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GameSpot PC's Game Collector is back with more great PC games to add to your collection. And this week, we're looking back at some of the most realistic experiences you can get from a computer game. It'd be awfully exciting to do some of these things in real life, like put the pedal to the metal in souped-up a muscle car, play in the World Cup, or take to the skies in an authentic World War II fighter plane. But it'd be safer and cheaper to do them with a PC game, and when you're tearing around a race track track at 100mph in real life, you can't exactly reload your last saved game. These excellent PC games are the next best thing to being there. Let's see what we've got.
2002 FIFA World Cup (2002)
Street Price: $40
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Got World Cup fever yet? Who doesn't? The beautiful sport is back in the international spotlight, and aside from painting your face and yelling a lot, there's no better way to celebrate it than by playing one of the most realistic computer-game interpretations of the sport of soccer yet. 2002 FIFA World Cup is a much more refined version of the previous FIFA games, with updated rosters, much more challenging opponents, and some very fancy footwork in the form of the game's new juggle system.
NASCAR Racing 2002 Season (2002)
Street Price: $40
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The upgraded version of GameSpot PC's driving game of the year for 2001 has plenty of tutorials and settings to help make it easy for you to learn how to play, but don't be fooled. Once you're familiar with the controls and the way your car handles, just turn up all the realism settings and get ready for the ride of your life. Thanks to the game's beautiful and incredibly realistic graphics and its outstanding driving physics, you'll feel like you're racing at the Winston Cup.
NHL 2002 (2001)
Street Price: $20
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EA Sports' NHL series has always been among the best hockey games you can get for the PC--perhaps because it's one of the only hockey series on the PC. That doesn't mean that hockey fans get the short end of the stick, though. NHL 2002 has fantastic graphics, highly realistic player animations, great sound, and a fully 3D audience full of individual fans who will jump out of their seats when you score a goal.
Operation Flashpoint (2001)
Street Price: $30
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The setting is fictitious--it's a Cold War skirmish in Eastern Europe in the 1980s--but don't be fooled. Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis models squad-based small-arms combat beautifully. As part of a NATO peacekeeping squad, you'll have to outshoot, outmaneuver, and outthink enemy soldiers who will make good use of high grass and buildings as cover. And you won't just take on enemy soldiers on foot--Operation Flashpoint also has lots of military vehicles to drive.
IL-2 Sturmovik (2001)
Street Price: $30
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GameSpot PC didn't give IL-2 Sturmovik its award for the best simulation of 2001 for nothing. For starters, this outstanding World War II combat simulator uses gorgeous graphics to represent huge explosions, rocket smoke trails, and every last detail on each plane beautifully. Toss in some excellent sound effects, complete with authentic radio chatter, and a highly realistic flight model that can be scaled down for beginners, and you'll see why IL-2 is such a remarkable experience.
Rally Trophy (2001)
Street Price: $30
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Rally Trophy focuses on solo rally racing--taking a car out on the open road and getting to the finish line as quickly as possible. It does so with incredibly realistic re-creations of classic world rally cars from the '60s and '70s. Every last detail of these distinctive vehicles is painstakingly reproduced, from the chrome trimmings to the distinctive hum of each engine. Fortunately, Rally Trophy doesn't just look good--it's also one of the most exciting and realistic interpretations of solo rally racing ever made.
Train Simulator (2001)
Street Price: $30
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You might wonder why anyone would ever bother to make a game that simulates running a train, but once you try Train Simulator, you'll understand. Train Simulator lets you custom-build exactly the locomotive you want, on exactly the track you want, from the heartland of America to the bustling railways of Japan. Playing Train Simulator is a bit like playing with model trains, but no model train ever looked or sounded this convincing.
SWAT 3 (2000)
Street Price: $30
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This incredible tactical action game puts you in the shoes of one of the most dangerous professions known to man: a member of the elite police squad known as SWAT. Though you'll have the help of highly trained computer-controlled teammates who have some of the best artificial intelligence ever seen in an action game, you'll still find the battles against SWAT 3's devious criminals, who are armed and most certainly dangerous, to be challenging and exciting.
Counter-Strike (2000)
Street Price: $25
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Counter-Strike began as an independent modification (or "mod") created for the popular 1998 shooter Half-Life. What started as a spare-time project for a bunch of guys fooling around with the Half-Life engine has become a worldwide phenomenon. Half-Life's fast-paced battles between terrorists and counterterrorists have made it one of the most popular online games around. Find out why everyone enjoys this terse, realistic shooter.
Chessmaster 8000 (2000)
Street Price: $30
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What? OK, so chess games may not reproduce the thrill of racing or flying, but they can certainly present a very realistic challenge. Chessmaster 8000 will not only teach you how to play chess (and how to play it well), but it'll also challenge you with extremely clever computer opponents that will use the same kind of tactics a skilled chess player would use. And if you so choose, you can also have your opponents make the same kinds of mistakes a real human opponent would make.
Be sure to visit GameBuyer to find more great deals on great new and classic computer games.
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