2000

Colin McRae Rally 2

Description

It is the second game in the Colin McRae Rally series, featuring the works-entered cars and rallies of the 2000 World Rally Championship. The game has three difficulty levels, namely Novice, Intermediate and Expert. As with the previous game, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 lets players take part in rallying events set in various special stages across the world, and employs a number of cars featured in the 2000 World Rally Championship, such as the Ford Focus RS WRC and Subaru Impreza GC.

New features include Arcade mode, with direct head-to-head competition against AI drivers or another player, improved graphics with more detailed vehicle models and interiors, and a cleaner and more minimalist menu system, which would be retained for the rest of the series until the release of Dirt 2 in 2009. Nicky Grist, whom at the time was the co-driver for McRae in 2000, reprises his role from the first game, who would remain until the release of Colin McRae: Dirt in 2007; Grist later returned to voice as himself in Dirt 4 in 2017.

The race features a selection of cars featuring engines with a capacity in the region of 2.0, mostly which were in production at the time of the game’s release – the Ford Focus, Ford Puma, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, Peugeot 206, SEAT Cordoba, Subaru Impreza, and Toyota Corolla. A number of cars which had been in production a decade or more earlier are also featured – the Ford Sierra Cosworth and Peugeot 205 T16 from the 1980s, and the Ford Escort MK1, Mini Cooper S and Lancia Stratos from the late 1960s or early 1970s. …

Tomb Raider V – Chronicles

Description

Following the events of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Lara Croft is presumed dead, buried under the collapsed Great Pyramid of Giza. At Lara’s home of Croft Manor, three former friends and associates—Lara’s butler Winston, Father Patrick Dunstan and Charles Kane—reminisce over some of Lara’s early exploits following a memorial service.

The first story follows Lara’s quest through the catacombs of Rome in search of the Philosopher’s stone. She is pursued by Larson Conway and Pierre DuPont, adversaries she would later encounter during the events of Tomb Raider. The second story, recounted by Kane, sees Lara hunting the Spear of Destiny, lost on the ocean floor since World War II. Infiltrating Zapadnaya Litsa, she smuggles herself aboard a Russian Naval submarine commanded by Admiral Yarofev and his Mafia handler Sergei Mikhailov, who also seeks the Spear. Lara recovers the Spear, but she is ambushed by Mikhailov. The Spear’s power is unleashed, killing Mikhailov, damaging the submarine and wounding Yarofev. Lara escapes the submarine, but Yarofev remains behind as the Spear destroys the submarine. …

The Sims

Description

The Sims is a strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts in 2000. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual people (“Sims”) in a suburban household near a fictional city. Players control customizable Sims as they pursue career and relationship goals. Players can also use their Sims’ income to renovate their living space, purchase home furnishings, or clothing for their household. Players can also choose to pursue a social and successful life.

The game’s development was led by Will Wright and the game was a follow-up to Wright’s earlier SimCity series; Wright was inspired to create the game by Christopher Alexander’s 1977 book A Pattern Language, and Scott McCloud’s 1993 book Understanding Comics later played a role in the game’s design. Seven expansion packs were released from 2000 to 2003, each of which added new items, characters, skins, and features.

Upon release, it garnered generally positive reviews and was described by Wright as being successful in attracting casual and female gamers. It also won several awards, and placed 31st on Time’s The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Several sequels were released – The Sims 2 in 2004, The Sims 3 in 2009, and The Sims 4 in 2014. …

Resident Evil 3 (2000)

Description

On September 28, 1998, 24 hours prior to the events of Resident Evil 2, former Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) member Jill Valentine attempts to escape from Raccoon City. Most of the population has been transformed into zombies by an outbreak of the T-virus, a new type of biological weapon secretly developed by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. On her way to the Raccoon City Police Department, Jill runs into fellow team member Brad Vickers, who is killed by a new enemy. This creature, Nemesis, is a bio-organic weapon programmed to target surviving S.T.A.R.S. members, witnesses of Umbrella’s experiments. As she evades Nemesis, Jill encounters three surviving members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.): Carlos Oliveira, Mikhail Victor, and Nikolai Zinoviev. Nikolai explains to Jill and Carlos that a rescue helicopter can be contacted if they manage to reach the city’s Clock Tower and ring the bell.

