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NINTENDO 64 CONKER’S BAD FUR DAY
(Rare) 1:44.99 eeee
Humour is one of gaming's Holy Grails. If you get it right. and few do. then you have an intellectual property that can run and run. Just look at the Monkey Island games. Get it wrong and you have a turkey. no matter how
good the actual game is.
Therefore. it was quite a gamble for Rare. which has produced some of the N64's finest titles. to go for Conker’s Bad Fur Day. a title that buries its humour way below the level normally known as ‘crude'. There are some very good pieces of gameplay involved in Conker's search for a hangover cure. and the jokes aren't the worst you've ever heard. but it takes a while to get to the meat of the game. And some may find the weight of the fart gag count just too much before then. Ordinarily Conker's would be a success. However. will enough people dig out their forgotten N64 to enjoy the pleasure?
PLAYSTATION 2
F1 RACING CHAMPIONSHIP (Ubisoft) £39.99 eee
Formula 1 is the most technology-reliant sport In the world. Every millimetre shaved from a cylinder. every gram of saved fuel. can mean
F1 will drive you mad
the difference between first and walking home. It is no surprise then that on the shift to PS2. the most technologically advanced games machine available. Ubisoft's F1 sim has reached new heights. As a piece of demo software it is stunning. The graphics are clean. fast and assured. The realism runs to the smallest detail and the programming. both in the game engine and the opponent Al is impressive. It's just. well. it is still a Formula 1 game. F1 drivers are robotic. therefore the game feels robotic and removed. Cars modelled on the 1999 season don’t help either. Formula 1 nuts will find F1 Racing Championship an exciting re-enactment of their favourite sport. Others may well feel that it is all a little empty.
(lain Davidson)
ALSO RELEASED
Evil Dead (PC/DC/PSX Konami 230—240) There's only one Bruce Campbell!
Matt Hoffman BMX (PSX Activision £29.99) Raleigh Burner anyone? Spldermen (DC Activision £39.99) Get in the swing.
Dragon Riders (PC Ubisoft £29.99) Be smug riding Smaug. Soldler of Fortune (DC Ubisoft £39.99) Headshots aplenty.
110 THE U37 24 May-7 Jun 2001
CUBIC EYE www.20e.com
Every now and again something comes along that is radically innovative and takes a bit of adjusting to. Cubic Eye is one such innovation. With a small download this software attaches itself to Internet Explorer and allows you to view more than one web page at a time with each page forming one side of a 3D cube. This allows you to browse groups of sites and read one while another loads. But beware — this hogs a whole load of bandwidth so be patient. Later in the year the same company is planning on releasing a similar package for the Windows desktop environment.
31 PLAY
www.s1play.com
Just launched. this is one of the premier sites for Scottish arts and entertainment. But it's more than that. encompassing restaurant reviews. wine recommendations. and an interesting section on what to do in Scotland when it's raining. The ultimate Scottish lifestyle channel
BMW FILMS
www.bmwfilms.com
These days there's a very fine line between art and advertising. Here. BMW has thrown a wad of cash at five top film directors (Ang Lee. Guy Ritchie. John Frankenheimer, Wong Kar-Wai, and
internet@list.co.uk Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) and asked them
to make some shon films
featuring its cars. And feature they certainly do. It's all car chase. guns and bad guys. Enjoy.
PRICELINE
www.priceline.co.uk
Ever fancied haggling IOr a holiday? Well now you can. At this site you can request a holiday to ‘ anywhere in the world and enter details on how , much you're prepared to pay. Book your flight. hotel and car hire. and in an hour you will be contacted and told if your offer has been accepted by an agent. Anyone who I manages to get a holiday i for under £1. please get intouch.
GNOTELLA
www.gnotella.com
With the death of Napster imminent. people are desperately looking for an alternative. File sharing on 3 ‘Peer To Peer' (P2P) network is looking very
I much like the future. With | this setup (and its various clones - Gnutella.
need to go thr0ugh a central server (as with Napster). the data being held on other users' computers. which makes it extremely difficult to police. However, unlike Napster this system allows you to share almost any type of file. While this can be open to abuse. it can be immensely useful (entire episodes of The Simpsons spring to mind). This is immensely powerful; just mind how you use it. (Steve Blair)
Mr T vs Everything
Spider-Man Hype
WWF
X-Entertainment
TOP FIVE GEEK CULTURE SITES
www.sit.wisc.edu/~kljense3/MrT.html A compilation of Mr T's exploits as he takes on a host of foes ranging from trees to Claire Danes.
Transformers On-Line Encyclopaedia www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/6563/tf-enc.html The ultimate site for True Transfans (yes. we have a name). Only monomaniacs need apply.
www.spider-man-hype.com Invaluable resource in anticipation of the Webhead’s big screen return. Set reports plus links to the film‘s official site.
www.wwf.com Catch up on the soap opera of sports entertainment with the exploits of The Rock. The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
www.x-entertainment.com Hysterically funny articles on 808 cartoons. terrible horror films and cereals. You can’t fail with a site that features “Scientology: where Vulcan ears are holy.' (John Lyndon)
Bearshare. etc). you don't
Video] DVD
video@list.co.uk
SCIENCE FICTION PITCH BLACK (15) 108 mins .00.
David Twohy's science fiction chiller really delivers the goods, right from the opening scene during which a spaceship crash lands dumping its crew and travellers on a barren, inhospitable planet. As the Robinson Crusoes in space - among them a criminal, bounty hunter, pilot and priest - attempt to overcome their differences to survive, the planet of perpetual day (it has two suns) suffers a rare eclipse. What then becomes perpetual night unleashes predatory natives on the castaways.
Relatively low budget, but with enough cash to facilitate a decent cast and very respectable sfx, Pitch Black’s real strength lies in its leanness. There’s no wastage, no pretence, just a clever idea, riveting storytelling and a series of thrilling set-pieces, building to a surprising climax.
Twohy has been writing and directing good, solid sci-fi and horror films for the past 23 years, and Pitch Black is his best film to date. You may not remember Warlock, Timescape and The Arrival, largely relegated to video and television in the UK, but you’ll certainly be familiar with the Hollywood blockbusters he’s penned to finance his own work: The Fugitive, Waterworld, GI. Jane. Big name directors, including drippy Kevin Costner, ought to take a leaf out of Twohy’s book, and jettison delusions of grandeur in favour of modest, unpretentious filmmaking.
Next up for Twohy is lmposter, his adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story for director Gary Fleder, and Below, which Twohy is directing from a script by Darren Aronofsky. We await with pleasure.
(Miles Fielder) I Available to rent from Mon 28 Apr from UIl/V(}/.Ԥ(l/.
No messin’, clever science fiction chiller
THRILLER THE ESCORT (18) 102 mins ee
display in Michel Blames; film. T&A asmle. Pierre'r; fasCination With the glamour of male escorting which quickly spirals into sleaze and self-loathing, is; mostly laughable. This Escorts firing blanks. (Fox Pathr: rentan (Miles Fielder)
BIOPIC GREY OWL (12) 113 mins ee
PJHU'I PM
A thriller located in the seedy underbelly of London starring top French actor Daniel Auteuil. The Escort ought to have been a classy piece of drama. However, the stOry of Pierre. whose mid-life crisis prompts him to leave his Parisian wife for Soho where he becomes apprentice to Tom the gigolo (Stuart Townsend). wobbles all over the Show. Like many of the buttocks on
Grey Ow/ is the true stOry of a Canadian Indian, played by Pierce Brosnan. who lives off the land in the 308.