SCANNER
PC Theme Park World (Bullfrog) £34.99 ii i i iii *
Life's a rollercoaster: Theme Park World
Since spring, Theme Park World has gained an awed deference among the specialist press that must have been something of an embarrassment for its developer, Bullfrog. Finally though, we have the product itself and all the hushed, lump-in-throat praise suddenly makes sense. Theme Park World is an absolute cracker of a game.
As anyone familiar with the Theme" genre will have guessed, TPW is a god sim. In this case, you are in ultimate control of a theme park, overseeing every aspect of your very own Alton Towers. Every detail of park creation and management has been included, allowing you free reign to produce a magical Mecca for youngsters everywhere. Facing a bare patch of ground can be daunting at first, so there are info screens and a catalogue of aids to help you, the most vocal being a cartoon Scottish advisor (voiced by Lewis McLeod, who does the impressions for BBC Radio Scotland's On The Ball) who will guide you through any problems.
Soon enough your fledging park is populated with rides, shops, security guards, toilets, ice-cream parlours and, most importantly, children. From there, success depends on innumerable factors from the obvious, like ticket price, to the much more subtle, like having balloon animal-making entertainers touring the queues. If all goes well, kids, then dollars, roll in, allowing you to expand the park, research crazier rides and make even more money.
However, it is not all money. Fulfil a variety of unknown criteria and golden tickets become available. Collect enough of these and more theme parks become available, resulting in four parks running simultaneously. There is also the ability to publish your parks on the Web, letting big kids worldwide play in your wonderland.
Theme Park World is packed with detail, from the vomiting children to the chance to ride your own attractions, and the ever increasing complexity produces a clever sliding scale of difficulty. It is an hour-eater but well, well worth it. Disney is dead, long live the king! (lain Davidson)
Simulation, radical experimentation would be misplaced. This is pure, unadulterated Fl action and if that sounds exciting to you, Formula One 99 won't disappomt. (ID)
N64
Turok Rage Wars (Acclaim) £39.99 * ‘k ii ii
With Quake: Arena and Unreal Tournament hitting the shelves around Christmas, it WOuld seem that, for the first-person shooter, the future lies in deathmatch, Gone are the days of seeking keys and SWitches to open dOOrs, trapdoors and, hopefully, the level eXit. All that counts now are closed arenas, a never-ending arsenal and gallons of controlled, highly aggressive violence. And that is exactly what Turok Rage Wars delivers to the Nintendo 64.
progression to the next VlClOUS terrain Weapons are plentiful, many With pleasantly sick execution and, thOUgh the levels can be a tad bland, they provide the background to some fantastic battles.
However, play this With others and the game bursts into a whole new dimension. There are both team games and indiVidual deathmatches, eaSily transforming the best of friends into the worst of enemies. It is fast, fun and highly addictive. The solo game itself doesn’t really warrant the asking price, but for those haVing friends round for Christmas turkey, this Will easily fill the time until the Queen’s speech. (ID)
REVIEWER THIS ISSUE: Iain DaVidson
STAR RATINGS
As a single player, Rage Wars pits you egmsgfle in close combat against a succesSion of * i ,, Wgt a Shot brutal and surprismgly intelligent * * Below average tr You’ve been warned
monsters, With the only real goal being
Totally
The weird world of the Web.
Airtoons http: wmvairtoonscom'
Admit it — yOu"«.e looked at airCraft emergency pamphlets and thOught up smutty, amusing captions for the cartoon diagrams No, probably not, but someone has, and that's the impOrtant thing So check this Out — something to laugh ab0ut While crashing
Name The Decade
http://www.namethedecade .com The 1920s were called The
Twenties, the 1950s were called The Fifties, the 19705 were called a Fashion Disaster, but what is the first decade of 2000 going to be called? The Zeroes7 The Nillies7 The Millies7 Get y0ur say here in this interactive questionnaire
How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks. com/ After first dismissing this as a
novelty Site, it really impressed
wired
The door handle eervee es an excellent eteblllzer for ln-fllght meeturbetlon.
me. Some good, solid information for the technically curious Everything from computers to cows' did you know cows can sleep while standing up, but they only dream if they lie down?
99 Ways To Open A Beer Bottle
http://www.inch.com/~brett/
Number 100 is a bottle opener It's amazing how many other ways there are — teeth, police cars, roller blades, toilets, policemen, etc The desperate among y0u may know them all, but this site lists the best methods for every possible scenario Easier JUSI to carry an opener on yOur key ring.
The Shooting Gallery
http://wwwfi|mfour.com/filmfour_data/fi|mfeatures/f_shooting_gallery/f_
shooting_gallery_01.cfm
After typing that lot in, you’d expect something pretty impressive And I think you get it — Channel 4's latest Shooting Gallery shorts in their entirety. You no longer have to be an insomniac to watch them — Just someone With a free
Internet connection.
Apocalypse!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocal pse/
And now a book at bedtime
The ever-popular pre-mi lennial story of how
we’re all gOing to die. The American broadcasters, PBS, have put together a speCial report, compiled from a bunch of academics' Views of biblical interpretations. Really everything you’d want to know about Our foretold demise,
but told in a feelgood way.
Alien Abduction Therapy
http://www.abduct.com/irm.htm
If, like me, you've been abducted by aliens, then you'll really appreCiate this site — With serious adwce on how to spot the implants (one of which ’the non- physical or fourth dimensional type, is a flat, thick, souare energy grid'), Also information aboot how to de-activate and remove them. Sign-up for the therapy and buy the T-shirt. Americans are great (Steve Blall)
l6 Dec 1999—6 Jan 2000 THE l|3T111