September 2000 Volume 81 Number 9 "serving the protectors"
By Mike Horsfall

Office 2000

It is most likely that many of us use a Microsoft Office application, either at home or work. But few will have taken the leap to Office 2000, and any decision to upgrade to a new version cannot be made lightly. Be it an upgrade or a completely new purchase, you will have to part with a significant amount of money.

Across the range of Office 2000 products, the commonly-used dialog boxes are File Open and File Save, and some useful improvements here may be one reason for having a good look at Office 2000.

A command bar has been added for common file management tasks, such as copying, moving and deleting files. The Places Bar - an Outlook-like well of icons - is provided for often-used document folders. The History icon points to the Recent Files folder - a collection of shortcuts with up to 20 of a user’s most recently accessed documents. Other icons, including My Documents and Desktop, will also prove very useful. The new dialog boxes also take a cue from the navigation delivered by Web browsers and include a Back Button, which lets users easily return to recently visited folders, regardless of their location in the directory structure.

If you are an occasional user of a previous release of Microsoft Office, there will be little need to upgrade your package. The more frequent “power users” will, however, notice significant improvements over all of the Office 2000 products.

Diablo II

“Since the Beginning of Time, the forces of Order and Chaos have been engaged in an eternal struggle to decide the fate of all Creation. That struggle has now come to the Mortal Realm, and neither Man, Demon nor Angel will be left unscathed.

“After possessing the body of the hero who defeated him, Diablo resumes his nefarious scheme to shackle humanity into unholy slavery by joining forces with the other Prime Evils, Mephisto and Baal. Only you will be able to determine the outcome of this final encounter. In Diablo II, return to a world of dark fantasy. As one of five distinct character types, explore the world of Diablo II — journey across distant lands, fight new villains, discover new treasures and uncover ancient mysteries, all in the quest to stop the Lord of Terror - once and for all.”

In act 1 of four, your first quest will be to select your character, and there are five to choose from, all with unique attributes and abilities. Next, you’ll receive a preview of the quests before you. These stunning videos will set the mood perfectly for the action that is to follow. But, while the gameplay in Diablo II is easy to follow, don’t be fooled, as the characters you’ll meet may not be quite so friendly.

Whether you are a lover of the hugely successful Diablo, or new to the realm, the 3D role-playing game, Diablo II, is very likely to see you absorbed in many hours of exploration and combat. Few gamers will be dissatisfied with the gameplay and features of Diablo II, which include:

• Four different, fully populated towns complete with wilderness areas.
• Multiple dungeons, caverns and crypts in every town for players to explore.
• Expanded worlds, filled with all-new quests, weapons, spells, armour, monsters and non-player characters.
• Advanced combat system which incorporates class-specific fighting techniques and spells.
• Full Multi-player support, including Internet play over Battle.net.

Single-player system requirements are a PC running Windows 2000, 95, 98 or NT 4.0 Service Pack 5, a Pentium 233 or equivalent, with 32 MB RAM and 650 MB available hard drive space. To use the multi-player features you will want 128MB RAM (256MB RAM in games with over four players), 950 MB available hard drive space, 28.8 Kbps or faster modem and optional PC 3D Acceleration. Also consider installing the latest patch, Diablo II Patch 1.03 (1MB).

For the opportunity to win a copy of Diablo II send an entry to: Diablo II Comp, SA Police Journal (168).

Grand Prix 3 - The Legend Continues

Mention the name Geoff Crammond to any self-respecting racing-sim driver and the immediate response will be “GP2 - what a game”. So good was the ground-breaking racing sim Grand Prix 2, that those who purchased it after its release back in the ?90s will most likely still have a place for it in their hearts. In fact, so impressive was, and is, GP2 that the game is most likely still installed on their PCs - as it is on mine.

After a long wait, MicroProse signed a new agreement with the legendary game designer, Geoff Crammond. So on July 28, the third in the series, Grand Prix 3 (GP3), was finally released.

The Grand Prix breeding stock is clearly evident in GP3, as many of the features are very similar to the earlier versions. While in some games this can be disappointing, it is not the case here. As an alternative to producing a completely new racing sim, Geoff Crammond has clearly stuck to the motto: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Rather, he has enhanced it.

In addition to all the great features of Grand Prix 2, GP3 now features multi-player network racing, wet weather races, force feedback support, a higher quality sound and 3D accelerated graphics. All of the features we could only have dreamt about.

For those new to the Grand Prix range, other features include:

• All the teams, tracks and races of the FIA World Championship season.
• A complete range of race types.
• Five difficulty levels.
• A range of driving aids.
• Full car set-up options and performance analysis tools.

All these features combine to make a very attractive package that will suit a wide range of racing-sim enthusiasts. One could only criticize GP3 for the lack of true surround sound support, and being based on 1998 teams.

System requirements for GP3 range from a Pentium 266 to a Pentium III 450, 32 - 64 MB RAM and 100MB hard disk space. For those without 3D accelerated graphics, the game is quite respectable in software mode. At a RRP of $89.95, GP3 is set to impress a new round of enthusiasts.

For the opportunity to win a copy of Grand Prix 3 send an entry to: GP3 Comp, SA Police Journal (168).

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