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On the one hand, this is an interactive, futuristic and rather tacky beauty pageant. On the other hand, it's an interesting multimedia plug for developer Virtual Vegas' casino website, VirtualVegas.com. As a judge for the future’s biggest beauty pageant, the Ms. Metaverse contest, you decide which of ten sassy ladies wins the crown. The contestants, real-life girls filmed and digitized, introduce themselves in full motion video clips; you pick five from the pool and go on judging them in the categories looks, brains and talent. While moving between the judging pavilions in colorful rendered video sequences, you earn money by shooting the contestants – "their artificial stupidity programs could do irreparable damage to Virtual Vegas if allowed to wander around unchecked", explains the manual. Understood. While the Looks contest seems to be a sorry excuse to stare at pics of scantily clad women (there's no nudity), it also serves to identify males and / or cyborgs which might have slipped into the contest. The Brains and Talent contests display coarse videos of the contestants dancing or performing awkward sketches with Ms. Metaverse host Monty Megabyte (Chris Bonno). Watching these performances costs money, which you earn by shooting girls (see above) or playing a simple slot machine. After you've reviewed all the ladies, you may crown one Ms. Metaverse. It offers content downloads via the included CompuServe's Mosaic Direct internet connection and browser package. It would try to connect to the website's FTP server and display new contestants to download and integrate. "We regularly digitize selected entrants, and ship them out to you over the 'net", promised the manual. Indications suggest that this never happened. |
