Gaming as a professional could well be a viable career in the next millennium. A couple of weeks ago, Dennis Fong, also known as "Thresh", won almost $18,000 in prize money in the third season of the AMD-sponsored professional gamers league (PGL) in San Francisco for taking the death-match title. He also helped his four-person team, or clan (Death Row), to win top prize in the multi-player event and naturally collected the most valuable player award.
Last year, Thresh won a tournament at the €3 Electronic Entertainment Expo and walked, or drove, away with the '87 Ferrari 328GTS of John Carmacks (cofounder of Id Games).
Not bad at all for a 21-year-old. Thresh is without doubt the king of Quake, and to prove it in October he trounced one of Britain's best, James Page or "Billox", 56-1 in a 20-minute death-match. Because Quake allows players to use customised skins (appearances in the game) it has immediate sponsorship potential. Sponsor companies could well end up vying as keenly for advertising space on a leading player's skin as they currently do for space on the outfit of a top tennis-player or rally driver. Video-gamers might in future be able to put a misspent youth to use in the same way as tennis-brats or snooker fanatics.
Those who have Quake II and would like to see the final of the PGL event between Thresh and Immortal can download both of their perspectives on the game from www.planetquake.com/pgl. To run: put them into the quake2/ baseq2/demos directory and then type at the console: map filename.dm2
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Sony PlayStation, £39.99
Crash Bandicoot (below) is to the PlayStation what Sonic and Mario are to Sega and Nintendo.
While not as famous as Mario or Sonic, this rat-like marsupial is hugely popular. In his third adventure our hero and his younger sister CoCo have been caught in a time warp by Dr Neo Cortex and once again Crash must save the day.
As in previous escapades, the player guides Crash and CoCo through a series of levels, with the emphasis being on action. There is not a lot to figure out and from the word go it's a matter of going jumping, running, spinning and hopping mad. For improvements, Warped has more stages than its predecessors and to ward off potential monotony, Crash gets to scuba-dive, pilot a biplane, ride a motorbike and do whatever you do on jet-skis. While it might not offer the serious gameplayer much of a challenge, a time-trial mode is included which should increase the game's longevity. But it doesn't seem likely that Crash 3 is aimed at the serious gameplayer - but with its cartoon-like graphics and theme, younger gameplayers should love it.
Cool Boarders 3, Sony PlayStation, £34.99
Snowboarding games are almost as popular as car racing games these days. UEP systems was responsible for the first two in the Cool Boarders series but a rival, 989 Studios, has produced the third and possibly worst game.
This is not for want of effort, though. There are far more locations, more characters to choose from and more board types. Further, there are six competition events from downhill to big air, by way of boarder X, half pipe, slalom and slope style. The graphics can't really be faulted, with little pop-up, although the generic rock music soundtrack is pretty bland. While competing against other boarders the player can give them a little nudge of a fist if they get in the way.
Despite the boxing element, what's really wrong with Cool Boarders 3 (pictured above) is it takes itself far too seriously and lacks both the fun element and atmosphere of Cool Boarders 2. Snowboarding for nerds? I don't think so.
Cheats: Enter the following as your name in tournament mode.
Wonitall - Access all tracks
Bigheads - Big head mode
Open-Em - Access all boarders
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill, Sony PlayStation, £39.99
This is the first Duke Nukem title developed solely for consoles. Unlike Duke's recent escapades, the player views the action in a third-person perspective (similar to Tomb Raider) rather than the first person.
Duke still has his usual compliment of weapons, including pipe bombs and missile launchers. In a rage through the ages, he encounters pig-cops in Ancient Rome, and extra-terrestrials in the Middle Ages and has a shoot-out with alien rustlers in the old west. He even dons a cowboy hat for the wild west levels.
It wouldn't be a Duke Nukem game if the man didn't crack one-liners. He doesn't disappoint here, using them to good effect and adding a nice touch of humour to the game. Two-player mode is available, with vertical or horizontal split-screen action.
This is an enjoyable game with a definite Tomb Raider makeover. Duke fans will love it, but our hero is getting a bit long in the tooth and perhaps should quit while ahead. A time to retire?
games@irish-times.ie