Review: Jurassic Park Interactive

Jurassic Park Interactive comes from Universal Interactive Studios as a tie-in game for the hugely popular 1993 blockbuster, based on Michael Crichton’s titular novel. Playing someone trying to rescue the lost crew of the movie on Isla Nublar, you must guide them to safety and then hack into Dennis Nedry’s security minigames to evacuate them.

Upon beginning the game, players are given a lovely view of the island from the film. However, you quickly find out that the short snippet of film at the start is all you will end up seeing of familiar sights of Jurassic Park. There is no Sam Neil, no Laura Dern. Instead we get a fat guy that kind of looks like Wayne Knight and a bunch of generic actors that look nothing like the people they are supposed to be portraying. These actors are seen in brief cutscenes in between stages and that is about it.

You select from a series of places on a map of Isla Nublar that will trigger a stage. There are three methods of gameplay here. The first being riding in a Ford Explorer away from a t-rex, shooting dilophosaurus in the jungle with a taser gun (despite shotguns being available) and being chased through a maze by velociraptors. These stages are quick enough to fun the first couple of times but they quickly become repetitive. The raptor maze *should* be the most fun but it’s a very tired experience with little content and it’s very easy to get killed by a raptor. Additionally, the dilophosaurus stage can become incredibly tedious if trees keep getting in the way of your shots. Finally, the t-rex stage is not surprisingly, the best. You drive down the road attempting to avoid fallen logs and other cars in the way and it’s a very simple experience. However, it’s fun and straightforward and it’s easily the best looking stage as well.

Playing through the aforementioned stages, however, is not the only way to progress through the game. While your primary goal is to get all of the survivors to the dock, you also have to get them some help. How do you do that? Hack into Nedry’s security protocols! How do you do that? By playing knock-off Galaga. There really wasn’t any imagination put into these little mini-games and although it is consistent with Nedry’s style that he would lock out potential hackers with gimmicks, they are just variations on Galaga, Asteroids and other 80’s arcade games. This shows a distinct lack of imagination and despite being delayed, this is still all they could come up with.

Even with being entirely underwhelmed with the mini-games presented to the player in Jurassic Park Interactive, I don’t hate this title. The presentation is pretty endearing and the stages you play through are not poorly designed or unplayable, they just lack anything that makes them stand out from other games. The corridor crawling raptor game is a cheap Wolfenstein 3D style stage with no gunplay, just running and locking and unlocking doors. That said, it looks great and shows off some decent texturing and very little texture deformation. The raptors look sharp and the frame rate is pretty smooth. The dilophosaur stage, again, looks good. It’s sharp, sprite scaling is nice and it’s a very smooth experience. The t-rex stage, however, is fantastic. A moody fog effect and detailed textures make for some awesome atmosphere in such a condensed experience. It’s a tense stage, made more so by the look and feel of it.

It’s funny that I found so much to say about Jurassic Park Interactive when there is very little actual content on presentation. It’s a multimedia driven experience that lacks the punch of a licensed cast but still manages to cram some enjoyment onto the CD. Bland mini-games were obviously added to pad out the experience and although they are kind of fun, they are also just generic knock-off versions of popular arcade games from the 70’s and 80’s. Do they push the 3DO? No, they don’t. The actual stages, however, do show some impressive development chops with the texturing, mood and atmosphere all being pretty good. There’s just such a lack of content that Jurassic Park Interactive fails to remain an engaging game over a long period of time and honestly, I will never pick this up again as there are much better games out there.

Review: Alone in the Dark 2

Alone in the Dark 2 is one of very few survival horror games on the 3DO. As a watershed moment in the evolution of the genre, Infogrames brought us a very simple but ultimately absorbing and forward thinking adventure in the shoes of the venerable Edward Carnby in the form of Alone in the Dark. How does the sequel fare, however?

