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GameSlice Daily Editorial

Week Ending December 1st, 1999

Editorial
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THE BIG 6: HOT HOLIDAY GAMES

5. Tribes Extreme

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One of the cult hits last year was undoubtedly StarSiege Tribes, a team-based online game from Dynamix, a division of Sierra. Although I had a lot of problems with the lack of a front-end to the game-- The training missions were lousy and there was no way to practice when not on the Internet -- a strong fan following developed for the game. Well, this year Dynamix is poised to deliver Tribes Extreme in time for Christmas, which promises to further strengthen the franchise. New this year is a single-player campaign with computer controlled enemy characters, which I think is a much-needed feature that will hopefully enrich the experience and widen the potential audience for the game. Look for Tribes Extreme in December.

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6. Urban Chaos

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I first picked British developer Mucky Foot's Urban Chaos as one of our Surprise Games of E3 1998, and now that I've had a chance to sit down with a near-final version, I have to say this is the 3^rd person action game you should be buying from Eidos, not Tomb Raider 4. Best billed as a combination of Tomb Raider and a fighting game, you play D'arcy, a cop ready to use her fists, weapons, and wits to rid the world of Chaos at the turn of the millennium. Although the game would do better with a mouse interface for the character and further tweaking of the camera movements, it's clear this game is going to be a much wiser purchase than Tomb Raider IV – Even though all the press and buzz would suggest otherwise. You should check out the demo and take a look at Urban Chaos when it ships in just a few short weeks.

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Comments?
Do you have a comment on the Big 6 Games? E-mail me: geoff@gameslice.com

Next Week
Next week's Gist List looks at the Messiah Demo, Half-Life: Opposing Force, PC game rentals at Blockbuster and much more. Stay tuned!