Panzer General Assault 3D

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PC

SSI/The Learning Company

$99.95, G

Review: Peter Eley

Panzer. Now there's a powerful word - much better than tanks which, after all, could be of the water or septic variety.

Perhaps this is why there aren't many games with "tank" in the title, yet half a dozen or so feature "panzer."

It means, in German, "coat of mail" or heavily armoured, so that is why the Germans called their speedy armoured divisions panzers in the Second World War.

SSI's game is the third in its Panzer General series. The basic game is the same but the look is mind-blowingly different.

Imagine playing with fully featured scale models on a photographically rendered map, complete with forests, rivers and cities, and that's Panzer General Assault 3D. It is stunning, easily the best-looking turn-based game around.

The action takes place on the Western Front, where legendary generals such as Germany's Rommel, America's Patton and crusty old Brit Montgomery slugged it out in North Africa, culminating in the epic battle of Tobruk.

Panzer General has four major campaigns, four shorter ones, and 20 one-shot scenarios based around actual events from the campaign.

Online gamers are catered for through Mplayer.com, which can be installed from the game disk.

Required: Pentium II 233, 64MB Ram, 8MB 3D video card.

* Send your comments e-mail to peter_eley@herald.co.nz