Definitely not as well. The original Alone in the Dark was certainly rough around the edges as it was released at a time where embarking on 3D adventures was difficult because it was a path not taken. Polygonal graphics at this time were more suited to games like Shockwave and other space games as it doesn’t take a lot of polygons to render a box and some laser decals. Infogrames went as far as rendering entire people and monsters in a complicated perspective that had never been embarked on before and this is why I enjoyed the original so much. Alone in the Dark was never particularly scary to me as I was growing up, with more complicated horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill taking that crown. It was, however, a good game. It seemed that way. It had a unique control system and some good atmosphere. Unfortunately, that did not translate to the sequel.

In Alone in the Dark 2 Carny investigates the disappearance of a little girl named Grace Saunders. He finds, however, that his latest adventure is a more jaunty affair with less of an emphasis on horror. I hate to say that this is where the series began to take a turn for the worse but there really is very little going on here that will actually scare you.
Unlike Alone in the Dark, the sequel is a more gun heavy, combat filled experience. Gunplay is favoured over the cautious pace of the original game and I feel that it somewhat ruins the atmosphere that the game does exude. It doesn’t help that Carnby’s control scheme has not improved all that much and although the locations in the original game worked with Carnby’s clunky, sub-screen driven control scheme (giving you the option to push, fight etc.), the more open areas and combat emphasis of Alone in the Dark 2 don’t.
Additionally, players must actually play as Grace Saunders later in the game and it’s downright tedious. Playing as Grace is tense, but irritating and although it takes a step back into feeling more helpless, it will frustrate you ultimately dampening this enjoyment.

Graphically, Alone in the Dark 2 has not improved in 2 years. It looks slightly sharper than it did on DOS but I would have liked some texture mapping to characters, improved animation and a better frame rate on 3DO. We got none of this, in fact the frame rate seems worse on 3DO than it does on DOS, fluctuating wildly, seemingly for no reason. This, coupled with the naturally clunky nature of the controls, makes Alone in the Dark 2 somewhat of a chore to play.
Environments do look good though and the atmosphere that made the original game so memorable is certainly there. The underground sections look particularly brilliant but with such bland characters and erratic frame rate, the game suffers considerably.

I really wanted to like Alone in the Dark 2 as it presents another step in the evolution of one of my favourite genres of video game; that of survival horror. However, it presents a step in the wrong direction. The game de-emphasises horror in favour of zombie gun battles, atmosphere suffers because of this and it also highlights how inadequate the control scheme is. I have no issue with “tank” controls as I highlight Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and the brilliant Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare as some of my favourite games of all time, Alone in the Dark 2 simply adds a clunky control scheme onto fundamental failings that make it difficult to recommend.

Review: PO’ed

Developed by Any Channel and released in 1995, PO’ed has you taking on the role of a ship’s cook (bringing back memories of Under Siege?) who has to defend himself against alien attackers after his ship crashes on a mysterious planet.

Gameplay in PO’ed is difficult to explain. If you’ve ever played Duke Nukem 3D or Quake on Sega Saturn, powered by Lobotomy Software’s Slavedriver Engine then you might have some idea about how it feels to play this game. Control is incredibly fluid and realistic with your character turning in a fashion that feels natural. Movement is a little slippery but it effectively conveys a sense of momentum that modern games even strive to provide but fail to. In many ways, the way PO’ed plays is a hallmark in first person shooter design.
The 3DO controller is the perfect home for such an accomplished game as the shoulder buttons provide strafing for you and the comfortable D-Pad allows you to navigate with ease.
Although the gameplay in PO’ed is fantastic, it takes a little while to get used to. Momentum based movement is a little challenging to get the hang of at first, but with persistence you will look at FPS titles with a more conventional physics system (or none at all) as positively primitive after playing this game for a while.

Gunplay in PO’ed is fairly engaging with some interesting weapons like a Missile Cam and a default weapon of a frying pan that gradually grows in power as you take damage. That said, the frame rate does tend to dip at times and that makes strafing around enemies and firing at them somewhat difficult when it spikes down suddenly and you’re contending with enemies and an erratic frame rate. It’s not something that entirely ruins the experience, but it is something to bear in mind.
The enemies you will be firing at in PO’ed are strange and inconsistent in design. At times you have walking butts that, immature or not, are unarguably creative and later on you have generic aliens. When jetpacks come into play things get a little more interesting but enemy design is certainly a little bland.

