Preatorians: Game company Pyro, after bringing us the successful Commandos games, brought us Last month's "Game of the Month", which now certainly deserves a follow up after the internet's most prestigious game review websites have criticised, praised and drawn their conclusion of this RTS that "could have been great" (GameSpy.com). Now that may sound like Preatorians is a failed project, but it certainly isn't. It might not be a classic, but it's still an improvement over many of its rivals and at least a "must try" for the real RTS lovers, if not a "must buy". Mind you, if you are indeed a real RTS lover, you might be surprised that there is no resource management system; the only resources to worry about are villages that can be captured, and the population that comes with them; population to turn into your loyal troops. Once you're out of villagers, it will take a while before the village is repopulated.

What's more important than working the resource pool in Preatorians is combat, and more specifically, combat strategy. With a multitude of troops varying from pikemen to physicians - each with well balanced weaknesses and strengths - and a range of different terrain types that some units may not be able to cross, you will be busy focusing on your army the whole time, or you might find your cavalry still finding their way around a mountain when the rest of your army has already met up with your adversaries. The strengths and weaknesses of your troops don't stop there, however. You will find it wise to bring along your spearmen, to protect the flanks of your army from cavalry units, for example; the right formations will win you the war.

The points on which Preatorians kind of failed - apart from the voice acting, which is rather bad most of the time - are mostly unnecessary design flaws. The game is completely 3D, yet you're confined to using only three camera vies, all at the same angle. Troop movement also lacks just a little something, making you wonder why they didn't do it like this or like that. It's practically impossible to control individual units, for example, leaving you unable to make use of opportunities that may arise in the heat of battle, and pulling out units when they've entered the fray isn't exactly a walk in the park either. This forces the player to rely more on reconnaissance and troop deployment. Graphically, Preatorians is okay, but not much more than that. It has its nice effects and unfortunately a less impressive detail to counter any of those also. The animation could have used some extra working on, but to see your vast army cross equally vast - not to mention bright - landscapes should still leave you satisfied with the look of the game.

So there you are, you've two reviews of this game - provided you read last month's issue of the Tribune - and if you're a strategy game fan, you can't pass this one up.

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havok: Ubi Soft just doesn't stop, this workaholic among game companies has recently released the third chapter to the Rayman series for the Xbox. Now Rayman has never quite been a Mario or Sonic, and the latest addition to what is currently a trilogy doesn't quite put Rayman on the highest pedestal with those classics either - but - it's still a good game. You'll be glad to hear Ubi Soft didn't just take the same old thing and make a formula episode three, only to make money on the name of the game. Rayman 3 brings us a surreal and far from superficial story. In a world full of Lums (yeah, okay, fairies - but we all enjoy a new name for them) Rayman has to take on the evil Black Lums that do their best to spoil things for our little friends, the Red Lums. Their evil leader Andy (I don't know about you, but that name makes me tremble with fear indeed) is the big bad guy of the game, keep your eye out for him.

Of course, Rayman 3 is a platform game, so there will be a lot of jumping and punching, and slowly but surely you will make your way through the nine different worlds the game has to offer. But not only does our dear Rayman jump and kick, he can also climb, crawl and even turn himself into a makeshift helicopter. The fashion sensitive among us will be thrilled to find Rayman being able to put on different costumes; those among us who are here to actually play the game and not marvel at cloth will be happy to find those costumes each bring their own special power. There are power-punch suits, helicopter suits, rocket suits... Well, plenty of garments for our little sleeveless fellow.

In the last paragraph I mentioned something about things going "slowly but surely". This wasn't exactly true, because Rayman 3 isn't a very long lasting game. Expect to spend about fifteen hours of playtime before having finished this title, and that's really too short for any decent new game. Of course, the game will last much longer should you wish to collect every single item and finding all the hidden Teensies, but even then it's far from satisfactory enormous. Okay, I know that sounds like innuendo, but that too you will find in Rayman 3, so why not in this review?

In the end, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havok is a good game, one with style and certainly one of the more decent platformers, but unfortunately also rather short and the gameplay isn't all that much of a challenge. Platform fans will buy it, others will play it at a friend's house or rent it.