Requiem: Quake clone with holy extras

Requiem

***

3DO

PC MA 15+

$99.95

Reviewer: Peter Eley

It's billed as a new spin on the traditional first-person shooter.

A holy war is raging on Earth between Heaven's Chosen Soldiers and Hell's Fallen Angels.

You play Malachi, who is sent to terra firma to rescue the Creation from the dark forces of the demonic Lilith.

Cut to the chase - it's yet another Quake clone, dressed up with a bizarre plot to give it some sort of credibility.

But one or two nice touches give it wings. For one thing, the graphics are pretty stunning if you have a decent video accelerator although I must say they didn't fill me with religious awe.

In fact, many of the locations could have been from similar "eye candy" titles. The plot cries out for more of a supernatural feel.

Far more interesting are some of Malachi's powers, such as the ability to create locust swarms or turn enemies into pillars of salt.

Perhaps the most impressive is Time Warp which slows down your enemies to the point that you can see them move frame-by-frame, a la Keanu Reeves in The Matrix' shoot-out scene.

Of course, Malachi has the usual stuff such as a super shotgun, rocket launcher and the customary BFG-style thing to obliterate Lilith at the end.

Required: Pentium 166, 32Mb Ram, 2Mb DirectX video card. A Pentium 200 with a 3Dfx or Direct3D card is recommended.


Grand Theft Auto
London 1969 Mission Pack

***

Rockstar

PC R18

$59.95

Grand Theft Auto caused a huge uproar when it was released a couple of years ago.

The concept of entertainment that involved getting points for running over pedestrians and policemen outraged those sections of society already wary of the direction some games were taking.

So perhaps the timing of the mission pack's release is unfortunate given the worldwide concern over violent games raised following the Columbine massacre in the United States in April.

The game itself was OK - it had an oddly addictive quality which must appeal to the sociopath in us.

And the mission pack is more of the same, but set in the swinging London of 1969 - a time when the Fab Four (aka the Beatles) held sway and frilled shirts with flared trousers were obligatory fashion statements.

The mission pack doesn't really capture the flavour of this period, but it's fun enough if you're into grievous bodily harm.

Required: 486 dx/4 100 processor, 16Mb Ram. The original game must be installed on your computer.

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