It's time to build a little 'army of me' in Conflict Zone
as the Command and Conquer-style game reaches the Dreamcast, albeit
rather belatedly.
Set in 2010, the government probably still haven't turned off the UK's
analogue TV signal, but in more pressing matters the world's countries have
been split into those ruled either by the ICP (International Corps for
Peace), or the renegade outlets known as GHOST, a secret organisation who
want it all and they want it now, except for their morals.
Choose to be an ICP member and you'll have the better technology, but be
restricted by what the media thinks of you, whereas being part of the GHOST
movement will play down your weaponry allocations but you could convert a larger
percentage of the population over to your cause. That's obviously because
being bad can feel pretty good :)
Like a violent version of Little Computer People, the idea is to build
up your arsenal of tanks, infantry as well as building bases for your men. As
soon as you do this, so do the enemies move in.
The graphics are actually quite sparsely done, in one sense, since they're
quite simple and don't have a great deal of definition to them unless you
zoom in closely (which also increases the sound FX volume), but it's a game
of two halves. There's a huge expanse of terrain upon which to lay your
outposts and begin the melee, while at the same time if there's too much
on screen at once then it can slow down considerably and when tanks are
defeated, they don't appear to be blasted into smithereens, but spin around
and shrink into the ground like Fenella, the wicked witch from Spout Hall
in
Chorlton and the Wheelies.
Those who know me will know that I'm not the world's greatest C&C-style game fan
and Conflict Zone won't change my opinion on that, but for the
strategy-obsessed amongst you the 32 missions may take your mind off the
fact that it's summer outdoors and that girls exist.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Like a violent version of Little Computer People, the idea is to build
up your arsenal of tanks, infantry as well as building bases for your men. As
soon as you do this, so do the enemies move in.
