• Tag Archives PC

  • PC Zone (March 2001)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC Zone – Issue Number 100 – March 2001

    PC Zone is a PC gaming magazine that was published in the U.K. in the 1990s and early 2000s. The March 2001 issue includes:

    Previews

    • Anachronox – A sci-fi RPG with turn based combat with influence from console RPGs.
    • Empire Earth – A real-time strategy game in which you control empires throughout history.
    • Cossacks – An RTS game featuring the Cossacks across nearly 100 campaigns.
    • Commandos 2 – A difficult squad based strategy game.

    Reviews

    New Games

    • Black & White – A highly anticipated game at the time in which you play God. It was a bit of a let down as I recall.
    • Oni – A 3D action game emphasizing combat.
    • World Championship Snooker – Well, there’s a computer game for everything…
    • Quake III Team Arena – The Quake saga continues…
    • Theme Park Inc. – A strategy game in which you run your own theme park.
    • The Blair With Project 3 – I think this was part 3 of a trilogy of games based on the original movie as opposed to a game based on the third movie. Either way it does not appear to have been very good.
    • Squad Leader – Compared to X-Com but much, much worse.
    • Starfleet Command II – A Star Trek combat sim.
    • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 – Tiger Woods really has been around a long time.
    • Sea Dogs – An adventure/role-playing/naval combat game set in the 1700s.
    • Far Gate – Like Homeworld but not quite as good.
    • Battleship 2 – Another computerized version of the classic analog game. Plus an action game nothing like that.
    • Chicken Run – Adventure game based on the movie of the same name.
    • Pacific Warriors – World War II action aerial combat game.
    • The Ward – A mediocre sci-fi/horror point and click adventure.
    • Super Taxi Driver – A crappy rip-off of Crazy Taxi.
    • Warm Up! – A mediocre F1 racing game with a bad name.
    • Wartorn – Participate in “war tournaments” to control the population. Kind of like Running Man on a larger scale.

    Budget Reviews

    • Championship Manager 3 – A football (soccer) management game.
    • Rainbow 6 Gold Pack Ed – A release of Rainbow Six with Eagle Watch add-on.
    • Cricket Captain 2 – Cricket on the computer. I guess it’s pretty good if you like that sort of thing.
    • Fly! – A flight sim with not much of interest.
    • Airport Inc. – Build and manage airports. About as much fun as it sounds.
    • The Golf Pro 2 – A terrible golf game if this review is accurate.
    • Stars! – A turn based strategy game set in space. But there are far better ones.

    Supertest

    • The Most Influential Games of All Time – An overview of what PC Zone considers the most influential games of all time. These include Sim City, Ultima Underworld, The Secret of Monkey Island, Tomb Raider, Ultima Online, Dune 2, and Doom.

    Readers’ Reviews

    • Feedback – Readers give their opinions on Project IGI, Gunman Chronicles, and No One Lives Forever.

    Online

    News & Previews

    • Majestic – EA’s virtual community.
    • Fallout Tactics – An online (up to) 18 player combat game based in the Fallout world.
    • E-Racer – An online racing game.

    Reviews

    • Sudden Strike V1.1 – A World War II online game.
    • Call to Power II V1.1 – Strategy game with mediocre multiplayer support.
    • Everquest: Scars of Velious – Everquest was THE MMORPG of the day.
    • Tanarus – A sort of updated online Battlezone.
    • Trivial Pursuit Online V.12 – A free online version of Trivial Pursuit
    • Mod Watch – A look at new and updated mods including QPong for Quake III Arena, The Challenger Deep for Half-Life, Scientist Hunt for Half-Life, Airfight for Unreal Tournament, Turbo for Half-Life, and Strike Force for Unreal Tournament.

    Bulletin

    • Dragonriders – A preview of the upcoming Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern.
    • IL-2 Surmovik – A preview of this World War II flight sim.
    • Bulletin – News including progress on Civilization III, the announcement of Myth III, GTA 3 unveiled (for the first time in 3D), a preview of Master of Orion III: The Fifth X, and more.
    • Tech Head – Corporations try to kill MP3 with DRM alternatives; 2GHz Pentium 4 released; and more.
    • The PC Zone Charts – Two charts alternatively put Red Alert 2 and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on top.
    • Div Games Creator 2000 – A game creation contest with a Packard Bell Platinum 6073 PC as the grand prize.
    • Hotshots – A preview of a new real-time strategy game called Warrior Kings.

