As far as upping the level of interaction in FMV games goes, I'd have to say the effort was pretty much a wash.

AN INTERACTIVE CD-ROM AND ONLINE COMEDY - NOT THE REAL TRUTH - IT'S A PARODY! - TRUST US! The unauthorized paranoid paranormal parody of the X-Files PLAY: - Abduct This! - Trust No One - Run Agent Run! and more!

The developers were headed in the right direction, but in the end they fail on both fronts.

If you're going to have fun with this game, you've gotta get online.

Microsoft has proven itself fighting fit with a thorough retooling of the classic.

Age of Empires is an epic real-time strategy game spanning 10,000 years, in which players are the guiding spirit in the evolution of small stone age tribes. Starting with minimal resources, players are challenged to build their tribes into great civilizations. Gamers can choose from one of several ways to win the game, including: world domination by conquering enemy civilizations, exploration of the known world and economic victory through the accumulation of wealth. Age of Empires was developed by Ensemble Studios and features the expertise of Bruce Shelley, co-designer of the hit strategy game "Civilization." [Microsoft]

With a price tag of around thirty bucks, Spells of the Ancients is an expansion pack that promises a lot of power for a moderate price.

MNF '98 is definitely an improvement over its predecessor, but it still has aways to go before it can be considered a true champion.

Even veteran adventurers can expect 20 hours or more of gameplay from Atlantis,but that's only because of the sorry save-game feature and the obtuse puzzles.

After two years of tweaking and minor improvements, this is a more precise, bug-free game... that is still cumbersome and flawed.

While it suffers many problems of its genre, the story is fascinating and it holds numerous challenges.

Originating from a small programming team in Russia, Chasm: The Rift is a standard 3D shooter that falls technologically in between Doom and Quake - and scarily enough, isn't that bad.

Claw is easily the finest modern side scroller available for the PC.

The Aftermath is a heck of a deal that practically turns Red Alert into an entirely new game.

How could the company that produced Fallout also be responsible for one of the lousiest games to come down the pike in quite a while?

The games range from quite entertaining to downright stupid.

Far from being a cheap Wing Commander knockoff, Forced Alliance is a solid, ifnot terribly revolutionary, gaming experience.

What could well have been an entirely successful departure from the droves of underdeveloped strategy games saturating the market instead feels all too familiar despite its striking aesthetic differences.

Raven Software's MageSlayer is a homage to top-down action games, specifically Atari's Gauntlet.

Don't get too excited that someone finally made a college football game for the PC.

EA's NHL series once again ups the bar, not only for hockey games but for all sports games.

There is obviously a great bubbling need for a quick-playing, accessible, slick, historical wargame - and Panzer General II more than fits the bill.

We'd like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to the Honorable Senator Liebermann of Connecticut for including POSTAL in his list of the three worst things in America. First place went to POSTAL, second place was Marylin Manson, and third place went to Calvin Klein underwear ads. [Ripcord]

Timeshock! has none of the problems of its predecessors, and may be the closest thing you'll find to real pinball on the PC.

Raccoon City has been completely overrun by mutant beasts and bloodthirsty zombies. You are a member of S.T.A.R.S.--a rescue squad sent into the community to investigate the ominous mansion at the core of the disaster. Take the role of operative Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield and uncover the secrets behind a radical, genetic research facility. With an array of weapons to master and horrors around every corner, the ultimate test may be just to make it out alive.

Experience victory in Sid Meier's Gettysburg! It's the most engrossing and sophisticated real-time strategy game ever. In a stunning 3D battlefield, you plan the tactics, lead the troops, and take history into your own hands. Attack from the trees to protect your brigade,rally around a General for a quicker recovery, entrench your troops as your cannons blast the hillside, and much, much more with just a click of the mouse! Complete multiplayer support via internet, LAN, modem and serial link. [Firaxis]

Run-and-gun fans can get a breath of fresh air with Take No Prisoners, a shooter that takes an interesting perspective on the genre.

Enter the magical world of Ultima Online. A world with spells and monsters. Quests and heroes. A living, growing world where thousands of real people discover fantasy and adventure 24 hours a day, every day of the year. [Origin]

In Virtua Fighter 2, the intrepid fighters return to the World Fighting Tournament. Take to the stage to see who will claim the championship title. Will it be Lau Chan, Kage-Maru, Wolf Hawkfield, Jeffry McWild, Akira Yuki, Jacky Bryant, Sarah Bryant, or Pai Chan? The answer lies within. Immerse yourself in this technically challenging game and see if you have what it takes to be the champion of the second World Fighting Tournament!

Board your Virtualoid, grab hold of your BFG Bot Blaster and prepare for war in an ultra-violent, post-modern free-for-all straight out of the arcade. It's Armageddon on your home turf as 50-foot cyborg mercenaries await your arrival in a 360-degree, polygon-perfect Arena of Doom. And the only things that can stop them from reducing you and your Virtualoid into a molten mass of twisted metal are your thumbs.

