which adds a lot of character to the game. Unfortuntely, there is so much repetitive wise-cracking that there will come a point where you’ll wish Gex would just shut his hole. In the end. there is a very cruel reality that the design¬ ers of Gex 3 are going to have to face: a joke can only last so long, and graphics mean nothing without properly- executed gameplay. To put it bluntly, the gameplay bor¬ rows heavily from Banjo Kazooie, but has neither the flow or depth of control (Gex has a ’very’ limited number of moves). The blue-collar humour sustains a little interest, but it’s not something that carries the game. Gex 3 is still a pretty good game. If the control problems were fixed, it might’ve scored a rubber stamp. miUllE: Niw _ UTEMIY: 3B Plitfiraer PUYEII: 1 PHIISIIEI: Crystil Bynwics PIICE: SBB.SS _ IITHIt: C _ MPPIITS: liil Shick PIUS Excellent visuals and a nice sense of humour to break up the seriousness of it all. MINUS Highly unoriginal in terms of gameplay. and there’s limited depth in character controls and moves. VISUALS SOUND 6AMEPLAY 90 82 83 OIIRAU A decent platform game with decent humour. The framerates can’t be helped but they could’ve at least given Gex more moves. HYPER» 47 48 »HYPER EVIEWS PLAYSTATION WCW/NWO Thunder He gets around like he's the God of Thunder, so we let David Wildgoose let loose on this one... GIVE IT TO ME BABY, U-HUH U-HUH No doubt they’d be thrilled by the lavish pre¬ sentation on display in WCW/NWO Thunder - which, as an aside, isn’t exactly the catchiest game name I’ve ever seen, but never mind. It’s all here, from the dazzling clips of our well-oiled and artificially tanned gladiators making their Without doubt the funniest thing about this World Championship Wrestling farrago is the fact that - beneath the homoerotic leather tights and hilarious guming faces, the ludicrous make-up and theatrical pratfalls, and the utterly fantastic names like Macho Man Randy Savage, Rowdy Roddy Piper or, my favourite, Buff Bagwell - these guys are actually real people. Don’t know about you, but I find it truly surreal to think that I exist in the same world as someone called Diamond Dallas Page or Hollywood Hogan. On TV, they’re comic book superheroes brought to life, hamming it up to the increasingly insane crowd and milking such hysterics for all its worth. Out of the ring, they’re just regular blokes who go home to the wife and kids and maybe even unwind sitting on the couch with the PlayStation switched on. What would they make of THQ’s latest wrestling game, I wonder? glamorous entrances before each bout to the amusingly camp taunts given by every wrestler on the selection screen and the TV blokes providing a level of insightful commentary rarely attained by most sports games. You may read that last statement as ironic, if you wish. From the opening titles to the post-bout cele¬ brations, Thunder simply screams its campness loud and proud. And, hey, if that’s what turns on red-blooded American males (and their pre-teenage sons who made this the best-selling PSX game in the US over January), then good luck to them, I say. You can begin by testing your mettle in the single player tournaments. The aptly-named TV Title challenges you to survive five successive matches against increasingly tougher opponents, while the US Heavyweight championship goes two better with seven bouts-in-waiting. Of course, the expert player is unlikely to turn down the opportunity to claim the World Heavyweight championship by defeating the combined might of ten opponents. Forgive my ignorance, though, but since all the wrestlers are American anyway, what’s the difference between the US and World titles? Whatever the answer may be, even on the default difficulty, winning either is a tough enough task. The other play options can be used by the solo player, but, as you would expect, all will be better appreciated by two players. The Battle Royal is basically an every-man-for-himself fight to the death, so to speak, with four blokes entering the ring at once. More tactically minded players can opt for the Tag Team bout, while the perverse among you will enjoy the Cage Match which, pleasingly, takes place in a huge cage. Yet the obvious prob¬ lem is that all these are limited to a mere two players. This is a game that should surely have included multi-tap support. Visually and aurally, Thunder is a mixture. The wrestlers appear very solid and somewhat realistic, yet are let down badly by clunky animation. The stadiums, while packed with much to catch your attention (crowd chants are a particular delight), are typically messy. Speech is used well throughout the game and, overall, I think justice has been done to the atmosphere of the "sport". Where the game really suffers, though, is in the gameplay. The controls are stiff and very unfriendly, while the wrestlers move far too slowly. Frequently, you’ll be left cursing the overly complex button combinations for the special moves that each wrestler possesses. When not doing that, you’ll instead be deploring the small amount of moves available in the first place. Where’s the long term challenge in a fighting game where each character has only a handful of moves? The addition of weapons thrown into the ring from the crowd spices things up to a degree, and it is fun to whack some¬ one upside the head with a baseball bat or water cooler, but Thunder simply lacks the sheer variety and playability that any number of PSX fighting games already boast. WCW/NWO is faithful to a fault. Like the wrestling itself, this is a showy, but ultimately shallow and superficial gaming experience where the novelty will wear off pretty rapidly. With a lack of long-term gameplay. Thunder is probably an ideal game for a rent and a few laughs. Don’t expect more and you won’t be disappointed. millllE: Niw CATEfiORY: Fiehtinc PLAYEM: 1-2 PBIIISIEH: Tin PUCE: $TIA RATIM6: TBA SIPP08TS: Dual Shock PLUS About as close to the full WCW experience as your PSX is going to get. MINUS Weak controls and few moves means a limited game. Only for one or two players. YISIALS SOUND GAMEPLAY B4 70 60 OKIUI Doesn't offer quite as much as other wrestling games out there. HYPER» 53 54 »HYPER REVIEWS PLAYSTATION Street SkSer _ Cam Shea had to name all the members of the Bones Brigade to get this review... WMUIU: NIW CATfCORY; Skateboarding PUY!K; 1-2 PllllSNER: EA PRICE: $79.95 RAIIN6; C SRPPRRTS: Mem card. Dual shock PLUS Skateboarding on PlayStation. MRNUS A piss poor representation of SkSing on PlayStation. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY BS 72 68 DVERMl Skate or Die on the Commodore 64 is a more accurate portrayal of skating, and was more fun to boot. Well, a Playstation skateboarding game has finally surfaced amongst a blizzard of snowboarding titles. Unfortunately, Street SkSer does very little to differenti¬ ate itself, and in the end may as well be a rollerblading game. Street SkSer was developed in Japan, then snapped up by EA for release out here. Rather than tinker with the mediocre arcade gameplay and tiny track count, howev¬ er, EA decided to muck around with more peripheral fea¬ tures. The dope turntablist soundtrack, for instance, has been replaced by a reasonably competent skate-band fest soundtrack. They’ve also done little stuff like adding Powell boards from the 1998 range (although there’s no difference between boards) and EA banners and so forth trackside. In a strange move. Street SkSer features rumble support but not analogue control. WHAT ELSE IS UP OUR GOATS? What really gets up our goats though, is the shallow way that EA have attempted to add longevity to Street SkSer. In the Japanese version, each of the three runs had many branching paths. In our version, the branches have been closed and must be progressively "unlocked" by beating the game with each character. New characters and boards must also be unlocked. "There’s nothing wrong with that” I hear you cry. In principle, you’re right, but the multiple paths are one of the only redeeming features in Street SkSer that place it on the fun side of mediocre. Without them, the game is far less appealing, and the process of unlocking them wears thin fast. Street SkSer has gameplay from a bygone era - not only of gaming, but of skating as well. It’s highly unlike¬ ly that anyone who skates seriously would enjoy this game. There may be casual skaters, or non skaters out there who would dig it though. The reason being that the gameplay is simplistic with no real depth to the tricks. You’re presented with three street runs and a few typical stunt courses like a bowl and a ramp. The courses lack any real creativity and revolve around huge air and complex looking (but overly simple to perform) tricks. You can grind on benches and rails as well, but the layout of each track is pretty appalling. THIS AIN'T FREESTYLE... Aside from the simplicity of the trick mechanics, the other big problem is that you can only bust tricks off "designated” ramps and objects. Thus, even though you have this huge floaty ollie, you can’t pop 360 flips when skating along on the flat, try out innovative runs, or even use natural path undulations to bust tricks off. Street SkSer also sports some bland graphics, terrible handling and absolutely appalling commentary. Not only that, but the two player mode is turn based rather than split screen, which kinda defeats the purpose. Like I said before though, as a senseless arcadey diver¬ sion Street SkSer isn’t too bad, but if you have a passion for skating, you won’t want to see how this game disre¬ spects it. Let’s just hope that "Thrasher: Skate and Destroy” or "Tony Hawk Skateboarding” do this diverse and skilled sport justice. PLAYSTATION REVIEWS Monster Seed He's often accused of being super deformed, but that's never stopped Cam Shea... Monster Seed is definitely one for the more hardcore gamers out there. You play Daniel (now there’s an appropriate name for a young warrior out on a quest) and the basic gameplay involves hatching, breeding and raising monsters, then summoning them as allies in turn based battle sequences. We’re not just talking Final Fantasy style turn based though, we’re talking the whole gridmapped "move three paces forward, then one left, then use this item" system. It’s not exactly fast paced, but there’s a fair amount of strategy, and the sheer number of moves and monsters will have some players quite excited. Daniel? Ya might as well call him Meego... The fights are tied to an RPC-ish quest revolving around rival gangs who are trying to take over and tap a lucrative vein of monster seeds buried in a mountain near the town of Rempearl (yes, I know how ludicrous that sounds). In typical quest fashion, Daniel must take on the robbers, as well as perform tasks for the vil¬ lagers, and compete in monster fighting tournaments in the village. Just like the sixteen bit games of this type. Monster Seed has no spoken dialogue, but scrolling text boxes that pop up on screen. The text is mostly pretty stilted, and conveys about as much per¬ sonality as the graphics. Especially weird is the way that enemies that you’ve never met before often repent on their death bed. saying stuff like "in my heart, I thought of you as my big brother...". Hatching monsters is easy and a lot of fun. Whilst not as free form as Monster Rancher (where you can pop a CD in the drive to determine what monster you’ll get), there are many variables that determine your monster. First, you must pick a seed, then choose the ingredients, then set the hatching temperature. All these parameters determine not only what type of monster hatches, but its predisposition and level of ability in a whole host of areas. There are over fifty dif¬ ferent monster eggs to find, and almost one hundred monsters to spawn. Once in battle there are around 150 fighting commands and 200 magical commands. This all translates to some funky monsters, cool attacks and spells, and interesting fights. The graphics are old school, and none too impressive. The backgrounds that the intrepid Daniel treks through are pre rendered and nice enough, but the super deformed characters are simple, move in a clunky way and don’t really fit in with the background illustrations. The graphics can be charming in a simple way, but are basically out of date. Obviously though, graphics aren’t what will compel a gamer to buy a title like Monster Seed. It’s the depth that the game offers. Along with this depth though, comes a very slow game, and you’ll need some persistence to really get into it. You’ll also need a fair amount of patience (the text that’s constantly popping up is annoying, and the fights can take forever), so if you’re into more action oriented games, stay away. HVIULAILE: Til _ CATKMY: Turn based HdveiitTe fmU: 1-2 PBIIISHEI: SunSoft _ FBICE: $89.95 _ ■UTINC: S _ SIPPIRTS: Mem card. Dual shock PLUS Immersive, plenty of depth. MINUS Slow pace, simple graphics. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 70 68 74 OKRAU 74 For those with a lot of time on their hands, and a love for hatching monsters! HYPER» 55 56 »HYPER REVIEWS PC Heroes of Might & Magic He looks pretty good in chainmail, so Eliot Fish was sent off to fight this battle... Snurkle the goblin had a lonely childhood in the dark forest, picking the legs off spiders, spitting in the river and popping his satanic pimples... and then one day, a mighty warrior galloped into a clearing at the south end of the forest with a small group of Cavaliers and Criffens trailing behind him. Snurkle hesitated, and then stepped out of the darkness to get a better look at this powerful-look¬ ing hero. "Urrr... Who are you?" mumbled Snurkle humbly. The gleaming armoured figure leant for¬ ward on his steed and pushed back his visor. "I am Alarcar, the Knight, and Hero of Erathia! I am searching for the Grail! Join us in our quest, my friend..." Snurkle giggled nervously and shook his head. "Er...nurr...me too small...", he mumbled. The knight let out a big gruff laugh and slapped his thigh, making a funny clanking sound. "Would you rather I fed you to my Criffens? Hohohol", the knight said as he motioned back towards the fer- cious looking beasts hovering amongst the trees. Snurkle didn’t need any more encouragement than that, so he grabbed his knapsack and away they went, to explore some distant land and encounter strange creatures and wild treasure... every minute of playing Heroes of Might £ Magic 3, a scenario just like this plays out in my head. If you love fan¬ tasy games, there is so much here to capture your imagination, that you’ll be addicted in no time at all. It’s been a while since such a seemingly simple game has been so captivating... TAKE A NUMBER If you have never seen nor played any of the previous Heroes of Might and Magic games, then a quick rundown is probably necessary... this is turn-based strategy gaming very much along the lines of SSI’s Warlords games. Yet, the Heroes games manage to incorporate a number of adven¬ ture game and role-playing elements into the mix to ensure that you’re drawn deeper and deeper into the game as you play through. The average game commences with one Hero under your con¬ trol, and one town. Your Hero can learn magic, skills, be equipped with weapons and artifacts that provide you with bonuses in battle and it’s your Hero who basically leads your armies around. Your towns generate troop types, and to send them into battle, a Hero has to visit the town and rally them together. Of course, it’s wise to keep a strong force behind in the town too, in case an opposing Hero comes snooping around your neck of the woods. Out on the world map, there are many things to explore. From gold deposits, tim¬ ber mills, ore mines and other resources to "tag" in the name of your town (and thus reap the ensuing resources which will help you build stuff in your town) there are mysterious locations to visit to learn new spells, be trained in certain skills or granted bonuses for the remainder of the day’s journey. There are also artifacts scattered around the world, which once found can be equipped on your Hero for special bonuses. Playing a campaign, your Hero carries through to the next scenario, allowing for them to eventually become quite strong and kitted out with all sorts of funky magical items. You can of course trade these rare finds between your Heroes if they meet on the map in a bid to share the power around. EAT MY SWORD When combat is engaged, the game switches to a hid¬ den grid where you can strategically play your troops off against your enemy. Your Hero can cast spells during the combat to either aid your units with bonuses in combat or defense, or you can cast nice offensive spells to smite your opponents. Most of the spells will be familiar to those of you who’ve played the Might and Magic RPCs. Besides the standard array of fantasy-based troops, you can also take ballistas or first aid tents into battle - the depth in HOMM3 with what exactly you can do is fantas¬ tic. Really, you can play out the game anyway you desire... Upgrading your towns, recruiting new Heroes from the tavern, upgrading troops, or searching around for artifacts, all whilst trying to complete your mission objectives - it’s totally up to the player to achieve these goals in any order they deem appropriate. This makes for a very non-linear strategy experience, and an immensely satisfying one, as you truly feel as if you are conducting the outcome of the game right down to where single troops stand on the battlefield. The game allows for single scenario play, campaign play (which gives you the option of playing for Good, Neutral or Bad. with different scenarios for each), multi¬ player where you can play against up to eight friends (this is quite brilliant) or even create your own maps for some truly unique adventuring. Heroes of Might 8 Magic 3 is also damn gorgeous to look at too, with some excel¬ lent atmospheric music to boot. Highly recommended! AVAIIAHE: Now CmOlY: Strateey PUnil: 18 PIIU8NEI: 3D0 PIICE: $88.95 lATMG: 6 KlUini: P133. 321111 RIM OfSIlEI: PISS. S4MI RIM. I*ts of $pare time PIUS Too many good things to mention! IMINUS Games take a long time to get through. VISIAIS SOttND GAMEFUY OVERALL H0MM3 is possibly an acquired taste, but it's a meal which will satisfy anyone hungry for adventure. HYPER» 57 58 »HYPER VIEWS PC Starseige Jackson Gothe-Snape clambers aboard the slower, clunkier half of Dynamix "dual release" of Starseige titles... Tribes is the better half in this relationship. gy carrying over from mission to mission. The story does keep you interested, especially the personal relationships between your superior commander and you. It seemed strange though that after only a mission or two, I had this amazing reputation and I was thrown straight into Commander Harabec’s (aka: The Big Guy) squad. The missions are solid, with a decent degree of difficulty. The type of vehicle you choose affects the way you carry out your mission, particularly with the help of primary and sec¬ ondary objectives. These allow for a greater degree of freedom as opposed to just charg¬ ing in and shooting everything. For example, if your primary order is to take out a dropship before it takes off, and your secondary objec¬ tive is to destroy all enemies, choosing a lightweight vehicle will allow you to bolt in. take out the ship and get away. The more dif¬ ficult strategy is to choose a larger vehicle and complete both objectives, which you are rewarded for in the form of more salvage and a higher rank. ONCE UPON A TIME More than any other genre, mech-combat games are set in complicated universes and involve in-depth storylines. Starsiege is no exception. Entering the game you are treated to an entertaining and informative intro that brings you up to speed with the events that have lead to the situation that the game places you in. You are fighting for the Martian colonies against the evil Empire. Previously a mere mining communi¬ ty, after the discovery of alien weaponry tech¬ nology you and your colleagues have taken up arms against their tyrannic rulers. You are the hot new rookie, the rebellion’s one hope against the might of the Emperor (sound familiar?). However, you drive big slow robots. Hopping into the training missions, you are treated to the standard ’’press the arrows to move, now practise moving" etc. However training does help with the satellite map and the more subtle controls, and prepares you well enough for campaign mode. The campaign is just a collection of missions strung together, with resources and technolo- The vehicle depot is comprehensive in that you have a large array of weapons, engines, armour and special items at your disposal. The usual rules for mech-style games apply such as maximum weight when outfitting your vehicle. As the game progresses you have a wider choice of vehicle types and other components. One annoying aspect was that it did take a while to work out what each item did and its strengths and weaknesses. The game also enables you to choose up to 3 wingmen to help on any one missions. These characters all have their own strengths and weaknesses and also obtain higher rank with the more experience they get. UNII [FIRING BORIS The game is pretty uninspiring in the visu¬ als department. There are some nice explosion effects and the terrain is quite convincing, but the vehicles look pretty standard with rather low polygon counts. The menu interface is also a tad dull. Tribes, which was also made by Dynamix looks a lot better, but to be fair the subject matter in Tribes was more detailed and allowed the most to be obtained from the game engine. The sound is perhaps of a slightly higher standard that the visuals, with good wingmen speech and nice atmospheric effects. The combat itself is similar to other mech games and is perhaps a little slow, but still enjoyable. The interface is well thought out and gives you simple access to your vehicle’s func¬ tions. The major fault is that it has simply been done before, from the weapon systems to the shield design. There are a couple of exceptions however. Firstly, cloaking adds the element of stealth to combat, as does the radar system which is similar to that of flight sims, yet very much simplified. Sneaking up on people is therefore a treat, especially in multiplayer. The physics also let the game down. If you take out a vehicle’s leg, the vehicle is destroyed. It is always nice in other mech-games to first demobilise the mech. then finish it off. Also, there is no sign of jump jets in the game, which remove another exciting part of combat. The addition of tanks to the game is nice however, and does offer a change from the standard robots as whole new strategies have to be devised for these vehicles. The game offers multiplayer support, with an easy to use interface, similar to that of Dynamix’ other recent title. Tribes. However those seeking multiplayer action might have some difficulty finding it, because this title is bound to struggle against many other, and better, titles in terms of server support. Therefore us in Australia will probably be forced to play with sub-standard pings on foreign servers. Overall, Starsiege is a decent title, but it is just too similar to other mech-based titles out there without providing enough new elements to keep you interested for very long. AVMUIlf; Now CATEfilffY: Mech Combat mxm. I milti PUILISNEI: lyawii mi $H.