C

Cold Fear

Description

The game begins with a Navy SEAL team deploying on a Russian whaler, the Eastern Spirit, in the Bering Strait. As the team explore the deck, they are attacked and killed by unseen beings that literally rips them apart. Seeing his team is gone, CIA Special Agent Jason Bennett, who is supervising the mission from another location, orders any other government vessel in the vicinity to investigate. His call is picked up by the US Coast Guard ship, the USCGC Ravenswood, which heads to the Eastern Spirit. The crew of the Ravenswood split into teams, but within moments of boarding, only one remains; Tom Hansen, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, currently serving in the United States Coast Guard, who hears his shipmates being killed over the radio. He sets out to explore the ship and determine what is happening.

As soon as he enters the interior of the Spirit, however, he is attacked by two frightened Russians, who he is forced to kill. As he continues to explore, he encounters a multitude of panicking Russians, all of whom attack him. He also finds several horrifically mutilated bodies, including that of the Ravenswood’s captain, Lt. Lansing. Hansen soon learns of a creature known as an “exocel”, which was accidentally discovered by the crew of a Russian oil rig, the Star of Sakhalin, owned by Colonel Dmitriy Yusupov, a member of the Russian mafia, and staffed by Major Yuri Anischenko and his team of mercenaries. Yusupov came to realize the exocels were parasitic organisms, which used other living organisms as hosts, and as such, he brought Dr. Viktor Kamsky to the Sakhalin to begin experimenting with infecting various species with exocel serum. These experiments led to the discovery that exocels could re-animate recently deceased humans, and the creation of an antidote to counter infection. Hansen heads to the radio room to request help, but instead he is answered by Bennett, who tells him that Yusupov is on board and must be captured for questioning. Bennett tells Hansen that if he finds Yusupov, the CIA will get him off the ship. …

Crazy Taxi

Description

Crazy Taxi is an arcade-like racer where the player takes the role of a taxi driver who weaves his way through crowded streets, across sidewalks, and even underwater, in a wild and frantic race to deliver passengers on time. The courses are largely set inside cities crowded with general traffic and pedestrians (which can’t be run over, they dive away). The main goal is to bring as many customers as possible to their destination in time. Available customers are marked through circles and the color represents the distance and the fare they offer. Green means long rides with plenty of money, and red ones are very short.

In the main Arcade mode, there is a timer that quickly runs down. It can be replenished by picking up customers. While driving reckless maneuvers are encouraged. Players can disregard all traffic rules and customers give extra tips for speedy and dangerous driving, but these can only be cashed when the customer arrives at his destination in time. By the same token, the reward at the end of a ride is based on the amount of time left, as each customer also has a personal timer. The city is filled with slopes and jumps, and the game uses a very loose driving model. No damage can be done to the car, so driving as fast as possible is encouraged. While driving players can toy with the gears to perform two special tricks: a crazy drift and a crazy boost to speed up more quickly. …

Carmageddon TDR 2000

Description

Carmageddon TDR 2000 (also known as Carmageddon: Total Destruction Racing 2000 or Carmageddon 3: TDR 2000 in North America), is a vehicular combat video game. The sequel to Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now, it was developed by Torus Games and released in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2000, and on December 14 in North America.

The title is a homage to the inspiration for the Carmageddon series, Death Race 2000. As with the other games in the series, one of the most controversial aspects was that pedestrians could be killed by immolation (being set on fire) or graphic collisions that could include dismemberment. In some countries, the human pedestrians were replaced with zombies – actually only changing the red blood to green slime – but patches were circulated on the internet that reverted the game to its original state.

While still part of the game series’ canon, the gameplay was not a significant advancement on the original, which resulted in poor sales for the game and blurred the chances of a 4th installment of the series. However, almost 12 years later, a long-awaited 4th installment of the series was announced on the official site, called Carmageddon: Reincarnation. …

Contract JACK

Description

The game follows John Jack, a professional killer recruited by H.A.R.M., a criminal organization central to the No One Lives Forever series. Contract J.A.C.K. is set between No One Lives Forever and No One Lives Forever 2. The game does not involve UNITY, the organization for which Cate Archer works and that opposed H.A.R.M. in the other two games. Rather, J.A.C.K. pits H.A.R.M. against a rival criminal organization, Danger Danger.

After a night of heavy drinking, Jack is apprehended by thugs, who are ordered to kill him. Before they can, he breaks free from the ropes that tied him to a chair and slaughters the thugs that swarm the building. Before he can leave, he receives a phone call from Dimitrij Volkov, H.A.R.M.’s Director of Executive Action. Volkov tells Jack to report to a job interview at the Roman ruins on Malta. The interview consists of Jack mowing down waves of H.A.R.M. troopers as Volkov taunts them over a loudspeaker. In the end, Jack is hired by H.A.R.M.