Graphically, few games are as impressive as PO’ed on the 3DO. Reflections, slick texture mapped environments, inventive vertical game design, it’s all here. The verticality of some levels is purely breath taking and coupled with the long draw distance you really feel like you’re playing a game that truly shows how powerful the 3DO is. I remember reading an article a while ago that featured an interview with Any Channel developers who explained that this was their roof for the 3DO. They used a lot of programming trickery (using lists to efficiently manage geometry calculation) that the Playstation couldn’t actually do, so it was harder for them to port the game to the Playstation than it was to develop it in the first place.
Whatever the case may be PO’ed leads the pack of graphically advanced 3DO games with Killing Time, Bladeforce, Need for Speed, Road Rash, Starfighter and Deathkeep in tow.

Sound design is fairly generic with some 90’s feeling rock tunes accompanying the game which I always really enjoy. The feel of music from the 90’s is something that is hard to describe as it takes the best things from the 80’s and modernises them just enough to create a real sense of engagement with the source material. Once you hear a searing guitar solo, synthesised wood block or flute then you immediately know what the concept is.

PO’ed is undoubtedly one of the best 3DO games ever developed. Unparalleled vertical gameplay, ingenious level design, engaging combat and a jaw dropping 3D engine overshadow issues with enemy design and frame rate to create an experience that really leaves an impression on anyone who sits down to play it. Highly recommended.

Developer Profile: Art Data Interactive

Art Data Interactive. As a 3DO collector or simple enthuisiast, you may be familiar with the name. It is more likely however that you have no idea who Art Data Interactive was. Although they are no longer with us unlike Crystal Dynamics, Art Data still provided some interesting variety on the 3DO that is still talked about today, whether you know you’re talking about them or not.

A brief history..

Established in 1993, there is very little information available as to what Art Data Interactive’s business strategy was. From the information at hand, it can be assumed that they were started as a developer of PC and 3DO titles exclusively, as this was when the 3DO was brand new and PC gaming was becoming more mainstream as the modern desktop OS made them more attractive to a mass market.

Art Data’s old office in Simi Valley, California.

Over the years Art Data would release moderately successful games like Chess Wars: A Medieval Fantasy, which won them an award from an online shopping service in 1996.
It was, however, their work on 3DO that was most successful for Art Data. Starting with Doom in 1994 and Rise of the Robots in 1995, Art Data made a small but notable contribution to the 3DO library.

How about on 3DO?

Doom on 3DO is generally considered to be the worst port of the game. You know Club 3DO’s opinion, however if you don’t then go here. In short, it isn’t nearly as bad as it is generally considered to be. Issues with the game were blown way out of proportion, as is always the case when the 3DO comes up on the internet. There are issues with the frame rate and the size of the screen by default but they are nowhere near as bad as some would have you think.

By 1996, Art Data was selling new copies of Doom for $10.

Rise of the Robots, however, is a bad game in the hands of a studio that had a reputation for rushing products, so you can assume it was a poorly ported game. The game itself is terrible and is universally considered to be one of the worst fighters of all time. Art Data was handed a bad product and told to make it work on 3DO.

While Art Data does has a reputation for releasing poorly ported, often rushed products, they did something as ambitious as getting Doom running on the 3DO and it does it fairly well. They should have been applauded for their efforts, instead of being universally derided as was the case.

Review: Foes of Ali

Like a punch to the head, Foes of Ali comes swinging at you from EA as the 3DO’s premiere 3D fighter. Chronicling the career of Muhammad Ali, players are able to recreate his most famous fights to some degree and throw some punches as the greatest himself.

Select options or review historical perspective.

