Disruptor, an Absolutely Fabulous Romp, Sticks in the Mind

Adulthood comes with certain responsibilities. Among them: dinner parties. I’ve learned through experience that most hosts just don’t understand a no-show who uses video games as an excuse.

So I took the responsible course one Saturday by ripping myself away from Disruptor, an absolutely fabulous first-person shooter for Sony PlayStation from Universal Interactive Studios.

But as the conversation veered toward art and politics, my mind was still somewhere in a Triton terraformer giving an alien blob the business end of a plasma lance.

Disruptor is one of those rare games that does a good job of mixing story and play. Players assume the role of a junior member in the LightStormer Corps, the elite unit that brought peace to the 24th century solar system.

Essentially, the story follows players through some grueling training and a couple of crazy missions. But there are a number of subplots: Big brother is the commanding officer and Dad died in battle. Video clips add to the story, but don’t drag on too long.

The Corps’ motto sums up game play fairly well: “Think fast, shoot fast, kick ass.” The first two are essential skills. Even in training, bad guys stick to players like glue and have the annoying knack of leaping suddenly out of the mist.

Just adding some dreamy environments and an arsenal of cool weapons would have made the game a blast. But designers took an extra step and gave players a bunch of powers triggered by a neurological implant--much like the spells of Heretic. Success depends on mastering not only the normal skills of running, jumping and shooting but also on knowing how to use the extra powers.

As addictive as they come, Disruptor is sure to disrupt more than a few plans.

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Pinball Protest: Video games can do a lot of things well. They can’t, however, come close to duplicating the feel of a pinball table. Many have tried; none have succeeded.

Two new titles--Hyper 3-D Pinball for Sega Saturn and Pro Pinball for PlayStation--go well beyond the limits of other games, but still don’t compare to a good old-fashioned table. Maybe it’s just me, but playing pinball on a monitor just feels a little too “Brave New World.” Where’s the soul?

Designers of both games did an admirable job in programming the lifelike movement of the balls. Anyone who’s ever played previous versions of digital pinball knows that the ball trajectories and movements were anything but realistic.

Hyper 3-D Pinball offers a better selection of tables, but Pro Pinball features a more realistic ability to nudge the table. For what they are, both games are great. But they aren’t pinball as true fans know it.

Staff writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games every other Thursday. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send letters to The Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Or send e-mail to: Aaron.Curtiss@latimes.com