For his first assignment, Jack must infiltrate a Czechoslovakian military base to figure out why Danger Danger is interested in it. Upon delving deeper into the base, Jack becomes aware that the facility is a secret rocket launch site. Danger Danger is trying to use a Czech rocket to recover Dr. Harij, a H.A.R.M. scientist stranded on the moon after the destruction of H.A.R.M.’s space station in No One Lives Forever. Although Danger Danger is able to launch a rocket full of their men, Jack commandeers a second rocket and heads to the moon after them. …

Colin McRae Rally

Description

Colin McRae Rally is a rally simulation game, featuring the works-entered cars and the rallies of the 1998 World Rally Championship. There are three difficulty modes in the game, and each mode offers different cars: the Novice mode offers FWD F2-class cars, such as the SEAT Ibiza F2 Kit Car, the Intermediate mode offers 4WD World Rally Car class cars, such as the Subaru Impreza WRC, and the Expert mode offers the ability to unlock bonus cars, such as Ford Escort MKII, Lancia Delta Integrale, Audi Quattro S1, and Ford RS200. There are a total of 12 cars, produced using laser-modelling. When released in North America in 2000, only 11 cars featured due to Codemasters losing the license to use Renault in Novice mode. Renault were replaced by extra drivers from the remaining 3 manufacturers. Also unlike in the European release of the game (real driver names), the American release has made-up driver names (apart from Colin McRae)

Seven official rallies (New Zealand, Acropolis (Greece), Australia, Monte Carlo, Sweden, Corsica, and the United Kingdom), and one unofficial rally (Indonesia) from the WRC were included in the game. Rally Indonesia was originally part of the 1998 WRC season calendar, but the rally was cancelled due to civil unrest. Although the rallies themselves are named the same as the real events, all of the stages are fictional. …

Colin McRae Rally 2

Description

It is the second game in the Colin McRae Rally series, featuring the works-entered cars and rallies of the 2000 World Rally Championship. The game has three difficulty levels, namely Novice, Intermediate and Expert. As with the previous game, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 lets players take part in rallying events set in various special stages across the world, and employs a number of cars featured in the 2000 World Rally Championship, such as the Ford Focus RS WRC and Subaru Impreza GC.

New features include Arcade mode, with direct head-to-head competition against AI drivers or another player, improved graphics with more detailed vehicle models and interiors, and a cleaner and more minimalist menu system, which would be retained for the rest of the series until the release of Dirt 2 in 2009. Nicky Grist, whom at the time was the co-driver for McRae in 2000, reprises his role from the first game, who would remain until the release of Colin McRae: Dirt in 2007; Grist later returned to voice as himself in Dirt 4 in 2017.

The race features a selection of cars featuring engines with a capacity in the region of 2.0, mostly which were in production at the time of the game’s release – the Ford Focus, Ford Puma, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, Peugeot 206, SEAT Cordoba, Subaru Impreza, and Toyota Corolla. A number of cars which had been in production a decade or more earlier are also featured – the Ford Sierra Cosworth and Peugeot 205 T16 from the 1980s, and the Ford Escort MK1, Mini Cooper S and Lancia Stratos from the late 1960s or early 1970s. …

Colin McRae Rally 3

Description

It’s not often a racing game really catches our attention, but the Colin McRae games have always proved exceptions to that rule. While we were gliding round the Codemasters stand (we were still fresh and keen at this point), we were taken aback by just how much this third instalment in the series stood out from the all the other racers at the show. So we promptly accosted studio head and producer of the game, Guy Wilday, and bombarded him with questions to find out more.

First off we wanted to know exactly what’s changed since CMR2. apart from the graphics (there are 14,000 polygons in each car as opposed to 800 in CMR2) which are looking little short of stunning.

“With CMR2 we enhanced the original game, which had set the agenda and defined rally sport games. It was all about bigger, better, faster. For CMR3. we’re taking the graphics and physics to a level we’ve always wanted. However, the main point about CMR3 is that we’ve been working with Colin and the Ford team for many years, and go out on the rallies with them, so we get to appreciate the excitement of the whole event. What we want to capture in CMR3 is that event experience,” claimed Guy proudly. A few quick (if cack-handed) laps round one of the eight stunningly replicated real-life courses confirmed they’re well on the way to achieving this. …

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