Saving private mine

Hidden & Dangerous, PC CD-Rom, £29.99

Hidden & Dangerous, PC CD-Rom, £29.99

In Hidden & Dangerous the player must select eight soldiers out of 40 and guide them through 23 missions and six second World War campaigns. Each soldier has different strengths and weaknesses. Some are sharpshooters, some have high endurance, others are adroit at remaining camouflaged. In this game, careful selection counts. A soldier rated at 95 per cent accuracy for shooting will be far more accurate than one who is rated at 80 per cent. In some similar games these figures are often perfunctory and can be ignored.

Although eight soldiers are selected, only four can go into a mission at any one time. After loading them up with weapons and equipment, (sniper rifles, hand grenades, binoculars, flares, mines bazookas) the player guides them through the set tasks, viewing the action in first- or third-person perspective.

Hidden & Dangerous is atmospheric, with tense and entertaining gameplay and extremely clever AI for the enemy. Other nice touches include being able to commandeer enemy vehicles after eliminating their drivers.

READ MORE

Commandos, Rainbow Six and Delta Force are among the games that real-time strategy fans have gone for over the last year or so. All three are excellent, but Hidden & Dangerous is as good if not better. Unlike these others, it transcends its genre to appeal to all gamers.

Recommended: Pentium 266/32MB/Win 9x

Attack of the Saucerman, Sony PlayStation, £34.99

With a title reminiscent of a B movie Attack of the Saucerman is a 3D-platform action adventure by Fube Industries. The B movie influence goes beyond its title; the action is accompanied by suitably spaced-out music and unfortunately at times the gameplay is cringe-making.

After landing in Area 51, the player's alien character (Ed) awakes on the operating table, scaring the wits out of those running tests on him. After locating his partner, ship's engineer Zunk, it becomes evident that the mother ship is missing a few bits and pieces. These must be found if it is to fly again. What follows is amusing at times - but more often boring and infuriating. Ed has weapons, radar and a pod which hovers above him, acting as an assistant and helper with specialist weapons like the love bomb, explosives and poison gas.

Enemy humans take just a few shots to eliminate. Aiming is almost impossible, but reeling off shots in the general direction is usually good enough. But there is little or no skill required and they rarely cause a problem. It's much more difficult to try and cross obstacles such as poison liquid or avoid being roasted by fire.

Controlling Ed at times is almost impossible, so jumping is often a leap of faith. If you fail to make a particular jump, you won't be any wiser the next time round.

If nothing else Attack of the Saucerman highlights the things taken for granted in most games - the ability to point a character in the right direction at all times being just one of them. Its rudimentary graphics don't help, but the odd sprinkle of humour and a decent soundtrack make it almost bearable.

EIDOS Interactive (famous for the Tomb Raider series amongst other things) has signed a six-year agreement with the International Olympic Committee for an undisclosed sum. The agreement - and the resulting games - covers the summer games in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and the winter games in Salt Lake City in 2002.

The Irish Quake team recently acquired the four-nations title in Irvine, Scotland, by beating the favourites England by a single frag (point) in the last game of a set of three. The team, sponsored by Nethouse Cafe, Tinet and the Search Group, is looking for more sponsors to cover some of the cost of its next challenge, against South Asia Cup winners New Zealand.

Nintendo has launched a limited edition of its Game Boy Color with designer Tommy Hilfiger. The hardware is bright yellow, with the famous red, white and blue logo splashed between the buttons. At present it is only available in the US. (Hilfiger also designed the weather gear for snowboarders in the N64 game 1080 Snowboarding).