WEEKEND GAMES

Copyright 1998 Times Newspapers Ltd. 
August 1 1998 

FUNSOFT UK's Tender Loving Care is an absorbing three-disk psychological pot-boiler starring the Elephant Man. Actually, it stars actor John Hurt as narrator Dr C.D. Turner, a psychiatrist. Hurt is a class act and Tender Loving Care is better than most in the genre. Turner turns up outside a large house, now on the market, and the story unfolds in flashback with a mix of grainy (but highly polished) film clips and static scenes filled with hot-spots to hit for clues. We follow a young couple when their world is falling apart after the sudden death of their only child, Jody. A nurse is called in to help but she seems surprisingly stern for a good guy. 

This is an adult caper with an enticingly voyeuristic style. Click around the master bedroom and the journal on the wife's side of the bed includes disturbing hand-scribbled entries. On the husband's side is a telephone - and the redial button connects to an XXX phone-line playing "Fantasy Number 17 - Naughty Nurse Nellie". 

You seem to end up on the couch as much as the characters whose psyches you are trying to unravel. Your answers to the question sessions steer the outcome of the game - which has five different endings - and an evaluation of your own personality. 

Verdict: 9 out of 10. Supreme thriller with a twist - adults only. £34.99.