§5 lARNC: M REIIIIEI; P1S6«3D accolerator or PHI BESIIEI: PH. 31 accelerator PIUS Good story, good variety of vehicles and components. MINUS Doesn't offer too many new elements to the genre, uninspiring graphics. VINAiS SBINI CAMEPLAY 75 81 78 “Haven t I seen you somewhere before?" HYPER» 59 60 »HYPER REVIEWS PC X-Wing Alliance _ We relayed the co-ordinates to the nav computer, fired up the hyperdrive and told Eliot Rshto "Punch it, Fishy!"... Corellian freighter dropping off loads of Ewok slippers and Bespin baked beans. Times are pretty tough with the Empire breathing down your neck, the Rebellion seemingly causing trouble and another shipping ser¬ vice - the Viraxo - trying to put you out of business. The first half-a-dozen missions in X-Wing Alliance, pretty much lay out the story for you and let you do a few runs in the YT1300 (similar to the Milennium Falcon), where you fly with your droid co-pilot Emkay. In fact, in one mission, the droid pilots the freighter whilst you get to man the famous quad-laser turret and concentrate on blowing things up. Also of note, is that one of your brothers flys a Firespray (Boba Fett’s ship class) which is another nice addition to the series, and having this fly on your wing is quite simply cool as heck. Alliance offers all new 3D cockpits, so that you can actually look around and out the windows of your Corellian ship to see other craft zoom past, which just all adds to the immersive quality of this title. Cockpits now react to firefights too, and you’ll notice an obvious jolt and spray of sparks when you start to get ham¬ mered by laser fire. Whilst it looks incredibly cool, you may find flying with the cockpit graphic off is easier, because you can see more of your environment this way, which helps in a furious dogfight. Last year’s X-Wing Versus TIE Fighter was a minor disappointment to many gamers who had previously played both TIE Fighter and the original X-Wing. Sure, XVT was primarily a multiplayer game - and a brilliant one - but many simply found the experience a bit "dry” after the brilliant single-player experiences of the pre¬ vious games. The later add-on. Balance of Power, attempted to provide more single-player excitement, but the lack of any great storyline also left it feeling a tad soul-less. Well, to the delight of many gamers worldwide, the Larry Holland X-Wing series has returned to it’s single¬ player story-driven roots for the next chapter in this marvellous Star Wars space combat series. This is the kind of engaging, plot-driven space combat the series is reknowned for... and yet, they’ve still maintained the brilliant multiplayer set-up and options for those who would rather fly with friends. In fact, it could be that this is the perfect hybrid of all the previous games, and the crowning achievement of the series. I mean, we can now fly the Millennium Falcon after all...! ...FOOD LEADS TO BEER... You play Ace Azzameen. a pilot with your family’s shipping company, hopping around the galaxy in your WHO WAS THE IDIOT WHO PUT THE COCKPIT HERE? ARGHI WHICH WAY AM I FLYING??!! The missions are, of course, just as involving and challenging as you would expect from this solid series of X-Wing games. Common dilemmas involve having to protect certain cargo from attack, whilst dogfighting fighter craft, fending off bombers with your wingmen and maybe even escorting another craft safely out of the area. The danger really kicks up a notch when your character joins the Rebels and you’re thrust into the X- wing, Y-wing and other Rebel craft to take part in very carefully planned strategical attacking or defensive missions. The depth to the gameplay is what keeps Alliance a head above the rest, allowing you full con¬ trol over an enormous array of wingmen commands, and putting you in some truly tricky situations which sometimes require more than a few runs to figure out what is the best tactic to employ. The game is just so believable. ...BEER LEADS TO HANGOVERS Visually, Alliance is another step forward from the other games in the series, though it uses the same 3D engine which existed in X-Wing versus TIE Fighter. Of course, everything is 3D acclerated with Direct3D and there are some gorgeous coloured lighting effects, engine flares and highly detailed textures, making this one of the best looking space combat games around. It may not be quite as ’’realistic" as a game such as Freespace, but it’s enough to have your jaw dropping open at times with it’s utter coolness. All I need to say about the sound in Alliance, is that it supports 3D audio and is breathtaking to say the least, even for non-Star Wars fans. Brilliant. The multiplayer option in Alliance is fantastic, and offers you just about any set-up you can imagine wanti¬ ng to play. From Free-For-Alls, to teamplay (with up to eight teams!) to one-on-one tests of flying skill, the set¬ up is easy and yet powerful. For instance, you can fly the Falcon amongst a squadron of X-Wings controlled by the AI, and attempt to take down a Star Destroyer, a squadron of TIEs and your best friend who might just happen to want to fly a TIE Defender. Different squadrons can be given different orders, so the AI will play as part of a team in any given situation. The incredible variety of flyable craft on offer, to the astounding array of miscel¬ laneous craft makes the multiplayer option alone enough to keep you playing for months on end. Oh and one more thing. The final mission in the game requires you to blow up the second Death Star flying the Milennium Falcon into it’s reactor core. What more reason do you need to buy this game?! miLAIlE: New CATEEIIY: Space cembat sim PUniS: M PllliSMEI: LicasArts PRICE: $IS.95 RATINE: E lEIIIIEI: P20a. 3ZMI ItM lESIIEI: Pll 351. (4MI MM. 3D acetlentor limill: Direct3l. 31 audio. "Force'Feedback - heh PLUS Engaging storyline, and the best gameplay balance in the series. MENUS Some missions seem bullshit hard, but that's good... right? VISUALS SOUND EAMEPIAY 89 82 92 OVERALL HYPER» 61 62 »HYPER REVIEWS PC Worms Armageddon Team 17 are responsible for the death of more worms than Combantrin, but it has come to an end with Worms Armageddon. Dan Toose reports. Here’s a game that has changed very little from one ver¬ sion to the next, yet is still revered by gamers everywhere as a cool game. For those unfamiliar with the Worms titles, the concept is very simple... Turn based tactical squad combat, with little worms as the soldiers. May sound ludicrous, and that’s because it is, but it results in a wonderful blend of comedy and mind numbing strategy. There are over 6o weapons available to the worms, with which they attempt to take careful aim with and blow one another to bits. ATTRACTIVE WORMS While Worms Armageddon is still not about to chal¬ lenge titles like Unreal and Half Life in terms of being drop dead gorgeous. Team 17 have allowed players to play in resolutions of up to 1024 x 768, and the overall visual quality of the game is far superior to Worms i 8 2. Being able to play in a higher resolution allows you to see more of the battlefield at once, which is a definite advantage. The animations of the worms are proof that you don’t need 15 different special 3D effects to make something look good. AUSSIE ACCENTS! Seeing as a lot of the appeal to Worms Armageddon is in the character of the game, the voices play a large part here, and there are a host of differ¬ ent accents to pick for your team of worms. Yes, they’ve included Australian accents, but some of the others like Indian or Rastafarian are even more amusing. There are plenty of game options available. There are 30 missions to play through, which range from being straight up battles, through to brain teasing puzzles of how to get your worms from one place to another (much like in Lemmings). For those that just want a quick brawl, there is a single player death- match mode, which you can develop your rank in... and speaking of ranking. Team 17 have set up "wormnet” with a global ranking system for online players! Suitable training modes are available too, and complet¬ ing these helps unlock various things to increase the longevity of the game overall. BLOWING UP SHEEP AND OLD WOMEN If you have something against sheep, there’s extra rea¬ son to play Worms Armageddon. Sheep are used as a pow¬ erful explosive weapon, by setting them off towards the enemy and having them burst into flames at the opportune moment. Old women can also be used in this manner... We’re told this IS the last Worms title, and Team 17 should be commended on tastefully finishing this series with a quality product, rather than just flogging a good game till it becomes a bad one like so many developers do. Can't wait to see what they will come up with next. Rollercoaster Tycoon If there's one man who knows his vomit, it's Ross Clarksmith... When a name like Chris Sawyer pops up on the title screen of a game, you know you are going to be glued to the screen for days - just think back to Transport Tycoon and Frontier: Elite 2. Chris has taken the idea of designing and constructing rollercoasters and has built them into a game every bit addictive and pleasurable as his previous offerings. The game starts off with a set landscape, and depending on the particular scenario, a set of objectives is given. These objectives range from having a certain number of guests, with a specified park rating, or reaching a set park value. There is the added time constraint to make things a bit more urgent. Other constraints can be thrown in like a limit to area, a lack of dry land, or not being able to alter landscape features. For those people who just want to get on with building and designing the best park they can, the game will continue in adnauseum after deliv¬ ering a brief message saying that objectives were not met. The game also continues if the objectives are met. This is probably the best feature of the game, its com¬ plete lack of competition, which makes it more of a construction toy to play with rather than a game to compete against. SHOOT THE LOOP Rollercoaster Tycoon is played in an isometric view, and has a very similar look to Transport Tycoon - lots of bright colours, different scenery and types of landscape, all fully configurable. It is possible to see under both water and ground and the view can be rotated four dif¬ ferent ways, which is really necessary to get both ends of the coaster to meet. Unfortunately there is no top down view, which made it difficult to build in certain circum¬ stances. The game provides the ability to build any roller¬ coaster track combination, with twelve different types to choose, from wood to steel to ice, standing to sit¬ ting, forward, reverse or even vertical. All coasters can be built underground, partially or fully, and the num¬ ber of trains and carriages are configurable. There are additions like in ride photos or splashdowns to increase the level of excitement, and two identical rollercoasters built next to each other can be synchro¬ nised. Heaps of other attractions can be built to take the money from park patrons, from the tame Merry-go- round and Dodgem cars to vomit inducing swing ships and spinners. What good would vomit forming rides be without the drink, chip, pizza and candyfloss shops to provide ammunition? Rides can be individually tailored from entry price to number of rotations to all the different colours. Every guest that walks into your theme park has a certain spread of things they look for in a ride, like intensity and nausea levels, so not every person will ride the triple corkscrew with double loop. It is also possible to see how they have spent their money and what they are thinking, which makes it easier to plan other attractions. Rollercoaster Tycoon is a winner of a game, or is that toy? Sort of what you would expect from one of the greats in the business. miUlBLE: Now _ CATKIBY: Sim _ FUTEBS: 1 _ FBBIIIBEB: Microprose PBICE: $89.95 _ MTt: G _ BEIBIBED: PI33. 32MB RAM BEBIBED: PI66. 64MB RAM PLUS More types of rollercoaster than you can poke a stick at. MINUS A 1st person view would have been good. VISUALS SOHND GAMEPLAY OVERALL Screaming girls and old vomit smells. I love rollercoasters! HYPER» 63 64 »HYPER REVIEWS PC Alpha Centaur! Ross Clarksmith is an old hand at the Civ games, so we handed him a new one... Remember the finish to Civilisation and Civilisation 2 where the space ship reached Alpha Centauri, and you thought, "gee it would be cool to do that all again on a new planet!” Well someone was out there reading those very thoughts and programming away to allow you to do just that. That someone was Sid Meier, legendary amongst sim creators, and Alpha Centauri is the third in the series of Civ and Civ 2. The game starts off with a colony ship reaching Alpha Centauri. During the long flight, several factions have developed, and decided upon differ¬ ent colonisation ideals for their new planet. The player must choose one of theses groups to play, much as they would choose a race in the old Civ. Each race has different ethics and advantages to help them win the game. This allows players to pick a group that matches their playing style. So the conquest types can choose from a couple of different militaristic groups, and those who follow a research or economic path also have a few options. OLD STYLE, NEW LOOK. Alpha Centauri follows the successful formula of its predecessors in its basic design. Cities are built on an isometric landscape, containing different types of environments and resources. Cities use these environments to build struc¬ tures, create wealth, and expand their population. Each faction’s cities have their own distinct appearance much like the cities in "Warlords”. One new concept is land height, which determines the amount of energy that may be produced by a square. This is also affected by sea height, which is possible to change during the game through terraforming. A city-scape is not available like in Civ, so all those space age improvements can not be viewed, which is really disappointing. A monument to a player’s achievements takes the place of the old palace, and any firsts that the player perfects are recorded here. A lot of the game mechanics that took ages to laboriously plod through in Civ can be automated in Alpha Centauri. Terraformers will assess the needs of cities and create that which is most needed, and will link all places together with roads. City production orders can be run by a governor, which will choose the most important improvement. These governors can be guided by choosing one of four different types of production, explore, discover, build or conquest. It is also possible to queue up to eight different orders. The game BASIC UNIT TYPES UNITY SCOUT CHOPPER Weapon: 1 1 Mev««. Air 8 Fu«l; 1 turn Cett 24 PREREQUISITE: Not Availablo A row of ttiooo oxtromoiy handy Chopporc woro ttorod aboard tho U.N.8. Unity. Althou0h lightly armod and with limitod fuol rang#. Unity Choppor* art invaluablo scouU and oxplorors. • ^4 PROTOCOL DIRECTOR 1 - — 1 Unity Foil (P-1-2. Slow) Hjrd«n«d (+) Elect Planetary Governor Launch Solar Shade Melt Polar Caps MiliHEII: Firaiis PRICE: $i9.95 RATINC: C Unite Behind Me As Supreme Leader Global Trade Pact Commerce Rates Doi Global Cooling; Sea Levels Global Warming; Sea Levels Atrocdy Prohibitions • Select a motion to propose before the Planetary Council. Ocean Depth; 1000m Repeal U.N. Charter Nem Governor Appoint^rll Diplomatic Victory; Game AVAIURIE: Now CAnCORY: Sim PUYERS; 1-7 CANCEL Spartan Federation Colonel Santiago Integrity Noble Might; Unsurpassed can also be played with these options turned off for people who love to control every little aspect. There has been a big change in units. All combat units now come from a few basic structures that can be cus¬ tomised with different types of armour, weapons and spe¬ cial ability. The number of options in each of these areas increases with the advent of new technologies. Combat has been rethought to a certain extent as well, which has made a lot of encounters a lot more believable in their outcomes. Psionic combat has been introduced, and is used mainly by Mind Worms, who are native of the planet, and behave very similarly to the barbarians in Civ. Alpha Centauri has many other similarities to Civ, which make it very easy to jump right in and start playing without having to make too many adjustments. Those little native villages in Civ that provide so much help to a starting colony are paralleled by crashed pods from the mothership. These give the discovering play¬ er help with energy, food, and forgotten knowledge. The knowledge tree is not as easy to understand in its progression as in the previous games, but this is proba¬ bly because it is almost entirely fictional. One area where there has been a huge level of improvement is diploma¬ cy. There are now loads of options to make when dealing with other factions, whether they be human or computer players. It is now possible to have a planetary council, where all teams vote on different events. One option is for everyone to vote to unite behind a single player as planetary leader, which is a new victory condition. SHOW YOUR FRIENDS WHO'S MORE CIVILISED There are seven different levels of difficulty, which range from the fairly easy to beat, to the nearly impossi¬ ble. If that is not enough of a range, then it is possible to play head to head against a friend via, network, serial, modem or internet connection. This allows up to seven people to duke it out for planetary conquest, which was an option that was badly lacking in both Civs. An extensive online manual can give information about every different aspect of Alpha Centauri, but it is rather unwieldy to navigate through. The individual cities and their units are minutely detailed both visually and with sound effects. The only place where the game is let down is with the pop up screens for cities, encyclopedia, achievements and, unit building. They have a really Spartan feel about them, and they feel like tacked on elements, which can hardly be the case as they are central to the game. For those lovers of Civ and Civ 2 you can't go wrong with Alpha Centauri. and if you have a hankering for ruling a world, check it out. REQIIRED; P133.16MI RAM. WIN 95 lESIREB: Pll, 32MB RAM Plus Its Sid Meier at his very best. MINUS Lacks a few of the polished niceties of previous games. VISUALS SOUND GAMEPLAY 77 88 83 OVERMl Now