Power Games

By Peter Eley

Civilization: Call to Power

***

Activision

PC $99.95 (G - 8 and over)

OK, it's really Civilization 3 and a bid to grab back the strategy game high ground from Alpha Centauri.

For those of you who don't know the story, way back in cyber prehistory, a guy called Sid Meier invented a game called Civilization, which took computer games to a new level of intelligence.

He followed it up with the even better Civilization 2, but parted ways with the publishers not long after.

Now Civilization 2 ends - if you can ever guide your unruly mob that far - with a spaceship taking off for Alpha Centauri to escape a terminally polluted Earth.

And this year Meier bounced back with a game called Alpha Centauri, a Civilization clone, but widely acclaimed as better than the original titles.

Now we have the official Civilization follow-up, Call to Power.

The question: is it better than Alpha Centauri? The answer: no, if an utterly immersive strategy game is what you are after.

That's not to say that Call to Power is a bad game - it is a good strategy game in its own right and has better graphics than its rival.

It's a total rewrite of the original, more a new game than a sequel and on the surface has lots more to offer. There are far more units (watch out for ecoterrorists and tele-evangelists), more research and technology, and its focus is on the total empire rather than an individual city.

While all this adds to the fun, experienced strategy players may soon become frustrated by some of the game's small flaws in terms of realism and control, which were the strongpoint of the earlier Civilization titles.

In a nutshell, if you're a strategy nut, buy Alpha Centauri. If you want something easier on the brain and eye, Call to Power may well be a better choice.

Required: Pentium 133, 32Mb Ram, 400 Mb hard drive space.


Pro 18 World Tour Golf
***

Psygnosis

PC $99.95 (G)

Yet another golf game! Happily, there's enough in Pro 18 to give a chance of making the cut although Microsoft's Links is still the hot favourite with EA's Tiger Woods 99 also in the running.

As a golfing simulation, there isn't a lot in it although Pro 18's four-click swing method is about as close as you can get on a computer screen to swinging an actual golf club.

Like the real thing, it's pretty difficult, but master it and you get impressive control over direction, flight and spin.

Psygnosis took a bunch of reviewers over to play one of the computerised courses, Northern Ireland's Royal County Down Club, for real.

The general consensus of opinion (probably after several pints of free Guinness at the 19th) was that the detail and realism were impressive.

Other feature courses are South Africa's Lost City, and Idaho's Couer d'Alene.

You get more than 20 with Links, but Psygnosis plans add-ons of top European and Asian courses later this year.

Required: Pentium 166 MMX, 32Mb Ram, 1 gigabyte hard drive, 1024x768 res monitor.

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