World of Warcraft ( Blizzard )

By PETER ELEY

Warcraft was in many ways the bridesmaid to Command & Conquer and Red Alert and stalled after Blizzard changed direction with the futuristic Starcraft.

But Warcraft has soldiered on with version two and some expansion packs, and Warcraft 3 is in the pipeline. Now Blizzard plans to enter the pay-to-play market with World of Warcraft, a 3D multiplayer-only game.

An early version of the game got an airing at the ECTS trade show and first impressions were good. The game was recognisably Warcraft, the graphics were excellent, and it seemed to have lots going on.

Blizzard wants World of Warcraft to have more action and combat than other online role-playing games, which will appeal to players who can only spare the odd hour to go online.

• Demos are a good way of trying before you buy and 3D Realms has released part of its top-line action game Max Payne for free.

The only problem is that the downloadable file is 132mb — an all-night download using a standard phoneline modem. A more painless way is to wait until the PC magazines include it on their giveaway CDs.
Max Payne needs a lot of grunt to run, so installing the demo will let you know if your system's up to the job.

The demo is available on www.3drealms.com

• One of the most common e-mail queries this column gets is: will my system run so-and-so game?
Software companies are quite good at listing required specs, although they can be guilty of understating what a game needs to run at full steam.

Few new games run on less than a Pentium 2 with 64mb ram, and then they usually want a separate 3D graphics accelerator with 16mb or more memory.

PC prices have come down recently as the big US and Asian companies try to bolster a flagging market by cutting prices.

You can get a gigahertz system with scanner and printer for less than $3000 from some of the smaller suppliers.
That sort of power is only needed for games and graphics programs. A 600MHz processor with 128mb of shared ram will run most home and office applications, and possibly send a man to the moon.

The minimum specs for a new games system would be a gigahertz Intel or Athlon processor, 20gb hard drive, 64mb graphics card, 256mb ram, 17-inch monitor and of course a good sound card and speakers. A CD burner, while not essential, should be included in the package.

* peter_eley@nzherald.co.nz