It is a remarkable achievement and a game that many will savor and struggle with for weeks and weeks.

Long ago, the galaxy had known peace. Paradise was ruled with the hand of science, and the hand was that of the galactic governing body known as the Core. Ironically, it was the Core's ultimate victory, the victory over death itself, that brought about the downfall of its paradise and started the war that would decimate a million worlds. The immortality process, known as "patterning," involved the electronic duplication of brain matrices, allowing the transfer of consciousness into durable machines. Effectively it meant immortality, and the Core decreed the process mandatory for all citizens in order to ensure their safety. However, there were many citizens unwilling to toss aside their bodies so casually, many indeed who regarded patterning as an atrocity. They fled to the outer edges of the galaxy, forming a resistance movement that became known as the Arm. War began, though it was never officially declared by either side. The Arm developed high-powered combat suits for its armies, while the Core transferred the minds of its soldiers directly into similarly deadly machines. The Core duplicated its finest warriors thousands of times over. The Arm countered with a massive cloning program. The war raged on for more than 4,000 years, consuming the resources of an entire galaxy and leaving it a scorched wasteland. [Cavedog Entertainment]

One of the most impressive games released this year in any genre.

The operative word here is cute, on the order of Fraggles, M&M spokescandies, and the language of R2D2.

There is so much to do on LEGO ISLAND: building, racing, flying, water jetting, skateboarding, and just kickin' with your friends...unless you accidentally let the Brickster out of jail. Explore. Build. Race. Chase. - Multiple levels of play: build, explore, customize, race and ultimately capture the destructive Brickster. - Meet over 35 unique, animated LEGO characters. - Customize the entire island and save it. - Explore the island through the eyes of five very different LEGO characters. - Hours of game play including over 3 hours of 3D animations and 90 minutes of original music. - Build and drive your own custom LEGO vehicles.

Experience high speed thrills as you throw a top performance turbo charged vehicle around treacherous stages. Race against the clock, or head-to-head via a modem or network. Or use the unique Phantom Race mode to race against yourself or upload and download races via the Internet. Take the challenge.

The developers of 7th Legion forgot to include something in their game: strategy.

Selected by the fickle finger of fate, Abe™, floor-waxer first class for RuptureFarms, was catapulted into a life of adventure when he overheard plans by his boss, Molluck the Glukkon™, to turn Abe and his fellow Mudokons into Tasty Treats as part of a last-ditch effort to rescue Molluck's failing meat-packing empire. During his escape from RuptureFarms, Abe received a vision from the mysterious Big Face, showing Abe that he must not only rescue his fellow Mudokons, but also protect all of Oddworld's creatures from the predatory Magog Cartel. After completing arduous Temple trials, and journeying across a wasteland with his friend Elum, Abe was granted the awesome power of the Shrykull. Returning to RuptureFarms, Abe destroyed the foul slaughterhouse, rescued his buddies, and brought down some righteous lightning on top of Molluck's pointy head.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse lurk in the shadows before you. They are Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War. They are the root of all that is evil. They are the least of your worries. The last know Serpent Rider, Eidolon, lives. As the Necromancer, the Assassin, the Crusader, or the Paladin, you must defeat the dark generals and their Hell-spawned legions before you can face the Archfiend and attempt to end his ravenous onslaught.

PC owners will find it an inherently underwhelming experience.

Starfleet Academy looks and plays no better than space combat games from two years ago.

The first erotic CD-ROM to feature high-quality graphics and gameplay! You get to expose the crime!!! Beautiful Holly Jacobson, an L.A.P.D. Detective, must go under cover to catch a serial killer who is preying on the sexy models and cover girls of L.A. Erotica Magazine. Meet the steamy erotic dancers who reveal their innermost sexual secrets to you!

There is really nothing that sets it above some of the other, more established, PC soccer offerings.

Achtung Spitfire is a wargamer's dream.

All the components for a great game are here, but it just doesn't mesh.

A wicked good time for those willing to accept a few technical problems.

In light of its boundless problems, the scarce pluses only add insult to injury

This turn-based future sport product is not a great game, but it does have unique charms.

This limited method of play is similar to first-generation real-time strategy games.

The best-looking, most engrossing flight sim this side of Longbow.

There is much to like about Entrepreneur, if you can get by the fussy interface and nebulous economics.

Imperialism succeeds in creating an engrossing simulation of naked power-mongering.

The fantasy aspect of Legends '98 extends beyond teams and scheduling and into actual gameplay.

Lose Your Marbles isn't quite up to the challenge.

A mediocre shooter with repetitive and boring action.

The two different bikes and the tracks offer enough of a variety to make it plenty challenging.

NHL Open Ice bears about as much resemblance to real hockey as tee ball does to baseball.

