Who needs the force?

Star Wars: Force Commander PC CD-Rom £29.99

Star Wars: Force Commander PC CD-Rom £29.99

It's Star Wars, it's a real time strategy game, you get to command battalions of AT-AT's - what more could one want?

Force Commander is not too bothered with resource management (harvesting and mining) but is instead more focused on combat. All the ground-based battles from the films (not The Phantom Menace) can be re-enacted as well as other battles.

Star Wars fans will enjoy most aspects of this game including the relatively decent storyline, but to witness the sights and sounds of the monolithic AT-ATs is suitably inspiring and a great excuse to join the Dark Side. A slightly clumsy interface are amongst its small failings and it's not as great a game as say Command & Con- quer: Tiberian Sun, but that's not Star Wars.

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Rating: 90%

Recommended: Pentium 400/ 64MB/3D card/Win 9x/

Messiah PC CD-Rom £34.99

It's not exactly Quake, Duke Nukem, Unreal or Half Life but it has its similarities. The real difference between Messiah and those games is the ability to possess anything organic in the game.

When an individual or other creature in the game has their back turned, the very young Bob (you) can, with the help of a spurt from his tiny legs and a few flaps of his wings, "fly" into the back of them and possess them.

Possessing a security guard, for instance, can allow you to gain access to different areas, while possessing a "Bouncer" enables you to act the brute. There are a whole host of characters to possess and they each have certain weapons and skills that you will need to use to your advantage.

While it is welcome to play a game that is a little bit different to anything seen before, Messiah is not without its problems. Certainly not to be recommended to novices but its quirky nature will appeal to some.

Rating 81%

Recommended: Pentium 300/ 64MB/3D card/Win 9x/

Rayman 2 - The Great Escape Sega Dreamcast £44.99

He has no legs, no arms and no neck but he has hands, feet, a head and a torso. Clever animation means, at first, one wouldn't notice some of Rayman's body parts where missing.

But that is not the only clever thing in this platformer from Ubi Soft. His first adventure was good but Rayman 2 is even more enjoyable.

Rayman must jump, swim, use his ears in a helicopter fashion, grab, and climb his way to his goal of ridding the ruthless pirates that are stealing the life energy of Rayman's world.

Water-skiing, racing across Russian mountains or riding on the back of a rocket are just some of the things you can get up to in this fun adventure game that will please all ages.

Rating: 90%

Cheats Messiah PC-CD-Rom

During gameplay hit ESC and enter the following for ammo, weapons and some creatures to possess.

AI Vision Off - icantsee

AI Vision On - icanseeu

AI off - braindead

AI on - einstein Armored Behemoth mynightmare

Barman - bestfriend

Bazooka - bigbang

Behemoth - onsteroids

Bouncer - letmein

Buzzsaw - buzzbuzz

Chot 1 - smellyguy

Chot 2 - nohygiene

Chot 3 - idontdance

Chot 4 - scumbucket

Chot Behemoth - smellysteroids

Chot Dwarf - chotling

DJ - mixalot

Dancer - - bustamove

Female Dweller 1 - janeplain

Female Dweller 2 - jillplain

Flamethrower - lightmeup

Freeze Camera - freezecam

Harpoon Gun - stickaround

Maimer - slicendice

Maser - coolfx

Pumpgun - boomstick