Consoles, Games and Emulators.

From the exceptional graphics to the innovative driving model, Grand Prix II sets new standards in almost every category.

Almost a year after MicroProse posted the first tantalizing screen shots, Grand Prix II has finally arrived - and it turns out that it was worth the wait. From the exceptional graphics to the innovative driving model, Grand Prix II sets new standards in almost every category.

Until now, racing games on the PC have come in two distinct flavors: arcade-style racers that provide a quick dose of adrenaline, and serious racing simulations that provide a deeper (though less exciting) experience. Grand Prix II shatters these traditional barriers by providing seven adjustable “driving aids” that affect the difficulty and the complexity of gameplay. These aids range from the traditional automatic transmission to more exotic aids like braking assistance and automatic steering. The result is that Grand Prix II performs like an arcade racer when all the driving aids are switched on, and a deadly serious simulation when switched off.

For those that dare to opt for the full realism, Grand Prix II contains a driving model so complex that it would make the folks at Papyrus blush. Not only are the cars quick and nimble, but Grand Prix II is the first racing game to accurately simulate motion in all three axes. In other words, if you hit a bump at 200mph, you literally become airborne! This not only makes the cars handle more realistically, but crashes now take on a whole new dimension as you twist and gyrate through the air. To complement the excellent physical model, MicroProse has included a fully functioning garage and 16 painstakingly reproduced tracks. These features all add up to make Grand Prix II one of the most realistic racing simulations on the market today.

Whether you opt for arcade or simulation-style play, Grand Prix II manages to deliver plenty of racing thrills. While other simulations have managed to reproduce almost every minute detail of auto racing, Grand Prix II is the first to actually reproduce the excitement of the most dangerous sport on the planet. In other words, this game is both realistic AND fun to play. It is this factor, above all others, that makes Grand Prix II shine so brightly.

To enhance the spectacular gameplay, Grand Prix II sports some of the finest graphics yet seen on a PC. In fact, the 640×480 mode comes very close to being “photo-realistic.” While these graphics are beautiful to behold, owners of anything less than a Pentium 133 may find the frame rate a bit low for their tastes. Fortunately, the low-resolution mode runs fast and furious on my P90, and - unlike many dual-resolution games - the cars and tracks are clearly discernible from the background. Believe me, this is of extreme importance when heading for a hairpin turn at 200mph!

In conclusion, Grand Prix II from MicroProse is unquestionably the best racing game yet made for the PC, and a strong contender for game of the year! Whether you’re a fan of arcade-style racers or full-blown simulations, Grand Prix II is certain to please.

This bizarre new title pits alien against alien in a contest where the extra-terrestrial with the greatest understanding of frivolous earthling knowledge will win the right to call Earth home.

What if all the alien races were fighting over Earth? How would the winner be determined? Microforum attempts to answer this question with its new trivia game, Mind Grind. This bizarre new title pits alien against alien in a contest where the extra-terrestrial with the greatest understanding of frivolous earthling knowledge will win the right to call Earth home.

Unlike most puzzle games whose object is to simply answer trivia questions, Mind Grind adds a twist by incorporating some intriguing strategy and action elements to its five-level progressive game. Each level has a unique objective that must be met in order to be successfully completed. On one level you must avoid whirlwinds while climbing up pillars; on another you must make your way through a maze of gates. You’ll quickly discover that this is more than a trivia game.

Interesting it may be, but Mind Grind is not without its flaws. While reviewing a final version of the game, I experienced graphic glitches as well as the occasional loss of audio. If you save, then exit the game, when you return you’re forced to start at the beginning of the level you’re in even if you were in the middle of it when you saved the game. And visually, Mind Grind is by no means a showpiece. The video segments throughout are grainy with medicore sound effects.

During your quest to conquer earthling trivia, charasmatic earthling Homer is your guide and game-show-like host. While providing useful instructions, he also contributes sarcastic comments and heckles throughout the game. At first he’s entertaining, but after hearing “And you are WRONG” for the umpteenth time when you answer a question incorrectly (easy to do as some choices are so closely related), you may decide to put Homer at the front of the line of the earthlings you plan to eliminate when you win the right to re-colonize Earth.

