PC Roundup

Code of Honor: The French Foreign Legion

• Publisher: City Interactive
• Developer: City Interactive
• Genre: First-Person Shooter

Civil war has broken out on the Ivory Coast, and the insurgents have managed to get hold of radioactive waste that could conceivably be used to construct a dirty bomb. This obviously isn't good, so an international task force has been dispatched, the spearhead of which is the French foreign legion. Although in this first-person shooter, the legion mostly consists of one bloke - Claude Boulet. That's you, that is.

Occasionally you get a partner, or help from an airstrike, but mostly it's all about a single soldier playing Rambo with a variety of shotguns, automatic and sniper rifles, and the big artillery of grenade and rocket launchers. Also some C5 explosives come in handy, as you're constantly blowing up big things like planes and tanks.

Unfortunately, the game isn't nearly as average as it sounds. Code of Honor has rather handicapped the opposition forces in so much as the programmers have forgotten to insert their brains. Whether you're on easy or hard mode (there's no medium here, compromise fans), it's a snap to slice through the rebels with casual ease. Many of them just stand there and wait for you to shoot them, which is very polite, but ultimately not all that satisfying.

Some run back and forth between two set points and actually fire at you (the gall of it). But the majority are fond of the stationary battle pose. The vehicles aren't much better. True enough, an armoured car's machine gun will rake some serious damage, but if you run in it's possible to crouch next to the APC. Then it can't hit you, it won't move, and you can just roll a grenade or two under, back away and watch it get decimated. Never mind the French, the Falklands Foreign Legion could handle this lot.

Chronically poor AI and a lack of challenge aren't the only problems Code of Honor suffers from. The levels are highly linear and feel artificial, with areas boxed in by fences, barbed wire and impenetrable bushes. There's generally only one way to go, and you're even channelled around in open areas by impassable hazards like minefields.

The graphics are rather ropey too, particularly the animation of the soldiers, and bugs such as men dying suspended in mid-air. I could go into further minor irritations, such as the sniper rifle sights being so lightly drawn that they're practically invisible against any sort of dark background. Suffice it to say that even considering its low budget price tag, this is a plodding and well below average shooter.

3/10

Overspeed: High Performance Street Racing

• Publisher: City Interactive
• Developer: City Interactive
• Genre: Racing

The illegal street-racing scene is flourishing in Los Angeles, apparently. Luckily, nobody drives around the streets of the city at night, and the highways are completely devoid of any vehicles, so there's no oncoming traffic to dodge in and out of. It's just you and an opponent duelling in your pimped up rides; lowered suspensions, nitrous oxide, neon lights, the works.

And visually at least, the cars look okay. It's a shame they don't handle that well. They feel light and lack solidity, plus judging braking is difficult simply because you don't have any real sense of how fast you're going. Not that it matters much because half the time you can batter your way around a corner by ploughing into the crash barriers and then turning.

Overspeed's racing realism is further hampered by the computer AI. It's obviously been designed to avoid robotic opponents who never make mistakes, but it's gone too far the other way. The CPU drivers make ridiculous random errors at regular intervals, particularly if you're behind (possibly as some manner of catch-up mechanism).

The tracks themselves are severely limited in terms of imagination and numbers. In the first quarter of the game, to rise up through the rankings and win turbochargers, spoilers and other stat-boosting paraphernalia, you'll race just two courses over and over and over. To make matters worse, one of these is basically a small square. After repeatedly whizzing around them thirty times plus you'll end up more bored than the bottom of the North Sea.

Anyone still reading? I'll moan about the bugs then. Sometimes when turning a corner in the first-person view, the driver's hands spin madly around the steering wheel like he's having an epileptic fit (maybe this is what happens to the AI drivers when they career off at a daft angle). Fit a nitrous oxide canister and the vehicle's handling goes up by 8 per cent. Why? I've not got a clue. It doesn't make much sense though, if it isn't a bug.

In conclusion: "Doctor, doctor, I think I'm an indicator. And the police keep arresting me!" "Why?" "I can't stop flashing."

Overspeed's a joke. And a bad one at that.

3/10