that the spaceships have made it to Alpha Centauri civilisation can continue. HYPER» 65 66 »HYPER EVIEWS PC Warzone 2100 _ We hurl young strategy boffin Singe Graham to the front with Warzone 2100. From the inner-depths of newcomer Pumpkin Head Studios development labs comes a surprisingly tasty treat in the form of Warzone 2100. Take a pinch of CSC, add a Dash of TA. a smidgen of Robo-Pit and a whole bag of tasty 3dfx treats and you’re getting close. WZ2.1K is starting to get closer to what RTS gaming is really all about, offering us the depth we demand with the control we desire (Almost), and the carnage we require. Yessiree, warm up them nanotek assemblers, we’re in for one helluva ride. Essentially WZ2.1K takes place after mankind has man¬ aged to successfully wipe itself out after a nuclear fall¬ out. Typical isn’t it? We design a satellite to help defend against nuclear attack, and some mad terrorist hijacks it and destroys the Earth. Eventually the humans are able to emerge once more and take a look around and start to pick up the pieces. The player comes into the game once we’ve managed to re-establish some pre war technology and are able to begin the long rebuilding process back to our former selves. Naturally this isn’t going to happen without at least some degree of difficulty. An outcast breed of human known as the ’scavenger’ already has a head start on you and has managed to establish small bases which house pre war artifacts which are vital to the success of your mission. Ultimately though you must expand your empire, uncover all the technology you can in order to build and manufacture newer and stronger units and in the end. confront the forces which originally destroyed the Earth in a final confrontation. INTUITIVE INTERFACE Control of Warzone is a breeze. Players already familiar with a user interface such as Total Annihilation will be able to jump in headfirst. The various menus are easily accessed through a convenient but subtle system, whilst orders can be issued with ease and efficiency. Unit pathing is very good, with units taking the most efficient way to any given point possible. This is often an area that needs work in a lot of RTS games (Including the more popular games such as Starcraft) but WZ2.1K pulls through with flying colours. Perhaps an area that could have used room for improvement was that mini map interface. Rather than a simple click to center the map on a given place, 1 found 1 had to click and hold, then drag a little bit to center the map on the point I wanted. Granted this is a minor prob¬ lem, but in the heat of battle the LAST thing you’ll want to have to to deal with is a map with a mind of its own. Graphically the game is impressive. The terrain is a fully rendered 3d landscape (Albeit a somewhat bland one. Hey, what do you expect after a holocaust?) which beautifully compliments and emphasizes the detail gone into the individual units and structures. Explosions aren’t quite as impressive as they could be but yet they get the job done. D.I.Y. DESIGN Yet possibly the more unique and interesting aspects of WZ2.1K is the unit design. As the you progress, you must continually research and develop new weapon technologies and structural designs. With each new tech¬ nological advance you are then able to DESIGN new units on the fly. Don’t like that standard tank? Reckon that machine gun looks crap? Perhaps a flamer would be bet¬ ter? No sweat, simply open up the unit design window, select your vehicle body style, select its propulsion sys¬ tem (wheels. Treads. Hover etc), then load it up with weapons and you’re off. Warzone will then add your individually customized vehicle 'o’ death to your reper¬ toire and you’re free to flame away. The units all are visu¬ ally different as well depending on which components they have. So a tank with a flamer really DOES look like a tank with a flamer. Very cool. So just what does Warzone offer that makes you want to go out and buy it? Well... admittedly there is no new groundbreaking technology used, no new totally off the wall feature to make your jaw drop and eyes bulge. Yet what it does have is an adequate chal¬ lenge and a finesse that just isn’t apparent in so many games these days. Once you start Warzone you WILL want to play it through until the end. Yes. I admit, I stank at it but I found that I would constantly throw myself against that turreted base time and time again, if only to find out what new and exciting goody or technology would be waiting inside. If you’re new to the RTS genre then take your first steps warily. WZ2.1K is addictive, but might be somewhat daunting to the newbie gamer. Yet any hardcore TA or Starcraft fan will be able to jump right in with ease and come away with a great big smile on their face and a thirst for more. miUllE: Now _ CATffilRY: Strateey NAYEBS: MWulti _ PIIIIMEH: Eiios _ PRICE: $89.95 _ Um. TIA lEQUIRED: P166.16MI RAM RESIRED: P200.32MR RAM. 3D CARD PLUS Sexy graphics. Good unit design system. MHNUS Occasional control difficulty. D 1 1 ISUALS ! B8 SOUND GAMEFIRY B2 BO OVERALL AN excellent effort from the new guys on the block. Keen an eye out for PH Studios. HYPER» 67 68 »HYPER REVIEWS MS Golf 99 PC AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: GOLF SIM PLAYERS: 1-8 PUBLISHER: MICROSOFT PRICE: $89.95 REQUIRED: P90, 16MB, WIN 95/NT DESIRED: PI 50. 32MB RAM After reviewing Links LS 99 this seemed a little sluggish with less detail and realism. With a maximum resolution of 8oo x 6oo and the geometry different than the earlier versions, it just didn’t cut the mustard as finely. Without the ability to change your stance and how you address the ball, this games does not allow the advanced golfer to customise each shot. It is instead replaced by a ball spin £ height setting. For a beginner who just wants to play a few rounds it is fine. However if you are a golf nut (like me) and want to be able to see where your feet are in relation to the ball, angle of the club face, swing arc, etc. You will not be able to do that in this game. Playing with the height and spin settings allows you to hit with a draw or a fade on the ball, however in certain circumstances it doesn’t allow you to hit the exact shot you need. The sounds and commentary are virtually identical from previous versions, with the fog adding a nice touch to the graphics. A few of the attractive features in this game were the ability to set your own personal distances for each club, so for those of you who keep forgetting how far you consistently hit each club you should get yourself on to the practice tee and hit ail your clubs then enter those distances in. With seven courses included on the two CD-ROMs it will be a while before you master them all. The fact that the computer golfers play worse than you do is a comfort for your ego. ANDREW ROBERTSON Links LS ‘99 PC AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: GOLF SIM PLAYERS: 1-8 PUBLISHER: ACCESS SOFTWARE PRICE: $89.95 REQUIRED: P150. 32 MB RAM DESIRED: P166. 64 MB RAM As a huge golf player (once or twice a week on a real course) Coif is one of my favourite games, however in the past on the PC it has lacked that certain realism of shots that the avid golfer craves for. Well I believe this little baby has come along way to bridging that gap. The first stroke I took using the two click method, sliced like I have never seen before, taking up a spot where elephants go to die. Saying to myself like I do on the course "Oh Man", the player representing me on screen said exactly the same thing - even the reactions - Freaky. lust a fluke I thought and moved on to play the next shot. An iron shot to the green, I popped it right next to the hole and again the computer said what I was thinking, "Yeah Baby!", made it very enjoyable to play. The realism of the shots played, the path the ball took off the club, were all a realistic representation of what actually happens on the course, they even got the backspin on the ball right! Customising your stance / shot type will greatly increase your distance and accuracy. Different "Live" camera angles can be used to track your ball better. You can even design your own methods of play, so you want to play team skins at a $iooo a hole best ball lie, go for it. Links LS 99 includes everything from a history lesson about the area surrounding the courses to detailed instructions on what to do. Great for beginner 6 advanced players alike. ANDREW ROI SERTSON 1 1 85 83 1 83 r Kensei: Sacred Fist PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: FIGHTING PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: KONAMI PRICE: TBA RATING: M It’s interesting when you think about a game like Virtua Fighter 3, particularly the fact that AM2 tried unsuccessfully to incorporate fully free three-dimensional movement into the fighting engine. Then when you move to a game like Tobal 2, you have a game that ’does’ feature full 3D movement, but with it came a highly complex control interface that lacked the brilliant simplicity of VF3. Kensei: Sacred Fist, originally titled Buji in Japan, is a game that tries to bring the best of both of these games together: realistic character-to-character interactions combined with full 3D movement, and still featuring a relatively simple control interface. Given that Konami is not particularly well known as a developer of fighting games, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Kensei falls short of its potential. The fighting engine and general aesthetics are all really fine, but the major stumbling points are in the speed of the game and the responsiveness of the controls. First of all, Kensei’s motion is quite slow - more so than the Tobal games, which some hardened critics in the office frequently point out is slower than VF3. In that sense, the button sequences that you press feels very much on the sluggish side, causing you to compensate for response- delays, which should never really happen in any game. Otherwise, the remainder of Kensei is executed remarkably well. The characters are finely detailed using a combination of textures and gouraud shading, and each of them are loaded with animations that bring out the life of all the different fighting styles used on the game. The music and sound effects are average, but acceptable. It’s a pity that Kensei should ultimately suffer for trying to do something intelligent with the genre, but at least it’s better than a lot of other games out there. Recommended for fans looking for a thinking- person’s fighter. KEVIN CHEUNG QAMIflAV Shanghai: True Valour PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: PUZZLE PUBLISHER: SUNSOFT PLAYERS: 1-2 PRICE: TBA RATING: G SUPPORTS: MEMORY CARD. DUAL SHOCK. If you own a PC, you’ll know that Shanghai is one of the most popular desktop games next to Solitaire. If you’ve never played it before. Shanghai is a game where mahjong tiles are stacked in a particular configuration, and your goal is to clear the table of all the tiles by matching identical pieces. It’s not quite as simple as it sounds, though. First of all, there are an obscene number of different types of pieces, all in different suits. Many of the tiles also use Chinese characters, which will be confusing for many people. Secondly, you can only ’pick’ a tile that doesn’t have another tile above it or encircling it. You can only choose tiles that, if in real life, you’d be able to slide off the pile in the horizontal plane. What Shanghai; True Valour offers is a very solid collection of Shanghai games. While the single player mode provides a good cerebral experience, the one mode that’s worthy of mention is actually the two-player mode, where you’re racing against your opponent to find the gold tile. Other variables are thrown in for good measure, such as an energy meter that requires you to remove tiles at a consistent rate, otherwise you’ll lose. There are also ’special move’ tiles that allow you to attack your opponent, such as by flipping their tiles upside down, reversing their controls, depleting their energy meter, and so on. In the end, Shanghai: True Valour is a very enjoyable puzzle game. It’s extremely cerebral, and it’s certain to please all fans of the genre; but unless you can find it competitively priced, it’s value for money leaves a lot to be desired. KEVIN CHEUNG 75 REVIEWS Tiger Woods 99 PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: GOLF SIM PLAYERS: 1-4 PUBLISHER: EA SPORTS PRICE: $79.95 RATING: G Tiger Woods 99 has finally been released in this country - free of any gratuitous, gross and downright disgusting South Park references, you’ll no doubt be pleased to hear. I mean, any kid could simply stick the CD into their PC and search the disc for the offending clip (because we all put our PSX games in our PCs. don’t we?). Better to keep such depravity in places no one will ever see it, like on prime-time national television. Sigh. But never mind. This is an excellent golf game. Notice I didn’t say ’’golf sim”, as the distinction is important. TW99 features all the usual golf sim stuff - a slew of play options, including foursomes, skins and stroke play (who says golf isn’t sexy?), tournaments, tour play, and five different US courses to walk around in spiffy shoes and casual slacks. Yet it also adds several cool things that could only be possible in a game. There’s the Overswing meter, for instance, that lets you go for a super-powerful shot, but with the cost of greatly decreased accuracy. Hit it right, though, and a high voltage charge of electricity will flow through Tiger and the ball will leave scorch marks down the fairway. Similarly, if you break par on three consecutive Pool Hustler PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: POOL SIM PLAYERS: 1-2 PUBLISHER: SUNSOFT PRICE: TBA RATING: G SUPPORTS: DUAL SHOCK, MEM CARD If my penchant for hip hop has taught me anything, it’s that I should be out on the streets, pimping and hustling. Since my secure middle class upbringing has left me crippled in the gangsta world, it seems that the only way to play the role of hustler is through a PlayStation. Unfortunately though, if Pool Hustler is anything to go by. I’ll probably die of old age before making any serious moola, or getting shot for that matter. Whilst Pool Hustler is a competent pool sim. the ’’hustling” side isn’t particularly exciting or well conveyed. The opponents are too sedate and the pace too slow. There are four games to choose from - nine ball, eight ball, 14-1 and rotation. The controls are well laid out and the graphics reasonable. The music is rather poor though, and gets annoying very fast. The tables are a tad fast, so the balls seem to take ages to come to a complete stop. This wouldn’t matter so much, but there’s no way to fast forward to holes, you can activate the Tiger Charge and unleash his ability to whack a small white ball further than any other man alive. Another thing I’ve not seen in other golf sims is the after-touch. After striking the ball, you can influence its flight by holding down the D- pad - left and right emulate hook and slice, while up makes the ball run on and down imparts backspin. That’s not to say. however, that TW99 is totally unrealistic, since the ball physics are pretty accurate and factors such as wind, hills, slopes and the lie of the ball are all portrayed well. Coif ”sims” normally leave me cold, but this is a great game. DAVID WILDG008E the end of the shot. Thus, for every single shot, you have to sit and wait until all the balls are still. This is further compounded by the camera angles which often fail to show exactly what you want to see. On the whole though. Pool Hustler is good value for money. There’s the story mode, where you travel around various pool halls in ’’Central City” (originality city), taking on increasingly skilled opponents and watching the stakes rise. You can also play against a friend, hone your trick shots through a large array of set pieces, or learn all the different ways to manipulate a stick in the lessons. CAM SHEA HYPER» 69 70 »HYPER REVIEWS Dark Vengeance PC AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: THIRD PERSON ACTION PLAYERS: 1 - MULTI PUBLISHER: GT INTERACTIVE PRICE: $89.95 RATING: M REQUIRED: P166, 32MB RAM DESIRED: P233. 64MB RAM, VOODOO 2 SUPPORTS: 3D CARDS Dark Vengeance is a third person perspective action game set in a fantasy world. It’s innovative and creative in some areas, but buggy and frustrating in others. You’re given a choice between three quite distinct characters, Nanoc the Gladiator, Kite the Trickster and Jetrel the Warlock. Unsur¬ prisingly, each has his or her own backstory, specialties and weapons. The three characters are well balanced and each has their own array of funky weapons and attacks. The action has a different feel to any other game on the market... The feel of a tree sloth covered in chains and tar. Fast paced medieval action games should play something like Heretic 2, but the interface to Dark Vengeance prohibits this. Basically, it’s a cow to control, and you spend the game struggling with the controls more so than your enemies. Dark Vengeance has some reasonable visuals, with some nice animations, but on the whole is not up to games such as Heretic 2 or Unreal. On the downside, the map graphics tend to be a little simple, and are functional more than anything else. The most annoying aspect of the graphics, however, is that the camera often hovers way to close to your character and thus takes up a fair quantity of the screen. This obscures much of the playworld and items and enemies along with it. Unfortunately, all the interesting additions to the combat mechanics are almost made ineffective thanks to this lack of vision. Dark Vengeance could have been a good game, but ultimately falls on its face due to good ideas being overshadowed by poor implementation, and often buggy code. CAM SHEA VISUALS SOUND BD I 75 I 5D ^ Premier Manager Ninety Nine PLAYSTATION AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: SPORTS MANAGEMENT PLAYERS: 1 - 4 PUBLISHER: GREMLIN PRICE: $79.95 RATING: G SUPPORTS: MEMORY CARD The last time I actively played a football management game was Player Manager on the Amiga, and it was my favourite game for about a year. Over the years there have been many football management games, and Championship Manager 2 has easily been the best, and last month we saw Player Manager 98-99 on PC. So how does Premier Manager Ninety Nine stack up? For starters, the menu system is a little painful, but maybe that’s just the result of me being so used to using a mouse for hauling through so many menus. However, there is a large assortment of things you can do. Put players up on the transfer lists, buy new players, upgrade your stadium. install extra seating, obtain sponsorships, adjust player training and on field tactics. The playback of highlights after a match has taken place is a complete waste of time really, purely because once you’re into playing the game, there’s no way you’re going to want to wait for the extremely blocky low res engine of the on field highlights to be shown. Players seem to get carded and injured with alarming frequency, and match scores tend to be a bit ludicrous, but it doesn’t hurt the gameplay much. There are two game modes: Career (manage a 3rd division team and also receive job offers to manage other clubs), or Manage (take a Premier League team and take them to the top). Purists will get more of a kick out of the career option. Bleed a team’s finances dry to get a string of wins under your belt and get a better job offer just before your club sacks you for your financial damage to the club. Not a bad game, but if you have a PC at all I’d strongly recommend you look at getting Championship Manager 3 on PC instead, as CM2 is STILL the best management game to date. DAN TOOSE 45 Oddworld Adventures GAME BOY AVAILABLE: NOW CATEGORY: PUZZLE/ADVENTURE PLAYERS: 1 PUBLISHER: GT INTERACTIVE PRICE: $TBA RATING: M It was always going to be in question. How do you cram all of that Mudoken goodness into a tiny Came Boy cart and do it any justice? Is not the appeal of Abe’s Oddysee/Exodus the stunning backgrounds, brilliant character design and fluid gameplay, capped off by a fantastically cool storyline? The new Came Boy Colour is a wholesome wee little squat, but it’s not that good. Try cramming all of what makes Abe’s a magical gaming experience onto a tiny cart - and presenting it all in a drab monochrome colour scheme. Something’s going to be lost in the process, eh? Which is why Came Boy owners and fans of Oddworld should rejoice. CT Interactive and Oddworld haven’t attempted a straight-up conversion of the PSX smash. They’ve opted to take all the good bits out of the core gameplay experience and cut them down for something the Came Boy can handle. So you don’t have to save any fellow Mudokons. nor does the story unfold with stunningly