Although the last two levels of this trivia extravaganza contain an element of action, the final level is an frustrating experience. On Looking for Intelligent Signs of Life, you must maneuver a ship through space while carefully avoiding meteoroids and shooting plasma blasts at crafts that contain the trivia questions. Using the keyboard controls turns into a nightmarish experience, so be sure to save the game before attempting this level, as too many hits from the meteoroids will end your game. This poorly designed action sequence seems unnecessary and out of place in a game where the main objective is to correctly answer questions.

Though Mind Grind has more than 3,000 questions, several questions appeared more than once during a single session even when the question had been answered correctly. Also, I found one question to be in extremely poor taste: How did Magic Johnson contract the HIV virus? This question seemed completely inappropriate considering the overall upbeat attitude of the game.

Although Mind Grind tries to take an innovative approach to trivia gaming, it falls short of being a truly entertaining experience. With its technical limitations and quirky gameplay, Mind Grind goes from being a test of your frivolous knowledge to a test of your patience and stamina. And although an alien might endure this game for the chance to rule the Earth, I can’t say the same for any of the human race.

Put simply, X-COM is a bona fide modern classic, standing proudly alongside Civilization and Populous as a benchmark in the evolution of strategy gaming.

At first I didn’t get it. The newsgroups were all abuzz about some game called X-something - everyone who played it seemed to become a near-zombie, talking about it incessantly and flooding the groups with endless threads and theories and strategies. Then, as a lowly intern at a gaming mag, I was given the game to take some screenshots for a review. It seemed interesting enough - building bases and killing aliens - but I still didn’t get it. Frankly, it seemed tedious. I decided to take it home to see what all the buzz was about. Big mistake.

For the next few months, I spent every possible moment playing the game. Sleeping only a couple of hours a night, I would stay up ’till dawn playing, wake up minutes later and get right back into it. I was even going home from work at lunch to get a hurried hour in. It got so bad my roommates had a “talk” with me. Finally, I finished my first game, and proceeded to stumble about for weeks after, having paranoid delusions that aliens really were invading earth, cautiously looking for a flashing red “enemy in sight” warning in my peripheral vision.

And that was the brilliance of X-COM. The game managed to take two seemingly sterile genres - turn-based battle and resource management - and create a truly engrossing experience. The game is broken up into two main areas. As the commander of X-COM (a multi-national committee established to thwart an alien invasion), the player must construct facilities to house soldiers and research new technologies, while tracking alien movements and attacking their ships and troops. As more corpses and artifacts are recovered, scientists can be employed to learn more about the invasion and its origins. And every time the game starts to slow down a bit, a new piece of information will be delivered that creates a newfound sense of excitement and makes every battle seem that much more vital. Countless games later, the fun still hasn’t diminished, and X-COM has held a proud position on my measly 400MB hard drive for almost two years.

If you call yourself a gamer but don’t own X-COM, your collection has a more glaring gap than Ernest Borgnine’s smile. Put simply, X-COM is a bona fide modern classic, standing proudly alongside Civilization and Populous as a benchmark in the evolution of strategy gaming.

This is the most addictive game I have played in years.

WARNING: Prepare to sacrifice many of the unimportant things in your life (such as eating, sleeping, working, talking to others, etc.) if you get your hands on Chaos Overlords. This is the most addictive game I have played in years.

The concept is simple enough. The game itself is a turn-based strategic gang battle (see Urban Turfwar) played on an 8×8 grid. You are a Chaos Overlord (read: Futuristic Kingpin) whose sole purpose in life is to control as many city blocks as possible, therefore assuring a healthy nest egg for your retirement. You accomplish this goal by hiring gangs (read: Guys With Bats) and influencing local merchants in secured blocks to pay for insurance. Your gangs can also perform other tasks such as chaosing (read: Looting) an area to fatten your wallet and rumbling with rival gangs (read: Opening Up a Can of Whoop-Ass). In addition, some of your more intelligent gangs can research new equipment. This is very important because, as everyone knows, he who owns the most toys (especially the Plasma Generator) wins. You can even equip your gangs with such items as cool hats and boom-boxes to make them better diplomats and looters, respectively.

By including six goal-oriented scenarios and four timed scenarios, Stick Man Games has developed a product that overcomes the monotony found in so many other strategic wargames. Goal-based scenarios range from Eliminate, in which you must seek out and destroy a rival Chaos Overlord’s Right Hand, to the ever-satisfying Kill ‘Em All. General philosophies such as Greed (the acquisition of cash), Power (the acquisition of property), Acceptance (heightening popularity), and Dominance (a combination of all of the above) determine your overall score in the time-based scenarios.

