 
People Talk
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QUAKE versus GENETIC SPECIES by PARADISE ISLE
Which should I buy? Well a quick answer is... if you like these sort of games then buy the two.
You will enjoy both I
assure you. But which has the edge? Well its not that easy to say because Quake seems to be 'the be
all and end all' of this type of game, which stems from the PC market, "if you're good at Quake you
have prestige and respect. But if you have only seen Genetic Species in an early demo version forget
it, its been improved upon a 1000 fold or more since, and evolved into the best Amiga Doom clone ever.
It reminds me of the old CBM 64 game Paradroid in some ways (and what a ace game that was). That game
alone got me into computing in the first place, and I dare say if you were to see Genetic Species on
the Amiga as your first computer game, you would go out and get your first Amiga computer, as did many
PC owners when they saw Doom.
Quake will also have this effect on you if you saw it running on a fast Amiga. Notice I say 'fast'
Amiga as it does need a very fast Amiga, and more importantly an fpu or else it wont run. The reason
for this is the amount of maths it has to do just to calculate the true 3D environment. And to help
it along it needs a fast processor, at least an 040, I would say. A graphics card will help a little
but not as much as you would have thought. On my system (which has been demoted from an 4000/040,
20meg fast ram, 4xscsi CD-rom, Cyber64/3d gfx card, to an 030/25Mhz, 16meg fast ram and the above,
due to processor board problem) it just doesn't run fast enough. I cant wait to get a power PC board
from Phase 5 and have the 040 back!
I am only getting about 2 frames a second out of Quake which is very jerky, but Species flies, at
around 10 frames a second. Quite a difference! So for sheer payability at the moment it has to be
Genetic Species which comes out tops, plus it seems to be just that little bit different in some
way that I cant quite put my finger on. The fact that Quake works on the Amiga is no mean feat,
and the boys at ClickBOOM should all have a slap on the back and three cheers for making it work,
it just needs us to have the high spec machines to run it on, to do it justice. On the other hand
Vulcan deserve the same with nobs on because it allows us to stick two fingers up at our PC friends
and say wibble.
The graphics on these games are amazing, Species boasts huge levels with fully texture mapped 3d
environments, with some very nice touches of lighting, shimmering luminance, etc, etc. 16 rendered
enemies, all of which act with high degree of intelligence. It makes me laugh when I see a cyborg
run away, yep, run away after letting rip with one of those deadly weapons such as the Flachette
(good name), which fires loads of metal slivers and can take them out in one hit if you get it right.
So you can't blame them for running away can you? I know I would! Then there are others that will run
off at first, get their confidence up (or so it seems) then track you down by following the noise of
your shots. So kill, killl, killll, killllll them all, show no mercy, let them have it, let them have
it all. Sorry got carried away there, only to find I needed to bioshift to that scientist or that gel-man.
Yes you can take-over the bodies of humans, cyborgs and droids with your PPD (portable probe device),
you will need them to perform tasks under your control. But be warned, the temptation to throw a grenade
into a room full of them, or let them have it with the many other guns at your disposal, can be too much
to resist.
The sound on Species is impressive to say the least, it uses AHI which adds immensely to the atmosphere
when strolling down the corridors or letting some bad guy have a taste of hot lead. This game has a good
3D rendered intro, 200Mb of it, will work on AGA 020, 8 meg fast ram, 2 speed CD-rom. It does not need to
be installed, it utilizes anything you got that's faster or have more of. How much more "slap in the CD and
go" can you want?
Quake on the other hand needs to be installed, about 60 megs worth of hard disk space, it also needs a
minimum of AGA 020 with fpu, 8 meg fast ram, and the setting up is a bit tricky. Reading the readme files
on the CD is well worth it, because the game has quite a few command line parameters that can be entered
to tweak the game to your liking / speed restraints. The gameplay is in the same vein as Species but it too
has its own pluses. One of which is if you have a gfx card you can use it in 16 bit mode which seems to
blend those colours, shade those shades that little bit more than a 256 colour screen. Another is networking,
multiplayer action, deathmatch, team games, cooperative games all very good fun.
So to sum up, as you can probably tell I'm well into Species but that is because Quake is too slow
on my machine and it really does need that faster processor. So until I can get myself a power PC card
to play it on, I'll wait until I have finished Species or a power PC version comes out for Quake.
USER FEEDBACK
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GS is simply the *MOST SPECTACULAR* game I have ever played on the Amiga! Awesome light effects,
very realistic textures, incredible chain-explosions, ear-shattering sound, fantastic in-game CD music,
most atmospheric sound, extreme atention to detail (ricochet graphics and sound, enemies running in panic
when in low energy, different sound effects for slightly different actions), all of which ensure a high
degree of audio-visual realism! And all of this running perfectly well in a 040, and probably also on a 030!
But most of all, a playability to match! This is one game you can really call addictive! You are always
coming back for more, and the "paradroid" style entity take-over gives a new insight to a somewhat tired
genre. Forget Quake! Not just mindless blasting, but strategy and judgement are also the key for success in
GS, making this game one of the most impressively interesting in recent years, and one that really does
justice to what the 68k Amiga can do! I really hope the game becomes a success in the entire Amiga community,
and we must throw you hats to the air for persevering with this project to the end. Thank you very much!
The GS intro is the best I have ever seen in any Amiga game, and on par with the best the 32-bit consoles
have came up with! Congratulations!
©1998 Vulcan Software Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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