Silver, PC, £34.99
Silver is unusual in that it combines two separate genres of gameplay. It is a combination of a role-playing game (RPG) and a point-and-click adventure. Silver combines elements from games such as Zelda and, even more so, Final Fantasy VII.
The player is the character David in a story of his fight to rescue his kidnapped love. The quest is to foil the eponymous Silver who has rounded up all the women on the island of Rain to sacrifice them to a dark god in return for a portion of the god's power.
The game interface is surprisingly intuitive; the mouse is used for everything from accessing your inventory, talking to other characters and as a weapon in battle. To get to grips with the system, a brief tutorial is given by David's grandad. New moves can be learnt throughout the game from other characters to improve your chances in battle. Some battles take place close up but, when the action is set a little further back, it's often hard to see just what you're doing. Inevitably in these instances, you will end up haplessly swiping the mouse at random, hoping for the best.
Thankfully, David is not always alone when faced with enemies; he can travel with up to two other friendly characters at any one time. And while the AI takes care of most of their actions you can, for example, set them to fire a fixed number of shots at the enemy automatically.
There are over 200 locations to discover, 50 characters to interact with, the graphics are intricately detailed and it doesn't require a 3D card. Silver is a brave attempt at creating a hybrid game. It isn't perfect by any means, but fans of both RPGs and point-and-click adventures should enjoy it immensely. For PC owners with no access to a Play Station, this is the nearest thing you'll get to Final Fantasy VII.
[Req: Pentium 166/32MB/Win 9x]
Team Fortress Classic has been released for Half-Life. The game itself is undoubtedly one of the best PC games in recent times, and perhaps one of the best of all time. TFC enables Half-Lifers to participate in team-based strategic gameplay, choosing from nine classes of player, including soldier, medic and engineer. It also includes new maps and scenarios. The free add-on can be downloaded from www.planethalf.com or installed by using the auto-update feature in the original game. Although free, because of its size (19MB), it could involve a very long phone call.
Electronic Arts (EA), one of the world's largest interactive entertainment companies (revenues over $1 billion in 1998) has secured the rights to one of the world's most coveted international motorsports licences - Formula One. EA already have some of the biggest sports licences. Their stable includes games such as John Madden Foot- ball, FIFA 99, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL Hockey, NBA Live and NASCAR 99.
The licence gives EA interactive rights to the FIA Formula One Drivers' and Constructors' Championships including drivers, teams, cars and tracks on the Formula One circuit. EA usually do a good job on sports simulations and their motto "if it's in the game, it's in the game" usually rings true. Hopefully F1 fans will be treated to something special when the game roars off the grid.
The fifth annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (€3) took place last week in the Los Angeles Convention Centre. €3 is the largest computer and video games trade show in the world, where many of the most eagerly-awaited games are unveiled. A highlight was the sequel to Half-Life. Other keenly anticipated games featured were Braveheart, Close Combat IV, Prince of Persia 3D, Homeworld from Sierra and a slew of Star Trek games from Interplay.
Microsoft has teamed up with Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of the legendary Tetris, to create Pandora's Box. The new game, which will be released in the autumn, features 10 puzzle types with over 350 variations. Tetris was - and is - so addictive it's a wonder it wasn't made illegal. Hopefully, when we open Pando- ra's Box, it will prove just as alluring.
games@irish-times.ie