RetroDefense

Cover Story: Jedi Knight: Do you feel The Force? The much-anticipated Jedi Knight will give you the opportunity -- and you'll be able to wield it against other humans. Senior reviews editor Rob Smith went to the LucasArts ranch to get the details in this exclusive guided tour; he gives you the full dope on this Star Wars offering, including looks at its environments and exclusive details on its multiplayer capabilities. Departments: Editor's Note - 'Feel the Force': Steve Klett is very excited for Jedi Knight. PC GAMES.EXE - What's on the PC Games CD-ROM this month, you ask? Well, how about a whole slew of demos, utilities, online services, and other stuff! X-Car (demo) BattleSport (demo) Jedi Knight (movie) MDK (demo) Redneck Rampage (demo) Robotron X (demo) XS (demo) Banzai Bug (demo) Sega Rally Championship (demo) Air Warrior II (demo) Jetfighter III (demo) Jack Nicklaus Golf 4 (demo) Jack Nicklaus Golf : Course Designer (demo) Links LS (demo) NBA Jam Extreme (demo) NCAA Final Four '97 (demo) Age of Sail (demo) Emperor of the Fading Suns (demo) Fragile Alliance (demo) Warbirds 1.10 patch Air Warrior online game Multiplayer BattleTech: Solaris online game Legends of Kesmai online game SciTech Display Doctor utility QuickTime for Windows Win32s utility WinG utility Regfix utility AOL 50 free hours Total Entertainment Network shareware package: Deadlock Quake Quake enabler Command & Conquer: Red Alert enabler Mplayer online service package: Big Red Racing enabler Command & Conquer enabler Command & Conquer: Red Alert enabler Quake enabler Earthlink Network package: Air Warrior BattleTech Solaris Casino Poker Harpoon Online PC GAMES.COM - The PC Games website has all sorts of goodies this month, including: Battlezone! guide to multiplayer and online gaming Archimedean Dynasty web-exclusive review Rebel Moon Rising feature Course Building with the Golden Bear golf course design tutorial Star Wars: Jedi Knight video clips, audio files, up-to-the-minute news, and more PC Games CompuServe forum is live! Incoming! - Reader mail griping about bugs, patches, and other hazards of PC gaming, along with one reader who rakes the editors over the coals for giving Battlecruiser 3000AD an 'F' in their February review. Game Wire - USB: The Plug-and-Play Uber-Port; two different 56k modem standards; EA's Darklight Conflict; the monthly online services roundup, plus GameBytes capsulized news! The Player - Editor Steve Klett asks, "To 3D or not to 3D?". The answer: To 3D...but only if you're a hardcore gamer, because nobody's ironed out the standards yet. The Opponent - Columnist 'Blade' looks to the distant future of 2001 and sees a world of fewer PC game releases, not more, as gamers switch to spending more and more time with online games like Command & Conquer and Quake, which offer hundreds or even thousands of hours of entertainment right out of the box as opposed to 30 or 40. Face-Off - The topic is, "Sports: Out Of Bounds?". Don St. John and Daniel Morris argue the pros and cons of computer-based sports vs. their real-life counterparts. Features: Log On & Lock On: More than 50 years after the war's end, the great aerial battles of World War II are still being fought every day -- online. Joystick jockeys have more chances than ever to take to the skies in search of their ace's wings. Here's a look at five flight sims in the air or on the runway. Air Warrior II Warbirds Confirmed Kill Tactical Aero Squadron Air Attack Play With Strangers: Thousands of you already know the score: there's more places to play online, right now, than ever -- and there's still more coming. PC Games dials you into the details of gaming's newest frontier, with looks at multiplayer game services and innovative company sites. Don St. John has all the info. Sneak Peeks (aka Previews): Conquest Earth Dominion Fallout Mageslayer NetStorm Reviews (and their grades, A-F): Flying Corps - A (PC Games A-List; Game of the Month) Die Hard Trilogy - B XS - D+ Mutant Penguins - C+ Discworld II: Mortality Bytes...?! - B Obsidian - A (PC Games A-List) Realms of