rendered cut scenes. Instead you get a very simple (yet still an appropriate) version of Abe platforming fun. And yes, you can whistle and possess Sligs in it. The stand out disappointment of Oddworld Adventures (other than it not fully supporting the Came Boy Colour is the control system. It’s no where near the quality of the PSX version - so be prepared. It’s nothing you can’t get used to though. It’s a bit strange playing an Abe without all the subtle trimmings (and some of the more obvious ones). Most missed are Abe’s vocals abilities (bleep, blap, etc on the CB- sigh) and the awe¬ inspiring back drops. But that’s okay. Oddworld Adventures still is a mighty play. lust don’t expect too much from this title and you’ll walk away from the experience with a satisfied grin. MARCH 8TEPNIK PLAYSTATION 72 »HYPER Welcome to Hyper’s Metal Gear Solid Playguide. Here, you’ll find a comprehensive walkthrough for every section of the game and an explanation of all the little puzzles you'll find along the way. Please bear in mind the fact that there is no singularly correct method of completing the game; and that this guide is designed to show you the basic motions of doing so. This playguide is based on Metal Gear Solid’s Easy Mode, basically because It was the way the game was originally intended. This is an opportune time to master your skills of stealth, learning to avoid troops, and generally how to infiltrate the base without the need for killing anyone. After that, you can go nuts with the other difficulty levels. METAL GEAR cn j-D □ □CHS Your basic objective in this area is to wait for the elevator at the top of the screen to come down, and then to get inside it. You have the option of picking the rations located at the cor¬ ners of the room. You are not armed with any weapons, so don’t try to kill anyone just yet. The best policy in this area is to simply avoid the patrolling guards. Watch out for the pud¬ dles of water: the guards can hear it if you run through them. Tactical Positions: - The top right corner just behind the forklift is the perfect hiding spot. - If you get spotted, jump into the water from the wharf on the bottom right of the screen. That should allow you to avoid the guards with minimal fuss. HELXPnRT The two most important things to do in this area is firstly to get the Socom, and secondly to reach the ventilation shaft located on the bal¬ cony at the top of the screen. The Socom is located in the back of the truck just beyond the helipad. If you’re a chicken, you can crawl along the right side of the helipad to complete¬ ly avoid detection. The alternative is to run SOLID PLAYGUIDE through the helipad itself, taking care to avoid the search lights, and picking up the chaff grenades in the process. You can also pick up the stun grenades in the room to the left of the helipad, but be sure to knock out the camera with chaff grenades before going in. To get to the ventilation shaft at the top of the balcony, go up the stairs on the right, wait for the guard to walk to the far left end, and then crawl in. Tactical Positions: - The enclave to the right of the stairwell is the perfect hiding spot if the guard on the bal¬ cony is walking towards you. - The open space beneath the left entrance to the heliport is a good place to hide if you’ve been detected. At most you’ll encounter one guard, who you can simply strangle if you take them by surprise. cnsD Buxi-DxnB a. TRHH BnRnBE When you’ve crawled to the end of the venti¬ lation shaft and climbed down, your objective is to get to the elevator located downstairs. Sneak past the camera on the top right and get the Thermal Goggles from the room on the right. Run around the railing to the left side of the screen and wait for the surveillance camera to sweep to the right before sneaking down the HYPER» 73 74 »HYPER PLAYGUIDE METAL GEAR SOLID stairs. Pick up the ammo if you need it, then go up to the elevator and press the button on the console to the right of the door. There’s a slight delay, so watch out for the guard. When the ele¬ vator arrives, make your way down to level Bi. Tactical Positions: - You can crawl under the tank, which allows you to avoid the guards whilst placing you directly in front of the elevator. - The left side of the screen just before you reach the stairs is a good place to check where the guards are. CDHD BUXL-DUnB X. BX Follow the hall down and to the right, and climb up the ladder. When you get to the end, you’ll find the DARPA chief, who’ll then talk at length with you about the details of the mis¬ sion. After he dies, the prisoner in the next cell wilj let you^out, and then ambush you. You only need to Wprry when the guards start pouring in, in which case you should arm yourself and take out the guards one at a time. Watch out for the^renades when they get thrown in: run to^he top left of the screen for safety. After the woman has disappeared, you sliOuld have t level i Keycard in your posses¬ sion. Co back inside the prison block and get the ammunition from the mini-office. Then take the elevator down to level B2. CBBD BUXLQXnB X. LBUBL. BB This area contains 6 smaller rooms aligned 3 across and 2 down. The three passages lead¬ ing downwards have trap doors that can be detected with the thermal goggles. Co first to the lower middle room and get the grenades. Then go to the upper middle room and get the C4. Co to the area just to the left of the elevator and place a block of C4 on the blue patch on the wall. Move away to a safe dis¬ tance, blow a hole through it, and go in to get the goodies. Repeat this process with the blue patch on the right side of the elevator. When you’ve cleared out the two wall cavi¬ ties, make your way to the bottom left of the room. Use a C4 to blow a hole through the blue patch, and make your way through. Run down, and you should see another blue patch on the wall to the right. Use C4 to go through. Ignore the blue patch on the right for now: that area comes later. Apply some C4 to the blue patch leading upwards. You will face off with Revolver Ocelot here. CBBD RBUni-UBR nEZEl-nT Revolver Ocelot will run around in circles while firing at you, stopping after every 6 shots so he can reload. You must take care not to shoot the man strapped to the pillar in the centre of the room. Also, be sure not to activate the trip wires, otherwise the C4 will be set off. Revolver Ocelot is very easily beaten with the Socom. If you’re not sure of yourself, have your rations equipped so that they’ll automat¬ ically kick in if your energy is depleted too quickly. Follow behind Revolver Ocelot as he runs away, and keep your socom trained on his back by keeping the square and X buttons pressed down. When you have a clear shot, pump a round into him. You might be able to pump in a few more rounds while he’s stunned. If you run out of bullets, get the ammo lying around the top of the screen. If Revolver Ocelot gets too far away, it’s possible to stand your ground track him by keeping the square button pressed, and shoot him between the pillars. After the sequence with the Cyborg Ninja, you’ll be equipped with a Level 2 Keycard. Co back out to the main area with the 3x2 mini¬ rooms and use your new keycard to get into the bottom right room. Put on your thermal goggles and get the FA-MAS and ammo. Then go back to the elevator and make your way back up to the tank garage on level i. canD BUILDXnCB X. TRnH HRnBRR Your main objective in this area is to contact Meryl so that she’ll find an access path out of the area. Call her using the frequency "140.15”, and she’ll talk at length with you. You’ll even¬ tually have to wait for her to call you back, so in the meantime, stay on the lower level and go to the room on the right. Use your new Keycard to get in. Kill the sleeping guard and get the socom supressor, which should auto¬ matically be fitted to your socom. Then go upstairs and go through the first door on the left to get the cardboard box and chaff grenades. Continue around the walkway and take out the guard with your socom. Avoid the surveillance camera and get into the room on the top right to pick up the Mine Detector. Co back down the stairs, and hopefully Meryl will have opened the main garage door by now. lust go straight through. Strap on your thermal goggles and crawl your way through the moving laser beams. When you get to the end, use your keycard to go through the door. CIZiaD TRRH bdRRO Immediately in front of you is a series of mines. In order to avoid them, equip your mine detector so that they show up on your radar. To avoid them, simply step outside of their ’line-of-sight’ cones. You can actually crawl up to the mines with the mine detector equipped, which allows you to disable and add them to your private stash of weapons. When you’ve travelled far enough up the screen, you’ll face off with Vulcan Raven. CBRD UULCZRn RRUBH The tank will attack you initially by its main gun turret, which can only be avoided by hiding behind hills and other obstacles. You have to physically run up to the tank, as it will not come to you. When you are a fair distance away, the tank will attack with its gun turret, which is both powerful and unforgiving if you picked a METAL GEAR SOLID PLAYGUIDE bad spot to hide. When you get close enough, the tank will only attack you with its mounted machine gun, but it will still try to move out of range so that it can fire its main gun at you again. The best thing to do is to hug on of the walls and run directly to the tank. The only way to defeat it is to lob grenades down the entry port. To effectively do so, arm your grenades, hold down on the square button, and toss it in when you’ve come to a spot close enough to the tank. Don’t get too close though, as your grenade runs a higher risk of bouncing off the main turret and missing its mark. The tank can even roll over you . Two direct hits are enough to take out the tank. Tactical Positions: - The metal obstacles on the top right hand comer of the map is not only a great spot to buy yourself some time, but it also has lots of ammo sitting around it. Note, however, that this area is not safe at all if you are being fired upon by the main gun. - While it should realistically cripple the tank, don’t bother trying to lure it into the minefield or even laying mines of your own in its path. It’ll smile right at you and keep on coming. CaDD BUXLDXnB B: nuczLBnn LUBnnnnB BTORnBE Run all the way down the ramp and crawl under the main door. Your objective in this area is to get to the elevator located on top of the balcony, which is accessible via only the left or right staircase. To complicate things, your weapons have been deactivat¬ ed. Getting to the elevator via the right staircase is pretty much ruled out. Direct access to it is covered by a surveillance camera, and the walkway above it is patrolled in its entire length. Your best option is to take the left staircase. The guard in this area walks a counter-clockwise patrol route around the missiles, and it’s best that you run in the same direction around the missiles to get to the stairs. Wait for the guard above to walk away, and hustle up to the elevator. Co down to level Bi. be heard. caaD BUXLDXnB B: l_BUBI_ BX — THB BRRXCZB Enter the men’s bathroom on the left and take out the guard who is relieving himself. While it's possible to go as far as strapping a piece of C4 to this guy’s back, you want to keep it as quiet as possible, so use the socom. After that, use your keycard to enter the main office, whose door is located directly opposite the elevator. Take out the guard inside and get the Nikita Launcher and Nikita Missiles. Co back to the elevator and go to level B2. Tactical Position: - Centre of the office room: this is the best place to actively track the patrolling guard. Take him out as soon as you have an open shot. CXBD BUXLDXHB B: l_BI BB — l_nB Co through the doors. You’ll eventually come to a gas-filled corridor with an electrified walk¬ way. The electrical junction box hai to be taken out in order to proceed any further, wkt sure your lungs are filled with air, then lauht^ nikita missile down the corridor. Co left ^ screen, and then up through the office, and through the door on the top left that leads up. Take the missile right, through the door, and then into the junction box. While navigating the nikita missile, be wary of crashing into obstacles like bookshelves and monitors, or being shot down by one of the machine gun turrets. Co back out and fill your lungs with air, and then run down the harmless passage, pick¬ ing up the Cas Mask along the way. When you get to the bottom of the corridor, run to the right on the screen and go through the door. Keep on going until you see the Cyborg Ninja, and follow him into the next room. CXBD EZbdBBRB nxnjH Equip rations and disable all weapons. The Cyborg Ninja can only be defeated with hand-to-hand combat, so go in with the punches and kicks. The Ninja should only fight back with flip-kicks and stomping moves, all of which are easily avoided. Eventually, the Ninja will turn invisible. Equip your thermal goggles to see him. If you’re low on energy, use one ration before going infra-red. Scan around - he’ll be the sitting duck hiding in some corner of the room, leaving you free to beat him up some more. Eventually, the Ninja will stop using stealth and walk up to you throwing some very powerful punches. All you need to do is sitend there and wait for him to walk up to yok He’ll then teleport to the side right whem he’s in front of you, and then throw the punch. To counter it, simple run a littl to tSe side to avoid where-ever he teleport anp hit him when he misses his punch. len the Ninja iS nearly through, he’ll start going crazy and starTd In a big blue ball. This is your chance to take him down with your socom or FA- MAS, after which he’ll run away. After defeating the Ninja, Otacon will give you the Level 4 keycard. Make your way back to the ele¬ vator and go to Level Bi. Tactical Positions - Mid-bottom of the left stair¬ case. If you’ve followed the same patrol route as the left guard on ground level, you needn't worried if he’s behind you. This position is high enough for you to check if the balcony guard is still there, and low enough for him not to see you. - Between the missiles. It’s about the only place you can hide, but if you’re within earshot, your foot¬ steps on the metal grating will HYPER» 75 76 »HYPER PLAYGUIDE METAL GEAR SOLID CO. *-43 BUXL_QXnB B. l_BUEl_ BIL: THB nRRXCZB Co into the main office and kill the guard who is initially patrolling on the right of the screen. Do not, under any circumstances, harm the guard on the left, as it is Meryl. Let her spot you, and then chase after her into the ladies’ bathroom. Check the last cubicle. After your talk with Meryl, go up the passage to the left of the elevator and go through the doors. CXBD BbdiZHn mnnTXB The first thing Psycho Mantis will do is to use Meryl against you. Remember: you can’t kill her! Just use a stun grenade to neutralise the threat she poses. Psycho Mantis has a very specific attack pattern. First, he’ll hover around the room under stealth, firing magic balls at you. Then, he’ll start throwing the chairs, light fittings, ornaments, and paint¬ ings at you, all of which can be ducked under. When you’ve hit him enough, he’ll try to use Meryl again, first to kill you, and second to kill herself. Use a stun grenade in both instances. After that, Mantis will start using stealth to his advantage, making his attacks more erratic. Equip your thermal goggles to nullify his advantage and lay it into him. Defeating Psycho Mantis can be done the easy way or the hard way. Under the hard way, Psycho Mantis can read your mind, so he’ll be able to avoid your attacks. You’ll only be able to hit him on every 8th attack. The best strategy there is to throw ^ well-placed punches, and then to shoot him with something. The easy way is to prevent Mantis from reading your mind. When the screen goes black with the word ’’Hideo” on the top right corner, you must disconnect your control pad and reconnect it on the Player 2 Port. The idea is that Mantis can only read the left side of your brain, which is where the rational thought processes supposedly take place. When you’re connected to the right control port. Mantis will not be able to read your mind, hence he cannot avoid any of your METAL GEAR SOLID PI, AYGUIDE attacks. In that case, equip your socom and blast him with gay abandon. When Mantis is dead, go through the book case passage he opens for you. CaBD THE [ZnUES Let Meryl go off on her merry way. Follow the snowy path to the left and crawl through the rocky underpass. Head up and then right until you reach the lower right corner where you can crawl upwards through a hole to meet Meryl. If the wolves become too much of a nuisance, take them out with your socom. Co through the door at the top of the screen canD sniPER BRnunQB After entering this area, just follow Meryl’s instructions. She’ll eventually be shot by Sniper Wolf. Get the hell out of there as soon as possible: the longer you stay, the more Meryl is going to be shot as she is being used as bait. Make your way back to Building i (the Tank Hangar). On the way there, stop off at the main office in Building 2 to get the Cardboard Box B. When you reach the Tank Yard, take care to avoid the new security measures - machine gun tur¬ rets and extra mines. When you get inside the tank garage, go down the elevator to level B2. Be careful, as the area is now crawling with guards. Use the keycard to enter the upper left room. Equip your ther¬ mal goggles and crawl in to get the PSC-i and ammo. Run all the way back to the Sniper Grounds where you left Meryl and get ready to fight Sniper Wolf. caaD BnXPiER lUnL-F=f whilst the PSC-i is difficult tci handle because it’s difficult to keep the sights sitll. the real trick is in actually figuring out where 5 iniper Wolf is located. She’s up on the balconw, and her posi¬ tions are usually behind the pillars or behind the walls. Your shot has to be preciji, as you'll be aiming at a small portion of he Tbody and not the centre mass. Only in rare instar Bes will she leave herself open for that. | To give yourself a rough ideai of where Sniper Wolf is. press yourself against tliB wall so that you can see the entire length of the passage. The red laser beam she is using to target you should give away her location. Position yoursdf next to either the left or right wall, equip the P$C-i, and target Sniper Wolf. The rifle is deadly accurate, so your cross-hairs must be on the target for a clean hit. You won’t get away with fudging around the edges. If she moves, follow her until she settles down and wait for her to expose herself to a shot again. Don’t forget that you have to change posi¬ tions every so often as well. The tell-tale red flash in your sights means that she’s found your posi¬ tion, and that you’re a sitting duck. After defeating Sniper Wolf, run up along the passage way, picking up the ammo and rations as you go along, and enter the door on the right. At this point, you will be surrounded by the enemy and unceremoniously captured alive. Tactical Positions: - While shooting at Sniper Wolf, it’s best to stay next to either the left or right wall. That reduces the likelihood of being open to a shot. - While changing positions, there’s the real risk that you’ll be hit by Sniper Wolf, which would probably encourage you to take your chances and run across the minefield. If you haven’t fig¬ ured it out by now, the entire minefield can be avoided simply by walking along the metal grating on the edges. CaRD THE TORTURE CZHRmBER In this area, you’ve been stripped of all of your worldly belongings and strapped to an electrocution machine. While you’re being zapped, press the circle button repeatedly to keep your energy level up. If you decide you want to give up, press the select button (in which case, it’s game over without an option to continue). You’ll be momentarily taken back to your cell, and then tortured again. This time, when you’re taken back to your cell, you’ll be paid a visit by Otacon. The guard will also be overcome by a toilet emergency, which will give you the chance to hide under your bed. When the guard returns, he’ll think you’ve disappeared and open the cell door. Come out from under the bed and kill him. If you don’t do this, then the Ninja will rescue you later on. HYPER» 77 PLAYGUIDE METAL GEAR SOLID UJERpnnB iTEm Tips nno BiRnTEBiES. Lai Socom: While the Socom is the bog-standard weapon, it is the most effective. Not only can the weapon be fitted with a silencer, but it is also the only weapon with which Snake can actively target and track enemy soldiers. In close-combat situations, the Socom is actually the best weapon to use. particularly when you’re on a bud¬ get for ammunition. Hold down the X button together with the square button in order