Etherlords
PC £24.99 Fishtank Interactive ****
Mention the word turn-based strategy and you can be sure 80% of your audience will turn off immediately. With the exception of Sid Meier's Civilization series, turn-based strategy games have been out of vogue.
And then out of Germany sneaks Etherlords, turn-based for sure but also addictive and good-looking. Of course, acquiring territory and crushing the enemy is still your main objective, but this is undertaken on your behalf by "heroes". Heroes have special powers, which increase depending on how much they fight and how many of the map's resources you find and control to feed them with the magical powers of Ether.
Combat is initiated by simply spotting an advancing enemy on the map and walking up to it. This takes you to a separate screen where the battle takes place, with your chosen hero now able to use his spells to fight the enemy. Here, each turn is split into three parts, for movement, attack, and defence - making each battle a slow but always unique experience as spells are tried out and strategies perfected.
It's unlikely that Etherlords will convert anyone who thinks turn-based games have had their day. However, it is just as gripping as a real-time strategy and lasts a whole lot longer. It also goes to show that these titles need not look as dull as the recent Civilization 3 - the time has come at last for big battles and flashy graphics and Etherlords is the proof. Check it out. (MA)
WipEout: Fusion
PS2 £39.99 Sony/Sony ***
So here it is, 18 months late. If you've been worried that the name Fusion implies a bloated, jazz-rock version of the WipEout you know and love, with masturbatory guitar solos and a strangely tinny drum sound, read on.
WipEout ships don't pitch up and down any more, but stick grimly to the track. The racecourses - pretty variations on snow, sand and cyberpunk cityscapes - feature loop-the-loops, plus numerous shortcuts and alternative routes that make it feel less like a serious racer than a snowboarding game.
Ship combat is much more frenetic. Enemies pack together, firing off rockets, missiles, and even quakes like there's no tomorrow.
This can be amusingly chaotic, though equally often it is unfairly frustrating. Worse, the frame-rate often suffers unforgivable chugging. And call me a futurist pedant, but I don't believe that even in 2160 it will be possible for craft to fall through solid walls and racetrack floors as regularly as they do here.
It is now a legal require ment for every racing game to offer an RPG-style career mode, with driver "personalities" and a vehicle-upgrade economy, and Fusion duly delivers. Progression is rather enjoyable, as new track areas are opened up and your opponents become more powerful.
But sadly, with its alarming bugs and its combat imbalances, Fusion is no longer a purist Zen racer. It doesn't have the gorgeously understated trance aesthetic of WipEout, nor the hallucinatory vividness of 2097.
Compare it to the Rollcage or Extreme G series, which it resembles far more, and it comes off very well, but it has abandoned what made WipEout unique. Hope you like our new direction. (SP)
Gorasul
PC £29.99 JoWooD Productions ***
If you're talking role-playing games, there's only one benchmark: Baldur's Gate (and its sequels). And in terms of size, depth and the sheer number of features, Gorasul doesn't compare badly at all. Your hero, Roszondas, can play as one of six different classes (fighter, mage, etc), take on up to three allies, enter 40 locations, complete over 100 quests, and do battle with 60 types of monster. He can use an array of weapons, ranged and melee, and cast spells both offensive and defensive.
Gorasul even (gasp) offers possibilities that the best-ever RPG does not. You get to choose a weapon "companion", which gains experience as you do and becomes increasingly powerful; it even offers useful advice. You also have "dragon skills", which, like limit breaks in Final Fantasy, kick in automatically when you're low on health.
While Gorasul's interface borrows extensively from Baldur's Gate, the bits that are all its own aren't up to scratch. Casting spells and manipulating inventory items is the devil's own job; it's almost impossible to persuade party members to do different things at the same time; and you'll find your adventurers taking roundabout routes to places that are feet away.
Some of the backgrounds are pretty, the spell animations are effective, and the interface screens look great. But as the game progresses, so the landscapes become duller, and the character models look like melted Star Wars action figures.
Finally, the dialogue - the game was translated from German - often leaves you feeling like you're watching a particularly painful episode of 'Allo 'Allo. Most of the time this is just irritating, but when it comes to solving complex verbal puzzles, you might as well stick a pin in the screen for the right answer.
It's a bit like taking a Rolls-Royce and putting a Robin Reliant engine in it. (AB)
