Nintendo are allegedly crowing that their Dolphin machine is, on paper at least, set to be some one third faster than Sony's imminent PlayStation2. Will that concern Sony or will they merely write that off as Nintendo willy-waving? Hasbro are the latest software house to get the lawyers in - they're claiming that several rival software houses have infringed the copyright of some of their old Atari games. Rare may have dropped the 'include your face' feature from Perfect Dark, but you can still star in a major forthcoming release thanks to Lionhead, who are auctioning the opportunity to have your phizog mapped onto a character in their forthcoming Black & White. What's more, all proceeds will be going to the NSPCC. Read all about it inside. As well as the news we've got plenty of other stuff to entertain and inform you. There's the final part of our development diary chronicling the creation of the forthcoming RISK II game, plus much more. Enjoy the read. Andy Smith - Editor

News headlines:

Half-Life 1.0.1.6 ... Hasbro File Copyright Infringement Suit ... New Details on Shenmue: Chapter Two ... PlayStation2 Compatibility Issues ... Be a Part of Gaming History ... Japanese Game Charts ... Midnight Club: Street Racing ... Getaway ... Sony Swallow 989 Studios ... Bon Nintendo ... Final Fantasy XI Revelation ... PS2 DVD Fully Capable ... LUDI WAP ... WildTangent Provide Cheap Races ... Free Games Website ... Dolphin 33 Per Cent More Powerful than PS2 ... Dino Crisis Leaps to Game Boy Color ... Short on Money for Videogames? Join the Marines! ... UK Developers Move to Scotland ... Excitebike 64 Pays Homage to the Classic ... Nibbles ...

In this issue:
Preview: Ecco The Dolphin (Dreamcast) Sega's environmentally-friendly swim 'em up star Ecco leaps from the Mega Drive to the Dreamcast and we've been splashing around with the chirpy cetacean mammal. Is there a decent game at its heart or is this all just tree-hugging hippy crap?
Review: Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast) Time to make some ker-azy money in this almost perfect arcade conversion of one of the maddest driving games around. The question is, if driving cabs really is this much fun, why are cabbies always so miserable?
Feature: "Oh, this one looks nice..." As gaming continues to force its way into the mainstream of home entertainment, there's a growing number of gamers simply buying games because the packaging looks nice. Michael Foster ponders the damage these casual gamers could cause.

Future Gamer was brought to you by: Andy Smith [editor], Mark Wheatley [deputy editor], Andy Ashwin [news editor] and Gideon Kibblewhite [staff writer]. Contributors: Andy Butcher, Dale Bradford, Tim Smith, Martin Kitts, Michael Foster, Mark Eveleigh, Ian Massie
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