Introduction

Peace, Love, and Big Guns

As promised, we have full coverage of last week's Gamestock event at Microsoft. Every game in their 2000 lineup is covered in this article, along with their 3 new hardware pieces - a new RTS controller, the second generation force feedback joystick, and a voice over net hardware/software package that should work great for those of you in clans and who compete over the net competitively. Microsoft's 2000 lineup of games is very strong across the board - everything from action RPG to flight simulator, to action, to RTS, to sports and space combat. MS is clearly a major player in the game publishing market now. To see what we mean, use the table of contents below to jump to whichever game/hardware interests you. You can also get a floating index from any page by clicking on the "launch table of contents" button in the top right.

Microsoft 2000 lineup

• Mechwarrior 4 - the next in the popular series of giant robot combat
• Dungeon Siege - Chris Taylor's (Total Annihilation) RPG/RTS hybrid
• Crimson Skies - action packed air combat
• Motocross Madness 2 - sequel to the popular dirt bike racing game
• Midtown Madness 2 - 2 cities are better than one
• MechCommander 2 - Battletech meets RTS
• Starlancer - Space combat by the Roberts (Wing Commander) brothers. Need we say more?
• Loose Cannon - Privateer meets Autoduel/Car Wars
• Combat Flight Simulator 2 - War in the Pacific
• Links 2001 - the next best thing to real golf, and a $100,000 purse for online play in the VGA, too!
• Baseball 2001 - new and improved with front office management
• Conquest: Frontier Wars - a 2D space RTS
• Sidewinder Game Voice - a Voice over Net software/hardware package for gamers
• Sidewinder Strategic Commander - a specialized RTS controller that works
• Sidewinder Force Feedback Joystick 2.0 - the next thing in force feedback