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What we think of some newer games.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Age Of Empires A Bridge Too Far Dungeon Keeper II C&C Red Alert Theme Hospital Championship Manager 3


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Age Of Empires
"One of my favourite tactics involves 'priests'.....the strangely haunting chant can REALLY get on your nerves as your best war elephant is converted and turns against you." A classic. Who would have thought mining stone for 20,000 years could be so much fun? The concept of four 'resources' gives added dimension to the game. You must decide early on what your priorities are - do you want to quickly gather an army of cavemen and send them into battle to disrupt you enemy or will you wait until your civilisation has 'upgraded' so that you can send mounted knights or even elephants out to do battle? You even have choices on how you gather these resources. For example: 'Food' - do you fish, hunt or farm? The choice is yours and each option has its own advantages and costs.

Even the choice of civilisation affects what you will ultimately do, some have better cavalry, others better ships. One of my favourite tactics involves 'priests'. Build walls and towers with priests behind them and covert the enemy as he tries to batter down the walls. The strangely haunting chant can REALLY get on your nerves as your best war elephant is converted and turns against you.

The campaign mode is well thought out and will give you many puzzles but it is in multi-player mode that this game is at its best. What all gamers want is to be the best and you can only get this by playing and beating human opposition. In so saying the other advantage of this game is that the AI is good. So if you don't have WWW access and haven't got any friends to play with the AI will give you a good game - try 5 or 6 enemies on the hardest level and see how you get on. All in all a great game and AOE 2 is due out any time now.

- Phil


Close Combat 2 - A Bridge Too Far
"If you try to get your anti-tank team to take on a Tiger head-on they will be heard to cry: 'You must be joking - we can't hurt that!'" Another classic game from Microsoft and no, I haven't been paid by them to write this. Take control of either side to face very different challenges. The Allies have less manpower inferior weapons and little reserves; the Germans have time against them and also the locations. Once in Arnhem the German tanks become less of a threat and more vulnerable to sneak PIAT attacks from buildings.

The layout of this game is great and the graphics and AI are good. There are several subtle parts to this game. For example, tanks are very heavily armoured in the front and can often only be damaged from behind or the side. If you try to get your anti-tank team to take on a Tiger head-on they will be heard to cry: "You must be joking - we can't hurt that!". Teams will show fatigue and their morale will suffer if you send them a long way round the map quickly. They may well have to stop for rest and if you continue to send them against superior forces their morale may suffer until they panic and flee the map. Morale will also suffer if your teams are 'pinned' down by enemy support fire. Ultimately the sides are balanced out; the Germans may have more men but the Allies are 'Dug in' and all they have to do is 'hold' on.

Each scenario finishes when either one side is beaten and the map cleared or when both sides agree to a ceasefire. There is one possible downside to this game: the speed of action. When you start you plan your starting positions (you can only 'see' your part of the map) and then begin the game. The whole map is revealed (not enemy positions these can only be seen on a line of site basis, and depends if they are in 'cover' or not) then nothing happens..... All that can be heard is the sound of birds, you move your troops..... Still nothing, time slows down then gunfire is heard and the battle starts your troops have encountered the enemy. You order your troops to encircle the enemy position and they very slowly crawl across the map. Many of my friends have found this slowness a major drawback to the game play. I however finds that it enhances the 'mood' of the game, although even I would agree that when the battle is over but you can't find that last machinegun team who are hiding somewhere on the map can be frustrating.

Close Combat 3 is out and again is a good game but in my view doesn't quite live up to CC2.

- Phil


Dungeon Keeper 2
"Even the dead serve you: build a graveyard and watch the dead rise as vampires in your cause." The follow up to DK1 is, in effect, exactly the same in gameplay except that now we have full 3D graphics.

You can again build a dungeon to amaze your friends, build a prison to hold your enemies and a torture chamber to elicit information from them. Again you have the same army of strange, bizarre and evil creatures with which to corrupt your neighbour's good lands. You can build traps and watch the good guys fall. Then your Imps will take them away to your prison to die and return as skeletons. Even the dead serve you: build a graveyard and watch the dead rise as vampires in your cause.

The levels are cleverly done giving you different challenges and the 'possession' spell, in which you take over one of your creatures to control them like a first person gamer, adds another dimension to the game. This game is not as challenging as some and at times can be a little repetitive but all in all another great game.

