Dear Future Gamer,

In response to Rich in FG27's feedback and his lack of interest in PC multiplayer gaming I would just like to say: stop complaining and join the rest of us!

I have also spent a long time away from the PC gaming scene in the last few years and have instead enjoyed the company of my PlayStation and N64, both systems that offer an almost exclusively single-player experience. I will admit that I have spent thousands of hours happily playing away on my own, oblivious to the revolution going on around us, and would have continued to do so but for one thing. Quake 3 Test has rocked my world. I am sorry to say that after this my other games have grown dreary in comparison and my two grey wonders are gathering dust under the TV. The levels of addiction involved, and admittedly the phone bills, are frightening. But after experiencing Nirvana there is no way you can go back.

You mention the single-player portions of games like Half-Life, which I think are huge leaps ahead of games like Doom II in terms of both narrative and atmosphere. It's just that the single-player section of the game offers, at most, 20 hours of gameplay, while its online equivalent offers thousands of hours of sweat-soaked action.

Finally I do not own some over-complicated Intel monster that takes a degree in nerd studies to set up properly, I own a lovely lime green imac (and if you have any sense you will too) and it all works perfectly. Online gaming is only a phone-jack away so don't be shy. Plug in and give it a go, you won't be disappointed.

Now if we could only get free local calls in this country, that would be something!

James Wright

FG: There's nothing to compare with playing against other people as more and more gamers are discovering. With machines like imac and Dreamcast (when it arrives) the explosion of online gaming in the UK is just around the corner. Now if we could only get free local calls in this country, that would be something...