    Regulars

    • Mailbox – Letters about ping, Star Trek Deep Space 9, a reader complains about his K6-2 500 PC not being good enough any more, games getting more complicated, and more.
    • Feature: The (Secret) History of PC Zone – A look back at the 8-year (so far) history of PC Zone.
    • Feature: The New Professionals – Making a living playing games.
    • PC Zone Top 100 – PC Zone’s continuously updated list of the top 100 games separated into a variety of categories. Top games in their categories include Half-Life, Shogun: Total War, Deus Ex, Grim Fandango, Colin McRae Rally 2.0, Battle of Britain, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Championship Manager: 00/01, X – Beyond the Frontier, Hidden & Dangerous, and Counter-Strike.
    • On the CD – The cover CD includes demos of Sacrifice, Gunman Chronicles, Microsoft Casino, FIFA 2001, In Cold Blood, NASCAR Racing 4, Rugby 2001, Moho, Close Combat V, Delta Force: Land Warrior, Quake III Team Arena, and more.

    Troubleshooter

    • Cheatmaster – Cheats and tricks for various games including Project IGI, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, American McGee’s Alice, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Sheep, Deep Space Nine: The Fallen, and more.
    • Dear Wandy – Technical questions answered about proxies, upgrading an ECS P6BX-A+ motherboard with a 600MHz Pentium III, high ping, external modems vs. internal (software) modems, and more.
    • Watchdog – Reader complaints about Home Software World, a Deus Ex promotion, orders from Gameplay, and more.
    • Sites for Sore Eyes – A look at web sites offering walkthoughs fro various games including Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil 3.

    End Zone

    • Extended Play – Various mods for Soldier of Fortune.
    • Retrozone – At this point, 2001 already far more retro than the games they were looking back on at the time. They were looking back at games that were about 8 years old at the time, including Dune 2, Ultima Underworld II, Lemmings 2, X-Wing (one of my personal favorites), Virtua Fighter, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, and more.

    …and more!


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  • GamePro (April 1999)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: GamePro – April 1999

    GamePro wasn’t my personal favorite gaming magazine but there is no doubt it was one of the most popular. It seemed to be targeted towards a younger or at least less mature audience. Like most others, it didn’t survive the transition into the new millenia very well. The April 1999 issue includes:

    Features

    • Soul Reaver: Kain’s Legacy – A feature on Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain, and adventure game for the PlayStation that became one of the most popular games on that platform.
    • LamePro! – LamePro was a periodic parody that GamePro did of itself. This issue contains reviews of games like Rouge Squadron and Saddam’s Command and Cower plus parody ads, news and more.

    ProStrategy Section

    • NetPro ProStrategy: The Beginner’s Guide to EverQuest, Part III – For a long time Everquest was, by far, the most popular MMORPG.
    • Role-Player’s Realm ProStrategy: Brave Fencer Musashi, Part 3 – A strategy guide that takes you through the last half of Brave Fencer Musashi for the PlayStation.
    • ProStrategy Guide: Drac’s Back in Castlevania – A strategy guide for Castelvania on the Nintendo 64.
    • The Fighter’s Edge: Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter – A guide to all the moves in one of Capcom’s classic fighters on the PlayStation, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.
    • S.W.A.T. Pro – Codes and tips for a variety of games including Oddworld: Abe’s Exxodus (PlayStation), Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (Nintendo 64), South Park (Nintendo 64), Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside (Nintendo 64), Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64), BattleTanx (Nintendo 64), Glover (Nintendo 64), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (PlayStation), WCW/NWO Thunder (PlayStation), and many others.

    Sneak Previews & ProReviews

    • Sneak Previews – An early look at games in development including Street Fighter Alpha 3, Quake II, Gauntlet Legends, Beetle Adventure Racing, Driver, Smash Brothers, Soul of the Samurai, Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere, and Shen Mue.
    • PlayStation ProReviews – Reviews of Silent Hill, Rollcage, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, K-1 Revenge, Street Sk8er, Rush Down, WCW/NWO Thunder, Sports Car GT, and Blast Radius.
    • Nintendo 64 ProReviews – Reviews of Vigilante V8, Mario Party, and California Speed.
    • Dreamcast ProReviews – A review of the Japanese version of Sonic Adventure.
    • PC GamePro – A review of Baldur’s Gate (one of my personal favorites), plus reviews of Tribes and Myth II and a look at the contents of gamepro.com.
    • Sports Pages – A preview of All-Star Baseball 2000 for the Nintendo 64, a review of Triple Play 2000 for the PlayStation, a preview of MLB 2000 for the PlayStation, a review of Baseball 2000 for the PlayStation and a review of Triple Play 2000 for the PlayStation.
    • Role-Player’s Realm – Preview of Legend of Legaia for the PlayStation and a strategy guide for Brave Fencer Musashi.

