GameZone: Garrett Rowe checks out a career in crime
When Grand Theft Auto was first released it caused quite a stir. This was hardly surprising, as the goal of the game was to become a big name in the underworld. The player's "career" began with relatively small crimes like stealing cars (hence the name) and progressed to bigger, riskier jobs. The bigger they got, the more likely the police were to crack down. It's dubious stuff, but the game is clearly marked as suitable for those aged 18 and over.
This add-on pack moves the action from present-day America to 1960s London. (The original game with London add-on costs £34.99.) The aims of the game are pretty much the same, but there are 30 new vehicles, the music on the car radio is a little crackly, there is plenty of cockney slang and, of course, the scenery is changed.
This doesn't offer much more than superficial changes to the original game, but it gives fans 32 new missions to complete and runs on a very modest PC. But PC in tone it certainly ain't.
[Req: 486DX4/100/16MB/Win 9x or Dos 6]
Rugrats: Search for Reptar, PlayStation, £34.99
You've watched the series, seen the movie, and bought the T-shirt. Now you've gotta play the game. Tommy has lost the pieces of his Reptar jigsaw and you have to help him find them.
During the search Tommy and friends have strange and wonderful tasks to complete. Racing Angelica around the house for cookies is one. Retrieving grandpa's false teeth from a goose is another. When the lights go out, Tommy has to release it from the fridge, where he knows it always hides. When another episode has Chuckie being used as a human cannonball in Angelica's fun circus the game is to make sure he lands safely. Aside from the main game there are some activity and training games, including mini-golf for up to four players.
Shifting camera angles, sensitive controls, and bad clipping (other characters can often be seen behind doors and other supposedly solid objects) take the shine off a game that will still probably be loved by its target audience. Despite these flaws, this game has enough imagination and feel for the TV series to avoid the black hole that most TV-to-video-game conversions fall into.
A test version of Quake III: Arena called Q3test has been released for two operating systems - and neither is Windows 95/98. The release is for the Linux and Macintosh operating systems, while the Windows 95/98 version is still in the works and no release date has been given.
Id software launched the Mac version first to give 3D board manufacturers time to get Win32 OpenGL drivers certified by Microsoft. To download Q3test, start at www.quake3arena.com.
Despite almost a million sales in its first few months, Sega's Dreamcast has failed to get the company's finances out of the red. Three million games were sold for the new console, against Sega's projection of five million, and the company said it had made an estimated net loss of 45 billion yen (£250 million) in the year to March 31st. It said this was due largely to write-offs in its overseas amusement facility operation and domestic inventories of its 32-bit systems.
games@irish-times.ie