- Phil


Command & Conquer - Red Alert
"...we can find people who just build as many tanks as possible and bulldoze their way to victory.....but this does not deter me from putting this game as one of my top 5." Now this game can seem a little dated but in its time one of the all time greats. Most current strategy games owe lots to this classic. The game is another one that has lots of variety to it; the campaign is varied and has lots to challenge you. Again it's in the multiplayer mode that this game excels.

You must mine the ore and to do this you MUST protect your ore trucks. These sturdy beasts roam the map looking for and harvesting this precious substance. I found that using a group of helicopters to seek out and destroy the enemy's ore trucks often paid dividends. There has been criticism of this game in that the 'tank rush' is often a sure-fire winner, and we can find people who just build as many tanks as possible and bulldoze their way to victory. I must agree that this tactic will often (more than I would like) work but this does not deter me from putting this game as one of my top 5. There is lots more to this game than that.

The latest of this series 'Tiberian Sun' is due out now and I look forward to seeing how it compares.

- Phil


Theme Hospital
"...it's FUN - the whole game has a wicked sense of humour." What can I say? An absolute gem!

True gaming is about playability and this game has got it in spades. While not being one of the most known games around, anyone who has played this game will tell you it has everything. First and foremost it's FUN - the whole game has a wicked sense of humour. You will smile to yourself as yet another strange illness is diagnosed with an even more bizarre method of treatment. It's also quite hard to finish all the levels which is always a good sign in any game. And there is a multitude of things that you have to manage in order for your hospital to become the best. There are some bugs in this game that can be a little frustrating but this is by far the best of the 'Theme' series of games. I would have liked to have seen some larger and more grand ending to the game: the last level is HARD and when you finally finish it you expect fireworks, brass bands and something special to happen. It doesn't. What a shame.

If you have never played this game give it a try - I'm sure you will like it.

- Phil


Championship Manager 3

"...one of the best and worst I have ever played..."

"The research done for this game is staggering..."

"...in this game you can lose for no reason and that is very frustrating..."

 		Lastly we come to the game that is one of the best and worst I have ever played. If you like football and strategy games then this is the game for you. BUT BE WARNED this game is totally addictive and totally frustrating at the same time. I have up to now removed this game completely least five times from my hard drive only to reinstall it a few days later. I have at the moment installed it (again) and am in the process of tearing my hair out (again).

This game has everything: every major team in the world is here (I think) and all the players. The research done for this game is staggering; each team and player has stats on every aspect of the game. Players are given scores up to twenty for a whole range of skills from Adaptability to Shooting and they also have a range of 'hidden' scores. The only way to gauge a player's skill is by judging them yourself or getting a good scout to check them out. Each player has position/s that he plays in as well as his age, wages, contract, and many more. You can monitor your player's mood, confidence and a myriad of other vital stats. Once you play the actual match you can put your team into any formation you wish and have trained them for it and then watch them play, making substitutions as and when you want to. Become successful and see your team conquer Europe - or the world.

Now we come to the down side. Players will suddenly go through stages of playing rubbish. e.g. Your star goalkeeper will suddenly have slippery hands and that vital match will be lost. For no reason your whole team will start playing like morons and then the board will sack you! The problem with this is there is no rhyme or reason to this. I will explain. Only the other day I was playing as a team (saving automatically every month of game time) I had won 5 games during this time all by at least 3 goals and was on top of the league. Then disaster due to a thunderstorm I lost power to my PC and had to replay the last month's games - no problem. So using the same players against the same teams I lost 4 of those games a couple were heavy defeats by 2/3 goals..... Why? Two weeks later and I was out of Europe and my board were unhappy with my as a manager!!!!!!! It seems to me that if you have the better side then you should win. I say should, I will give you that luck plays a part and all teams will lose matches that they should have won but in this game you can lose for no reason and that is very frustrating especially when you have built up a team from the 3rd division and got them to the 1st in 4 years only to be sacked for finishing in the bottom half. Finding that you now have to look for another job with a team you don't know, just makes you erase the whole game...... Until you load it again of course.

I have seen sites that say that they have won everything in this game. You can if you start from the top, but is that really what you want?

- Phil

 
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