to run whilst armed with the Socom. L\=,l Chaff Grenades: while chaff grenades have the ability to knock out surveillance cameras, it’s important to realise that they also knock out your personal radar system. Therefore, make sure the area is clear of patrolling troops before throwing a chaff grenade, otherwise you might accidentally run into one. Chaff grenades are essential for getting through areas of the base that are covered by security machine guns. C cz D Grenades: Grenades are only useful once in the entire game - against Vulcan Raven in the Tank Yard. All you need to do is press the square button to pull the pin. Hold down on it to hang on, and when you want to toss it, release the square button. lust make sure you don’t hold it for too long, otherwise you’ll blow yourself up. Lai Stun Grenades: When you don’t have any weapons and don’t have a place to hide, the stun grenade will probably buy you some time by knocking out the troops momentarily. It’s only ’essential’ when Psycho Mantis starts taking control over Meryl.i C^^Keycards: These are essential for getting through security doors. When you are in heavily guarded areas, you don’t want to make the mistake of accidentally opening a door by running too close to it, which would leave you open to detection. It’s good practice to switch the card on and off with the Li button. FA-MAS: It’s not as accurate as the Socom, and it’s only useful when you have to deal with large clusters of guards - for instance in the Tower i section. It’s also the quickest and most efficient method of disposing of guards with body armour, which is good when time is of the essence. Lai Cardboard Box: The cardboard box is essentially a hiding imple¬ ment when you’ve got no place to hide. You have to be using a box with the right markings on it, otherwise the guards will know it’s in the wrong area and they’ll kick it over. You can look out through the cut-out handles, but if you move too much, the guards will see you. ChI Nikit a Lau ncher: This is a remote-controlled missile launcher where pressil^a^di/ection on the digital thumb pad will determine the direj^n the fissile travels relative to the screen. It’s a very effective lon^range w^pon. but it’s unfortunately slow, which leaves it vul- nera toj^^rity measures like gun turrets. C iD PSG-i: The sniper rifle is one of the most useful weapons in Metal Gear Solid. It is also one of the hardest to use, especially because of the heartbeat that moves you around and the fact that you have to figure out what you’re looking at. The best method of using this weapon is to aim yourself directly at the target and then equipping it. Thermal Goggles: This allows you to see things that are 'invisible’. While it’s useful in key areas such as fighting the Cyborg Ninja or Psycho Mantis, it’s actually a cheap but effective way of finding items. Anything you need to pay attention to is basically highlighted in red. Ch: Stinger Launcher: The biggest whoop-ass weapon in your arsenal. It takes you to first person mode, so all you have to do is point and shoot. Certain targets can also be locked-on to, such as Liquid’s Hind. ElD Claymore Mine: A useless weapon. You can pretty much use it for anything you want, but it’s only for novelty value. Cr-iD Rations: If you leave rations equipped, they will automatically replenish your energy when you’re about to die. If you want to use a ration manually, leave the I2 button held down while highlighting the ration and press the circle button. IL >- METAL GEAR SOLID PLAYGUIDE When you’re out of your cell, go back to the torture chamber and pick up the red box containing your belongings. Press the R2 button and cycle through the items till you find an item that shouldn’t be there. It’s a bomb with a timer device, courtesy of Revolver Ocelot. Hold R2 and press the circle button to get rid of it. Co out the door, then take the elevator down to level 82. csaD BUXL_DinB a L_BUEI_ BB Run down through the hole you blasted on the southern wall, and make your way to the passage that’s just before where you first fought Revolver Ocelot. At the end of that pas¬ sage is another blue patch, which you can blow a hole through. Throw in a chaff grenade to disable the gun tur¬ rets and run in to both rooms to pick up the grenades and camera. After that, go back upstairs to the Tank Garage, through the Tank Yard, and all the way back to where you left Meryl. CBiD TniUER a Co down the corridor and go through the door. The alarm will sound and you basically have no choice but to keep going forward. Make sure you get the Rope and Stun Grenades, and then run for dear life up the stairs. You’ll have to stop every so often to take out the troops, who are all wearing body armour. The key to surviving this section is to get through it as quickly as possible. In order to do that, don’t bother using the Socom as it takes too much time to kill these troops. Arm your FA-MAS and let rip into them. As you are running up, ignore the Level 6 Security door. A bridge to Tower 2 lies on the other side, but it’s frozen shut and you have no choice but to run to the roof anyway. When you get to the very top, go through the door. Liquid Snake will challenge you here with his chopper by blowing up the roof. Equip your rope and walk up to the edge of the building to start the rappelling sequence. All you really need to watch out for here is the jets of steam and the bullets that Liquid fires at you. When you get to the bottom, you’ll be on the other side of the security door that was frozen shut - but don’t bother going in. Your goal now is to get across the bridge to Tower 2, which is guarded by 3 heavily armed troops on the other side of the bridge. Take them out with your sniper rifle, and be careful because they shoot back. Get to the other side and go through the door before you get shot up by Liquid. CBSD TnUJBR S It is essential that you get the Stinger Launcher when you enter the room, as well as the stinger missiles. After that, go through the door and follow the stairway downwards on the right of the screen until you come to the broken stairs. Run back up to the elevator, where you’ll meet Otacon again. Continue run¬ ning up the stairs. This time, however, you have to look up before you start running up each flight of stairs, as the entire tower is loaded with mounted guns. All you really need to do is throw a chaff grenades to knock them out as you’re running up the stairs. The guns occur at every fourth set of stairs, so if you throw chaff grenades at regular intervals whilst running all the way to the top, the entire tower should be passed with minimal fuss. When you get to the top, pick up the ammo, climb up the ladder, and go outside. CB3D LIPUIQ BHRHB Once outside, you’ll face off with Liquid Snake and his chopper. Defeating the chopper is very, very easy. Liquid will fly all around the building firing machine gun rounds, which can be avoided as you use the obstacle in the centre of the roof. There’s no specific position you need to be in to take down Liquid - just arm the Stinger Launcher and wait for a clear shot at him. To do that, the chopper has three lock-on points: the cockpit, the centre mass, and the tail. Shooting any of them will do the same damage. When Liquid has taken enough hits, he will fire off a missile which will need to be avoided. He’ll then duck below firing range where you can’t see him, and come up sud¬ denly up for a surprise attack. To get around HYPER» 79 »HYPER PLAYGUIDE METAL GEAR SOLID O this, you can actually track the chopper’s movements by looking at your radar and pointing your Stinger Launcher at the ground. You’ll still lock on to him, even though you won’t hit him, and you’ll be able to hit him with a rocket before he even fires off one round. After Liquid crashes and burns, go back inside the tower. CSHD TnmER S Run all the way back down the stairs and get in the elevator. Co to Level I. On this elevator you will be surrounded by 4 soldiers wearing stealth suits and body armour. Equip your FA-MAS and thermal goggles and take them all out. When you get to Level i, get the ration and PSC-i ammo, and go through the door. Throw a chaff grenade, pick up the items, and leave through the next door into the snow field. CS5D SnXPiRR LUni_R S Run forward. Eventually, you’ll be shot down by Sniper Wolf. Use the same strategy as before to defeat Sniper Wolf. When her little sequence is over, enter the building in the middle at the top of the screen, with the Level 6 Security door. When you go inside, toss a chaff grenade and run around to the top right of the screen. Going down the passage will bring an end to Disc I. Insert Disc 2 to continue. CR&D B1_H5T RURHRIZE Take out the first guard with your socom and pick up the ammo. Co down the longer bridge and press yourself up against the wall. Notice the little opening on the side? Co through it. This will allow you to tip-toe your way across the ledge. Make sure you stay pressed against the wall, otherwise it’s hasta la vista, baby. When the winch moves over, you’ll have to duck, otherwise it will knock you into the fire pit. Co down the first set of stairs and pick up the ammo lying around. If the guard comes lurking about, kill him with the socom. Co down the next flight of stairs and then go through the south door into the steam room. When you’re in the steam room, just duck and run your way past the jets of steam. Co down, then crawl through the opening on the west wall. There are mounted guns here, so toss a chaff grenade and run around to pick up the Body Armour fir*i ISk K:Mm ■a pv m fck. .1 Do you know what that b? It's • bullet straight from my gun to your heart and ammo. Get back inside the steam room, out the way you came, and then go through the main door right in front. CSHD ELBUHTDR SHRRT Run around and pick up the ammo. When the lift arrives, get on and activate the console just as you would with a normal elevator. On the way down, you’ll encounter a few troops who are easily taken out with the FA-MAS. When you get to the bottom, go to the next elevator on the right hand side. Be careful of the mounted gun between the elevators. The area around the second elevator is also loaded with mines. When you get to the very bottom, get the ammo lying behind the crates and go through the big door. caaD RRaasER Rnnm — uuL-cnn RRuan Here’s where you face off with Vulcan Raven man-to-man. He’ll wander around searching for you, and for some reason he’s pretty bad at it. However, he does have a very long range in terms of sight. In any case, once you’ve hit him enough, he’ll start running around a little faster, but it’s nothing to be particularly wor¬ ried about. The method by which you defeat Vulcan Raven is really up to your imagination. The only forms of attack that are categorically ruled out are the socom and the FA-MAS, which require you to run up really close. You can use any of the following either exclusively or in combination: the Stinger Launcher, the land¬ mines, C4, and the Nikita Launcher. Exit through the north door when you’re done with Vulcan Raven. METAL GEAR SOLID PLAYGUIDE unoERBRnunQ brse The passage immediately in front of you is loaded to the teeth with mounted guns and trapdoors. However, it’s nothing that a little chaff grenade can’t solve. Just toss one and then run for dear life to the north door. Follow the passage up to the Metal Gear Rex. Co right and climb up the ladder. Then go left, up, and then up the next ladder. Then climb the ladder going over the Metal Gear Rex, climb back down on the other side, and follow the passage around. Kill the guard, keep following the passage, and go up the flight of stairs and watch the sequence in the control room. Hey IL Unfortunately, Snake has dropped the PAL Key all the way down at the bottom of the base. You have to climb all the way down to the bottom of Metal Gear Rex, and then go down the next ramp into the storm drain. There, you have to look for the PAL Key, which a rat has taken possession of. You have to look for the rat, and it’s probably a little easier doing it with the thermal goggles on. If you find the rat, shoot it to pieces and get the card. You might have the fortune of picking up another one of Revolver Ocelot’s bombs while searching for the PAL Card. Get rid of it in the same way as you did the last one. When you find the PAL Card, you have to climb all the way back up Metal Gear Rex and get back into the control room. The room itself is covered by cameras, so toss in a chaff grenade before roving in. Equip the PAL Key and walk in front of the left laptop computer. cao-D PiRL. Heird a The second PAL Key is made by taking your original PAL Key to the Freezer Room where you killed Vulcan Raven. In other words, you have to climb all the way back down Metal Gear Rex and go to the Freezer Room. You have to wait around for your PAL Key to turn from yellow to blue - the status of which can be checked on your R2 inventory button. When the PAL Key has turned blue, go back to Metal Gear Rex. climb back up to the control room, and insert the key into the centre laptop. casD PHL Hey a The PAL Key must now be warmed in order to be usable on the red laptop. To do that, you have to run all the way back to the blast fur¬ nace and wait for the PAL Key to turn red. On the way there and back, be wary that the Freezer Room is now crawling with guards. When you get back to the control room, insert the key into the last laptop. When the alarms go off and the room starts filling up with gas, call up Otacon on frequen¬ cy ”141.12”. He’ll open the door for you. When you get out of there, you’ll notice a half-naked man running to the right. Follow him. mBTRL- EBBRR RED! You have to use the Stinger Launcher and Chaff Grenades to defeat Metal Gear Rex. Your target is the radar module positioned on Rex’s left shoulder, which is on the right of the screen. That radar is central to Rex’s targetting system because it is designed to locate you. Therefore, you must throw a chaff grenade, and then quickly switch over to the Stinger Launcher and fire one off at the radar. Unequip it and run away from the rockets being fired at you while throwing another chaff grenade, and repeat the process until the next automated sequence begins. After Grey Fox has been killed, you’ll note that you needn’t worry about the radar module anymore. This time around. Liquid Snake has completely exposed himself as he has no other choice but to leave his cockpit open in order to see. Therefore, all you need to do is fire one stinger at a time at the cock¬ pit. After each shot, unequip the launcher and avoid whatever Liquid fires at you. In addition to the rockets and machine guns. Liquid will also be firing a big blue laser at you. The laser is only effective at close range; and given that the Stinger Launcher has a very good range, you’re better off keeping your distance. Just keep on hammering into Rex until it’s dead. l_XPUXD SnHHE Now you’ll be facing off with Liquid Snake in a fist fight. This part is actually very simple, except for the time limit on which Meryl’s life is staked. C 353 THE EBERPiE Now that Meryl is safe, your pri¬ mary objective is to get the hell out of there. Before you go any further, go back through the door you came in from and get the rations, then run left, following Meryl’s lead, and also pick up the rations next to the stairs. Follow Meryl into the jeep, and shoot down all the troops that try to stop you. Also, shoot down the barrels as a means of gaining an advan¬ tage - particularly because they explode. After clearing past the first few security blockades, you will be pursued by none other than Liquid Snake. Just keep on shooting at him until Meryl gets the jeep out into the open. Z -< "0 Congratulations: You’ve just completed one of the greatest adventures ever on the PlayStation B2 »HYPER MULTIPLAYER STARSIEGE TRIBES : TEAM BASED GAME OF 1999?! Tribes is a first person shooter, akin to games like Quake. It has however been designed with a complete focus on multiplayer gaming. The only single player side of the game is a few training courses to show you the basics of playing the game. Each player is equipped with a jetpack, zoom facility (up to 2ox - get some dry rations and camp out baby), and the ability to customise their weapon and armour selection at inventory stations. The real beauty behind tribes however is its command facility. Team talk and commands are built into the game to the point where its possible to co-ordinate full team strate¬ gies without having your team members sitting across the table from you. If you had to compare Tribes with an existing game it would be Team Fortress (a mod for Quakei) that would come closest. With Team Fortress 2 coming out within the next couple of months though it will be interesting to see which game holds the commu¬ nity for team based games. Certainly Tribes is doing very well in the popularity stakes thus far, and if nothing else this progression of team based games shows that players are appreciating strategy as much as skill. Also, for those of you that figured you’re not a crack FPS expert enough to cut it in Quake i or 2, Tribes has enough roles to play to allow new players to get in and play a real role without requiring you to have years of experience behind you. On the Wireplay scene, there is to be a set of VIC vs NSW Tribes matches played over the months of April and May. The Victorians will be represented by a team of TR and SoQ members (notably the two best team based clans in Vic for Quake2 and very strong strategically). NSW will be reperesented by a conglomerate of the state’s best Tribes players - uniting under the banner of Tribe of MPU (ToM). Check out their site for more details (WWW. mpu. com. au/tribes). txciftuf *S* (1 M ori i tcinv Exoftur *S* btcurte tft otorver. ^ephiroth Panda: i thH( so ACGP UPDATE: With the completion of the first round in most states, the national tournament is running on schedule. The Victorian side will be announcing dates and venues by the time this issue comes out. The interesting thing about this trial tournament is that its bringing the community together with a com¬ mon goal - to further professional gaming in this country. Carnes will change, technology will advance, but what is being built here is something that will last a number of years. To quote Term, the QLD state rep for ACGP, ”If nothing else this trial tournament will pro¬ vide a framework for which to base a professional league on’’. Once this framework is laid down and this first test tournament complete the next goal will be to setup a full scale professional tournament, covering the latest games, and culminating in a mini gamer’s trade show. As in all competitive arenas, Australians have a significant amount of talent for such a small popula¬ tion, and its about time the country took its gaming seriously enough to provide services and support for its gamers. International representation (like Reload’s jaunt to Sweden) is only a small stone throw from becoming the norm. National Status http://vvvvvv.acgp.com.au/ SGL QUAKE2 TEAM DM ROUND1 THE MULTIPLAYER DIRECTORY The Sydney Gamers League held Round i on the 6th March. Running under the Australian Computer Gamer Professional banner. Michael Price alias FireFly organised the event with the help of the boys at MPU. The day went very well, with everything going to plan, all matches were finishing on time with some wild fragging going on. First game started at Midday, with 8 clans from Sydney turning up to wipe the floor with each other. The clans competing were: The Black Hand, coots. The Draconic Guild, Malevolence, Fueled By Destruction, Vortex, Generation X and Lords of Amoral. BH where the clan of the day taking out equal first with 6 wins and 12 points next the their name, coots and DG are also on 6 wins and 12 points. BH won one the frags count and needed to buy extra mops 8 buckets to clean up the mess they made on the floor after a huge total of 709 frags. Interestingly, this was the first time a clan has defeated Draconic Guild in a LAN match. With 3 clans coming equal first and a tight battle for 4th, the next round is going to be a most exciting round. Round 2 decides the top a clans which will go into the final round and battle it out for the SGL quake2 Team DM title. Unfortunately round 2 is being played on the 27th or march and it is way past our deadline, so you will have to wait till next month for the result or you can always see the up to date results on the Sydney Gamers League WebPages at http://sgl.golsyd.net.au/ SGL would like to say thanks to their sponsors for the day • MPU 8 jolt Cola. Next month we’ll be tak¬ ing a look at the Queensland side of things. TEAM Points Frags The Black Hand 12 709 coots 12 678 Draconic Guild 12 670 Malevolence 8 499 Fueled By Destruction 6 568 Vortex 4 234 Generation X 2 197 Lords of Amoral 0 36 A handy list of URLs for the PC multiplayer gaming community. 