1. Seeing the gorgeous 3D polygonal players run onto the pitch in Fifa: RTWC 98. Sure, Fifa 97 for the PC was the first Fifa game to officially feature 3D models, but the game was plagued by clipping, poor player models and shit gameplay. The moment I saw England run onto the pitch at Wembley on a sunny day (with one of the first examples of lens flare in a game I can remember) I thought I was going to piss my pants.

I think the worlds ‘holy fucking shit’ may have come out of my mouth at that point, but I’m not too sure.

2. The phenomenal full motion video intro sequence to NHL ’96. After playing NHL Hockey on the PC to death, my friend Jas and I had skipped out on NHL ’95 due to the fact that neither of our computers had a sufficiently fast enough CD-Rom drive (it required a 2x…lol). When NHL ’96 was released we were determined not to miss out and managed to hijack a friend’s 486 100Mhz to play it. The moment that live motion video footage began to superimpose upon the rotating NHL logo our jaws were on the floor.

The actual game wasn’t half bad either!

3. Scoring my first goal in ISS PE and the insane fist-pumping celebrations that followed. After several hours of trying to put a ‘bulge in the old onion bag’ I finally managed to let go of my Fifa tendencies to play some real football. With the amazing sense of satisfaction and accomplishment I felt as my first ever goal trickled over the line I knew that I was playing a very special game.

4. A marathon 13 hour Championship Manager 3 session. I began the afternoon as the manager of lowly Sheffield Wednesday, by sunrise the next morning I had led Real Madrid to the European Cup. Yeah, I had class the next morning but so what?! CM3 is truly one of, if not the, greatest soccer game of all time.

5. Seeing Indy 500 on the PC in motion. Sure I had grown up in Europe, and sure I was a little miffed as to why it seemed American race drivers had an aversion to right hand turns, but the moment I saw Indy 500 up and running on my dad’s PC I was well and truly sold.

6. My first race in Jarret & Labonte Stock Car Racing. I remember having the game arrive at my door to review it for SGN and thinking ‘oh, what the hell is this piece of crap?’ Just ten minutes later I was blown away when a CPU driver tried to out-brake me! This was the first time I’d experienced solid racing AI and a great damage model in a console racing title. What a fantastic game!

7. Scoring my first goal in Kick Off 2 – see #3.

8. Printing out (and keeping) career statistics and draft orders in Front Page Sports Football ’96…..and being overwhelmed with the delusion that I actually was the coach and GM of the New Orleans Saints and not playing some silly videogame. A top class title and it’s a damn shame that Sierra let the series go to shit.

9. My first lag-free 8 player Xbox Live race in Project Gotham Racing 2. Sure, Sega had brought us online console gaming with the Dreamcast but with Xbox Live Microsoft brought online console gaming to the mainstream…….and then they promptly kicked me off Xbox live because they detected my upgraded 120 gig HD (even though I had paid for a year subscription to Live and bought all my games) – motherfuckers!

10. Unlocking the Big-Head code in NHL Open Ice for the PSX. My friend Moiz went absolutely ape-shit with laughter. By the way, the code is Up + Pass + Turbo. :)

Lavan Chandran

08/07/2005

Images from:

www.ign.com, http://www.foxhom.com/playstation/iss/novedadesissevolution.html, http://www.epinions.com, http://www.the-underdogs.org/