Classic goodies galore for '99

Reviewed by Peter Eley

Christmas comes but once a year and brings with it a rush of new computer games. Now the glut is over, what does the rest of the year hold in store?

Some goodies are coming up - many of them sequels to classics.

One eagerly awaited title is Microsoft's Age of Empires 2, which seems on track for a spring release.

It will have a mighty job to beat the original title. The graphics are much better but it's too early to make any judgment on the gameplay.

It's a much bigger game in territorial terms and it will take a humble peasant about nine minutes to walk across the largest map, compared with about three minutes in the present version with the Rise of Rome add-on.

SimCity 3000 seems to have taken about a millennium to develop but Electronic Arts expect to release it in February/March. Again, its graphics are a big improvement on the excellent SimCity 2000.

Nice touches include more realistic crime and the ability to interact more with characters.

SimCity 2000 has had incredible longevity - it's been around for eight years and is still very playable.
If SimCity 3000 follows the same high standards, it could be one of the games of the year.

Quake 2 must have the most loyal following of any computer game.

Reviewers who put it down or heap praise on another first-person shooter get e-mail fired at them like blasts from Soldier 3585's BFG (big, uh, freakin' gun).

The follow-up Quake 3 Arena should be released this year and it will be interesting to see how it compares with the latest crop of FPS games, such as the rather good Half Life.

The few screen shots I've seen show that the graphics will be a big leap from Quake 2's dullish grey-brown environment and the gameplay will be a departure from out-and-out killing, with a more developed storyline and some adventure game elements.

The influential John Romero of id Software is driving the project, so we can expect great things.

The good news for Mac fans (who are growing by the day thanks to the new iMac machine) is that Quake 3 Arena is being developed for that platform.

Did you ever get through Civilization 2? If you did, you will remember that you and your people board a space colony ship and take off for Alpha Centauri.

That was five years ago and would have seemed the perfect set-up for a sequel. But it didn't happen and, in the meantime, Microprose and the brains behind Civilization, Sid Meier, parted company.

Now Alpha Centauri is a Sid Meier game but there is scant mention of Civilization. That's probably because it's a Microprose game, so it's not a true sequel.

But you can soon work out the connection, and Alpha Centauri plays like Civilization but with the goodies expected in computer games today.

In a nutshell, the space colony ship's captain is killed in a mutiny and the settlers split into factions who battle for control of their new home.- 7DAYS

* Send your comments e-mail peter_eley@herald.co.nz