'ational Gaming Services ACGP - http://www.acgp.com.au/ Australian Computer Gamer Professionals Wireplay • http://www.wireplay.com.au/ An online gaming service currently catering to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane Multiplay • http://www.multiplay.com.au/ An online gaming service that is the official Australian licensee of the TEN (Total Entertainment Network) client Major State LAN events VML - http://www.newsninja.com/vml/ Victorian Multiplayer League. The major Victorian regular LAN event. MPU - http://www.mpu.com.au/ Multiplayer United. A monthly NSW LAN event. SGL http://sgl.golsyd.net.au Sydney Gamers League providing the competition on MPU Ians for the national league. QGL http://www.qgl.org Queensland Gaming League providing competition for the national league NT http://ausquake.newsninja.com/ntmgi/ New league / Lan formed in the Northern Territory providing competition for the National league. SA http://www.kastmet.net.au/sawonderlan/ South Australian Lan 8 League providing competition for the National League. WA http://www.iinet.net.au/~stomp/WAGL/ Western Australia Lan 8 League providing competition for the National League Quake Scene Challenge-AU • http://www.challenge-au.com/ A site is dedicated to International Quake challenges. AusQuake - http://ausquake.newsninja.com/ The main Australian Quake 2 web page. Quake.AU • http://www.quake-au.net/ A top Quake news site that covers a broad range of stuff, run by Malby. OZTFL • http://oztfl.newsninJa.com/ An Australian Team Fortress League. OTFCR • http://otfcr.kanga.com.au/ The other major Australian Team Fortress League. 02 League • http://sas.ml.org/q2league/ A Quake 2 Capture the Flag league, based on the Power servers. Starcraft KSCL • http://gameserver1.ogn.ausLcom/leagues/sc/ Kali Starcraft League. A dedicated Australian Starcraft ladder, separate from the Battle. Net ladder. »HYPER 83 >TIM LEVY ARCADE OC u CL HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 segJ a , f f ^fi9f \ : \ Y f I ^ ' • • 'ij %^''- i '•»>* r*. '■* >1 m.’- CO lust when the FBI thought it was safe to nail the case shut on the 1996 Genome Theory Case (a.k.a. House of the Dead I), another dangerous outbreak of zombism has occurred. This time, it’s not just confined to a house, it’s more on an epidemic full blown CITY scale. So start massaging that trigger finger cause it’s about to get a major workout in Sega’s new fear inducing polygon shooter on rails. By taking control of FBI agents lames and Cary, you will attempt to track down the evil Goldman who seems to be the lunatic responsible for causing death and destruction and a net loss for the city’s tourist industry. This mystery/adventure will take you through the city’s locales by shoe, automobile and powered launch - though no matter where you go, there is a seemingly endless supply of pos¬ sessed creatures awaiting to slice and dice your FBI ass. At times, the game feels like your (or is it just mine) worst nightmare. It is nightmarish in the fact that it now takes MANY bullets to kill the incoming zombies. In other words, you’ll find yourself maniacally blasting away with chunks of gamy crud and limbs flying off the zombie as it gets closer and closer and closer still. Then just as your trigger finger is becoming real tired, and just as that giant meat cleaver is about to descend into your forehead, the zombie finally keels over and dissi¬ pates into a pool of bubbling green ooze... that was (another) close one. In many parts of the game, you will have to rescue civilians who are being attacked by the zombies. If you save them by extremely accurate fire, you are awarded either a bonus immediately or when the stage is completed. Whatever you do dont shoot the humans as you’ll lose a life. Saving humans is also the way in which the paths split to take you on an alternate route. Three arcade cabinet types are available, with the sit down booth being the best as it is i) darker and there¬ fore scarier 2) you can sit down 3) people cant see you being scared 0 there is sunound sound. HotD2 is a perfect example of what a sequel should be. Not only have the sound and graphics been tech¬ nologically enhanced, but the level of intensity has been magnified to bring you a shooter of horrifically terrific proportions. 19/10 STAR WARS TRILOGY SEGA As we eagerly await the launch of the Star Wars pre¬ quels a whole host of merchandising (Yoda ear muffs. Boba Fett motorcycle helmets. Chewbacca door mats) has been released to whet our appetites. On the arcade front is Sega’s latest 3D first person perspective shooter on rails which places you in those spectacular battles fought in the first 3 films. In the games 3 MAIN stages, you will find yourself piloting: a speeder bike through the forests of ENDOR, an X-Wing fighter near the planet YAVIN (Death Star l) and a snowspeeder over the icy surface of HOTH. In a couple of Hoth and Endor's sub stages (3 per main stage), youll find yourself on foot and having to shoot it out against imperial ground troops with your blaster. Bonus stages include lightsaber battles against Darth Vader and Boba Fett. If you successfully complete all 3 stages, a fourth is revealed in which you attempt to take out the Death Star Mk II in your trusty X-Wing. Overall, the game packaging is of a very high stan¬ dard. with all the characters/sound effects/theme music from the film being accurately ported for the game. Unfortunately, the gameplay is at times lacking in depth and intensity, though if you are a hardcore Star Wars fan. then I’m sure you can overlook this, as the game is quite a roller coaster of a ride. ■ 7 . 5/10 > KEVIN CHEUNG A N M E SABER MARIONETTE J, EL HAZARD 2 VOL. 1&2 VOL. 1 - Lovers of the original El Hazard OAV will be pleased to know that a second series chronicling Makoto’s adventures in the ‘Magnificent World’ has finally arrived. This series, sees the return of the complicated yet hilarious love triangle surrounding Makoto, Nanami and Shayla; which is further complicated by the lesbian tastes of Fatora and Alielle. Heck, even Fujisawa and Miz are meant to get married! The thread holding these concepts together is the discovery of Kalia, a mysterious girl who is somehow linked to Ifurita and likewise falls under jinnai’s control. Of course, Jinnai has some kind of maniacal plan for world domination involving Kalia. Those who are unfamiliar with the hugely popular El Hazard series, might find themselves thrown into the deep end. If you’re already a fan. you might be a little disappointed by the change in plot direction. The orig¬ inal series focussed on the introduction of new charac¬ ters. learning about the magnificent world, and quest to ultimately get home. Here, it’s about the on-going adventures, much like Ranma and Tenchi Muyo. At any rate, the new costume designs and animations are of a high standard, ensuring that the classic romantic com¬ edy moments are explosive and funny as hell. El Hazard 2 is definitely worth checking out, but fans should be prepared for a change in focus ■ Animation: 8 ■ Plot: 7 ■ Japan-ness: low ■ Overall 7.5 ■ Category: Romantic comedy, action Production Company: Pioneer LDC ■ Available: On import News and Release Into With Evangelion over, there’s going to be an anime drought on TV. SBS and Madman are currently negoti¬ ating Gunsmith Cats, which is coming soon to video. Also look for a local release of Burn Up W. And the EVA movies? Australian distributors are negotiating them right now. We’ll keep you posted. Hyper’s Hot 5 of the Month 1. Neon Genesis Evangelion 2. Saber Marionette J 3. Vision of Escaflowne 4. Fushigi Yuugi 5. Record of Lodoss Wars All import videos supplied by The Cartoon Gallery. QVB, Sydney. Their website lists over 2,300 anime items. Phone: (02)9267-3022 http://www.cartoongallery.com.au THf OAunr ■ Category: Romantic comedy, action 0 Production Company: Bandai Visual D Available: On import If you’re a fan of the supernatural other-worldy action and slapstick humour of the Slayers or Tenchi series, then you’re definitely going to want a look at Saber Marionette I. Somewhere in the future, the future of humanity is left to 6 men who crash-land on a planet known as Terra II. For the next 300 years, the entire of taking on an imperial army. The romantic comedy is delightfully funny, especially when 2 more Marionettes that fall in love with Otaru. This is perfectly balanced by a more serious sub-plot, where the leader of a rogue empire is intent on taking over the world. This neces¬ sarily involves battles between even more Saber Dolls. On these basic plot structures alone. Saber Marionette 1 has huge potential. Thus far. it’s been outrageously funny and we can’t wait to get our HYPER» 85 86 »HYPER NET TRAWLIN' I (fi u. I- O —I LU ROLE PLAYING GAMES ^4 t> jf jsJT If ever there was a game genre that demanded freak¬ worthy dedication online, it would be the Role Playing Came. Come take my hand and let me guide you to some special URLs for a few of the latest greatest fanta¬ sy-based games... Heroes of Might h Magic ill This fantasy-themed turn-based strategy war game has rabid fans all over the globe, thus it’s presence on the web is nothing short of burgeoning. If you’re new to the series of have a hunger to know more about the land of Erathia, then start your journey across the web at the official site courtesy of 3DO studios. http://www.3DO.com/products/pc/heroes3/ Of course, what would a game be without it’s plethora of fan-created sites of worship? Try a few of these cool sites on for size... http://www.1stnettech.com/Holly/Heroes3/homm3.html http://members.xoom.com/dunkeeper/ Baidur’s Gate Venturing forth to smite demons with magical arrows, geared up in your enchanted platemail. there’s always time to stop in at the tavern for a cold one. All around the net there are some virtual taverns where you can drop in for information, meet up with fellow adventur¬ ers or just gorge yourself on tips and tricks. Besides the official site at http://www.lnterplay.com/ there are plenty of Baidur’s Cate resources on the web. The BC Chronicles is like a complete DSD guidebook online, with everything you need to know about every little aspect of the game, as well as information on trou¬ bleshooting the game and figuring out Multiplayer hassles. Surf on over to http://www.BGChronicles. com/ for the biz. There are also countless links here to other official and unofficial Baidur’s Cate websites, such as Baidur’s Cate Realms at http://www.bgrealms.com/ which is very cool. With it’s multiplayer options, it’ll be a while before we see the end of Baidur’s Cate fanaticism. Final Fantasy VIII Yep. this long awaited title has been out in lapan for over a month now. so those of you who are busting to find out some details on the game before the PAL release, can now tune into the site of gamers who have played through the whole thing. Did you know it came on four discs? Is it true there is a Sephiroth Summon? Find out... http://www.ff8world.com/ http://www.rpgamer.com/ http://www.negativezero.com/ff8/ http://members.xoom.com/ff8net/home1.html Wizardry 8 Keeping a fairly low-profile in comparison with BDO’s M&M7, Sir-Tech’s Wizardry 8 is another game in a long-running series which has generated thou¬ sands of fans, which is seeing the light of day soon. You can go straight to the horse's mouth at http://wvirw.slr-tech.com/ for the latest news and information on the imminent release of the game. For a fan’s perspective on the whole Wizardry series as well as Wizardry 8 news, head over to Snafaru’s at http://www.losphere.net/-erlc/wizardry/ to see what he has managed to dig up. There’s also the Wizardry Callery which is quite a comprehensive col¬ lection of information on every Wizardry title released. You can get to the Wizardry Callery at http://www.verinet.com/-xxa/Wizardry/lndex.htm > ELIOT FISH R E T R O S E C T STAR WARS-(1983) ATARI ANCIENT HISTORY Many moons ago... oh wait, that’s no moon! After Star Wars had been a worldwide smash back in the late seventies, the Empire Strikes Back had wowed fans across the globe and Return of the ledi ended the "middle" trilogy, an arcade game popped up in amusement parlours (as they were known back then) which would captivate gamers at the time with it's amazing visuals, sound and gameplay. This was the debut of the Star Wars arcade game in 1983. complete with sit-down cockpit cabinet and sampled speech, providing arcade goers with their first real chance to feel like they were "in" the movie. The basic vector graphics were sensational at the time, as was the digitised speech from Obi-Wan Kenobi. Darth Vader and Red-5. Gameplay was pretty basic, and yet utterly addictive... approach the Death Star and shoot at TIES whilst avoiding or blasting their fire¬ balls. On the Easy setting you would go straight into the Death Star trench and dodge more oncoming "fireballs" until you reached the exhuast ports where you could slam home your proton torpedoes. In the ensuing stages, the difficulty would rise with more TIEs. faster fireballs and even a surface attack on the Death Star involving a forest of towers and tur¬ rets. If you had a keen eye you could spot Darth Vader’s TIE amongst the oncoming fighters and try to get a few shots on the old lusty helmet himself, whilst the game's speak¬ ers (which were strategically positioned right next to your head) boomed out the Star Wars theme and eager young jedi wannabes crowd¬ ed around to marvel at this Star Wars specta¬ cle. Superb little details like "using the Force", where you had to complete the Death Star trench without firing a shot along the way. added an extra challenge to the simple blast- fest. and it was hard to resist Obi-Wan’s urg¬ ing to "trust him". The crazy old hermit! It didn’t get any more exciting than this in the arcades at the time, and the Hyper crew seem to remember many a lost lunch-money being pumped into the cabinet for "one more crack at the Trench". Of course, another mem¬ orable thing about the Star Wars arcade game was the funky controller - a two-handed flight stick which gave you that "fighter pilot" feel, as opposed to just a standard old joystick and buttons. This has to have been one of Atari’s most popular arcade games of the eighties, and is currently available in the darkest cor¬ ners of the internet if you’re brave enough to go poking around for it. A true classic, and the blueprint for countless future sit-down cabinet arcade games. We love it still. HYPER» 87 88 »HYPER CHEAT applits from public and mobile phonti. Sega PC 1900 142 100 Calls charged at a rate of $1.50 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Roadshow Interactive 1902 962 000 Calls charged at a rate of $1.00 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Microprose 1902 262 667 Calls charged at a rate ofSi.50 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Sony Poweriine 1902 262 662 Calls charged at a rate of it.50 per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Big Heads At the title screen push Ri 7 times, R2, select. Big Heads/Hands/Feet 6 Weapons Mode At title screen press R2 7 times, Ri, SELECT. Change the Might Meter At Title Screen Press L2, L2, L2, L2, R2 , R2, R2, R2, Li, Li, Li, Li, Ri, Ri, Ri, Ri, select. Hidden Wrestlers At the title screen press Ri, Ri, Ri. Ri, Li, Li, Li, Li, R2, R2, R2, R2, L2, L2. L2, L2, Select. Secret Rings At title screen press Ri, R2, Ri, R2, SELECT to scroll through the rings. Battlespire While playing Press M, enter any of the codes below and press ENTER. CHUMP: Invincibility DANGEROUS: Unlimited weapons TUFF ASS: Super weapons SUPER CHUMP: Super speed, Invincibility DANGEROUS CHUMP: Unlimited weapons, invincibility stormy: Rainy, way mo money: +5000. slick: Die.done - Win scenario, yoyo: Invincible, clearsky: Clear, flurry: Snow. Independence Day PSX All Cheats Unlocked Easier Tricks This cheat will make the tricks much easier and faster to perform but the problem is that you have to complete the game first, anyway. Once you’ve finished the game you’ll see a bubble that says ’Codes Enabled’. Now press: Down, 0, Left, Li, Left, Right, Left, Right. Unlock All Tracks This cheat will allow you to play any track that you want, without having to earn the right first. Firstly go to the Options screen and set the difficulty to Amateur, then set the trophy presenter to Male. Now return to the main screen by pressing Start and do the following sequence on the player one pad: Up, Right, Down, Left, Up, Right, Electronic Arts 1902 261 600 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. Virgin Interactive 1902 220 058 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. GT Interactive 1900 957 665 Calls charged at a rate of .95c per min. A higher rate applies from public and mobile phones. PC More Money Click on "Create a new character’’. Click on "Magic items’’ and buy all the magic potions available (7 in all). Next save the data and click "Cancel”. Click "Yes". Click on "Create a new character" again.This time click on "Equipments": you will notice that the potion’s selling price is way higher than the purchase price. Click on "Deselect". Keep selling all the potions to get more points. Repeat all the steps above to get as many points as is desired. To unlock all cheats available in the cheat menu, first go to the options menu and enter your name as GREG FM. Go back to the main screen using the exit option. Using triangle will not make the code work. Once you are in the main menu,(where the movie segments are playing) punch in the following sequence: Left, Right, Square, Circle, Triangle, Triangle, Down. This should bring you to the menu. Then switch on the cheats you wish. ( The plane selection option will always be enabled, giving you all available aircraft.) Down, Left. Now go back to the Options screen by pressing Left once and X to select. Now set the difficulty to Professional and the trophy presenter to Rider’s Choice. Return to the main screen again by pressing Start and enter the following code, again using the Player i pad: Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right. You will hear a sound to notify you that the cheat has worked. Now go off and race on any track you like. CHEAT MODE Shogo MAD PC Cheats Use the "T” key to enter chat mode then type: AAPCOD: Codmode MPKFA: Full Ammo, Armor, and Health MPHEALTH: Full Health AAPAMMO: Full Ammo AAPARMOR: Full Armor MPCLIP: Clipping Mode on/off MPPOS: Show Position on/off MPCAMERA: Adjust Camera on/off MPLICHTSCAPE: Adjust Light Scape on/off Spyro PSX Crash Bandicoot Warped Demo Begin with 99 lives Pause game and enter inventory menu, then quickly input the code: Square, Square, Square, Square, Square. Square, Circle, Up, Circle, Left, Circle, Right, Circle To open all the worlds Pause game and enter inventory menu, then quickly input the code: Square, Square, Circle, Square, Left, Right, Left. Right, Circle, Up, Right, Down To show all the credits Pause game and enter inventory menu, then quickly input the code: Left, Right, Up, Down, Circle, Circle, Square, Ri, R2, Li, L2 Vigilance PC Press [Enter] to display the chat console. Then, enter one of the following codes: •cheat: Unlimited health and ammo •fps: Display frame rate •ghost: Toggle no clipping mode •maxfps: Toggle maximum fps to 30 or 60 •other: Toggle AI •state: Al status •suicide: You die (and yes, you must put in the •) Colin McRae PC Enter any of these as the driver’s name. All tracks: FREEWAY Bonus cars: LOTTOWIN Concept car: HIPPO Custom replay: SPECIALED Double power: BICCUNS Fog mode: WHITEOUT Four wheel steering: ALLWHEELS Green jelly car: ALIENCOO Hover mode: DELOREAN Low gravity: ClANTLEAP Micro Machines mode: BORROWERS Mirror tracks: ONTHEWALL Nicky Crist drives: PASSEDOUT Nicky Crist has high pitched voice: HOIRBOY Night tracks: DARKSIDE Rear wheel steering: TURNBACK Reversed tracks: BACKACAIN Secret track: INTHECLOUDS Secret track: QUARRYVILLE Secret track: TROLLEYPARK Secret track: WILDAYWORLD Tap keys to accelerate: PRESSFAST Toyota Celica GT4: BEEFCAKE Turbo boost: ROCKETMAN Rainbow Six PC To activate cheats press' (that’s the apostrophe key) during the game and type the cheat you want to use: TEAMCOD: Team Cod Mode AVATARGOD: Player Cod Mode STUMPY: Stumpy Mode On CLODHOPPER: Enlarges Player’s Feet and Hands MECANOCCIN: Mega Head Mode BICNOCCIN: Big Head Mode 5FINCERDISCOUNT: Refill Ammo NOBRAINER: Turns AI Off DEBUCKEYS: Debug Keys Enabled SILENTBUTDEADLY: Makes players ”FART”. FASTACTIONRESPONSETEAM: ? TURNPUNCHKICK: Changes Players from 3D to 2D 1-900: Heavy Breathing EXPLORE: Victory Conditions On/Off Other Cheats and Debug Keys: Press Fio to enter debug mode. These are the keys that work in debug mode. A: Artifial Intelligence On/Off M: Freezes you, most likely AI turned off for just YOU not teamates. I and 3 on keypad- shrinks or grows the resoluction of the screen. - and ♦ on keypad- some type