THE great Christmas rush is well under way and there are so many new games around that you will have to be careful not to waste your hard earned cash (or spends) on a real turkey.

One game worth considering, however, is Colony Wars: Vengeance from Psygnosis for the PlayStation.

This space 3D shooter epic is a follow up to last year's epic Colony Wars which was, on the whole, terrif even if it did get a little confusing at times.

In the original I was often puzzled as to which spacecraft I was supposed to be blasting. I spent plenty of time targeting friendly folk and completely missing the baddies.

Hopefully, the confusion should not be such a problem this time around. Psygnosis give the player more information regarding the state of play, what you're supposed to be doing and better identification of various craft.

But the game really struts its stuff visually. These are graphics on the grand scale, spectacular explosions that fill the screen with lavish colours, fantastic shading and great atmosphere. You want to blast the enemy with all the weapons at your disposal just to see the pyrotechnics.

The game feels huge as you scan the vastness of space from your cockpit, a speck in a huge battle arena.

All the information you need is at your fingertips on the head up display in the cockpit in which you have 360 degree movement so you can scan the horizon on the lookout for trouble.

Vengeance features 26 cinematic sequences and new planet-based environments to give you more to go at than just flight battles.

Colony Wars: Vengeance - the action is hot and the graphics are cool. JE

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.