As they make their way to the tower, Nikolai disappears and is presumed dead, while Nemesis corners the remaining members of the group on the cable car headed to the tower. Mikhail sacrifices himself with a grenade, causing the car to crash into the tower’s main courtyard and separating Jill and Carlos briefly. At the Clock Tower, Jill summons the helicopter by ringing the Clock Tower’s bell before being confronted by Nemesis, which destroys the helicopter and infects Jill with the T-virus. Jill manages to temporarily defeat Nemesis but falls unconscious due to the T-Virus. Carlos finds Jill and takes her to safety within the Clock Tower. Three days later, he manages to find a cure for Jill’s T-Virus infection in the Raccoon City General Hospital. He returns to Jill and injects her with a vaccine, saving her. …

The Mummy

Description

The Mummy is a straightforward reenactment of a two-fisted adventure, straight from the movie starring Brendan Frasier — at least the fighting parts. It could be argued that the game is mostly a Doom remake with skins that happen to be Egyptian in appearance. Since the movie focused mainly on Rick O’Connell blasting away at things with lots of guns, though, the game lends itself well to the first-person shooter genre.

In terms of graphics, Rick O’Connell’s face is mapped onto the figure, although he’s a bit blocky, and he sports incredibly muscle-bound proportions that aren’t evident in the movie. When he lights or douses a torch, the lightning in each area adjusts appropriately. The camera floats just over and above Rick’s shoulder and has a built in “quick swivel” that moves so he’s always facing away from any wall or object he’s against. This nice feature allows him to look down at a pit when his back is against the wall, without requiring you to have to continually adjust the perspective.

Unfortunately, the game isn’t always a first-person blaster in that it uses other elements, too, such as a game-within-a-game motif that includes a surfing exercise requiring the hero to jump or duck obstacles while riding a log down an underground river. Unlike other parts of the game where Rick can take cumulative damage before dying, one misstep on the log causes instantaneous death, depositing Rick back at the beginning of the level in third-person perspective before he reaches the surfing portion again. …

Wacky Races

Description

Wacky Races is an arcade game (races) released in 2000 by Infogrames. The game was released for PC (Windows), Dreamcast and PlayStation.
Do you remember the animated series of Rally Racing? Great – this game will allow you to become one of the characters participating in these races. You can choose, for example, the Caveman Brothers: Grzmot and Łomot, Professor Pat Patenta, Penelope Samwdzik and others. Let’s not forget about the black nature of the series – Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley. Each of the heroes leads a unique whikul, for example, the Jasperians are moving by Głazik, Professor Patent – Cudtransformerze. In the game you can choose one of three games: single race, championship and practice. Wacky Races is a game that faithfully captures the charm of an animated film. …

Need for Speed – Porsche Unleashed

Description

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed gives the player the opportunity to race Porsche cars (including 3 race cars) throughout a range of tracks located in Europe. There are two career modes, an evolution mode, where the player starts with Porsche cars made in 1955, and ends with Porsche cars made in 2000, and factory driver mode, where the player goes through a series of events like slalom, stunts, and races, using Porsche cars preselected for each event. The player can customize their cars drawing from an in-depth catalog of different Porsche as well as aftermarket parts. Unlike previous games in the series, there are no pursuit modes. Some factory driver events include police cars, but the police cars only attempt to impede the players car during certain sprint events.

The factory driver mode introduces the first storyline in the Need For Speed series. The player’s goal is to become a Porsche factory driver by completing a series of events. The game uses pop-up windows, each with an image of an existing Porsche factory team member, and text describing the next event, and also commenting on the player’s progress. In some cases, a timed course such as a slalom notes the required time to pass, but also mentions the current team record, where beating the record is optional and the post event pop-up will note if the player set a new record or not. The events involve stunts, like doing two 180 degree spins (the first one leaves the players car driving backwards for a bit), slalom courses, delivery (time limited sprints with police that interfere with the player’s car), normal sprint and circuit races. …

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