Show some emotion

In recent years video-games have moved on from being seen as an activity solely for young males to indulge in with the portable…

In recent years video-games have moved on from being seen as an activity solely for young males to indulge in with the portable television in some dark corner of the house. The major catalyst for this has been the huge success of the Sony PlayStation. The young males have grown up and kept playing games, and the market has been sensible enough to provide software that appeals to those in their thirties and beyond.

Gaming is now accepted as an entertainment choice such as reading, watching TV or going to the cinema. Most males under 40 do it now and then, and some social gatherings are spent "party playing" with friends on one console or another. Despite this acceptability, and the fact that games now challenge the movie industry in revenue dollars, games have a long way to go. To make the next leap forward will take more than the steady technology-driven improvements in graphic and sound quality that we've seen so far. Innovation is needed to radically change how and why we play games.

Whatever the genre or the graphic style, most video-games are about just one thing - winning. In Formula One Racing, Quake, X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter, GoldenEye, Tekken 3, Resident Evil, Grim Fandango, Falcon 4.0 and the rest the objective is to win, or at least to beat the game. In games such as Sim City and Civilisation beating the game is not an option, but the objective is still to be successful.

What games lack is emotion. Some (such as Grim Fandango) might raise a laugh, but how many have made a player feel sad, glad, optimistic or uncomfortable in the ways that alternative activities like reading or television might? Nobody talks about "feel-good" or "art-house" games.

READ MORE

Sony's next-generation PlayStation will come with a 128-bit CPU code-named the "Emotion Engine". If the programming matches the technological advances it may even allow gamemakers to give players more of a feel for things.

Official Formula 1 Racing, PC CD-Rom, £29.99

Formula 1 Racing has been simulated again and again on PCs, PlayStations and Nintendos with varying degrees of success. It has done better than most sports, in that few have been complete turkeys - most are good, and there is one great - Geoff Crammond's (unofficial) Grand Prix 2.

Official Formula 1 Racing pitches itself somewhere between the heavy simulations and those games with a more arcade-like approach. It is officially licensed by the FIA, so all the real teams and drivers (Villeneuve apart) are featured and the cars liveries are realistic. It is based on the 1998 world championship, however, so it's not bang up to date. There are some neat touches to make this more than just another Formula 1 game. The dazzling range of camera angles, includes ones that tilt the screen to reflect the G-forces while cornering.

There are plenty of ways to tweak the car for better performance; the weather is dynamic; the graphics are excellent. This is a very good game - but there is still only one great one. Geoff Crammond's (unofficial) Grand Prix 2 is about four years old now. That's a lifetime in video-games, yet it is still the only Formula 1 game which gives a sense that this is more than a game. Grand Prix 3 is due out for Christmas. Until then, Official Formula 1 Racing is more than worth a look.

[Recommended: Pentium 200/32MB/ Win 9x]

games@irish-times.ie