To say that you will be recreating Ali’s most famous fights is a bit tenuous as you will find out when you boot up the game. After selecting “Career” mode, players are able to fight all of Ali’s most famous foes in chronological order. It’s really quite interesting to hear Tim Gammon telling you the history of the fights when you ask for some historical perspective pre-fight and players are given background on the fighting style of each pugilist.
Upon beginning the fights you begin to notice that they’re all basically the same. While fighters all look different and act slightly different you’ll find that the same strategy applies to every fight; mash buttons. They become tiresome after a while as you haphazardly mash buttons and attempt to actually employ features in the game like faking only to find that they basically don’t work. All that works is mashing and hoping that the Joe Frazier look-a-like in front of you kisses the mat before your thumb has to endure 10 rounds of pure muscle tearing button pounding.
I didn’t really feel like Muhammad Ali while I was playing Foes. The incredibly agile footwork and devastating hooks of the champ has been reduced to awkward circling and impotent jabbing. Hits lack impact and you feel overwhelmed at times by the competence of the AI while you struggle to respond with your own awkward combinations. The game is fun to a degree. When you lash out and manage to nail your opponent in the face with a wicked combination and follow up with a gut punch, it feels quite satisfying. However, this satisfaction dwindles quickly when you realise your hundred punches to your opponents head means very little, however a couple of punches to the stomach can knock them out. It’s bizarre and inconsistent.

Graphically, Foes of Ali is something of a showcase. High polygon models marry with excellent particle effects and blood decals on the mat while the game zips a long at a respectable clip.
Textures are fantastic with every fighter looking very convincing and animating fairly well. Textures are incredibly crisp, clean  and detailed and when you begin to notice subtle graphical effects such as your vision blurring when you take too many hits to the head, or your eye being blacked out during a fight you really appreciate the attention to detail in the graphics engine. The 3DO is a very powerful platform and games like Foes of Ali really show how graphically competent they are.

Sound, on the other hand is incredibly uninspired. Generic rock music plays over the menus without any quotes or sound bytes from Ali himself while Tim Gammon tries to keep your eyes happy with his entertaining voice and inconsistent commentating during bouts. Occasionally the crowd will chant as well but it is very uncommon. Foes just doesn’t sound good.

I really, really wanted to love Foes of Ali and thought it would be a game I could use to show people little hidden gems on the 3DO that tends to be overlooked. All you get in Foes is a very inconsistent game that features short bursts of fun amongst mostly baffling game design. Punching is all over the place with seemingly random damage being done to an opponent, footwork is awkward and totally ruins the illusion of being Muhammad Ali and every fighter is virtually identical in practice. The graphics engine is fantastic, but that only does so much to distract from the absolutely lackluster gameplay. The greatest? Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity.

Review: Gex

Released in late 1994, Gex is probably one of the most memorable 3DO games ever released and one that got the honour of being released on other platforms. Many players know the game from the Saturn or Playstation, however it was the on the 3DO that the game debuted. Was it a worthy mascot game though?

The story to Gex is pretty bizarre. Gex himself is a gecko that is addicted to television. After his father dies in a space shuttle explosion, he consoles himself by watching T.V, when his mother takes his T.V away he runs away from home. After living on the streets for a while, Gex inherits money and ends up moving back to Maui and buying a mansion. Rez, the overlord of the Media Dimension wants to use Gex as a mascot and after the titular gecko swallows a transmitter, Rez pulls him into the Media Dimension. So, it’s safe to say that the story is totally nonsensical, however if you want to get pedantic about story details try analysing Super Mario Bros. it makes just as little sense.
This story is a pretense to let players explore several styles and genres of television ranging from horror to kung fu before facing off against Rez.

Control is very good, with Gex being able to jump, stick to walls and ceilings, whip with his tail and run around causing lizard mayhem. An issue I have though is how huge Gex is. The lizard is fairly big on the screen, taking up a lot of space in the playable area. This makes it fairly easy to get hit by enemies. A big plus for Gex is in its powerup system. Players can eat icons located

DYNO-MIIIIIITE

around levels that imbue Gex with various abilities that he can use to overcome his foes or get through levels faster. For instance, he can swallow an icon that allows him to shoot electricity out of his mouth. In most platformers, this power up would be replaced by another when you collect it. However, in Gex, you are able to stack power ups on top of one another. This means that you can be running 100 miles per hour through a level with electricity belching out of your mouth. It becomes very satisfying when they begin to stack and it is one thing that sets the game apart.

