Front Mission 3
Sony PlayStation £29.99 Squaresoft ***
This role-playing action adventure centres on Kazuki and Ryogo, two wanzer testers in Japan in 2112.

So what's a wanzer? A bipedal combat vehicle (see the Scout Walker in Star Wars, RoboCop, Krazy Ivan, BattleMech, Tiberian Sun, Metal Fatigue, etc, etc), which is the must-have military hardware in 2112, despite having the stability of a drunk in six-inch stilettos. The object of the game is to guide your wanzers through a series of battles against increasingly sophisticated opponents.

The turn-based combat system means strategic thinking rather than frantic button-stabbing is the order of the day. For those who recall Interplay's Fallout, this game's use of action points is not dissimilar: you have a set number of points every turn, which you can use to move, attack, defend and counter-attack. Each victory earns you experience, and you can tool up your wanzer with ever more devastating accessories.

The controls seem baffling in the manual, but in practice they're much more user-friendly, and the combat animations are rich and cinematic. To add greater playability, the story branches after a while, so you can pursue two different routes to their respective conclusions. Wanzers, then, are really quite a lark.

If only this were true of the wanzer testers. The main characters in Front Mission 3 behave like the hot-headed, self-centred 12-year-olds that populate so many Japanese games.

In the heat of combat, an uncharitable thought keeps coming back: do you do your best to win and upgrade your wanzer, or throw the fight just to end the adolescent whining of its pilot?

Given the hours you have to spend listening to these brats, and the amount of flimflammery before you can even start up your wanzer (browsing the in-game web, travelling backwards and forwards, watching animated sequences), the reward-to-effort ratio is low. Especially since the ugly spectre of Save Points means you may have to sit through it all again.

Having said that, it's all too easy to become attached to your wanzer.

Parasite Eve II
Sony PlayStation £29.99 Squaresoft **
Two weeks ago I wrote a rather scathing review of this bug-hunting actioner. The copy sent for review was defective and, having now received a fully functional version of the game, I would like to amend my verdict.

There is, after all, a run button (and indeed a working options menu). The graphics look crisper, too. However, it's still no easier to fight enemies that are attacking from off the screen.

The previous review, then, was of a duff copy of a mediocre game, rather than of a duff game.