Steven Kan's Games Page


Descent and Descent II

Cool! Instant vertigo! The background for this page is a Descent screenshot. While Doom! and its brethren are 3D in appearance only, Descent gives you 3D in visual effects and action. Six degrees of freedom make Descent a really great game, but you'll need a fast computer. My first generation Power Mac barely cuts it. Viewing and rotating the game map in 3D will give you some appreciation for the complexity of this game. PC users can download the shareware demo from here, and Power Mac users should click here.

The Marathon Trilogy

From Bungie. It's better than Doom! More weapons (2 at a time!) more carnage, great graphics and great sound effects. I've played Quake, Quake II, Doom, Hexen II, Duke, and others. Some have better graphics, some have better sound, but none comes close to Marathon for fun in network game play.

It has very little to do with rendering speed or features or graphic quality (even though the now-ancient Marathon does admirably well even by today's standards). It has to do with the feel of the game; the instinctive, intuitive, natural feeling one gets when sidestepping an incoming rocket, then whirling 180 degrees and blowing away your officemate with a shotgun blast to the face. I get misty-eyed just thinking about it.

All you need is the game, two players, two computers, and a little network. Download the demo version from Bungie software. The demo version of 2 and Infinity support 2 player network games. Beware, though, the demos are massive files (16.0 MB) and may take a long time to download.

Doom

If you disagree, and you still think Doom is better, then download the shareware version for the PC here. If you have a Mac, and your former inability to play Doom has left you with OS envy, then envy no more, because Mac Doom has arrived. The shareware version is available here.

Feedback? Additions? Want to hire me? Mail me @ steven@kan.org

Last updated: 5/19/96

Revision 2.0

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