There’s only one way out of this!

Another thing that sets Gex apart is level design. Because Gex is a gecko he has sticky paws and can climb walls and ceilings with ease, meaning levels will often play out vertically as well as horizontally as you would expect in a standard platformer. This allowed Crystal Dynamics to hide powerups and remotes in various places that you have to seriously consider. Do you climb down the wall to see if that really is a pit, or a convenient hiding place? This can often mean crawling into spikes or environmental hazards however, so exercise caution.
Levels are quite varied and don’t simply rely on Gex’s crawling gimmick. In one level you must ride a rocket to your goal, before the concept is switched up and you have to stick to the side of another. At times, it’s very inventive and satisfying. That said, often you will find Crystal Dynamics prefered to rely on trial and error to proceed, placing enemies just off-screen so that they hit players before they even know they are there.

I mentioned remotes before. Player progression through Gex is dictated by how many remotes they have collected. Often, these are well hidden in levels and require players to really scour every wall if they manage to notice one just off-screen. Remotes to access different worlds are hidden in others and require players to not only search for standard remotes but also these. This is in addition to save tapes that are hidden around. If players don’t find these, then they cannot save. There is a lot going on in Gex.

The kung fu world is consistently visually appealing.

Graphically, I have mixed feelings about the game. Crystal Dynamics asked for the help of outside artists to create assets for Gex and it shows. The art direction in the game is often inconsistent, but still good in its own way. If you don’t know this, then you’d assume it was intentional, to provide players with a somewhat irreverent atmosphere. There is a little backround scaling in Gex, but very little advanced special effects or polygonal integration. There is some right at the end of the game but it is disappointly absent.In any case Gex is a vibrant game with very appealing graphics and an exceedingly well animated protagonist. Enemies have a lot of personality and even if they are inconsistent, you could consider that part of their charm.

If you want a good soundtrack, this is the game to get. Bar the Cemetry, every world in Gex features really well arranged music and appealing sound effects. Gex himself is voiced by Dana Gould, who is a popular stand up comedian and wrote for the Simpsons for several years. His quips are quite endearing and only when they are chained back to back multiple times do they ever get annoying. Some are a little cringe worthy, but generally the things that Gex say can be quite amusing.

Gex is a fairly solid platformer. It has small issues with spotty level design that relies on trial and error a little too much and Gex himself being somewhat of a big target for enemies, but the fluid control and good challenge make up for any shortcomings and provide players with a very satisfying experience that is both visually appealing and easy on the ears. Highly recommended.

Review: Bladeforce

Studio 3DO made some great games, there is no doubt about that fact. Battlesport was simple but it was fun and Killing Time is one of the best first person shooters ever made. However, then you have games like Bladeforce. Interestingly Bladeforce is never a bad game, however when placed under a lense next to other, higher profile titles, it certainly suffers.

*Sweet guitar solo*

To describe the setting is difficult. Imagine Studio 3DO ate Blade Runner and the 1983 computer program turned crime fighter cringe fest Automan then had a hard night on the sauce and vomited all over your living room. That’s about the best way to describe it.
That isn’t to say the setting is bad. Studio 3DO clearly had a lot of fun coming up with humourous names and back stories for the villians in the game. My personal favourite is Reverend Biatch, who looks like she belongs on the cover of a progressive rock album.You play a helicopter backpack wielding badass with a penchant for blowing things up as he takes on the crime family running Megagrid, and hopefully making it back in time for electric tea, or whatever they drink in the future.

