Dark Reign 2, published by Activision for PC-CDROM

SPECS: Windows 95/98, Pentium II 233MHz, 64MB RAM, 650MB Hard Disk, 4MB 3D Video-Card, 16-bit Sound-Card, 4x CD-ROM, Keyboard & Mouse. NOTE: Video & Sound Cards must be DirectX7.0a compatible.

What a clever idea, taking the real-time strategy genre and adding true 3D. When I first received this game, I knew that it was going to extremely good, or extremely bad, not a game that will sit on the fence. But it more than does the business.

The game itself uses a lot more strategy than in a game such as Tiberian Sun, in that it takes more than building up a huge army and trouncing the enemy. The terrain itself is used for cover, or to gain an advantageous view over the battlefield. And there is also a limited amount of units and buildings you can build per level, a limited amount of 'currency'. And it takes longer to build units and troops. The game is lot more difficult starting off than Command & Conquer, yet there are only ten missions per side.

The story is that huge earthquakes are ripping earth apart, and a planetary evacuation needs to be set underway. However, this seems to have nothing to do with the missions, but I was too enthralled in the beautiful atmosphere and aura of the game to notice much. The 3D camera angles add a lot to the game, and are sometimes needed when an enemy troop is hiding behind a tree or under shelter.

No real complaints, apart from the time it takes to build troops and buildings, maybe a little too long for the action-hungry, and also the resource collectors take too long to do their job.

Graphics 5/5

Sound 4/5

Gameplay 4/5

Gamespan 4/5

Overall 4/5

MATTHEW SPARNENN

Zono's Metal Fatigue, published by Take2

Specs: PIII, 32MB ram, 385MB hard disk space, 8xCD-ROM, 8MB video card.

THE story so far... Diego, Stefan and Jonus Angelus were doing a search job for their "corpronation", the giant industrial nation RimTech. They were searching for Hedoth, an ancient "corpronation", and its artefacts. At the site, battle soon erupted between three different rival factions.

In the game, you take the role of one of the "corpronations" and you build up your base and make ComBot parts and assemble them. There are three game-play modes: campaign, skirmish and multi-player.

The graphics are brilliant, especially the intro video. With 30 levels and 30 skirmish maps, it will keep you playing for quite a while.

Graphics 4/5

Sound 5/5

Gameplay 5/5

Gamespan 4/5

Overall 4.5/5

Spencer Cole

Forestia Junior, published by Wavehill for PC

Minimum systems requirement PC (Mac): Pentium 133 of above (Power Mac 120 Mhz or above, G3, IMAC), 32 MB (64MB), Windows 95 or later, NT (System 7.5 or above), 8x speed CD-ROM drive and 27 MB free disk space, available from www.mediac.co.uk or (020) 8305 0456

Aimed at four to seven year olds, this is an exploration of a forest; an anthill, insects, the clearing and the trees. Along the way, you can pick up pictures to save in a picture book, between playing the 16 games along the way. Yes the games are educational, but you wouldn't think so to play them.

The games have different degrees of ability, some of which my seven-year-old struggled with, giving kids the chance to develop skills over time. It can be fun for adults to watch too - I wasn't expecting one of the insects to scream when I dropped it (at least it stopped it giggling), and I haven't yet worked out why the folk-singing beaver had an Irish accent (at least most of the time it was Irish).

It has paintings, jigsaw puzzles, a maze, skill games and more. My daughter's favourites were the music game in the anthill, as she didn't just have to copy their music, but was able to create her own, and the picture book, which is saved and can be printed out.

Overall 5/5

RACHEL LACY