Sigma: The Adventures of Rex Chance

Relic was founded in 1997 and quickly went on to produce one of the sleeper hits of the last decade. Homeworld was the first fully 3D strategy game, not only helping to redefine a genre but giving a wake-up call to lazy programmers the world over. Trouble is, it was bloody hard, too hard for most people (except Paul Presley, who went completely overboard, famously claiming "it's what gaming is really all about").

Alex Garden, head honcho at Relic, concurred, and stated his next game would be more accessible. Bad news, you might think, but enter Sigma: The Adventures of Rex Chance, one of the weirdest games we've seen in a long time, complete with one of the most inaccessible titles this side of the English language.

In essence, it's a 3D real-time strategy game, but instead of playing with pretend robots and harvesters, Sigma lets you play God with 50 real-life creatures including monkeys, scorpions and zebra. You can splice any of these creatures together using the Sigma technology to make your very own genetic abominations, which sport the offensive/defensive characteristics of the original animals, giving you access to round about oh, thousands of unique units. Couple this with the Sigma world, which sports four different ecologies with unique fauna and flora, indigenous creatures and complex weather conditions as well as day and night missions, and you've got the potential for another intriguing and complex RTS - no matter how accessible young Alex claims it to be.