Control is difficult to explain, but it’s not great. Studio 3DO was aiming at making this a title that made you forget about the incoming Super Mario 64 and focus on how powerful the 3DO was, with a game that gave you the ability to move in 3-dimensions through a word that felt open.
Basic movement in the game is fine, it is only when you need to make minute adjustments to your position that it becomes difficult to actually control your character. Picking up small boxes in the environment or singling out smaller targets can be very difficult due to your tendency to swing all over the place. Precise aiming and homing in on targets is not a simple task in Bladeforce, however, considering the entire gimmick of the game is that you can move in three dimensions vertically and horizontally it probably should have been made as simple as possible before the game shipped.
Basic combat and objective completion is simple and satisfying with a compelling enough variety of weapons and although enemies are fairly brain dead, they do a good enough job of trying to attack you to provide a challenge.
One of the biggest, most persistent issues with Bladeforce is in the level design. Maps are overly large and sparsely populated with actual content. It also isn’t immediately obvious what you are supposed to be doing, some sort of objective indicator would have helped me enjoy the game more.

Graphically, Bladeforce is one of the most impressive 3DO games that was ever released. Standing alongside games like Need for Speed, P’oed and Killing Time for incredible graphics, it surpassed anything that was being released in 1995 by a mile.
Textures are crisp and detailed with billboards and neon lights shining vibrantly amongst well modeled environments. Explosions are epic and exciting and the frame rate is fairly smooth, though it does suffer occasionally.
My one major complaint with the graphics in Bladeforce comes down to the art direction. You watch the entertaining introduction and expect big, sprawling cities to explore but everything looks fairly bland and most objects don’t really look like anything.
That said, it stills looks great and is a testament to how much power the console still had in it.

Bladeforce feels like a tech demo. It’s a long game, but it is bereft of content and the gameplay is unpolished. Control is jittery and aiming precisely is made overly difficult because of this. While the gameplay is unpolished it still has moments where it is fun and if you can look past these issues and the enjoy the pristine graphics, you might become a fan of this game.

Review: Starfighter

Starfighter on the Archimedes.

Starfighter was originally released in 1994 for the Acorn Archimedes. The Archimedes was a popular home computer in the late 80’s and early 90’s that sits alongside the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC as childhood favourites of those who grew up in Europe in the early 90’s.
The original Starfighter was a fairly impressive game, featuring huge 3D maps and texture mapping while other fighter simulations at the time tended to stick to flat shaded polygons. While it’s an impressive game, Starfighter does seem somewhat dated when viewed through a modern lense. Luckily, we got a port to 3DO in 1995.

Detach from the mother ship and wreak havoc.

Starting as an ace pilot thrust into the experimental Star Fighter…fighter, you are tasked with engaging in combat with opponents based on the ground, the air and even in orbit while executing maneuvers with your fellow pilots. As soon as I found out you could fly with other pilots, I was very excited. While Starfighter isn’t necessarily a simulation game, it utilises elements of simulation such as issuing orders to your fellow pilots.
The Starfighter ship is very versatile, but does take time to get used to. Accelerating with the A button, you then control altitude with the up and down keys. Banking left or right requires you to roll your fighter and then push up or down, which takes a little time to get used to.
To contend with your enemies you have access to air to air and air to ground missiles, lasers and multi-missiles which are like a cluster bomb. Your laser is generally fairly impotent but is good in a pinch and you will find yourself relying on your missiles a lot. This will mean running out of missiles. Well, how do you end up replenishing your missile collection? You collect crystals. This was a strange design choice, as the original game on Archimedes allowed players to earn money and replenish supplies by purchasing them. I would have much preferred this as it would have forced players to think about how they approach missions more, strategise before hand and buy to accomodate your needs.

Descend from the heavens with guns blazing.

Mission variety is fairly engaging and has you taking on enemy installations, satellites in orbit and squadrons of opponent fighters while fighting on your own or tracking down friendly units with a very accessible 3D map to enlist. Friendly units can be ordered to fly defensively, fight aggressively or simply fly in formation to provide you with support in situations that would otherwise lead to imminent demise. The game becomes very challenging later on and getting used to fighting in formation is very important if you want to do well in Starfighter.

Crisp textures, beautiful particle effects, great geometry. It’s all here in Starfighter.

The graphics in this game are incredible. It’s not even an argument that Starfighter is probably one of the best looking games on the 3DO. A slick frame rate marries with rich, detailed textures and solid geometry to provide players with a very appealing game. Particle effects are perfectly executed and are used as exhaust or explosions or bombs exploding in the environment around you. The beautiful, unique horizon gives way to a subtle transition into the upper atmosphere of the planet while transparent explosions, lasers and particle trails from missiles stream by you. Starfighter is a beautiful looking game and sits with PO’ed as one of the best looking games on the console.