Chaos Overlords includes four levels of Artificial Intelligence: Goon, Criminal, Crime Lord, and Homicidal Maniac (read: Game Over). After you learn the game, you should be able to rise to Goon level easily, but even the Criminal level is challenging. And go ahead and forget about winning on Homicidal Maniac.

The graphics in Chaos Overlords are superb. Although small, the pictures of the different gangs and pieces of equipment are each very unique and detailed. The combat animations are smooth and can be very satisfying as you watch your Shock Troopers mow down a few rival Nancy Boys. The ambient soundtrack is also very appealing. The CD tracks complement the experience rather than overpowering the game. I can even hear the music in my head as I drift off to sleep.

Perhaps the best feature in Chaos Overlords is the ability to play against up to five human opponents via a network, modem, or the Internet. Human opponents offer the best challenge and, of course, the most satisfying experience. There is nothing like the feeling of destroying a rival Chaos Overlord in Ohio. You can even set a time limit for each player’s turn, allowing for relatively fast gameplay.

Although not for action gamers, Chaos Overlords should overjoy anyone who likes turn-based strategy wargames. But if your health starts slipping from spending too much time in front of your monitor, please, please give it a rest…the game will still be there tomorrow.

With this update, Links LS can rightfully reclaim its status as the king of golf sims.

With this update, Links LS (Legends in Sports) can rightfully reclaim its status as the king of golf sims. The graphics are gorgeous, there are many playing options, the physics mirror reality, and Links finally offers network play. But there are several golf sim contenders in the wings and Links LS has enough minor weaknesses that one or more of the up-and-comers may soon topple it from its throne.

Links has more than a 50-percent share of the golf sim market. But its luster has faded of late, largely because, until now, it’s had no substantive upgrade for three years. Access has sustained Links’ No. 1 position by releasing many add-on courses - 17 in all. Meanwhile, the newer Electronic Arts PGA Tour 96, with its clever golfer interface, multiple big-name pros, and improved overall gameplay, has moved ahead of Links.

But that’s now ancient history. Links LS raises the bar far above anything on the shelves today. First, it is visually dazzling. It looks and feels like you’re there; down to the trees, shrubs, and cart paths. The customizable sound effects, coupled with animations of flying divots and sand, plus backspin and ball marks, put Links LS in a class well above the competition.

Golfer animations are superb and eminently emulative (if only my swing looked like that!). Your golfer can be male or female and can have a full range of abilities and appearances. You can adjust course conditions, including wind speed, fog, and putting surface characteristics. You can place up to five camera views onscreen any one time, plus add a tracer and alter the ball’s size for easier viewing. And finally, Links LS offers a wide variety of gameplay options including stroke, best ball, match, and skins.

The game ships with three courses: Kapalua Plantation and Village plus Arnold Palmer’s Latrobe Country Club. All 17 previous courses will work with Links LS and will look better. Arnie comes along as well with his inimitable swing and commentary. Plus you can take a virtual 3-D tour (ala Under A Killing Moon) through Arnie’s office and Kapalua’s clubhouse.

There’s so much excellent software here that finding flaws may seem like nitpicking, but after three years in development there shouldn’t be flaws. The old Links let you see the player’s swing as you clicked the mouse. Now, in a gameplay quality step backward, it’s click, release, click…and wait for the swing. Soon-to-be-released golf sims from Sierra and Maxis will give the player more control over the swing by incorporating mouse movement to adjust swing timing and direction. Access ruled out such nuances, saying they did not translate well to computer golf. We’ll see.

In addition, on my Pentium 90, it takes 15-30 seconds to redraw each new shot location. To take full advantage of the optimum 1600×1200 resolution, you’ll need 64MB of RAM and a 4MB video card. A full install requires a ridiculous 150MB of hard drive space.

The virtual reality tours are virtually useless, the resort videos are mundane, and the hole fly-bys offer few playing tips. The network play is for only two computers using a modem or LAN. The modem setup is kludgy and no Internet play is available.

And finally, the bulky packaging establishes a new nadir in environmental insensitivity. Links LS ships in two full-size retail boxes. This attempt to create the look of two games, Kapalua’s and Arnie’s, is belied by the fact that the three CDs are in one box and the manual is in the other.

