Panzer General 3D Assault

Hex games are about as popular as an outbreak of myxomatosis at a rabbit convention, but Panzer General 3D is about to change all that. As its name implies, it's got spinny-rotatey 3D, and some of the best graphics we've seen in any turn-based game.

Previous versions were based around units gaining experience and becoming veteran troops. This time round the game is based around unit commanders, so you can wean your fledgling squaddie up to a battle-hardened general, put him in command of the troops and go kill. Each leader has a speciality (tanks, planes, artillery etc), and if you stick them with their chosen subject all sorts of special abilities pop up (extra rate of fire, special bombing techniques etc).

The game offers a large number of scenarios and eight different campaign routes to chose from, so there's a huge variety of gameplay here. And, as with the previous ones, when playing as the Germans you get to invade America. Which is nice. The only flaw is that you're fixed to playing one side in each scenario, so you can't swap roles and rewrite history.

The multiplayer aspect works extremely well, with time limits so that you don't have to wait an hour for your opponent to play his turn. On the other hand, the lack of email play is a missed opportunity. Overall, this is one of the best turn-based games to date, although it's no classic in the great scheme of things.