117 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
117 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
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WAYNE GRETZKY HOCKEY 2
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When I first saw the box for Bethesda Softworks' WAYNE GRETZKY
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HOCKEY 2, I was very hopeful. After all, it did win the Software
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Publishers Association's "Best Sports Simulation" Award. And the
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screen shots on the back of the box looked fairly impressive,
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especially for a game that only requires 384K of memory. But what I
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saw after installing WGH2 was a completely different story. (This
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review is based on the IBM-PC version.)
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The WGH2 packaging claims that the game supports VGA graphics.
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(Technically, it only says "VGA," with no indication that it
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actually _supports_ it, although you usually expect to find
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high-resolution or 256-color graphics when VGA is mentioned.) What
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Bethesda Softworks should have said was that if you have a VGA
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card, you can run the game...in EGA mode. So I suppose that WGH2
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also "supports" XGA and SVGA by those standards. My copy of the game
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came on 5-1/4" diskettes; there's no mention in the documentation of
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an exchange policy for players who require the 3-1/2" format.
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WGH2 also supports AdLib and Sound Blaster cards, in addition to
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the standard PC speaker. All you hear from a sound card in this game
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is background music when you are in one of the game's many menus, or
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an occasional weak sound effect when the game is in progress. Sound
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Blaster users should note that WGH2 expects to find your card using
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IRQ2, although the default setting is IRQ7. In order to change your
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interrupt setting, you will have to pull out the card and change the
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jumpers. I just decided that it would be easier to run the game in
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AdLib mode, where there should be no problems.
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According to a note in the back of the manual, copy-protection has
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been lessened since the original release of WGH. If this is true,
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I'd hate to see the original. Not only is there an annoying manual
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check (where you have to match pictures, based on both shape and
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color details), but the program also checks for "viruses." If WGH2
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finds that it has been modified, it will stop and return control to
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DOS. I find it hard to believe that anyone ever intended for this
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slow "virus check" to be anything of the sort. Instead, I suspect
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that the program is checking for intentional modifications (to
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remove copy protection or otherwise custom-configure the program).
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It would have been better if Bethesda had just said what their real
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intentions were.
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Until I started my first game, I was impressed by WGH2. The game
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appeared to have plenty of features and options that'd keep it new
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for a long time. But as soon as I started that first game, I was
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quickly disappointed. The arcade mode of WGH2, in which you control
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one player at a time, looked like it hadn't been changed since the
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original WGH: Only seven or eight colors were used at one time, and
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the graphics were blocky, even for EGA. Also, both teams' uniforms
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were the same colors; the only difference was where the colors were
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placed. The entire game was played from an overhead view, with about
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half of the rink fitting on the screen at one time. Unlike the
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screen shots on the box, you never see close-ups of players, except
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on a small post-game graphic. That wonderful picture of a player
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going for a shot (which is shown on the back of the box) could only
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be found in the opening sequence. Should we have expected anything
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more from a game that claims, but does not have, VGA graphics?
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Of course, as I love reminding myself, there's more to games than
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just graphics and sound. Or, at least, there's supposed to be. I
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found the player-mode of the game to be about as bad the graphics
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were, if not worse. The game runs slowly, even with speed set to the
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maximum. Since you can only control one player at a time, you'll
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often find yourself waiting for something to do. But even once you
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have control of the of the puck, the game doesn't get very
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exciting. I found it hard to warm up to this game, with a distant
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overhead view and poor graphics; it wasn't real enough for me. Maybe
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someone else might have better luck, although I doubt it.
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I decided to give WGH2 one more chance by testing out its coaching
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mode. You can edit your team's roster, making players as good or bad
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as you'd like in each of eleven different categories. Without any
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limit to how many points you can assign, it is possible to create
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either an overwhelming advantage or handicap for yourself. The team
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editor also features options to edit up to twenty offensive and
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defensive plays, as well as to create eighteen different lines.
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Unfortunately, you can't assign any sort of names to your plays, so
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you will have to take good notes if you want to remember what each
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play is. To set up lines for any imaginable combination of penalty
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situation for either team is quite a large task. You will need a
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printout of your current lines, since the computer does not display
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what you are editing until you choose a particular position in one
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of the lines. Also, a printout of your roster is almost a
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requirement, since there is no other way to get player statistics
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from the line editor. Personally, I would rather let the computer
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make changes for me.
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If you are adventuresome enough to sit back and watch the computer
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control your players while you coach a game, go ahead. (You can also
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play and coach at the same time, if you want.) Coaching must be
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controlled by keyboard. You must select from the three different
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coaching modes (line change, play calling, and switch player
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control) with the SHIFT key. Play selections are made using four
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number keys to scroll through the list. As I mentioned before, there
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is no way of finding out what a play is, except to call the play and
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see what happens. And you can only scroll in increments of one and
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five plays. I just preferred to let the computer coach; human
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control is simply too awkward.
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I felt cheated by WGH2. There seemed to have been little change
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over the original version (at least according to the box), except
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for the addition of sound card support and the play editor. After
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being misled about graphics support, and being asked to reconfigure
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my Sound Blaster to a non-standard setting, it would have taken a
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great game to get me excited. Needless to say, WGH2 is far from a
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great game. Several years ago, it make have been acceptable, but
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today, you can do far better. If you are a tremendous hockey fan to
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whom money and hard drive space is no object, I might recommend this
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game to you. Otherwise, run, don't walk, away from WAYNE GRETZKY
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HOCKEY 2.
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WAYNE GRETZKY HOCKEY 2 is published and distributed by Bethesda
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Softworks.
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