Giant Killers
Sega Dreamcast £29.99 Io Productions / AAA Games **
Just as the football season draws to a close, AAA Games has released the first (and probably, last) Dreamcast football management game. This is a brave move, considering both the state of the Dreamcast market (near dead) and the history of console footy boss titles (mixed).
While PC owners, with essential stat-storing hard drives, have been treated to classics like the peerless Championship Manager, the console choice has been limited, with only Codemasters' LMA Manager approaching the Premier League standard. Now there is Giant Killers - a title first released on PC and aimed at the younger Alex-Ferguson wannabe.
You can choose levels, from easy (£25 million Man Utd), medium and hard, although the latter two provide the only real challenge. All the usual options are here, from team tinkering to training, although there are limitations with the transfers: you can't scan other squads for bargains and have to rely on the general list.
Surprisingly, the match sequences are text only, rather than the animation you might expect on a console title. Of course it works, with imagination offering more excitement than any, inevitably repetitive, visuals.
Unfortunately, controlling a football management game on a console doesn't feel quite right. There is a niggling feeling of genre incompatibility, with hard drives and monitors seemingly more conducive to sheepskin wearing glory.
But for PC-less footy fans, this is your only choice on Dreamcast and, considering the lack of competition, AAA has done a solid job.
If you own both a PC and a DC, then forget it; Champ Manager is cheaper and infinitely superior. But, considering its format limitations, Giant Killers has lifted itself above mid-table mediocrity. (GH)
Alone in the Dark: The new nightmare Sony PlayStation £29.99 Darkworks/ Infogrames ***
Although survival horror began in the movies, it has been scaring the games world ever since 3D Ant Attack on the ZX Spectrum. One of the early contenders was Alone in the Dark, a genuinely creepy PC adventure that spawned two reasonable sequels. So has the old timer still got what it takes, or is it too badly decomposed?
The first shock is not altogether welcome. AITD has definitely been shaken by Capcom's successful Resident Evil series. The game engine seems almost identical, with superior graphics but at the loss of the original's Gallic charm. The game begins with a clueless agent standing outside a building, piecing together clues about Shadow Island by discovering documents or occasional radio transmissions and running like hell. Similar, too, is the movement, with an irritating eight-directional control, making it hard even to negotiate your way down a corridor. The game would have been more playable were it in a first-person perspective but consoles excel at this perspective, so that is what we get.
There are plenty of original touches, though. The torch casts an atmospheric pool of light that both reveals hidden items and scares away smaller monsters. The music (by The Police's Stuart Copeland) is excellent, as are the sound effects in general. It is also a long game with plenty of replay value.
Does this sound like scraping the barrel? Well, yes - AITD is a competent adventure with loads of locations to visit, more than 20 characters to interact with, and around 190 monsters to dispatch.
Unfortunately, it is too like Resident Evil for comfort, and the genre has moved on a great deal since then. Undying on the PC proved that you can combine the tension of survival horror with the speed and immediacy of a shoot-'em-up and compared to that, AITD seems sluggish and predictable. It is a shame, but AITD no longer packs the punch it once did. Sorry. (MA)
Harvest Moon: Back to Nature Sony PlayStation £19.99 Natsume/ Ubi Soft ***
If you combined Sim Farm, Maxis's farming simulation, with bits of The Sims, and presented it as a role-playing game, the result would be pretty close to Harvest Moon.
Given the success of those Maxis games, the combination could also be very popular - certainly, Harvest Moon's fans rate it very highly.
Though new to me, the belated PlayStation version has been preceded by Bokujo Monogatari or Harvest Moon games for the Super Nintendo (SNES) and Nintendo 64, and three versions for the Game Boy.
Actually, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature comes across a lot like a Game Boy game. The graphics are nice and detailed, but the screen designs have a GB-like simplicity. The sound effects are GB-like chirps. The hero - you - wears a baseball cap back to front and has the big eyes and big feet typical of cutesy Japanese characters in Nintendo games.
The problem with the game is that it is a very slow starter. The intro seems to go on forever and, when you start running what was once your grandpa's farm, you still don't have much of a clue what to do. However, the basic idea is that you have to plant seeds, water the plants, buy and tend chickens, cows and sheep, and generally run the place at a profit.
You can also woo one of a handful of village beauties, and perhaps marry your childhood sweetheart.
Unlike Sim City or The Sims, however, you can't just leave HMBTN running.
You have to remember to hug your dog every day, talk to the horse, feed the sheep and so on: the chores have to be done. However, you should be able to find time to explore the area, relax in a hot spring, and play mini games such as Chicken Sumo and the annual Town Tomato Fight. These relieve what can become tedium.
HMBTN is rated OK for ages three and up, and Ubi Soft reckons the target market is 8-12 year olds. They may need some parental help, and this looks like a good family game. (Virtue is rewarded: skiving off is not). It also has a lot of depth, so it should appeal to older players, too - as long as they are not put off by the Japanese graphics and sound.
Harvest Moon does not provide instant gratification, but it could grow on you. (JS)
