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In This Perfect World, You’ll Need a Hefty System to Play

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Ah, video games. Over the course of a single week, digital technology allowed me to pretend I was a ruthless mob boss named Lois, a density-crazy urban planner, an emergency room doctor and a battlefield commander lost in the hedgerows of Normandy.

All of this on top of my usual job of pretending to be a journalist.

Of the four, I liked pretending to be an urban planner best--perhaps because “Sim City 3000” makes it so easy to get right into the meat of the game. Anyone who’s played “Sim City 2000” or the original “Sim City” can build a city from scratch in no time.

Newcomers may need to spend a few more minutes with the instruction manual, but everything builds intuitively. A new city needs power, water, streets and a few different zoning designations. The pull-down menus are easy to read, and laying streets and pipes are a snap.

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Keeping it all going is the hard part.

For the uninitiated, the “Sim City” franchise puts players in command of their own cities and allows them to become a sort of bureaucratic god for thousands of “sims,” the digital denizens of these imaginary communities. The first game was a relatively simple zoning and transit simulation with graphics that now look rudimentary.

“Sim City 2000” jumped ahead with the addition of new facilities, more sophisticated scenarios and vastly improved graphics. But “Sim City 3000” does not seem to make so big a jump. Yes, the graphics are better. Yes, there are new features such as garbage dumps. Yes, the interactions with sim advisors are better.

But “Sim City 3000” represents an evolution of the series. Not that that’s a bad thing. In fact, “Sim City 3000” adds many of the features “Sim City 2000” users wished had been included in that version. All of this has a price. Players need a hefty system to run the game smoothly. Those with sufficient system resources won’t be disappointed.

For instance, better graphics allow more realism: When news flashes announce worsening traffic, players can zoom down and see congestion at intersections. For added realism, players can download buildings and landmarks from the Maxis Web site and incorporate them into growing cities. And my favorite feature: Realistic land forms of major cities such as Los Angeles so amateur planners can test alternate theories of reality.

Such as, whether Los Angeles would be a better place if it had been designed as a high-density, transit-dependent city rather than the auto-centric sprawltopia it has become. The real answer to that may never be known, though, because as in all of the “Sim City” games, the programming in “Sim City 3000” appears to favor dense cities with orderly development patterns. Knowing that, it can be pretty easy to build a large city relatively quickly.

“Sim City 3000” requires a Pentium 166 with at least 32 megabytes of RAM and 230mb of free hard disk space. Even on a Pentium II 333 with 64mg of RAM, though, the game ran slowly at times.

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“Emergency Room 2”

My friend, Marcia, spent the better part of her youth in medical school, but I got to treat patients after spending about half an hour reading a 20-page instruction manual. No, I didn’t go to work for an HMO. “Emergency Room 2” puts players in the ER and forces them to examine and treat patients complaining of dozens of maladies--from cut feet to chest pains.

Some of the play and animation is a little clunky, but this is a thoroughly enjoyable game for folks tired of the usual carnage. Players examine patients, take notes on their observations and can refer to a medical database for hints as to what’s wrong. This being the era of managed care, players are encouraged not to perform unnecessary procedures or to spend too much time with patients.

For example, I used too many supplies extracting a piece of metal from a girl’s foot and one of my fellow doctors berated me.

Lest patients think that “Emergency Room 2” qualifies them to do anything more than play doctor, a warning screen disabuses them of the notion. It’s impossible to begin playing the game without agreeing to the following statement: “You can use this product to help you become more knowledgeable about the human body, but it is not a guide for medical self-diagnosis or treatment.”

Duh.

“Emergency Room 2” requires a Pentium 133 with at least 24mb of RAM or a Power Mac running System 7.6 or higher and 32 megabytes or RAM.

“101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy”

On paper at least, the plan for the 101st Airborne Division on D-Day was to be dropped behind enemy lines to prevent the Germans from launching counterattacks against Utah Beach and to seize the exits so infantry could move inland. But few things went according to plan that day and by dawn on June 6, 1944, the men of the 101st were scattered and vulnerable.

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“101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy” puts players in command of a squad on that fateful morning. But as a turn-based war strategy game, it’s more tedious than anything else. Realism can sometimes be taken to such an extreme that it becomes unrealistic.

“Airborne Invasion” illustrates that point perfectly. In addition to the nice touches of having a squad with different personalities and a range of weaponry, “Airborne Invasion” measures the effort required for various tasks.

Yes, this is how real life works. I can’t sprint 30 miles if I haven’t slept or eaten in 24 hours. But in a turn-based environment such as that in “Airborne Invasion,” players quickly get frustrated as they try to accomplish even the most simple tasks.

“101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy” requires a Pentium 90 with 32mb of RAM and at least 200mb of free hard disk space.

“Gangsters”

What a great idea. What a hopelessly complicated execution. “Gangsters” allows players to run their own crime syndicate in the imaginary burg of New Temperance. No one doubts that running an illegal empire is a lot of work and suffused with details.

But inordinate details often only bog down a good game. “Gangsters” demands that players not only recruit their thugs, but assign lieutenants to run them and then keep tabs on the whole group to make sure no one is ripping them off. Then there are protection contracts to monitor. And relationships with other crime bosses. And overseeing the lawyer and the accountant. And making sure the weapons stockpile is sufficient.

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A simulation based on the notion that players sometimes want to be the bad guys is a good idea. But the tedium involved in “Gangsters” doesn’t live up to that idea.

“Gangsters” requires a Pentium 133 with at least 32mb of RAM.

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Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games every Monday in The Cutting Edge. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send e-mail to aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

ESSENTIALS

Title: “Sim City 3000”

Platform: PC

Publisher: Maxis

ESRB Rating: Everyone

Price: $39.95

Bottom Line: The same, but more

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Title: “Emergency Room 2”

Platform: PC/Macintosh

Publisher: Legacy Interactive

ESRB Rating: Not rated, but nothing offensive

Price: $29.95

Bottom Line: Surprisingly fun

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Title: “101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy”

Platform: PC

Publisher: Empire Interactive

ESRB Rating: Teen

Price: $29.95

Bottom Line: Too many turns

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Title: “Gangsters”

Platform: PC

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

ESRB Rating: Mature

Price: $39.95

Bottom Line: Maddeningly complex

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Next Week: “Carmageddon 2,” “Sin” and “Wargasm”

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