It’s time to come back to NextGen, for October of 1998.
Cover: A bunch of new Star Wars games are coming out.
News: Westwood has just been purchased by Electronic Arts, and John Romero at Ion Storm held a big gathering of classic Apple II programmers at their corporate office, including Woz and Nasir Ghabelli.
In Japan, some screen shots have come out of Dragon Quest 7, and its rather dated visual style.
Alphas (Previews): There’s a major shooter kicking off our Previews, with Starsiege Tribes, which I didn’t realize was among the first Big Map Objective Based Shooters. However, the big part is a look inside LucasArts, starting off with Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. That said, that article has some dire font color choices.
Activision is working on their second Heavy Gear game, going with the competition for Battletech’s mech crown. On the other side of the pond, the now Peter Molyneux-free Bullfrog Software has their sequel to Dungeon Keeper, and Argonaut is back with Buck Bumble.
A Question of Character: NextGen asks, “What makes a good character design?” There’s a discussion of the topic, along with interviews with the creators of various high profile characters, starting with Pac-Man.
Nintendo 64 Previews: We have 60 (not 64?) previews of upcoming N64 games, with 1 paragraph per game.
Finals (Reviews): F-Zero X kicks off the reviews with a coveted 5-star ranking (and for good reasons).
Faring not quite so well is Mechcommander on PC and Shining Force 3 on the Saturn – both get 3 stars, but for different reasons. Mechcommander has mission design issues, and Shining Force 3 is underwhelming compared to the competition, both on the Saturn (Grandia) and on the PlayStation (Final Fantasy VII). There are also several shoot-em-ups, like G Darius and Thunderforce V, which are generally panned, along with the PS port of Mortal Kombat. There’s also an arcade port of Quake, which I’d love to see at PRGE sometime.
Oh, and there’s an ad for IGN with a nude molded Lara Croft. Classy.
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