the Haunting - B+ S.P.Q.R. - C Pod - B Sega Rally Championship - C- Enemy Nations - A (PC Games A-List) Krush, Kill 'N' Destroy - B- Star General - B Fallen Haven - C Over the Reich - B Callahan's Crosstime Saloon - B Huygen's Disclosure - D Scorcher - D Strategy & Tactics: Heroes of Might & Magic II hints, tips, and strategies Cheats: Wages of War FIFA Soccer '97 Tomb Raider Technobabble: Kludge Alert - David Gerding rip into America OnLine for being crappy in general. What a shock. Required Gear - A 56k modem is gonna be a necessity for online gamers who can't afford ISDN lines and can't get access to cable modems. Quake Mods - Reaper Bots turn solo-player Deathmatch into a bloodbath, while CTF Quake (Capture the Flag) is the fastest-growing online match type in the world. Hardware Spotlight - Daniel Morris, Steve Klett, and George T. Chronis rate a bevy of joysticks and control pads: Logitech WingMan Extreme - C+ CH Products F-16 Fighterstick - B+ Interact Magnum 6 - C+ Interact 3D Program Pad - C Logitech ThunderPad - B- S.O.S. - Readers write in with their hardware problems, which the PC Games staff attempt to diagnose and fix. Ads (in order of appearance): Blood Jack Nicklaus 4 Interstate '76 Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars XS Meat Puppet MDK T.E.N. Club V.I.P. sweepstakes card The Last Express NEC PowerVR graphics accelerator cards Command & Conquer Red Alert: Counterstrike F-22 Lightning II / Comanche 3 / Armored Fist 2: M1A2-Abrams Heavy Gear ATI 3D accelerator cards T.E.N. online gaming service Planetary Raiders EngageGames.com PC Games Forum on CompuServe Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Realms of the Haunting NASCAR Racing 2 Twinsen's Odysesy Atomic Bomberman British Open Championship Golf [Unknown Game Ad: 03.25.97 L.A.U.N.C.H. D.A.T.E.] (See 'Notable Stuff' below) Scud: The Disposable Assassin Pax Imperia PC Games subscription card Gravis PC game controllers Shadow Warrior Verbal Commander speech recognition hardware Pod Mutant Penguins War Wind Chasm: The Shadow Zone (released as Chasm: The Rift) Air Warrior II The Web magazine subscription The Web magazine free issue offer Tigershark miroMEDIA Surround headphones Banzai Bug Magic the Gathering Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming PCs Command & Conquer: Red Alert Amber: Journeys Beyond Professional Underground League of Pain Norton System Commander Steel Panthers campaign disks / Steel Panthers II campaign disk / Silent Hunter patrol disks / Age of Rifles campaign disk CH Products computer peripherals NET:Zone PCGames.com www.unzip.com adult site R&G Games used and new game sales service www.gamepad.com online service The Arrival CD-ROM Adventure Intergraph Intense 3D 100 Notable Stuff: That Blood ad which opens the magazine is one of the creepiest ads of this era. Pretty sure the 'Todd Hyland' who wrote in to complain about the review of Battlecruiser 3000AD is actually Derek Smart. This game was hot garbage upon release, but all this guy wants to talk about is how the reviewer should have taken into account all the things that will be coming after it's re-release in a more finished state and 'future add-ons'. Only in the 90's would you see a magazine based on the World Wide Web. I cannot figure out what game the 03.25.97 L.A.U.N.C.H. D.A.T.E. ad is referencing. As best I can tell, the only PC game to come out on that date is Beam Software's Krush, Kill 'N' Destroy, but KKND is a real-time strategy game. A picture of a guy dressed in jeans and sneakers shoved up through a 'ceiling' has nothing to do with what the game is about. If you know what this ad is referencing, please correct the entry in the Ads section, and delete this entry. Whoops! They messed up in the February issue's Cheats column by leaving out the key combo necessary to allow you to type in the cheats for SkyNET. Nothing truly stand-out among the controller reviews this issue, which is kind of unusual. Daniel Morris and Don St. John arguing about sports games? This is a topic where no matter who wins, we all lose a few brain cells.