Computer Games Issue 142

Cover Story:

• None Dare Call It Defeat: NovaLogic's controversial Delta Force: Black Hawk Down brings you the rest of the story from Somalia.

On the Demo CD: Wallpapers for WarCraft III, Spider-Man, and Tropico, plus playable demos of...

• Medieval: Total War
• Soldier of Fortune II
• Spider-Man: The Movie
• Hyperspace Delivery Boy
• Strategic Command

Newswire:

• Muted: A judge declares that video games are not protected by the First Amendment. Plus, Congress contemplates banning the sale of violent games to minors.
• Neverwinter Nights World Builder Guide: Learn the ins and outs of the Aurora toolset with help from Casey Loe and the staff of Versus Books.
• Leggo My Spybot!: LEGO Spybotics joins the Mindstorms Robotic Invention System.

Previews:

• Medieval: Total War
• Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest
• Strike Fighters
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Earth & Beyond
• Praetorians
• Madden NFL 2003
• NASCAR Thunder 2003
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
• Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
• Emperor

Hardware:

• The Good Old Days: Jason Cross reminds readers that, even as annoying as it can be to suffer patches and software updates, it was much, much worse ten to fifteen years earlier, in the era before Plug-n-Play hardware.
• Q&A: Reader questions, magazine answers
• Gaming on the Go: High-end notebooks that, in theory, let you play anything anywhere, including:
  • Alienware Area-51 (4/5)
  • Toshiba Satellite 5105-S607 (4.5/5; Editor's Choice)
  • Dell Inspirion 8200 (4.5/5; Editor's Choice)
  • Gateway 600XL (2.5/5)
• Matrox Parhelia video card (3/5)

Reviews:

• Neverwinter Nights (5/5; Editor's Choice)
• WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos (4/5)
• Hired Teams Trial Gold (1/5)
• Navy SEALs (2/5)
• Shadow Force: Razor Unit (2.5/5)
• Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne (5/5; Editor's Choice)
• Uncommon Valor (4/5)
• Jazz and Faust (1/5)
• Blood Omen 2 (1/5)
• Gore: Ultimate Soldier (3/5)
• Legion (3/5)
• Big Biz Tycoon (1.5/5)
• Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns (2.5/5)
• Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project (4.5/5; Editor's Choice)
• Ghost Recon: Desert Siege (3.5/5)
• Cossacks: The Art of War (3/5)
• Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza (2.5/5)

Afterlife:

• Out of the Box: Morrowind mods and plug-ins add to Bethesda's roleplaying saga. Plus look for new updates to Neverwinter Nights, MechWarrior 4, Grand Theft Auto III, Unreal Tournament 2003, and more.
• Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 just hit the $10 bargain bin, so check it out.
• Half-Life's exceptional Day of Defeat enters Version 3.0.

Departments:

• Upfront: EiC Steve Bauman explains the ins and outs of how timing factors into when, how, and even if Computer Games reviews a specific title.
• Rebound: Letters, letters, everywhere. Some of them even make sense.
• Road to Nowhere: Cindy Yans laments the continuing demise of the adventure game.
• Inside the Sausage Factory: Phil Steinmeyer of PopTop Games, explains the circumstances behind the release of Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition, and "Gold" editions in general.
• Three Finger Salute: Listen up developers, Tom Chick is tired of your "insert CD to play" shenanigans, and is prepared to go all 'casual software pirate' on your asses if you don't come up with something better.

Ads (in order of appearance):

• WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos
• Neverwinter Nights
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
• Earth & Beyond
• Sniper
• The Thing
• Prince of Qin
• Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis Gold Edition
• Age of Mythology
• Creative Labs INSPiRE 5.1 5300 surround sound system
• Sudden Strike
• Computer Games subscription card
• Iron Storm
• Intel Pentium 4 processor
• Stronghold: Crusader
• G.I. Combat Episode I: Battle of Norway
• Strike Fighters: Project-1
• Prisoner of War
• Medieval: Total War
• Battlefront.com
• I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike
• Farscape: The Game
• Icewind Dale
• Chips & Bits, Inc.
• Magic the Gathering Online
• EarthLink online service
• Celtic Kings: Rage of War
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX sound card

Interesting Stuff:

• Video games vs. the First Amendment is a battle which continues to play out even today, at least in the court of public opinion if not in the actual court room.
• According to this month's "Newsbytes" column, Ben Affleck was a beta tester for WarCraft III. Who knew?
• The top-selling PC game at the time of publication was The Sims: Vacation expansion pack, followed closely by the PC version of Grand Theft Auto III, Jedi Knight II, and The Sims basic game.
• Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down", refused to work with NovaLogic in the development of Black Hawk Down, saying he felt the game "trivializes the courage and sacrifice of those men." On the other hand, Lee Van Arsdale, a 25-year veteran of the Army Special Forces, and a man who was in Mogadishu during the operation, was more than happy to help make sure the devs got it right. "One reason I agreed to do this was to help pay a tribute to these men and help set the record straight."
• Die Hard came out in 1988. Who at Sierra decided that fourteen years later was the ideal time to release a new game based on this film, and why?
• Never seen so many 1/5 reviews in a single issue as I did in this one. Ouch!
• Valve's forthcoming Steam service sure takes a beating in the letter column this issue. Of course today, twenty years later, it's the most successful games distribution platform on the planet, so...
• Ironically, Tom Chick's suggestion to replace the standard CD check with online verification servers happened...and it led to crashed servers on day one, always-online requirements, and other forms of nightmarish DRM that caused even larger backlash among the community. Whoops...