    Departments

    • Head2Head – Letter from the editor about playing games and having fun plus letters from readers bout Xeongears, Thrill Kill, Parasite Eve’s mature rating, and more.
    • Art Attack – Fan art from readers including subject such as Oddworld, Zelda and more.
    • Buyers Beware – “Chipping” your PlayStation, Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak and heat, and using 3rd party controllers on the PlayStation.
    • ProNews – EA developing Medal of Honor; Tiger Woods ’99 recalled; Midway announces initial line-up of games for the Dreamcast which includes NFL Blitz 2000, Hydro Thunder, a couple of Mortal Kombat games, Paperboy, Smash TV. Satan’s Hollow, Toobin’ and more; Steve Jobs commits to making the Mac a great gaming platform and the new G3 will run Quake 3 and a PlayStation emulator;

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Edge (August 1996)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Edge – Issue Number 35 – August 1996

    Edge was more or less the U.K.’s version of Next Generation and in fact they shared content. It covered what were considered “next generation” systems at the time. In 1996 that included the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, the PC, arcade games and the brand new Nintendo 64. The August 1996 issue includes:

    Features

    • CodeMasters – A visit to CodeMasters’ studio, their history, recent and upcoming games, and more.
    • JoyPads – The past, present and future of video game controllers. From the Atari 2600 joystick, to the Power Glove, to the latest analog controllers and more.
    • Nintendo 64 – Sold out in Japan while the rest of the world awaits its release. A look at the system, controller, and first games, including Super Mario 64.

    Regulars

    • News – Coverage of the Nintendo 64 release in Japan; the latest rumor on M2 hardware; Sega dominates the Tokyo Toy Show with the Saturn; a look at the BeBox, the “Amiga of the nineties”; and more.
    • Netview – Apple focuses on the Internet promising that by the end of 1996, all Macs will ship with at least 12MB RAM standard and the Apple Internet Connection Kit containing the latest versions of Netscape and more.
    • Gaming Essay – The way games ought to be as related by Chris Crawford. Here, Doom II is used as an example, both good and bad.
    • ProFile – A look at Naughty Dog software, and Andrew Graham, lead programmer at CodeMasters.
    • An Audience With – An interview with Anil Malhotra, business development manager at Millennium Interactive.
    • Prescreen – A preview of The City of Lost Children by Psygnosis for the PlayStation based on the movie of the same name. Plus previews of The Darkening by EA for the PC, Pandemonium by Crystal Dynamics for the PlayStation, NiGHTS by Sega for the Saturn, Crash Bandicoot by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation, Quake by id for the PC, Fighting Vipers by Sega for the Saturn, Battle Arena Nitoushiden by Takara for the PlayStation, Virtua Cop 2 by Sega for the Saturn, and more.
    • Testscreen – Reviews of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, PilotWings 64 for the Nintendo 64, Motor Toon GP2 for the PlayStation, Choro Q for the PlayStation, and Actua Golf for the PlayStation.
    • Multimedia – Reviews of the books The Road Ahead by Bill Gates and Takedown by Tsutormu Shimomura with John Markoff, the anime Sukeban Deka (part 1) by A.D. Vision, Book of Shadows CD-ROM for the Macintosh, the Apple Message Pad 130, the JVC GR-DV1 video camera, Game Boy Pocket, and more.
    • CGIview – A look at digitally created art by the leading graphic artists behind some of the best looking video games. Plus a look at SoftImage, a rendering package.
    • Arcadeview – A look at some of the most recent arcade games including Last Bronx by Sega, Xevious 3D/G by Namco, Gunblade by Sega, Decathlete by Sega, and Dunk Mania by Namco.
    • Retroview – A look at some recent collections of older games, including Irem Arcade Classics, Sega Ages, Bubble Bobble Collection, Namco Museum Vol. 4 and Super Pang Collection.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about game reviews, Destiny and turn-based gaming vs. real-time, Acorn RISC machines, Grand Prix 2, the Nintendo 64 and more.
    • Over the Edge – The after parties of E3.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Retro Games 📎and tagged