of brief zoom, unknown otherwise F6 : Look through the eyes of other people in the mission. F9 : Return to the player you were using to complete the mission. Fio : Switches from Debug mode to Normal mode Fi2 : Level Skip [ and ]: brighten and darken the screen " and ” : Make the player float up or down. o-zoom in from Fi view p-zoom out from Fi view V-Rotates View B- Brings back to normal view /-Brings you down from floating Railroad Tycoon II PC Press Fi, then $ OR $ To use the following press Tab while playing, then type the code, then press Enter. Viagra: Cities grow faster BigfootCold: Win Scenario COLD BigfootSilver: Win Scenario Silver BigfootBronze: Win Scenario Bronze Bigfoot: Bypass Scenario BoBo: Lose Scenario Cattle Futures: $i mill player cash Slush Fund: $i mill company cash Powerball: $100 mill company cash HYPER» 89 90 »HYPER CHEAT MODE King of the Hill: $100 mill player TRIUMPH: you win ! YAAAAAA! cash SUCCUMB; you lose! BOOOOO! Let me in: Allows all access OCCULTATION: Stealth mode, no Speed Racer: Doubles Train Speed one sees you until you fire on AMD103: Makes all trains AMD103 them SHOW ME THE TRAINS: ALLOWS PYROMANCER: Unlimited USE ALL TRAINS nwprtimp* noiihlp? Indii^triAl flaming! ^VCiwlllC. L/wVAJL/ICd 11IVAlAv 11 IQ 1 Output Casey lones: Crashes Opponents Test Drive Trains Dn Dead PC Army Meu Cheat codes: When you are asked to enter your PC name, enter this (just enter i at a If you press Escape while playing time): you can type in the following cheati codes: cheat2 PLETHORA: unlimited ammo for cheat3 second weapon cheats AEROBALLISTICS: fills up the air cheat5 commands (strike.recon ciggies paratrooper) This gives you 4 nnore cars: the INVULNERABLE: makes Sarge hotrod, the monstertruck. the 4x4 invulnerable buggy and the stock-car. It also PARALYSIS: freezes enemies in gives you all tracks and no¬ place clipping (this is very cool because you can drive through everything including the borders and other cars!) Test Drive 5 PC Co to Options from the Main menu, and then quickly type the cheats in. You will hear a noise in the background letting you know the cheat was activated, cup of choice = unlock all cups that takes me back = enable backwards mode i have the key = unlock all cars and tracks. Dethkartz PC Firstly, press and hold Shift ♦ Ctrl ♦ C on the main screen to open the CHEATS option. On the Cheats Screen, type one of the following: GLOBAL (All tracks are selectable) DEV 6 (All cars are selectable) RACE CORPS (All seasons are selectable in Championship Mode) Populous: the Beginning PC while playing press [Tab] ♦ [Fiij. type byrne and press [Enter] at the window that appears to enable cheat mode. Now try: [Tab]+[F3]-Spells [Tabi^[F4]-Buildings [Tabj^lFsi-Mana Miglt It Magic VI PC 9,999.999 Cold When you find the location of the lost hoard of the obelisks, the treasure includes 250.000 gold. Open and close the location or chest it’s at before leaving the location and the gold will increase by 250.000 gold pieces every time. Repeat until you have 9,999,999 gold pieces. Eiiminatnr PLAYSTATION The following cheat codes are entered on the ’ID’ selection screen. To enter multiple cheat codes, enter the first cheat, exit the screen then return to enter the new cheat code. Invulnerability - CLEVALAD Access all your crafts, primary weapons - CUNCRAZY Access all your crafts, secondary weapons - MAXMEOUT Enable secret craft - NEWWEELS Collect ten minutes for every time pick-up - WAITABIT Access the secret level - WAKYLEVL Level Codes: Penitentiary level - GOTHLAND Penitentiary bonus level - BLGOTHIC Penitentiary level boss - HOPALONG Maze Level - REDWORLD Maze bonus level - BLIO Maze level boss - BERNIHOT Asylum Level - CHEMWRKS Asylum bonus level - BLTITAN Asylum level boss - ITSCRATE Cage Level - INDEPTHS Cage bonus level - BLATOL Cage level boss - OCTOPUSSI Chasm Level - MARTIANS CHEAT MODE Chasm bonus level - BLMARS Chasm level boss - MEANMECH Monastery Level - FRSTBYTE Monastery bonus level - BLICE Monastery level boss - FLOPPSIE Tomb Level - INCATOMB Tomb bonus level - BLAZTEC Tomb level boss - VENOMCUY Fortress Level - DARKVOID Fortress bonus level - BLSPACE Fortress level boss - THEQUEEN Abe’s Exoddus PLAYSTATION All Cheats are while holding Ri Try these on the Main Menu All FMVs: Up. Down. Left. Right. Square. Circle. Triangle, Circle. Square.Circle. Up, Down, Left, Right Access All Levels: Down, Up, Left, Right, Triangle, Square, Circle, Triangle, Square, Circle, Down, Up, Left, Right Try this on in the game while playing Warp to Next Continue Point: Circle, Circle, X, X, Square, Square Rally Cross 2 Bonus Tracks: Enter these codes at the NEW SEASON Enter Name Screen. *SISAO = Oasis Track •ELCNUI = lungle Track ‘FOSTER = Little Woods Track ‘NIVEK = Frozen Trial Track *MIT * Dusty Road Track *KCIN = Rock Creek Track •BSIRHC = Hillside Track Cheat Codes Enter these codes at the NEW SEASON Enter Name Screen. ‘PREALL = All Tracks and Cars (Except Vapor and Radia) ‘MOOBMOOB = All Cars ‘PREVET = Veteran Level Tracks and Cars ‘PREPRO = Pro Level Tracks and Cars •AIRFILLED = Low Gravity ‘LEADSHOT = Original Rally Cross game Physics ‘MOONEY = Restore Rally Cross game Physics ‘INCORPEREAL = Disable Collision Detection. NINTENDO 64 Try any of these on the password screen: AT-ST Bonus Level - CHICKEN. All Power-Ups -TOUCHCUY At the Movies and Concert Hall - DIRECTOR This will take you to a black screen. Highlight BACK to complete the code. Co back to the Pasword screen and enter MAESTRO, and it will take you back to the same black screen you were on earlier, but this time you will be able to access both the AT THE MOVIES and CONCERT HALL options. Drive a Cadillac - KOELSCH Now pick a mission where you can fly the V-Wing. You will be able to fly a black Cadillac. Fly the TIE Interceptor - TIEDUP The TIE Interceptor is hidden behind the Millenium Falcon in the hangar. You need to push up on the stick to get to it. Increase Difficulty - ACE Infinite Lives -ICIVEUP Level Select - DEADDACK Australlas I'liiVb'lsUuu N1 Act CtHliat 2 ••2ACIM Stectf 2 •ASActta Saccar 3 ••AAMiat Paarar Saccar •BSAivaa raciag •■I Altai Trliaoi ••I Alaaa la tfea Bart 2 BBBAairtti Baciao BBBAaanaalacs: Taa Pia 2 BIB Aaacalypta B11 Araaarai Care B12 Araiaarai Cara 2 BIS Anriaa Seaaa lari Baal B14 Assaalt Rlgi BIS Aisaatt: Ratrlfeallaa BIB Asiaralis B1?Aaia Batiraci BIBAzara Braaai BIBB Mavta B2B Baitia Araaa Tesli 3 B21 Batlla Araaa Tasli 2 B22Baast Wart: Traastarai B23Bia Freats BSABlail Claiagar B2S Blast isiias B2eBlasia B27 BlaaB BBiaa B2BBIaeBy Bear •2BBaBibaraiai ararIB BBBBraia Baal 13 BS1 Brlgailaa BS2Balisy 3B B33BBSbMa BlaBa 2 B34BBSt*a-Braa«a B3B Basi a Mave 4 B3B C< Caatra ABvaaiara BS7 Cagcan Baa. 1 BIB caacaai Baa. 2 B3B Carilaal Sla B4B Cart wariB Sarlas B41 Circalt Breakers B42 CaBa Naaia; Taaka B43CallB McRae rally B44 Galaalsatlaa BBSCalaay Wars BABCelaay WarS: Vsag. BBICaaiaBB a Caagaar: Ratal CAkCaaiBiaBB t CaagaarJaB B4B Caatra: Legacy at War BSBCaal BaarBars 2 BS1 Caal BaarBars 3 IS2 caarlsr Crisis BBS CrasB BsaBIcaai 1 BS4 Crasl BasBlcaat 2 BSSCrasb BaaBIcaat 3 BSBCrlaia Riller B97 Crac: lageaB BSBCrasaBar: Na Raaiarsa NB CyberslaB BBB Bark Farces BB1 BasB ar Altva BB2 Baalh Trap Baageea BBBBacaai BB4 Bafcaa 5 BBSlasiractiaa Barby 2 NB Blabla BBI Bit Rant TrilHy BBBBragaa SaaBs BBI Bake Nahaai: Tlat la Rill BIB Bake Nakeai: MaUBawa B?1 Byaaaiiit Bailag B72iiaBiaBtai Baarbait BIB ESPN Eilraaie Baaias BMEvarybaBys Balt BIB FIFA BB BIB FIFA 99 BnFigbtlag Farce BIBFIgbliag IHaslaar ll-Rav BIBFiaal Baan BBBFiaal Faatasy I BBI Fanaala 1 91 BB2Feraiela 1 91 BBBFeraiBla larts BBAFarsakaa BBBFraaiy BIB Fatara Cap LJ.P.B. BBIB Barias BBBB Pence BBI Bai: Eater IN Backa BBBBbasi la ibe Sbail BBiBraa Tartsaia N28raaB Tbatt Aato BBB Braai Taar Raciag 91 Largest B94BBllty Bear 995 Naan If Barhaass BN Nl SNIS Nil BBII.S. Saccar Pra 91 BBIliaapaagaaca Bay BBSIaiy 599 IN I. McBraib Sapar 191 Wi let Mata 2 l92jBiga Braai 1B3R-1 Araaa FIgkiars lB4Ragara Bacapnaa 2 IBSliaaa iBSlaackBat liags WI Rrazy Ivaa IBIlala Werli IBBliNra firaaie 11BM.I.4 111 M.l. Mytbalegys n2H.I. TrMgy liaMaidaalin 99 ii4MaidaB NFL 91 115 Mass Bestraciiaa 118 Mai Farce IIIMBR IIIMtiievil llBMagaBiaB Lagaads 129 Mental SNara’s Vs St. 121 Metal Bear Salld 122 Metal Slag 123 NHcra Macblaas 13 124 Maastar Tracks 125 Mala Racer 121 Mata Racer 2 l27Maiarbaad 121 MTI Bin Crass 129 N2B • Nitraas aiMa IBBNascar 91 iBiNascar 99 132NALhra9l 133 NBA uve 99 134 NBA Sbeat Bat 91 135 Need tar SpaM 2 iSbNMd tar SpaM 3 137 NFL Bliti 138 NFL Baaieday 99 139 NNL 91 149 NNL 99 141 NNL Face Btt 91 i/NHi Pawarplay 91 l43NlBla : SbMaats 144 Naclaar Strike 145B.B.T. taiBddarand: AM s Ex. 14lNdarartd: AM's BN. lABBaa tASPaadaBiaBiBBi 1 iSOPaadeaiaBiBBi 2 151 Parasite Eta iri?ParrBppa Tba Rapper 153 Pit Fan 3B 194 Packet Fighter lS5Partcbt Cbaiieage 156 Pay Pay 157 Psybadack l5IR>Type Bella 159R-Typat IBB Rally Crass WI Rally Cress 2 1B2 Rally da Athca W3 Rapid Racer WSRayBiaB Fiebt i65RaNiAtsaBli2 244 Rad Asphalt iCSRaiaadsd 1B7 RasIdMl Evil 2 WIRasMaai EM < B.C. IBB Ridge Racer Raw. 119 Rival Scbaais niRivaa: Segaal la Mysl 172 Read Rash 31 113 Raaga Trtp; 2912 114 Raaaiag atlld 115 SCARS ilBSbadavi Master 111 Sbaaa Waraa 99 171 Side Packal 3 179Siai City 2BBB IBB Shall Maakays iBiSaiall Saldiars 152 Saiasb Caan 2 iBBSaal Blade lB4Saviai Strike lB5Splca Warld All you have to do is call and olve the numher correspondino to the oame. jts IBSSpyra the Bragaa iBistar Wars: MMiars BlWr. IBB Steal Rala 1B9Slraat Fighter Alpha 3 IBBSiraat Fighter CaN 2 191 Street Fighter X^fAINa 192Slraal Racer IBS Talas at Basilay lB4TakhaB2 1B5Takhas3 1B6TaB Pia Allay iBITaacba IBBTastBrivaA 199 Test Brtva5 299 Test Brlva Btt Read 2BlTasi Brtva Bit MM 2 2B2 Tetris Ptas 2B3Tba Filth ElsiaaBt 2B4TN Last Wand 2B5Tha Bahaly War 2N Thaaia Naspital 2B7ThaBie Park 2BBThrHI Rill 2B9ThBBdar Farce 5 2W TlNr WaMs 99 2Tt Tlaia Crisis 212Tehal2 213Taca TaartN Car 214Taca Taanag Car 2 215Tahya Nlghway Batlla 2l6TeMb Raider 217 Taaib Raider 2 219 Taaib Raider 3 2l9TaBhat 22BT. MaklBN Wand RaNy 221 Traasaras at the Nap 222 Triple Play 9B 223 Triple Play 99 224 Twisted Metal 2 22STarlsiad Metal 3 228 W Rally 221 V’S 228yiiilaBta 8 22BWMX Raciag 2SBWR Pawarhaai Raciag Hotline! * A ^raa ran^ of gSA iRsiTItlis 231 War Baaias: Batcaa 1 282WarCratl2 233WarhaBiBiar 234 WCW Nitre 235WCNNWB Thaadar 238 WCW rs The Wand 237 Wild B 238 Wild Arws 239Wlpaaat 2997 248 WWF la year Naasa 241 WWF War Zaae 242R-Maa rs SI. Fighter 2431 Kir/l 245 Rare Baaga 24BAIISlar BasaBall 99 247 Area Fighter Assail 249ABiaBilhlll LawhargalBl 249Baa|a Raieai 259 Big Freaks 29lBady Narvasi 292BaaharaiaB 84 253BaBibarMaB Nara 254 Bach Baabla 295Nst-a-«ava 2 256CbaaallaB Twist 2 97Chapper Attach 258 Clay Fighair 83 1/3 259 Craula USA 289 Bark Rill 281 Biddy Raag raciag 2B2Baaa 84 293 Bake Nakaa 2B4Extraaa B 2B5 Extraaa 6 2 2BB F-ZaraR 2B7F1 Pala Passltlaa 2BBF1 Wand Bread Pni 289FIFA9B 2IB Fighters Bestraciiaa ZTlFarsahaa 272 Bax 213 fialdaa Eye 214 Naxaa 215 I S. Saccar 84 218 ISS Pra 98 2l7lggi's Rackhi Balls mM.R.4 tn MR. MylhalaBys 204 M R. Trtitey nSMaddea 64 flBMaddaa 99 tIBMana Ran 64 101 Missiaa laapasihla SBBMalti Raciag Chaap ISBNagaaa Wla Blyapics tSINascar 99 2NNBA HRagiiaa mNAlalhaZaaa # 2NNFL IBack Clah 99 MB NNL 99 m NNL Breakaway 9B tot NNL Breakaway 99 N4 Nighlaara Creaiaras tNBttraad Cbailaaga tMBaaka 84 ttlBgasi 84 298Raapaga Wand Tear INRahairaa R IMS.C.A.R.S. Ml Saa Fraa Rash Nt Saawhaard Rids SMSaalhPark ON Space Siallaa: Silcaa SMSiar wars. Ragas ON Star wars: Shadaws Ml Sapar Marie 64 tMTeirtsphara tOBTap Bear Bvardrtva tit Tap Bear RaNy ttlTarak tn Tarek 2 tnwarBads tWWaaa Braiski 3B 98 91BWCW/ NWB Ravaaga to Wand Cap 9B tWWipaaal 84 tWWWF WarZeaa tn Badzllla BaaaralieB tttPap Pea Tri-lcalaa ttllTN Crass ttf Saaic Advaaiara tttwinaa Fighter 3TB 1902 211 448 1Mj2 THEATRES ON JUNE 3RD, AND NEXT ISSUE WE TAKE A CLOSE LOOK^^IrWO UPCOMING ‘GAMES FROM LUCASARTS BASED ON EVENTS IN THE NEW PREQUEL. STAR WARS POD RACER FOR PC AND N64 LOOK OUT LETTERS HYPER LETTERS 78 Renwick St. Redfern, NSW 2016 Fax: (02) 9310 1315 E-mail: freakscene@next.com.au KEEPING UP WITH THE CUniNG EDGE Dan, After reading your superb article "System Wars" in the March issue of Hyper, I decided to write to you for the first time. I found the article to be both a very mature and unbiased insight into the current 4 major gaming platforms. Upon reading a number of letters appearing in recent issues regarding the "Dreamcast”, I can’t help but think, why these people couldn't have a similar unbiased attitude as yourself? I regard myself has a mature aged gamer (34). having been around since the earliest days of the Commodore 64. through various Amiga models, to a 486 PC, and now I currently own 2 PlayStations. I have been governed purely by which platform best suits my needs at the time, not simply by which company produced it. The PlayStation has given me years of pleasure, and I would say I am probably it’s No.i fan. However. I am definitely not so narrow minded as to see the absolutely exciting potential the "Dreamcast" will offer me as a gamer, despite who’s name is. or isn’t, written on the console. As you say, why be a "Corporate Slave", surely these people could ignore their prejudices, take a long hard look at what hardware lies within the console, at the huge list upcoming titles, the number of software companies supporting the machine, and go for it!! Approximately $400-S450 for a console with such raw power that the nearest K equivalent would cost thousands of dollars, not to mention modem and networking capabilities. Are you kidding!! I for one do not intend to be left behind because of so called "Loyalties". Move on and enjoy your gaming. "What an exciting time to be alive !!" ANDREW PORTER Andrew. As much as I am down on blind allegiance to companies, / do sense a reason for pickiness right now. purely because oj the next Sony console as another ’"next console'' option. More investigation is going to have to be done on the tech specs ot the machine (because ^nkly they sound so stupidly amazing we need to pinch ourselves tor a month or two). The closer to the release of the Dreamcast the next Sony console is. the more the ”PSX army" tactor will have an att€ct on the sales ot the Dreamcast. March next year is the estimated Japanese release date, so we can't expect it here till mid next year. The Dreamcast will have been on sale ter 14 months in Japan prior to the next Sony console. The good news ter gamers is that because the twe machines will be in competition with one another, we should see price drops like we did with PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Because ot the costs in manutacturing a machine as advanced as next Sony console are quite high, price drops may not be as drastic as in the past... guess we'll see. HYPER’S TOO HYPED? Hiya Nice mag... and improving every year too..but recent issues of your mag are nagging me a bit... there are too much Dreamcast stuff in the mag and in my opinion you guys are getting a little too over excited (over-reacting in some cases) about this new machine. Well it is true that this machine is basically the most powerful machine and all but isn’t this the case in every new console these days? Wasn’t Nintendo 64 the most powerful console when it was released? Surely Virtua Fighter 3 on Dreamcast is a good game with "Never seen before on console graphics", but so was Virtua Fighter 2 when it was released on Saturn, now we all know Saturn is as good as dead. The graphic details on the Dreamcast are death-defying for those who just awaken... from 5 years of sleep but for frequent gamers it is nothing more than "nice graphic" for a system release 2 years after the last new system (N64). Also you guys said "Internet capability of Dreamcast can take away the advantage PCs LETTERS have over consoles". I disagree, sure you can play multiplayer games over the net with Dreamcast but it would never be the same as PCs internet capabilities. I seriously doubt Dreamcast would have ICQ, IRC, mp3s (while playing games or otherwise), emulators etc.. Can Dreamcast make a web page? I doubt it. Can Dreamcast have map editors for Quake 2. Starcraft etc? or download heaps from the net? well there are heaps other advantages PCs have over any console which I can’t think of right now. But my point is PCs are still the most advanced machine for gaming, that’s why they cost more and always cost more than any consoles. I don’t know, maybe I am just paranoid. Maybe I play too much games and losing my mind, but I most definitely hope 1 have made some valid points.. MACROS AiacroA, you definitely have made some valid points, but there's "the other side of the coin'* on most of the points too. which doesn't make your views wrens, f’ut does show that a large factor in how people will judge the Dreamcast is up to their own perceptionA. your call on the Jump in visuals for the Dreamcast Just being "nice graphics" for the person who has kept up with gaming is a bit rough considering you haven't seen it first hand (unless you have, in which case I suspect the TV you saw it on was exceptionally bad), everyone here who sees games like Virtua Fighter jtb and Sonic Adventure running on the machine IS blown away. VF3 is not a surprising one. since we've all seen it in the arcade, but we put Tekken 3 and VF3 running next to each other, and the difference is staggering. Something that we hadn't stated till this issue is that the Dreamcast is getting a hard drive as an add on. which will allow you to download new maps, files, etc. from the Internet, and thus be able to get more out of your machine. Just like with the PC. With the Dreamcast having a mouse, keyboard, modem and hard drive, there is no reason for the Dreamcast not to be able to receive programs like IRC and fCQ. The advantage I was talking about was purely for gaming, like playing (^ake etc. Since it uses a Windows C€ operating system, it can support T(T/IP. In fact the Dreamcast COULD be used to make a web page, its Just an Suck tHE HTrE!l.*Frict„AfTER Too M«tH SoUTuPARK'! for me. Basically I want a bit of a gaming beast, but everyone i talk to seems too busy telling me what I want rather than giving me what I should get. They’re just out to make their commission or whatever. So i have decided to consult the gods and come to you. Basically this is what I’m after: Celeron A 366 or Pentium II 350. 