F I R S T
game type: Innovative
game of the year: Homeworld
publisher: Sierra Studios
vote rating: 27%
further information: "Homeworld is far and away the best-looking RTS game ever. True 3D. Fully rotating camera. Twenty-or-so highly detailed ships. Huge space environments. Massive asteroid belts. The list goes on and on. Homeworld is just fun to look at. The two races, the Kushan and the Taiidan, each have their own distinct designs and customizable color schemes. During battles, which by the way can involve up to 200 ships, the camera can focus in on the actions of one unit, or view the entire operation from far overhead. The effect is nothing short of cinematic. Fans of X-Wing, Freespace, and Star Control will totally get off on this eye candy. And so will you!" - jube
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SECOND
game type: Innovative
game of the year: Unreal Tournament
publisher: GT Interactive
vote rating: 9%
further information: "As if the interface wasn't good enough, UT had to go and soup up the in-game display as well. To start off with, UT lets you pick the color of your in-game display. Make use of UT's custom color creator (not the real name of it of course), to create any color you can think up. After choosing the color, you can set the opacity value of the display so that the stats on the screen don't totally block out your view. Different modes of game play display different things. If you're duking it on in the death match mode, you'll see a weapons bar along the bottom of the screen, with your health, armor, ammo, etc displays on the top right. If you're playing on the assault mode or capture the flag, you'll have no weapon bar, just health, armor, and ammo displays centered at the bottom of the screen. If you so choose to turn on the FPS display, UT will give you a very minute text read out of how many frames per second you're getting. This is very helpful for benchmarking so that you have an idea of your rates without having to watch a 60 second time demo. The best new aspect of UT's in-game display is the "spread" display. Not only does UT tell you your score in the bottom left hand corner, but it also tells you how far behind, or how far ahead you are from first place. Now you won't have to hit F1 every 30 seconds just to see how you rank." - Langdon
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIRD
game type: Innovative
game of the year: System Shock 2
publisher: Electronic Arts
vote rating: 5%
further information: "So that, in a nutshell, is System Shock 2 (this is the part for a philosophical reflection moment). Is it a good game? Or is it a bad game? How did life originate? Are we alone? Whichever way you put it, you?re likely to enjoy this if you liked Alien vs Predator or Half Life, though there isn?t nearly as many cool gizmos to do (different view modes, anyone? Permanent cloak?). However, I would probably suggest waiting for a patch to resolve the multiplayer issue. I don?t think it?s acceptable, in today?s society, to release a game without multiplayer. Ethical norms just don?t allow it. And apparently, there are some other glitches, judging from EA?s website; though, in all fairness, I must admit it?s been quite stable for me. The character models in the game are incredibly scary, though. I think, if I got down one day with some Coke and really brushed up on my Max skills, I could probably do something better, and I usually consider myself ?artistically challenged.? So, all in all, this isn?t a bad game - but it?s not a groundbreaker, either. As you may have noticed, nowhere did I compare it to System Shock 1 - the reason for that is, I?ve never played it. It was on my ?to-play? games list, but I?ve never gotten around to it, thus, I?ll leave the comparison up to you. And do check out the demo before you buy - it gives you a pretty good feel for the game." - Pseudo Nim