Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 150

CIO HOME PLAY Ways to Build A Better World With Your PC 3 a You us taks part Is asiial battles such us this om In Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2: MTWtl Pacific Theater Ah Gift-Wrapped Boxes Of Computer Games Afoot ERES A SAMPLER of some of the hundreds of new games: Sacrtflcs A gorgeous sword and sorcery fantasy world where rival gods squabble ture like the movies this game does its own spin on the spy caper opting to reproduce the period look and cinematic style aa the context for an immersive thriller rather than go for EVE ALL HEARD a lot of bypa about what our computers can do for us make us smarter richer hipper and so forth (I for one remain relatively dumb stubbornly middle class and hopelessly square) But much less talk about what computers can help us do for others As we celebrate the holiday season it may be time to consider the following seemingly ridiculous question: Can your computer make you a better person? The answer is yes if by we mean more likely to reach out to others in need In the last few years the Internet has made it extraordinarily easy to help worthy causes online often without ever get- ting up from your desk chair If you can dick a mouse for example you can give a cup of rice to the hungry mammogram to the uninsured medical care to children with AIDS vitamin A to the malnourished and even save a piece (144 square feet to be exact) of the rain forest just by visiting the Hunger Site (wwwtttefesafiar sittcesi) A friend sent me an e-mail about this site a few months ago and when I visited I discovered that every once in a while something that sounds too good to be true turns out to be true anyway in complete defiance of the credo that many New Yorkers live by To make a donation all I had to do was click a button no personal information is exchanged and it cost me absolutely nothing If you don't pay who does? The companies whose banner ada adorn the site are the ones who foot the bill The only catch is that you can click only once per -day And though the amount you each day seems depressingly minuscule when hundreds of thousands of people visit and dick it definitely begins to add up: on Nov 28 for example 2844288 cups of food were donated to groups like America's Second Harvest and the UN World shod Programme Face it: You have to shop anyway for the holidays And by this time you're probably doing at least some of your buying online So you might as well shop at sites that donate a portion of what you spend to charity When you register at GreaterGoodcom (wwwgruttrBOo4csei) which sponsors The Hunger Site you choose a charity and then dick on a store which will then donate up to 15 percent of what you pend there IGivecom (wwwqhrcua) also earmarks part of what you spend at its more than 200 stores for charity If like to do more than dick or shop but the time to volunteer in person you may want to consider what Volunteer Match (wwwvalsstaanaitcfc arg) calls "virtual Hus site offers opportunities to do everything from helping to rescue Siamese cats to writing grant applications for nonprof-it organizations Best of all you can do most of these activities from the comfort of your home computer But maybe looking for something a little more personal IMentor (wwwhaartorsrg) it possible for you to have a one-on-one relationship via e-mail with a young person who could use some ad-' vice Though the emphasis here is on career support the relationships seem to expand wdl beyond a strictly business focus judging from the feedback from participants Even though mentors have few face-to-face meetings with their men tees this program still requires a serious commitment: Potential mentors fill out a lengthy application undergo ground checks attend a training session and agree to stick with die relationship for at least a year But even in cyberspace the more you give the more you get laughs Clever plot pood characterizations (the hero is a woman) nice mix of combat stealth and strategy Nifty solo game but online gamers are complaining that its multiplayer component is uninspired From Fox Interactive $40 rated Teen for Pentium 300 or foster PC with 64 MB RAM and a 3-D video card with at least 8 MB RAM ThasSpHttars This first-person-perspective video game for PlayStation2 has the problem of No One Lives Forever in reverse: a cool multiplayer game but a disappointment when you play alone De-' veloped by Free Radical a team of Rare expatriates who had helped create the wildly popular GoIdenEye 007 for Nintendo 64 they got the death-match modes for up to four players right but should be embarrassed by what was left undone in the single-player game (a compelling story interesting characters cohesive sound and images smart ana scaiy enemies) Since the PS2 onhrhas controller ports for two gamers you'll need a $40 Multi Tap to hook up a total of four players From Eidos $50 rated Mature for PlayStation Driver 2 The follow-up to last surprise global hit which grossed $150 million on sales of 4 million PlayStation and PC discs Undercover cop poses aa a gangland getaway driver allowing him to commit all sorts of anti-social vehicular offenses and when not in his car street crimes to convince criminals on their side A total of 40 new missions highlighted by white-knuckle car chases and crashes in stylized recreations of Chicago Las Vegas Havana and Rio de Janeiro Two players can go head-to-head split-screen From Infogrames $50 for PlayStation Uafcs 2001 The first significant upgrade in years to the best golf imiiltim series Looks more photo-realistic and plays smoother Major issue is the outrageously huge space requirement for optimum play: Requires 11 gigabytes of hard drive space Playable online From Microsoft $50 fin: Pentium PCs their idolaters kill each other and you sur- gianaf Greeted blhinyfdevelopers of the comic ad-ventures of Earthworm Jim Sacrifice is a sophisticated strategy-action game with a slyly irreverent sense of humor Your guide is a Machiavellian wizard whose cynical advice imparted in an erudite voice is savvy often amoral sometimes witty Play able via mortem LAN or Internet The CD-ROM includes a program for designing and building your own levels From Interplay $50 rated Mature for Pentium 300 or foster PC with 64 megabytes of RAM end a 3-D video card with at least 8 MB RAM Znk Mastsr of Olympus The sixth installment in the City Building series taking Greek mythology as its subject is arguably the best Technically miw to build manage things making the game more accessible to a broader audience Your building sites this time are in ancient Greece You construct and run city states build a stadium train athletes host Olympic Games wage war worship the gods for the benefit of your city contend with trouble-making gods when they wander into town recruit legendary heroes when needed From Sierra Studios $50 rated Everyone for Pentium 200 PC with at least 32 MB RAM end a 3-D video card with 2 MB RAM Cambat Flight flamlatar WWI Pacific Theater Climb into the cockpit of authentic World War planes and refight the Pacific air war Excellent solo missions but underwhelming as an online multiplayer game From Microsoft $50 rated Everyone for Pentium 266 or faster PC with 32 MB RAM (64 for Windows 2000) No One IJvss Farsvar A sleeper that's being compared favorably by some hardcore gamers to Half-life as a first person-perspective action-adven- Joeeph Gelmia can be reached by e-mail at Jgelmie9eartUinknet Top Video Game Rentals 1 The Wwif Is irt Eaaagh (Elec-- tronic Arts) Nintendo 64 2 Isay NartT Fra Skatar 2 8 Ill vsr 2 (Infogrames) PlayStation I WWF Is Mercy (THQ) Nintendo 64 10 Say Tea Fftachrt (Nintendo) Nintendo 64 4 Marla Tseals (Nintendo) Nintendo 64 5 Taay Fra gkator (Nintendo) Nintendo 64 NFL Silti 2001 (Midway) Nintendo 64 7 Msdrtrt I (Electronic Arts) (Activision) PlayStation The Lagssd sf ZaMa: Freelance writer Patricia spttcppberepched 114 I i i pakeane9gatewaynet.