6 aMB of RAM. Cod knows what mother board, probably Intel Seattle ls-120, floppy drive. B.aCB hdd, i2mb voodoo2 3dfx card. PCI 128 sound card. 36X Mitsubishi CD-ROM and of course just Windows 98 and a standard virus check as well as a keyboard and mouse. I was wondering if you could do me a desktop applications for professional purposes, then a Celeron A is fine, rather than spending the extra for a Pentium II. Note that often you can get virtually the same performance from a "slower” CPU to the next one up thanks to overclocking. For example. I’ve overclocked my PII-333 to 400 MHz, and its solid as a rock. Of course, that is a calculated risk I’ve taken, and if you overclock, do so at your own risk. The thing is a P//-350 will only "reliably" overclock to ggzMHz, and it costs more so in other words, you’re better off with the cheaper, "slower” CPU! As we stated a while back way to go is best. With Voodoog coming, purchasing a 2D card AND a Voodooz may be an expensive option considering V3 wilt be a 2D/3D card, and will basically provide the sort of frame rates you get with TWO Voodoo2 cards. There's also the option of TNT, and with PowerVR 2 coming as well, it may be best to wait till these cards are out before deciding. If the image quality is as good on PC as the PowerVR technology Is on Dreamcast, then It should be a great card. I hope all this has helped. We'll have reports on the PowerVR2 and Voodoog when they become available. Computer games have come a long way. Circa 1984, Commodore 64 computer. This fetching object of desire required plenty of imagination to make the fantasy complete, which it never was, which is why the 30 year old nerds you see today are so f#@%ed up. Circa 1998, ‘Dahlia* from the Dark Earth game. Nobody reads books anymore, and as a consequence, imagination is a relic of a forgotten age. Luckily, thanks to modern PC games technology, you don’t need an Imagination. Computer games allow for the most tangible realisation of otherwise unattainable fantasies. You do play, don’t you? PC PowerPlay is the gratification you need. Buy it. Read It. Be up on the latest, coolest games. Be in tune with bleeding edge technology. Play with the games on the cover CD. Stare at cute, semi-naked chicks that aren’t real. Australia’s Computer Games Magazine letter of the month LETTERS a 111 a. HOW’S THAT! Hey Dan, Something incredible happened this summer. Being an avid cricket fan, I have become accustomed to the ritual that is your spouse stamping their feet on the floor, rolling their eyes back exclaiming. "I'm bored. I don’t know how you can sit here all day watching this s*^%$. Then when I heard that "Shane Warne Cricket” would be coming to the PSX, I imagined a "Dear John" letter arriving in my mailbox a couple of days after the game’s release. This did not deter me. So with all the resolve in the world, I went down to my local games dealer and made that sucker mine. Later that day I found myself rivetted to my seat with only 2 overs to go and 35 runs to score. The tension had never been so great. Suddenly, my fiance entered the room and sat by the couch with a very reserved look on her face as she witnessed South Africa rip through my last lines of defence. I had. sadly lost the match. Then the unbelievable happened. She challenged me to a match. Thinking this would be the perfect way to pick my bruised ego up off the floor, I humbly accepted. In short she kicked my arse and obviously took pleasure in beating me at my own game. The strange thing is the very game I thought would send me into damnation had saved my soul. She seemed to now be sitting down with me in front of the real matches screaming. "Bowled Shane" and appealing for L.B.W’s and she even spent a day with me at the M.C.C watching us thraihthe Poms. Somehow I feel like I’m in the twilight zone and none of this should mlly be happening, but I’m enjoying it too much to care. Thanks to the "Codemaster*" and "Well Eowkd Warnie”. You saved my summer. Keep up the good work HYPflt I’ve been here sinceiSttie one! Cheers! T-BOY T-BOy. That's beautitui monk.. f hate to think wkmwmUd happmltmy next girl^end gets into Quake and ends depdldplns an unusual inttmtin ttmems and hunks ct meat. Gamester PSX Dual Force Wheel. Don’t forget to include your contact details ON your letter. You’ve won a Gamester Steering Wheel Rohan! For PlayStation. GOT IT TOO GOOO Hyper the sexallent, Well aren’t you something? After all this time you’re still my favourite monthly stapled together pieces of paper with stuff printed on them. I was doing some thinking (I fit it in during the add breaks) and it occurred to me that gamers these day just don’t know how damn good they have it. I know I sound a little like the stereotypical old dude with the "back in my day” crap, but hear me out. I read a letter you got from one loel McCarry complaining about how short and easy Zelda 64 is and how it does not live up to expectations. How fast is this guy stroking his rod? The game is AMAZINGLY good. While playing I often had to stop and just take in how cool it was and how much depth there was and how great the graphics are these days and how funny that big rock dude looked when he started dancing and etc. etc. What I mean is that I just thought it was a real work of art and there are many games now that fall into that same category. The experience of playing a game like Zelda. Final Fantasy. Resident Evil 2. Metal Gear Solid or Turok 2 and many more is just so good it beats out watching most movies now days in my opinion. But people like Joel seem to take these games for granted or something. Christ, I remember playing through the entire Metal Gear on the old NES and digging it all the way, but man. 1 sure did have to put my imagination to good use back then with the graphics and sounds barely resembling the things they were attempting to. Now the games are fully 3D and the graphics look remarkably like real enviro¬ nments. Frankly I think we’re pretty damn lucky to be able to enjoy these games - I never would’ve dreamed that the next time I played a Metal Gear game it'd be like it is with Solid. So I just can’t see how players can go through these awesome games and say, "Was that it?". I say, "Wow that was IT!” and I’m proud to admit. I sit there with a big stupid grin on my face the whole way through. I’ll admit that when the new systems first came out I wasn’t overly impressed with the actual games under the good looks but now I believe they truly utilise the power and have surpassed any standards that I once held. So maybe I should count my blessings I’m not from this new generation of gamer. Sincerely, SAM *THE RAM" HILUER Sam, / think your last sentence really sums It all up. Knowing where gaming has come trom, and in how short a period of time it haa come thia far is something that should really inspire any gamer. It is kind ot sad to think that there are gamers that have known nothing but detailed 3D environments, and CD quality sound, that can't see any merit in the games of the past. At the same time, it is understandable though. Let's ^ace it. i$ the tirst game you played was Super Mario 64. your scope 0$ what a game should be like would be quite ditterent to that of someone who has played and enjoyed games that are tar interior to SM 64. It all you've known is quality, you become tussy. IT WILL HAPPEN. Dear Hyper. I feel that the Dreamcast will become bigger than we all expect. Upon reading your article that Quake 3 will need a killer PC (Maybe a Katami?) and a killer video card, PC gamers might see sense in spending around $500 for a Dreamcast so they can enjoy Quake 3 at minimum cost, instead of shelling out maybe around a $1000 for a new processor and video card. Of course this would only happen if Sega decides to release the keyboard and mouse to PAL countries, and gets their act together with decent advertising and marketing. Well I’ve given my 2 cents worth to the Dreamcast discussion, that’s about all. DAMIEN YOW Damien. I'm sure they will release the keyboard and mouse out here, tor the simple reoacn that Ozisott have said there will be LETTERS ierven Jor Dreamcoit luera to dial in to. ao thus they'll need to make the keyboard and mouse available tor those who want to use email and web browse. NTSC ENVY To the dudes at Hyper, Like most people, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Dreamcast on Australian shores. I am sure that it would not disappoint. I am faced with a dilemma regarding about one thing though, and that is whether to buy the Australian (PAL) or American (NTSC) console. At this stage I am leaning towards the NTSC version because frankly, the games run much better and faster on it. I have been a game player all my life and basically had to put up with PAL crap all this time. Even going back to the earlier days of the SNES, the NTSC games were far superior in terms of gameplay. With the PlayStation, I can honestly say that all games (bar Gran Turismo which was especially re-programmed for PAL machines) are much faster on their NTSC counterparts. However, 1 do acknowledge that PAL can display graphics in a more pretty way. but the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. I. speaking on behalf of the gaming public, pay more for our games than the Americans, we get taxed more (therefore limiting out income) compared to them, and we have to put up with inferior consoles and games. Fair enough I understand that there are zone restrictions, copyright, licensing etc, and some TV’s are NTSC incompatible, but I’m not trying to act like some kind of specialist and offer solutions to overcome this limitation. All I am merely doing is expressing my opinion. 1 can tell you this now, the NTSC Dreamcast will definitely be miles better. Therefore, if anyone takes their gaming seriously (I’m talking about the "Hard Core" gamers), they should go the NTSC and bugger PAL altogether. It shouldn’t matter that we would have to buy the games through the net or from some import store if it means that we would enjoy the gaming experience more. 1 can also speculate that, by going on current PlayStation trends, it would actually be cheaper to get NTSC games because games are cheaper overseas (bearing in mind the exchange rate). But overall, even if I have to pay an extra 30 odd bucks or so. I would gladly do it so I can get a better overall game. Chances are you guys probably won’t publish this letter just in case it affects the way people think about the PAL vs NTSC debate. However. I feel that being an independent gaming magazine, you should highlight any consumer concerns so game makers know about what’s going on. Furthermore, although sounding a bit cliched, the public has a right to know. REGARDS DAVID David. We're not in the business ot trying to silence the readers (unless its overly lewd or abusive, keep it civil or it won't be in the running to get printed), and this is a good way to let the industry know what some gamers out there think. However. I'm not sure I'm willing to say that your call on the PAL Dreamcast is going to hold true until I see one running. LATEST VIDEO GAMES EOUIPUENT & REPAIRS WARNING: Modifications can deteriorate the performance of your system and damage your laser or main board when improperly installed using cheaper quality components readily available on the market - Blade uses the highest quality components which are professionally installed by experienced technicians. PLAYSTATION" CONVERSIONS • Playstation"* / videogame System Conversions to play ‘All’ Countries Games • Fully Modified Games Consoles Available! • 3 Years Warranty On Conversions! • Why ‘chip’ your PSX - NEW “Action Replay’’ allows you to play all countries games without the need of internal modchips which void your warranty. Also expands your standard memory card save capacity by (x5). Latest Bios and Comms Link card also available. • Figurines Action Figures • Magazines ' Video Game Figurines Toys • Keyrings • Collectables T-Shirts Wall Scrolls NTSC Conversions Adaptors • Replocement Ports PSX Mod Chips Cobies Convertors • Accessories PSX-VCD Adaptor - pioy VCD movies on Pioystotion C.O.D. ORDERS WELCOME AUSTRALIA WIDE 461 Logan Road Stones Corner (Corner of Cornwall Street) “Sony" & “F*laystation" are registered trademarks of Sony Corporation (SCE) - Mod chips are not a Sony product. Opening any product voids the manufacturers warranty. Blade Electronics is not a Sony Dealer. Blade Electronics does not condone the unauthorised copying or reproduction of video games software. Blade Electronics does rrot deal with any unauthorised NTSC or Pal games. Advertising free for private advertisers, and make sure you ^ include your phone number (inc. area code). Send them to: HYPERMART, 78 Renwick St, Redfern, NSW 2016 FOR SALE PC games in mint condition: Outwars $45. Alien Trilogy $20, Terminator: Skynet $10, Theme Park $10. Police Quest Swat $15. All games still with boxes and manuals, price neg. Call Ben on 02 9520 8217 N64: 2 controllers, 2 memory packs, 5 games- Mario 64, Blast Corps, Lylat Wars, Top Gear, Forsaken, Rumble Pack all with boxes and instructions and mag¬ azines. $650 o.n.o. Call John after 4.30 weekdays on 08 8667 5331. Abe’s Exodus and Toca 2 Touring cars for Playstation. Both in excellent condition complete with manuals. Abe’s Exodus only $70 and Toca 2 $65. Call Stefan 02 9555 9401. Sydney only. PC games: Half Life S75 boxed and with instructions, perfect condition, brand new. Monkey Island 3 $40, C-Police and Incoming $25 each. Monkey Island I 8 2 together $15, Zork Nemesis, Spycraft, Time Commando, Ultima 8, Dark Forces and Full Throttle all $10 each. All in good condition. Pick of 21 Mega Drive games 5 for $20 . Call Luke on 02 9559 2368. PC games only:Leisure Suit Larry 1 $10, Total Mania $10, Wolfenstein 3D $10, Syndicate Wars $15 X5 $10, Myth: The Fallen Lords $15. All games in very good condition with box and instruction booklets. Call Richard after 5pm on 03 6263 7116. Sega Saturn with i pad in good condition for $100. I’m also selling an extra pad for $25 and 2 guns for $30 each. The following games are also for sale: Steep Slope Sliders, Sega Rally, Saturn Bomberman, Virtual Cop 2. Nights into Dreams. Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Panzer Dragoon 2 ZWEI are all $35 each. Battlestations, Mr Bones, Daytona USA, KEIO 2 Flying Squadron, Magic Carpet, Virtual Cop i. Die Hard Trilogy, The Story of Thor 2, NBA Live 97 and Fighting Vipers are ail $30 each. Also Mysteria for $5. All games are in mint condition except Mysteria which is CD only. Please call Daniel on 02 9969 5833. You must pick up. N64, 4 control pads, rumble pack, memory card, 7 games: WCW revenge. Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye and more. RF switch. All games boxed and instructions booklets and cheat books. Call Ryan on 02 9773 3479 - NTSC Nintendo 64- A NTSC Nintendo 64 plus 10 NTSC games: Wave Race 64, Mario 64. Mario Kart 64. Zelda 64, Goldeneye, Turok 2, Banjo Kazooie, S.O.T.E, Top Gear Rally, Diddy Kong Racing. 3 controllers, i memory pack, I rumble pack. All for $350. Call Steven on 08 93861574 or e- mail spectrei hotmail.com Gran Turlsmo $40, Formula 1 ’97 ♦ demo $35. Diablo $30, Rock and Roll racing (Red Asphalt) $30, Kurushi $25. Ridge Racer $20, Need for Speed $20, NBA Jam Extreme $20. Willing to sell the lot for $200 O.N.O. Call Michael on 02 4731 2324. Nintendo 64- 2 controllers (black 8 grey). Rumble Pack, 3 controllers packs (needed for all the games). Super mario 64, Goldeneye 007, Forsaken, Kobe Brynt in NBA courtside, Mario Kart 64, WF Warzone and Turok 2 (7 games altogether). Worth $985. Sell $600 o.n.o. Also if you buy this Nintendo 64 you cam buy a stack of Nintendo 64 mags (approx 20 as new condition) for $50. Magazines include: N64 Gamer, Nintendo and 64 magazine. Call 03 9551 8872. Playstation games: Worms $25. Warcraft 2 (almost brand new) $50, Bomberman World $50, Croc $50 o.n.o. Will swap games for others of the same value. Mainly wanting Time Crisis 8 gun and Music. Gameboy $55 o.n.o. Sega mega drive 8 games: Sega with 2 controllers. Streets of Rage, Shaq Fu. Mickey and Donald in the World of Illusion. All of this for $50 o.n.o. Sega $25 (with 2nd controller $27), Streets of rage 2 $10. Shaq Fu $7, Mickey and Donald in the world of illusion $8. Call Ashley after school on 08 9305 2650 or e-mail ashleydiamond- ©organicconnection.net Worms $15, Leisure Suit Larry 1-6 and official guide $40. Wing Commander 3 $20, Sim ’n’ Max $10. Red Alert special edition $35. PGA 96 $15, Cricket 96 $10. Road Rash $15. After life $15, Theme Park $10. Simpsons cartoon studio $15, Doom 2 $15, 7th guest $10. Alone in the Dark 2 $5. Will sell the lot for $180. Call Daniel on 03 9744 5991. Settlers 3 for PC. $55 or swap for Red Alert or Quake 2. Call Adam or Matt on 07 3269 2787 or e-mail mbruhna>eis.net.au Voodoo Banshee (creative labs) i6mb Voodoo Banshee with 128 bit voodoo 2 technology (unique HK PCI version) $220 o.n.o. With bonus game.- Rage Incoming in perfetet condition, i month old. mark_chanman@hotmail.com or call mark on 02 9894 6180 after school. Buyer must live in Sydney and send money in advance. PSX demo cd’s, each one with hard case. $5 each. I have every game imaginable so call Johnno from 4"6 mon-fri on 02 6772 5641- Hyper issues- 4 . 5 . 8 " 25 . 27-32, 34-40 all socents each. Hyper hint cheat playguide Volume 2 $1, SNES stereo cable $2, SNES propad $7, Action replay $20. Hampton Park call David on 0413 029 078 or e-mail sexyboyi2a)hotmail.com SWAP I have a copy of Colony Wars with your name on it and all I ask for is to swap it for Final Fantasy Vii. Will also consider Forsaken, G-Police, Z or any R.P.G. Call Troy on 03 9569 9472. N64 games: 1080 Snowboarding $55 mint condition with box and manual OR swap for South Park. Silicon Valley. V-Rally, Top Gear Overdrive or WWF Warzone. Call Antony on 08 9456 1113 or 08 9493 >085. I will swap Super Mario Land and Mario Land for Pokerman (red or blue versions) on Gameboy includes booklets, warranties .Over $75 in value. Call Colin on 02 9452 2867 Cheat trading: Will trade cheats over the phone if local. Also you can swap cheats by e-mail: ashleydiamond- a>organicconnection.net. Ph Ashley on 08 9305 2650. I am looking for WWF Warzone. 1 will swap for Goldeneye, Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing or Nagano Winter Olympics '98. Call Ashley on 08 9305 2650 or e-mail ashleydiamonda)organicconnecti on.net I would like to swap a copy of Mortal Kombat trilogy (064) boxed with booklet in good condition for a copy of Diddy Kong racing. Must be boxed with booklet. Call Jack between 4.30- 5.30 on 02 4358 *6oi. WANTED Saturn backup cartridge. In good condition. Will pay reasonable price for cartridge. Also wanted any saturn games also in good condition. Call Damien between 8.30am- 10.30pm (EST) on 0417 114 844 ore-mail Damienya>earthling.net WCW- NWO Revenge for N64. Willing to pay $50 and postage. Call after school on 03 9309 6639. Vic preferred. N64 solutions mag Volume i, 1999. If anyone has it and would like to sell it and you live in QLD please call Paula on 07 3390 8756. Looking for Police Quest or C8C. If interested call me on 07 4671 2564. Lords of the Realm I or II. Will pay $25 (must be full version) on 3.5 disk or CD. Call Stuart on 07 5496 6526. Destruction Derby (PC) boxed in good condition with manual. Will pay $20. Call 08 9364 >754 on weekends. WA only. Panzer Dragon Saga (Saturn) Will pay up to $70 inc P ♦H. Call Boyd on 02 6642 1088 PENPALS Command 8 Conquer rules! Agree? Then write to me! I’m a 15 year old girl who is hell-bent on war games. I love C8C, Red Alert. Retaliation etc. So if you take your war seriously, write to CHRONOSHIFTER. ii Tummell St Pirie SA 5540. I’ll reply to everyone. My name is Hamish Campbell. I’m 13 and I’m looking for a penpal aged 10-15, M/F. I own a N64. Gameboy, SNES and a few PC’s but will talk about any other consoles. I also enjoy all sorts of different types of music, and I really like Anime/Manga stuff, especially Neon Genesis. If you’re interested then write to 7 Genders Ave Burwood NSW 2134. I’m a i3yr old male and I’m looking for a M/F penpal who is 12^. I like strategy, FPS and space sim games. I also adore mechs, and I absolutely love Star Wars and my favourite bands are the Gurge and The Living End. I own a PC. Write to Microchip on Morro76 hotmail.com. I am a isyr old male looking for a female penpal aged between 14-16 .1 have a PC and a Playstation. Please send a picture if possible. If your interested write to Brendan Vander Vlist, 18 Proctor St Chisholm ACT 2905. Hey there everyone, my names Aodhan. I’m an i8yr old male who’s just moved to Brisbane and I’m looking for M/F around the Brisbane area who like games, to chat and hang out with . As well as playing PlayStation I like to go out at night and I love guitar. My favourite band is Faith No More but I also like Living End, Sepultra, Pantera and Nirvana. So get in contact with me at 217 Postle St Acacia Ridge QLD 4110. Hi I am a 12 yr old male looking for a penpal M/F. I own a Super Nintendo with 8 games and PSX with 18 games. 1 live in Port Vila but I don’t actually belong there. The best I like in PSX is Resident Evil 2 and Tekken 3 .1 love horror movies. So if you like PSX please write to Ibarra Bjomum, PO BOX 84 .Port Vila, Vanuatu. Hi my name is Ross. I am isyrs old. My hobbies are riding motorbikes, skateboarding and hanging out with my mates. Girls please write to Ross Goldman, 22 Walker Drive Worongary QLD 4213. Hi my name is Brendon. I’m loyrs old and looking for a female penpal aged between 9-11. If you are into N64 games write to 25 Alexander St Bligh Park NSW 2756. Hi there people. I’m a i4yr old gal looking for a i4-i8yr old penpal to write to. If your into Anime, Manga, Ranma 1/2, Evangelion and the PSX. then pick up that lonesome pen and start writing. Drop me a line at Ukyou, 2/4 Lilli Pilli Drive, Byron Bay NSW 2481. Oh yeah. I hate Ally McBeal. Hi my name is Shaun. I am looking for a M/F penpal aged 10- 12 who likes or owns a PC or Playstation and likes sports. Write to me at 27 Elizabeth St. Mirani QLD 4754. Hi. I’m an 11 year old male looking for a girl penpal aged 11- 13.1 like sport, motorbikes and BMX bikes. I own a N64 with Diddy Kong Racing, mario kart. Goldeneye 007, Zelda and MRC. I have an old PC. 1 will respond to everyone. Write to Seb at 7 Boronia Rd Bullaburra NSW 2784. Hi, my name is Amy and I’m looking for a male penpal that is turning 14 this year. I own a Playstation and a computer and my favourite games are Tomb Raider 1,2,3 Resident Evil 1,2 and Tekken 1,2 and 3. Everyone will get a reply. Write to 133 Dalton St, Dubbo NSW 2830 My name is Glen. I’m 17 and looking for a penpal 13 ♦ up. I own a playstation and a super fast PC. I love to surf the net and play Quake World. My favourite games are Daytona, Tekken 3 and Duke Nukem. Please write to Glenn, 235 Ferntree Gully Rd. Mt Waverley VIC 3149 or e-mail gmaniea)hotmail.com Who's realty 9ettin9 hurt by 9ame piracy Pirating is not just copying, its stealing. Every illegal copy robs money from the game developers and that means there s less to spend on creating the next generation of games. If it doesn't stop, the flow of ground-breaking new games will. And in the end, you’ll be the one who gets hurt most by piracy. So don’t support pirates. Report them. Phone I8CX) 248 885 or visit www.scum.com.au Stop una#OfiHU