S.W.I.N.E.

George Orwell's 1984 was a prophetic, nightmarish vision of a future world, where technological advance gives rise to a flawed and creepy utopia. Bladerunnerms similar in its fascinating depiction of a paranoid society. Even Planet of the Apes could be seen as another example of this 'what if' scenario, but with monkeys.

In S.W.I.N.E, the future sees pigs and rabbits engaged in a bitter war for carrots. There are no morals or meaningful metaphors in this futuristic vision though. Instead, there's just a bunch of animals, in tanks, reeling off wisecracks and blowing each other to pieces.

Players familiar with Z: Steel Soldiers will feel instantly at home. The humour is very similar and the lack of resource management means S.W.I.N.Es focus is well and truly with the battles. Each unit gains experience the more enemy units they kill and there's also the tricky matter of resupplying, refuelling and repairing to cope with. Yet despite these commendable tactical subtleties, S.W.I.N.E is limited by having only 12 different units per side. Subsequently the action becomes predictable and repetitive very quickly indeed.

Graphically the landscapes and the units are astonishing - yet there is a price to pay for this. You actually need more memory to play S.W.I.N.E (the manual recommends a whopping 192Mb!) than you do to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Even your graphics card needs a minimum of 32Mb of on-board RAM.

So, S.W.I.N.E is a decent enough game for a while and looks fantastic. If on the other hand you need an upgrade to play it - go for Z: Steel Soldiers instead.