Diamond Games
£14.95
Two games on one disk for £14.95 on the ST! 'What a
bargain!' you may think to yourself. Well, er, sorry fellas but this
ain't really a bargain, because the games themselves seem to have
something just not quite right about them.
POOL looks very nice, in fact the graphics of
the table and everything on it look most impressive. There are
plenty of options to choose from including loading demo games from
the disk and changing the colour of the table. The bells are all
animated very nicely and the direction algorithms all seem to be
fairly accurate as the balls act almost exactly as you would expect
them to. So what's the problem? Well, it's playing the game, and
above all the control of your cue, as it's so difficult. The review
copy I received didn't have any instructions with it so I had to
work it out for myself. It would appear that first you move the cue
up to the ball and rotate the cue around it (by moving the mouse
left or right), then once the cue is in position you must pull back
on the mouse to define the amount of power required, and then push
the mouse forwards! You may be thinking, 'what's so difficult about
that? Well just you try it! It's VERY difficult to get used to.
SHUFFLEBOARD, I am led to believe is like
curling. The screen layout is very pleasing with a three dimensional
view of the alley taking up most of the screen and an overhead view
on the right hand side. Now, from what I can make out you have to
slide weights down an alley (similar to a bowling alley) into
scoring zones at the far end. If your opponent's weight gets in the
way then you can knock it out of play. Whenever I play it I can't
help thinking, 'well is that it?', and I always arrive at the same
answer – YES! Shuffleboard isn't a bad game but I would imagine that
the real thing is much more enjoyable than the computer version.
It's a pity really because these two games could have
made an excellent package if Robtek/Diamond would had spent a little
longer on them.
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