Starfighter seems to be getting harder to find in good condition recently so I would highly recommend picking it up for your 3DO. Don’t bother with the ports on Playstation or Sega Saturn as they were quick, rushed and Akklaim did not treat the source material with any sort of respect or care. The original on Archimedes was fantastic and the port to 3DO only improved the game further. While I don’t particularly agree with some of the changes that were made to the game, Starfighter is just a fantastic experience.

Review: FIFA International Soccer

Released in 1994 by Electronic Arts it is funny to think that at one point, this was the first FIFA game. It seems funny at this point, but upon release FIFA International Soccer was quite revolutionary.

Extensive use of multimedia in FIFA is a decent demonstration of the 3DO’s crisp cinepak playback.

Upon beginning the game EA gives us a rousing multimedia presentation that showcases how crisp Cinepak really looks on the 3DO. The music is fairly engaging and then players are left with a fairly…cheesy looking front end. Even in 1994 this would have looked cheesy, but at the time it was a fairly good showcase for the 3DO’s capacity to display colour. FIFA is a football game though so let’s talk about the football.

The camera makes a massive difference to what would have otherwise been a fairly middle of the road football game.

For being such an early 3D effort, FIFA is a very competent football game. Control is fairly tight, though unfortunately passing can be a little random. That isn’t to say the ball will fly into the air and hit a space station but the somewhat hectic pace of the matches can turn them into an orgy of bitmaps falling over each other.
Another small issue I have with the gameplay is that the game is pretty good at anticipating when and to whom you will pass the ball. This can be viewed as decent artificial intelligence but it can actually be a little frustrating when this is almost not conceivable that it could happen in a real match.
It’s not all bad though. The game is very fun and the slick frame rate and solid control makes for a really addictive game of football. The multiple camera angles really makes for a dynamic game and although we take that for granted now, it would have been so refreshing and even now shows you how much of a different a dynamic camera makes for a more immersive, fast paced game.

Multiple camera options really allow you to enjoy the crisp textures and solid geometry.

I have already discussed the extent to which the camera is such an important element of what makes FIFA on 3DO so unique. The graphics, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. As a positive the geometry of the pitch and the texturing is solid and crisp. The textures are of a particular note as being very competent and while they’re obviously not photo-realistic, they still remain better than some of the later 3D football imitators that would follow which is to EA’s credit.That said, this is not a fully 3D game. This is one of the early 3D football games
that employs bitmap sprites which is a little irritating because they were so close to getting a fully 3D game. However, the technology leap they did make makes any niggles about sprites such a minor thing that there is no point in complaining.

FIFA International Soccer is an awesome game that suffers from some slight design issues. Nontheless it is so much fun generally that it is easy to overlook slight issues with balance and AI and appreciate the slick graphics, smooth frame rate, tight control and great presentation. For all 3DO owners, this is a must have.

Breaking News: Complete Woody Woodpecker set listed on eBay for $3,690

UPDATE:
Bidding has now ended on this auction and it looks like the seller failed to sell the lot. It stands to reason that it was too pricey based on its current market value and they overestimated demand, or they wanted to set a new price precedent. Either way, this was an interesting one.

UPDATE:
There is currently only 6 hours left on this auction and not a single bid has been placed. It stands to reason that this seller is reaching.

UPDATE:
There are currently no bids on the items but hopefully we’ll see something interesting happen soon.

A seller on eBay has just listed the MCA Woody Woodpecker video series on eBay for $3,690 reserve and a starting bid of $999.

Currently, there are no other listings of these items on eBay, singularly or in a set. A forum post from DigitalPress from 2003 lists the asking price of these items as around $100 each, so whether the seller is reaching or the value has skyrocketed over these 11 years is up to speculation.

As of writing there have been no bids on the auction but I will update the article with more information as the situation develops.