December is nearly upon us, but before we commence our countdown to the festive season, let's gander at an eclectic quintet of PC gaming perfection* from the past.
First up for November is Beyond Time (1997 DreamCatcher Interactive, Inc), a time-travelling ancient Egypt-set first-person adventure that dabbles in everyone's favourite* presentation style; FMV. For more trips throughout history, why not try Excalibur 2555 A.D. (1997 Telstar Electronic Studios), that sees Merlin's granddaughter travel to the future to do some exciting* actioning along with that adventuring. If you want some full-on guns-blasting action, take a look at Machine Hunter (1997 Eurocom Developments), a fantastically* frenetic top-down shooter that rises up to become my pick of the month. If all the bloodshed is not to your liking, try the ever-tranquil* SimSafari: Step into the African Savannah! (1996 Maxis, Inc), that takes the tried and true SimNoun template into a safari park. Lastly, navigate a cute little tank across vast landscapes in Wild Metal Country (1999 DMA Design / Rockstar Games), an overlooked gem* from the folks behind Grand Theft Auto. Despite my tongue-in-cheek asterisks, all of them are worth a try so check out my reviews to find out more.
Sadly, no updates I'm afraid, but I did catch up on some of the missing written reviews from the last couple of months. Check out my thoughts on Weird and SimIsle and let me know yours in the comments. I'm currently neck deep in preparing for the annual Christmas Countdown that will commence 14th December - that's 12 days straight of gaming goodness just for you lovely folk! On that note, I must crack on with it. Until then, head on after the jump and enjoy!
* Your definition of what's considered this may vary drastically...
Click on the images below to head on over to the game page.
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1997 DreamCatcher Interactive, Inc
Windows '95
Adventure-FMV--Fantasy-Myst Clone-Time Travel-Egypt
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1997 Telstar Electronic Studios
Windows
Action-Adventure-Fantasy-Time Travel-Wizards!
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1997 Eurocom Developments
Windows '95
Action-Shooter-Science Fiction-Mech
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1996 Maxis, Inc
Windows
Strategy-Management-Sim Series-Animals!
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1999 DMA Design / Rockstar Games
Windows
Action-Shooter-Tanks!
Like this? Try These...
Great Games this month!! Thank you very much for your work!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad you like them.
DeleteHi there, Biff,
ReplyDeletelong time no see, but the blame is all on me. ;-) Anyway, hope you are fine over there in good old Britain (Congratulations on your new King, namely Charles! *no irony, of course, I'm serious, indeed*), but at least you still sound safe & sound - since the last time I raised my word here, all those thousands of new elaborated words of a very talented hobby reporter that you are, they speak for themselves once again! :-)
And thanks for the review of Beyond Time! What a shame that another potentially good FMV adventure went down the drain. Again. But I really like your Synnergist which came as a very welcome surprise to me! :-)
Bye for now
Thomas from Germany
Glad you liked Synnergist! It is a good game.
DeleteAs for Beyond Time, I really wished it was better. There's scope for something good there, but they fumbled it. I think they may have got carried away with the FMV and just wanted to dump as much of it as they could onto the 2 CDs. In turn, the game side was neglected.
You vividly describe the cardinal sin of all FMV games which burn the substance on the altar and think they can get away with the fancy style for the most part. Well, fortunately there are still enough counterexamples, such as Gabriel Knight II, the Tex Murphy Saga or sleeper hits like the aforementioned Synnergist, which had me from the start just by the sheer detail of its game object descriptions. In fact, you can simply smell it when a game designer is passionate and all fired up for the product and, as in your and my case, carries over to the player. :-)
DeleteBye for now
Thomas
A cardinal sin of a very special kind, so to speak, is to forget commenting with my own name instead of Anonymous, which, by the way, is a fine movie from 2011. Check it out! :-)
Deletehttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt1521197/
Bye for now from Germany
Thomas
Ooh! Machine Hunter is a game I remember quite vividly from the PS1; either from a disc demo or from playing on my cousin's PSX back in the day. Never even knew it had a PC port! And Wild Metal? Man, I haven't played that since the Dreamcast days! Exciting to see them, as well as everything - you always find such cool stuff to get working and share with us. Thank you for everything you do!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I think that's where I first heard of Machine Hunter too. I kept mixing it up with Shadow Hunter for some reason. Both are underrated and worth a play IMO, on PC or PS1.
DeleteAlways great to see new content being updated for the ages. Love the work man, looking forward to this year's 12 days.
ReplyDeleteGonna be a good one!
DeleteHi dear, thank you as always for your fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteThank you for your hard work! Many AAA developers should learn how to preserve the retro games, for real!
ReplyDeleteJust a question:
-Is ZPC (Zero Population Count) on your list?
Short explanation: ZPC is an obscure FPS which uses the Marathon 2 Engine and developed by Zombie Studios. It has a stylized art by Aidan Hughes (an artist who did the cover arts for a German Industrial Metal band named KMFDM).
I've heard of ZPC, and do have it on my radar. I've not played it though it's piqued my interest for some time now. It's not scheduled for December, but perhaps I should begin looking into it soon.
DeleteBiffman,
ReplyDeleteThank You very much:)
Nice set:)
A good day for YOU .
Greg
Thanks Greg! Have a good day too!
DeleteThanks again for another collection bolstering set of worthy old games Sir Biffman. Looking forward to WMC and Machine Hunter especially. As your excellent review mentions my memories of Beyond Time (and I'm usually all over this genre) aren't positive but I'll give it another go now thanks to your hard work. All the very best for a great Christmas and a happy, healthy New year.
ReplyDeleteOh and stoked for your annual Christmas Countdown games fest. You really look after us retro gamers.
Deletethx,awesome presents
ReplyDeleteguys maybe anybody got this ones from Bombuzal Collection,Pocky & Rocky Collection and Dizzy 30th Anniversary Collection from Biffman 101?,also want them in my collection
Wow more fine additions Biffman thank you!
ReplyDeleteAs many others really looking forward to the 12 days of Christmas, always a highlight of the holiday season!
Fingers crossed for a few classics hehe. Have a great December Biffman and everyone!
Cheers,
Chris