There are a few flies in the ointment with Terracide, the biggest being the issue of control.

Much of War Inc.'s potential goes unfulfilled because the real-time combat doesn't measure up.

Business is War... CASH IS AMMO! Blast your way through a futuristic, cut-throat world where you compete for wealth and power. In the virtual corporate universe of the not-so-distant future, competitors are deadly, and your only safety net is the Internet. Fast-forward to the year 2006. Banks and insurance companies are extinct. Your goal is simple: capture the market for your products and drive your competitors out of business by blowing them away on a virtual trading floor rendered on-the-fly in true 3-D. Based on your resources and the strengths and weaknesses of the competition, you'll make increasingly complex split-second decisions while obliterating opponents with a multitude of weapons such as Ad Blasters and Takeover Torpedoes or force an enemy to fight on your side with an Alliance Harpoon! This futuristic business environment is brought to you by Forbes, America's most respected business magazine. Stay alive long enough and you'll master real-world business concepts and strategics but don't take your finger off the trigger! DEVASTATING WEAPONS. An arsenal of futuristic cyber-weapons knock the living daylights out of your competition. NETWORK PLAY. Head-to-head over the Internet or a LAN. LIGHTNING FAST TRUE 3-D WORLDS. A transforming futuristic business area in true 3-D. REALISTIC CUT-THROAT BUSINESS TACTICS. Compete on price or quality with Price Bombs and Marketing Missiles. SOPHISTICATED BUSINESS MODEL. Based on 15 years of empirical data from an internationally recognized business simulation firm. LIVE, REAL-TIME EVENTS. Can you withstand a stock market crash, inflation, recession, and natural disasters? DOZENS OF INTELLIGENT COMPETITORS. Enemies assault you using a variety of aggressive tactics. WINDOWS 95 NATIVE. Trouble-free installation and maximum performance. COMPETE FOR PRIZES. See how you rate nationwide by submitting your high score.

If Microsoft and Pajitnov want to make us forget about Tetris, they're going to have to do a lot better than this.

You are about to embark on a new and exciting journey. One that will fill you with a sense of wonder and discovery. Light and sound will mix like a kaleidoscope to thrill you as never before. At Interplay, we believe that creating a new experience such as this requires more than just using the latest advances. Technology simply provides us with new tools to invent a product that is bigger, better and more exiting than anything we've ever done before. And the CD-ROM provides us with a larger canvas on which to create our vision. What makes this title unique is how we have used this new medium to develop an exntertaining product. Our approach is similar to an integrated Hollywood sutdio where we combine the talents of many creative individuals. Writers who put thoughts into words. Artists who give words an image. Musicians who enhance the image with sound. And programmers who magically combine technology with art to make it all a reality.

For gamers willing to tolerate substandard graphics and linear gameplay, Betrayal in Antara succeeds in providing an enjoyable role-playing experience.

The aesthetic drawbacks don't have much of an impact on Birthright's strong point: the playability

One of the most lifeless board game conversions going.

For a freshman sim effort, iF-22 is impressive.

You're more of an observer than active participant.

Warlords III is the kind of game that drives you to play through the night to the break of dawn and leaves you feeling good about it the next day.

The game moves incredibly well, and looks fantastic in the process.

XCar is a very mixed bag.

Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds is an online role-playing game that draws upon traditional Asian mythology.

Carmageddon is visceral, violent, vehicular fun.

Don't be confused. There are a lot of "virtual pet" gadgets and screen toys that claim to be the Real Thing. But only Creatures actually creates life on your PC. The Norns you hatch in Creatures are truly alive, and should be considered as small children. They come complete with their own biochemistry, brains, and digital DNA. They're friendly, curious, social, and eager to learn. But like small children, they can also get into mischief. So in order to experience life to the fullest, they need your help. Just remember, their life is in your hands.

Martians Attack! Due to their sub-terrainian habitat, the people of earth did not know of the Martian’s existence, or their unscrupulous leader, Rupert. The Martians have decided that they are tired of making crop circles and plan to attack the Earth instead. Fight your way through wave after wave of nasty Martian enemies!

Arthur is very excited to play the computer game, "Deep Dark Sea". He is enamored with its promise of sunken ships, skeletons, ghosts, and sharks. Arthur's Mom clearly states that she needs the computer today and that Arthur is not to touch it. Unable to fight temptation, when his Mom is at work, Arthur, and his friend, Buster, decide to play the game anyway. Amidst an argument with Buster, over who gets to play, they accidentally break the computer! How will Arthur fix this mess before his mom gets home?! Since it's first release in 1998, Living Books' rendition of "Arthur's Computer Adventure" has been enjoyed by countless children. Step-by-step, the reader will find the story is full of surprising encounters with many of their favorite Arthur storybook characters, providing new ways to interact with the book again and again.

This is almost the X-COM sequel that folks have been hoping for.