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Reality Bytes, $40 US. ($65 Cdn.). Requirements: Macin-
tosh IIsi or better, with 256-color (or greyscale) display, 
System 6.07, two megabytes free RAM. Recommended: 
LC 475 or better, System 7 (for enhanced sound). 
Accelerated for Power Macintosh.

Are you sick of all the media hype about Id Software’sDoom and 
Doom II? Tired of checking your mailbox for MacPlay’s Wolfen-
stein 3D or Bungie’s Marathon that you mail-ordered weeks ago? 
Looking for a new way to vent your frustration on your Power Macintosh? Reality Bytes’ newest title, Sensory Overload, will more than help you while away the hours waiting for such Promiseware.  

When I first played the demo from an online service I knew I had to get my hands on a copy of Sensory Overload, simply to keep me from breaking down and running out to buy a 486DX2 with Doom II. With Sensory Overload, you don’t have to support Intel technology. What you will need, however, is a good pair of speakers (such as Apple’s AppleDesign Powered Speakers II) and at least a Mac IIci. The game is accelerated for Power Macintosh and runs smoothly on our 7100/66. A ready supply of food and beverage will keep you from starvation as you burn off a few dozen hours.

If you have played Id’s Doom or Bungie’s Pathways into Darkness, there are some obvious similarities. Displayed on-screen are ammunition and health indicators, along with a pop-up map and a first-person 3D view. At the bottom of your screen is the ever familiar left or right hand holding some sort of deadly weapon. There are some welcome differences, however. Unlike Doom, Sensory Overload has a plot–not just utter carnage and violence. Sensory Overload is more than just a game, it’s an experience!

Sensory Overload is the first Macintosh game to use sophisticated sight and sound technology. The game features high resolution texture-mapped scenery, vivid lighting and shadowing, lifelike motion, and unparalleled graphic realism. If you don’t have stereo speakers, you won’t be able to truly experience the rich panning stereo effects and the Techno-like pounding soundtrack. 

Now, besides all of the fancy features and the general review of the product, I’d like to cover a new testing standard that I’ve been using at the end of every game and utility. This standard is seldom used but can help rate certain aspects of the package as a whole.

The Kaardal Weight Test (or KWT as we will call it) judges the product on a weight vs. cost scale. The ratings vary from AA to FF — where the first letter rates the weight of the package and the second letter measures the cost. An AA rating would mean that the product is very light and almost free, whereas an FF would mean that it is very heavy and you’ll have to rob a bank to buy it. A KWT rating on a product would help you to determine value for your hard-earned dollar, and if the package has loads of documentation, too many disks, or non existent support materials.

After careful and repeated tests of Reality Bytes’ Sensory Overload, we have deemed that the product rates a KWT rating of ‘AB’. The packaging is very solid, comes with three high-density disks, a fold-out quick reference guide, and a registration card.

The game does have a few drawbacks, however. Due to the high-resolution graphics and enemy animation, you need to run the game on a Power Macintosh in order to play at full screen size. Sensory Overload runs reasonably well on a 25MHz 68040 Macintosh at half screen size in medium resolution. Another minor irritation is that you have to use non-customizable key presets if you don’t have a joystick, and there is no option to use the mouse. In addition, the game is quite difficult. It is quite hard to stay alive and you must save frequently–and loading saved games takes up to 30 seconds on slower Macs. These are minor problems, though, and don’t affect gameplay or enjoyment. I’m certainly looking forward to Reality Bytes’ next release.

  

Access Software, $45 US. ($75 Cdn.). Requirements: 
Macintosh IIsi or better, with 256-color (or grey-
scale) display, System 6.07.

Links Pro, Access Software’s  latest offering, is certainly a 
golfers dream.  The game features beautiful graphics, intri-
guing sound effects, and incredibly realistic gameplay.   

Links Pro’s best attributes is its stunning and realistic graphics. The graphics are three-dimsionally layered, making gameplay seem very realistic. The simulated golfer (you can choose either a male or female) is photorealistic and moves with very fluid animation. Accompanying the game are humorous sound effects and commentaries including “It’s in the short stuff,” and “I hate it when I do that”–certainly phrases you often hear on a real golf course!

The game sports many options which allow you to select the difficulty and realism of your golf game. You can change the course conditions by increasing the wind speed from 0-30mph, and you can also change the green conditions to either soft, normal or hard. The game allows for gimmies and mulligans. You also have at your disposal a caddy who will recommend which clubs to use throughout the entire round. In addition, you have the option to preload the course into memory, which can greatly increase redraw speeds. Links Pro also supports the voice recognition of AV and Power Macintoshes. You can select clubs, hit the ball, and change golfers all through voice commands. Links Pro is the first commercially available game to take advantage of this feature–and does so successfully. No doubt other games will soon follow Access Software’s lead and incorporate voice capabilities.

A major drawback to Links Pro is that it only ships with one course–you must therefore buy additional courses if you’d like a change of scenery. In addition, Links Pro does not allow you to play against a computer opponent or engage in a Skins competition (unlike PGA Pro Tour Golf II).

Access has recently released an upgrade patch for Links Pro. It will update version 1.0 to version 1.01. The patch fixes a few bugs and introduces a few new features. You can now save Game Stats, Player Stats, Course Stats, or the Scorecard to disk as text, which can then be opened in a word processor or spreadsheet.  A "PowerPC native acceleration active" message now appears in the "About Links Pro…" dialog box if the game detects a Power Macintosh. The update can be found on most major online services.