Argos Gamesware’s Ungaria doesn’t really possess any of that nail-biting intensity that its puzzle-game ancestors had.

Do you remember the feeling of anxiety that early puzzle games could instill in you, the feeling that in some abstract way the fate of the entire world hinged on fitting the right Tetris piece into place? Remember being completely absorbed by the game - whose subject matter didn’t refer to anything in the outside world - simply because of the challenge, and because it taunted your cerebral limits by speeding up the pace and setting inhuman time limits? Well, Argos Gamesware’s Ungaria doesn’t really possess any of that nail-biting intensity that its puzzle-game ancestors had. Some could still argue that playing it is a challenging endeavor - unfortunately, though, that’s not saying a whole lot.

The gameplay is as follows: You begin with an empty grid and are dealt a finite series of colored squares. Each square is divided into four sections, each of which can be one of four colors. The object of the game is to fill the empty grid by placing the squares so that their bordering colors match. The squares can be rotated with the click of a mouse button or “mirrored” by pushing a button up at the top of the screen. More points are awarded if you match two or more sides of a square to a group of squares. And if you place a square and match four sides - the crowning achievement - you accomplish “ungaria” and receive the maximum points. A “bonus time” counter ticks away relentlessly at the side of the screen, and the less time you take to make a move, the more points you get. What happens if your time runs out? Absolutely nothing! If you’re stuck on a move, go ahead and grab dinner and a movie because you’ve got plenty of time. Of course, there’s always the option of discarding the unusable piece. Other game options include increasing the grid size and increasing the number of colors available to each square.

That feeling of panic, that mirthful feeling of suffocation you get when you play a game like Lemmings or Tetris, just isn’t there in Ungaria, but it’s strangely addictive at times. The graphics are colorful but not too exciting, and there’s a groovy bossanova-style soundtrack. But the gameplay still doesn’t seem to provide a sense of accomplishment. This game is a mind-puzzle with a sort of solitaire edge, and devoted puzzle-game fans will probably have some fun with it. But as far as the excitement factor goes, Ungaria may leave you starved.

Although Maxis’ latest SimMutation was not developed to give you the network carnage-fest experience of a WarCraft II or a Command & Conquer, you’ll still have your chance to raise a little hell in the land of Sims.

“Hey! What happened to my bridge?” screamed a SimCommissioner.

“Oops, seems you needed to own the land on both ends of the bridge to keep me from bulldozing it down,” I answered.

“So, that’s the way you want it, huh?” he replied. “Okay, let’s play.”

Welcome to SimCity 2000 Network Edition. Although Maxis’ latest SimMutation was not developed to give you the network carnage-fest experience of a WarCraft II or a Command & Conquer, you’ll still have your chance to raise a little hell in the land of Sims. However, if you’re looking for a new fast-paced network game, don’t get too excited. This version is essentially SimCity 2000 with a few gameplay enhancements and features that elevate it to the network level of amusement.

The premise of SimCity 2000 remains intact - build a city from the ground up – but now you can strive to create a land of milk and honey (or bread and water) for your Sims with up to three other SimFanatics. Although you won’t be able to inflict disease or provoke a riot in a neighboring community - you’re still limited to natural disasters and traditional demolition techniques - you can chat with fellow SimCommissioners, create contracts to swap resources, and vote collectively on city ordinances. It’s now city by committee.

In addition to network play, the algorithm wizards at Maxis have added a few new features to the urban development simulation experience. Gone are the days of simply zoning property on a whim. Now you must factor in the cost of purchasing the land before you develop it. The purchase even goes through an escrow period before you are entitled to it. Conversely, if you’re tight on cash you can sell land back and if its value has increased due to your business savoir-faire, you can make a profit on the deal. Sadly, the ability to lease your land to others is absent from the property management toolbar. And, except for a modest overhaul of the toolbars and fewer natural disasters, die-hard SimCity fans will find little difference in the aesthetics of the game. No city-destroying monsters in this one either.

Only when the race to gobble up the land is over (and this will take quite a while to accomplish in any mode but African Swallow), will you truly experience the networking nuances of this game. That’s when the ability to shrewdly bargin for precious resources will separate the SimMasters from the SimNovices.

