PC

Hardwar

'Elite for the '90s' was its billing, and Future Gamer has no desire to dispute that. You see, on a critical level, everybody - and we mean everybody - was more than fond of Hardwar. For its designers, it had been a long-term labour of love, as they packed its world with countless immersive touches. So why, then, has it failed to create more than a dent in PC games charts? Everything about Hardwar suggests it should be a massive hit with PC owners. In sales terms, it simply isn't. A travesty of consumer ignorance.

Thief: The Dark Project

It's a bit too early to be entirely sure - it has only been on shelves for a month or so - but Thief: The Dark Project is apparently another class game to suffer unjustified consumer indifference. Like System Shock - another first-person adventure produced by the talented Looking Glass - Thief admirably ignores the Quake blueprint in favour of a more thoughtful, immersive experience. And, again like System Shock, no-one appears to have bought it to find that out. A terrible state of affairs.

Destruction Derby 2

Rightfully hailed as a classic by the PlayStation press, DD2 was ported to PC to a surprisingly indifferent reception. That's puzzling, to say the least. The PC has a number of notable 'simulation'-style racing games. One thing it lacks, however, is a stock of convincing, playable arcade-oriented drive 'em ups. DD2 helped fill that niche with aplomb, being a far better game than its indigenous-to-PC equivalents. Although perhaps superseded by the TOCA games and Colin McRae Rally, DD2 is still a fine game to this day. It's not 3D-accelerated - perhaps half the problem - but it handles like a champ.

Populous 3

On paper, Populous 3 had (and has) everything going for it. As a game, it's a superbly playable update of the classic Populous blueprint. So why have so few people bought a copy? Surprising as it may seem, this Bullfrog big-hitter has 'bombed'. Future Gamer is hoping that the release of Populous 3's PlayStation conversion will help resurrect interest among PC owners. For a game of this calibre to fare so badly at retail level is little short of a tragedy.

V2000
Remember Virus? Once a powerful demonstration of cutting-edge hardware and coding, it's a title that many long-term gamers are more than familiar with. V2000 lacks the next-gen aura that so typified its forebear, but it's a far more accomplished piece of entertainment software. Lamentably, and much like Populous 3, it seems that the gaming public have gone cool on 'updates' of classic software. Their loss.