dacs.doc electric

GAME I: Need for Speed II

WANT to hear about one of the best racing games ever ? It is called Need For Speed II and is published by Electronics Arts. In this game you have some of the coolest cars ever -- cars like the Lotus Esprit V8 or the Italian Italdesign. If you are dying for better cars, here are some more: the Ford Gt90 and the awesome Ferrari. These are just some of the good cars in the game. If you want to know more about any of them, you can go check out their history.

So now you are thinking, "I have all these cool cars to pick from, but I would like to have some good racetracks to choose from, too." Do not worry. There are plenty. People who just want to train can go to the proving grounds. If you are a more advanced driver, you can go to the Outback, and if you really want to get rough, there are other, more difficult tracks: Pacific Spirit, Mediterrania, and the daredevil Mystic Peaks are a few. If you want to know more about all the racetracks, you can do that, too.

Now you have to choose what kind of racing you want to do. You can choose from full race to drag racing with Traffic turned on. Overall I think that Need for Speed II is the best racing game I've ever played, and no other game will overtake it. I very much doubt that any other game will have so much speed. For information you can go to the Electronic Arts Web site at http://www.ea.com.

GAME 2: Forced Alliance

When I was given some game software called Forced Alliance to review at a recent DACS meeting, I thought, "Wow, this will be fun." So I roped in my brother, Zachary, and a friend of mine to help me play it.

Forced Alliance is (as the company says) a "space combat simulator that offers players an innovative mix of diverse game/play elements--space, combat, alien diplomacy, character role playing, and tactical strategy." The setting is an open-ended universe, and the game involves a lot of spaceship landing strategy. The goal is to get through two buoys in space and return your spaceship to your home base in a safe landing. But that's the problem.

The three of us tried for a couple of days to figure out how to land without crashing the aircraft of Forced Alliance. We all got very discouraged because we could never figure out the proper way. We just kept on crashing.

A character (some commander of the forces) in the game is not very motivating when he says, "The minute I laid eyes on you, I knew you were a loser; now I can see from your flying how much you want to prove it to me." Well, I think this guy is a loser. I also think the gamemakers made Forced Alliance hard for kids to play (and we can usually figure out how to play any game!). Even my parents couldn't figure it out. My mom admits she's not great with games, and my dad didn't have mush more success than we did. Maybe we all just need more time to figure it out. But while that's happening, maybe Electronic Arts could write better instructions.