If you’re a SimFanatic on the verge of joining SA (SimAnonymous) in order to get your next SimFix, this new twist on SimCity 2000 will certainly appeal to you. At least now you’ll have some companionship on your never-ending journey to provide the proper balance of zoned property to a race smaller than the people of Liliput. Just remember to own all the property you build a bridge on.

For those of you who have always considered strategy games a trifle dry for your tastes, I give you Z, the alcoholic, head-banging, gap-toothed, punch-drunk, inbred cousin of Command & Conquer.

For those of you who have always considered strategy games a trifle dry for your tastes, I give you Z, the alcoholic, head-banging, gap-toothed, punch-drunk, inbred cousin of Command & Conquer. Z’s opening movie tells the sordid tale of two Bill-and-Ted robot supply ship pilots, late (again) for their scheduled delivery to a combat zone. The player is dropped without ceremony into said combat zone, which at first appears to fall within recognizable C & C operational parameters. After two or three miserable failures, the player realizes that this is not the case. Enemy territory is not captured in the meter-by-meter fashion of other real-time strategy games, but via a Capture the Flag scheme; the Z battlefield is, for some inadequately explored reason, divided into grids of territory, which may partially explain the wonky AI (see below). Z is a game that has what I euphemistically call “the personal touch.” As the battle progresses, robotic grunts in the field make the expected reports (”Moving out!” “Let’s get ‘em!”), as well as the less-expected requests for support (”They’re all over us!” “For Christ’s sake, do something!”), and the still less-expected direct verbal abuse (”Moron!” “Asshole!”) as your beleaguered installations get reduced to their component molecules.

While it is not possible to construct combat installations, structures such as robot factories and radar sites may be taken with chunks of territory. At set intervals, these installations will produce more combat robots or vehicles such as jeeps and tanks, while unattended installations, vehicles and/or packs of weapons are scattered about the battlefield, waiting to be captured or destroyed. Although the game is largely tactical in scale, these neutral pieces of - pardon the pun - Virgin territory add a strategic element, encouraging players to scramble for position and property before the destruction begins. This element is made even more important by the fact that the player who is in control of more territories will have factories that produce units at a higher speed. Players who can grab a lot of land in the first few minutes of the game, and then hang on to it, will have many more units than their opponents in a very short time.

Which brings us to the subject of the game’s AI, which certainly is noteworthy. Another word would be singular. Still another would be weird, and that’s probably the best one. The AI here is weird. The click-and-select method of movement and combat is present, but the routes taken between a cluster of robotic soldiers and an unattended box of grenades are often questionable. Even to line-of-sight targets, straight lines are often completely avoided. But on the positive side, your soldiers are also capable of making intelligent decisions (like jumping into tanks or assault guns) without you telling them to. Anyway, Z features some pretty neato bonuses, such as the ability to snipe enemy troops right out of their vehicles (allowing the subsequent capture of said vehicles, a really hateful thing to do to a networked opponent) and - my personal favorite - the ability to simply blast and tear your way through obstructive terrain that may be getting in your way, which is something many an infuriated C & C player has wanted to do for a long time now.

Z is a real-time strategy game for the less-obsessive and less-serious among us. Territories are easy to capture, easy to lose, and often just as easy to recapture, and the sheer numbers of units that the player must keep track of are quite a bit less bewildering than those found in some of Z’s more steely-eyed, rock-jawed cousins. Also, the inherent humor in the game will probably surface as two or more human opponents face each other via a networked game - at the very least, the verbal abuse will then come from someone you know.

Private Eye falls into the trappings of almost every interactive movie , unsteadily treading a thin line between a linear narrative structure and an experience controlled by the player.

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe has seen several cinematic incarnations, from Humphrey Bogart’s seminal portrayal in The Big Sleep (1946), to Elliot Gould’s minimalist Marlowe in Robert Altman’s bizarre interpretation of The Long Goodbye (1973). Private Eye from Byron Preiss Multimedia is the first attempt to bring the cynical PI to an interactive environment, and it succeeds in re-creating the hard-boiled atmosphere of the novel it is based on, Chandler’s The Little Sister. Unfortunately, Private Eye leaves a great deal to be desired as a game.

