There will soon be a device available that enables you to play your NES and SNES games on your N64. Hippy band YES are recording a song for the PC game Homeworld and Anco are to publish a football management PC game for Internet play. All this news plus more reports of industry developments and gaming quirks inside. THQ are unintentionally favoured this week with two previews of their forthcoming games – Castrol Honda Superbikes on PlayStation and the highly impressive Breakneck on the PC. Check 'em both out. We’ve got some heavyweight reviews you’ll want to read through as well: Hidden and Dangerous for the PC is simply cracking, as is Soul Reaver on PlayStation. Besides our main feature of the week, in which Keith Stuart ponders the lack of innovation in games these days, we’ve got another dose of Reader Reviews for you. Future Gamer's readers are queuing up to express their thoughts on games past and present, so we thought we’d run some more. We've also managed, thanks to IGN.com, to get some in-depth news on Project Dolphin so we're starting a mini-series of features on that. Of course, none of this is included at the expense of our regular sections – Feedback, Gamer Life and the rest are all there for you to enjoy, so do so. Andy Smith - Editor

News headlines:

Backwards compatibility coming to the N64 ... Player Manager Online ... Virtual hogs hit the PC ... Dreamcast forecast ... Dolphin launch date still uncertain ... Dreamcast's possible DVD solution ... Rockin' all over the Homeworld ... Mario is most popular game ever ... UKPCGC chase girls ... Mobile 3D accelerators ... Capcom confirm Power Stone 2 and more for Naomi ... Die Hard 64. It's a videogame, not a movie sequel ... Excitebike jumps higher ... EA join FA Hall of Fame ... Michelle Kwan inks deal with EA ... Enter Final Fantasy IX ... Beeb launch new, free ISP ... Nintendo win General Electric appeal ... 3DO push to become a major publisher ... Nibbles ...

In this issue:
Preview: Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M (N64) This first and third-person bug blaster uses an enhanced version of the Turok 2 game engine so it’s a looker. Future Gamer locks and loads and takes an early peek at this Starship Trooper-esque futuristic shooter.
Review: Hidden and Dangerous (PC) It’s Commandos in 3D. But a whole lot more than that. Everything about H&D smacks of quality. As our reviewer Kieron Gillen points out, this game will reset the benchmark by which all similar games will be judged.
Feature: The Death of Innovation Keith Stuart strokes his chin and looks at the current trend by publishers of developing games that will slot neatly into well established genres, as opposed to pushing the gameplay boundaries. Surely this cannot be A Good Thing?

Future Gamer was brought to you by: Andy Smith [editor], Steve Bradley [deputy editor], Vicki West [production editor] and Andy Ashwin [staff writer]. Contributors: Keith Stuart, Kieron Gillen, James Price, Gideon Gibblewhite, Craig Bailey, Dale Bradford, Rob Wilson.
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