SCANNER
PLAYSTATION
Actua Soccer 3 (Gremlin Interactive) £39.99 7ft 'x «r air
. SPURS o
5 SCALES
Behind Sensible Soccer, Actua Soccer is the finest football game around. It may not be as immediately accessible as, say, ISS Pro, but it does produce final scores which bear some relation to real life. My record on ISS Pro is 36-0, honest. Actua Soccer takes a lot longer to master but is ultimately much more satisying. When a ball played down the channels results in a cross to the back post and a zipping header into the onion bag, all those months of practise suddenly seem worthwhile.
Well, now we have the third Actua Soccer and little has changed. It is still so murderously difficult to master that your goalkeeper will get back strain from lifting the ball out of the back of the net before your perseverance pays off. All the usual options are available - cup and league competitions, freedom of team management and more than 450 teams to choose from. Both national and international teams are available, from lowly Hibs to the mighty Kansas City Wiz, with skill levels differing accordingly. Graphically, everything has that Actua feel where detail and fluidity is preferred to slick 30 rendering. The players are small but perfectly formed, leaving a lot of room on the pitch with which to weave your tactical magic. This feels more like the real game than any other game out there and is everything a footie anorak could want. There is also the added bonus of secret codes, gained through winning competitions, which release extra teams and silly graphics.
If you love football and want a game which panders to that love rather than arcade action, then you'll do no better than Actua Soccer 3.
(Iain Davidson)
Actua Soccer 3: feels like the real game
PC
Magic And Mayhem (Virgin Interactive) £39.99 e —.» Magic and mayhem are opposites. Mag:c is the anCient art which brings order from chaos, the restructuring of the universe according to the wielder's Will. Mayhem, on the other hand, is the completely uncontrollable, the anarchic frenzy of unrestrained excess. Magic And Mayhem the game, however, fails to keep these forces equal, mayhem being the stronger by far.
As a fledgling Wizard you must seek out y0ur errant mentor, travelling a land which is conveniently split into areas. Each area contains a challenge Or quest and conquering one allows access to the next few. The challenges are essentially real-time strategy exerCises where yOu create your own little army by Summoning magical creatures who then fight, explore and, importantly, guard you and your Places Of Power Succeed in an area and experience gained buys you better
statistics and new spells. Unfortunately,
y0ur army is very difficult to control, resulting in a great deai of mayhem and very little magic The areas feel very similar and boredom soon begins to creep in More crip-crap-crop than piff-paff-poof (IDi
Sanitarium (lvlindscape) £39.99 1» ..
There’s this guy who has lost his memory and can't even remember his
own name, poor guy. Luckily, he has you on his side Using a point-and-click interface, yOu must guide what's-his- name through the mental institute he now finds himself in, helping him to regain his identity, history and, ultimately, his sanity.
And what a trip this turns out to be. Although the gameplay is a little slow and the pu77|es don’t tax you too much, the imagination and creativin of the story is breathtaking It is intricate, detailed and deeply invoIVing As you progress, beautiful Cinematic flashbacks slowly reveal life as it was, while the present takes many a Wicked toast and turn. Ghosts of what's-his- name's childhood become reality, the insane babbling of rnadmen cOntains truth, calming psychiatrists become menacing figures and each fantasy holds aspects of the next
Imagine Jacob’s Ladder, Pink Floyd's The Wall and Dante's Inferno and you'll be getting close to the feeling of this game It is iritriguing, shocking, touching and very, very bizarre Lose y0ur mind and discover someone else's iIDi
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE Iain DaVidson, Peter Ross, Jonathan Trew, Rory Weller
STAR RATINGS
Unmissable
Very good
Worth a shot
Below average You've been warned
Totally wired
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PANTS?
“.7 Dec l998 )7 ,‘ar‘ l999 THE lIST129