Private Eye falls into the trappings of almost every interactive movie , unsteadily treading a thin line between a linear narrative structure and an experience controlled by the player. If the designers had stuck to the first option, creating a sort of living storybook for grown-ups, then they would have had something really great on their hands. The minimal animation - which looks like a cross between Dick Tracy comics and The Dig from LucasArts - is excellent, as is the original jazz score. And - surprise, surprise - the voice acting is top-notch, especially the voice of our hero, which never resorts to the Bogie impression one might expect. The game is made more enjoyable by the continual barrage of Marlowe-isms - such as during an interview with an aspiring actress caught up in the seediness of ’30s-era Hollywood, when he sums up her character with a deadpan, “She looked about as hard to get as a haircut.”

The technical achievements are undermined, however, by the almost total lack of any so-called “game.” Long stretches of animation are interrupted by the opportunity to make minor decisions, not unlike the film sections of the last two Wing Commander games. The scene stops, and Marlowe confronts you with an opportunity: “I could ask him about this-and-that, or I could ask him about such-and-such.” And of course, you constantly wish you could do the sensible thing, which would be both. But such are the limitations of Private Eye, and so you press on, never sure if you’re making any headway because you’re never asked to make any deductive decisions. It’s always “should I take this incredibly valuable clue, or should I leave it?” or “Where should I go next?” when there’s really only one sensible option. And in the end, the interactive elements became a tedious obstruction in the otherwise enjoyable experience, and I found myself wishing I could just set the thing on autopilot and have it tell me the story.

What made Chandler’s Marlowe stand apart from similar hard-boiled creations was that his cynicism was always the result of an inherent optimism. Despite his tough-guy demeanor, he was always giving people the benefit of the doubt, and time and time again the world let him down. I sympathized with Marlowe while playing Private Eye - wanting desperately to enjoy it, but left feeling ultimately empty and disappointed.

The laundry hasn’t been done, the bills haven’t been paid, and it’s all because of this terribly engrossing game.

Want to waste a lot of time? No, I’m not talking about watching infomercials on late-night TV. This is the best kind of time waster - solitaire! I checked out Sierra’s Hoyle’s Solitaire and found I could do little more than play it. The laundry hasn’t been done, the bills haven’t been paid, and it’s all because of this terribly engrossing game.

Of course, it helps if you actually like card games - if you do, God help you, because you’re not getting away from this one. I found myself alone in a dark office playing Triplets and yelling expletives at the screen every time I had to re-deal. If I was dealt a losing hand, I’d hit re-deal right away and the whole thing would start all over again.

One of the greatest things about Hoyle’s is that it features a whopping 28 game variations, nothing like the namby-pamby solitaire game preloaded into your PC. In addition, you can change the card backs, the “wallpaper,” and the music to suit your individual style. Card backs range from traditional patterns to variations of the Sierra logo. Backgrounds run the gamut from rainforest to hardwood to Las Vegas-card-table green. The music can be an annoying urban jazz or a tranquil classical, but don’t expect to be wowed: Most of the soundtracks are nothing more than 60-second sound bites in a perpetual loop.

When it came time for gameplay, I went the traditional route with Klondike, which was fun, but I’ve been playing this particular version of solitaire since I was 10, and it isn’t much of a challenge. I moved on to Yukon, which is played with all of the cards dealt to seven columns from one card to 11 in length, and from one card to six face down. You move the cards from column to column. The objective is similar to Klondike: build four foundations up from ace to king. Without a pile of cards to flip through, it makes for a more formidable challenge.

I didn’t much care for Bowling. Here you set up the cards like bowling pins and pick them off in order from front to back:

7 8 9 10 6 5 4 3 2 1 I started out by throwing away too many cards in the waste pile; then I just got bored.

The real fun and excitement came with games like Fortress and Pyramid. Both are very engrossing, and with a game like Pyramid, you really need to be able to “count” at a glance.

One thing that threw me for a loop is how difficult it was to learn some of the games. My advice here: Read The Instructions! I know this sounds kind of silly, especially for a card game, but when you mess up (and you will), you’ll be clicking that instructions button - trust me.

In addition to regular card table play, you can also play an arcade-style game called Card Flick. It’s fairly self-explanatory. With a virtual hand you flick virtual cards into a virtual hat for, yup, virtual points. Any time you win one of the solitaire games you’ll also get a chance to “flick.” Although this game doesn’t unlock the mysteries of the universe, it does offer hours and hours of gameplay. Take a break from the shoot-‘em-ups and God games - play a little solitaire!