Interstate 76 gold edition

This is the essence of gameplay and the game. Practice mode lets you get the hang of driving, and as the game relies on actual vehicle physics, this is no easy task. Learn how to drive well, because it gets much harder when other cars are around shooting at you. The control is fully customizable; you can assign any combination of keyboard, mouse, or joystick to any of the commands. I found the joystick to be a good choice for steering and firing though not as good as a steering wheel You can switch views on the fly, which you will definitely do as there are 11 to choose from.

You can also look around, which comes in handy when you're driving next to someone and want to shoot them in the head with a handgun.

As this is a car game, it would be silly if you didn't have any cars. Well rest easy, baby, 'cause there are 30 authentic pieces of metal to choose from. Each of these muscle machines can be outfitted to your own preference and in accordance with the car's design in Melee mode only, I should note. There's also a slew of groovy weapons to use, ranging from the always effective 50 caliber machine gun to the aptly named "EZKill Mortar.

This involves the unfolding of the plot and fighting it out in a linear storyline. You see a cinematic cut-scene, drive around killing things to satisfy mission objectives, etc, etc. By salvaging parts from destroyed enemies, Skeeter can trick out your car more and more as the game progresses. Melee mode is, well, where you melee, much like the individual scenario scenes from Twisted Metal.

The problem with I '76 lies in its one dimensionality. All of the action takes place from behind the wheel; you can't actually get out of the car and roam around. This limits the game to being mainly an arcade style racing simulation as opposed to a true interactive adventure.

With such a unique and interesting premise, one would hope to see added depth. I kept wanting to hop out of the car and talk to the other characters - the dialog itself is thematic enough to create a potentially really cool interaction. It seems as though this game has a great idea that isn't quite fully realized. This is not to say that everything is strictly linear.

I '76 picks up where Twisted Metal leaves off by creating a limitless driving environment. You can drive anywhere: on the road, off the road, over signs, into gas stations, etc. The designers made sure that you would be immersed in the game by including nearly every object as a potential obstruction. They just forgot to include a door handle.

I now must take a moment to give huge props to the sound department. The sound is incredible. The FX are true to life, with clanks, revving, and gunshots crystal clear and correctly placed i. You couldn't ask for much more, except for a groovin' 70's soundtrack The music is the best I've ever heard in a game. I'd buy the soundtrack even if the game never existed. The songs are all originals, composed and performed by some serious funkateers from the Bay Area.

Using authentic instrumentation wah pedals, blaring horn section, etc. I have one other beef, however. I ran the game on a P with 16 MB RAM - not the most muscular machine, but it should have been more than sufficient. I found that even with the detail levels set to low, the game moved with a jerkiness and choppiness that doesn't do an action game justice.

You can run the game in full screen mode or as a window, yet there's not much of a difference between the two concerning gameplay though the movie cut-scenes look way better in Window mode.

Activision promises a Direct3D patch soon, which will help out those of us with 3D accelerator cards. You need some real computer horsepower to play this game the way it was meant to be played. That said, I would definitely still recommend Interstate ' The 70's theme is carried out brilliantly - you could tell how much fun the designers must have had making it happen. Some more depth would have been nice, and I'd be lying if I said that this is a perfect game. It is, however, a gas.

Spend the dough, travel back 20 years and relive the decade we'd love to forget. How to run this game on modern Windows PC? Contact: , done in 0. Both are identical except that the hardware version includes the3D acceleration enhancement and will take longer to download.

A 3D acceleratorcard is required to use the hardware enhancement, although you can stilldownload the hardware version and run the game in software mode. Installing the Upgrade You will need MB of temporary free hard drive space to installthe upgrade. This space is only required during the installation and willnot be needed after the upgrade is complete. You must have all 5 filesfor a complete install.