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Forsooth an' verily! 'Tis yet another game concerning the doings of noble Arthur, King Of The Britons. Yet this time 'tis an animated 3D adventure from across the seas an' it doth detail Arthur's quest for that most alluring of prizes, the holy grail. But hold! I must away now and tackle said game, for it hath loadetheth...

Drawing upon the essence of the Arthurian legends spiced with a sprinkling of other mythologies, author Christy Marx has created a story that is a challenging, entertaining mixture of history and myth, fact and imagination... well, that's what the blurb says. Let's see, shall we?

Three of your Knights Of The Round Table pushed off in search of the grail some days ago - Sirs Gawaine, Galahad and Launcelot - since which time nothing has been heard of them. As far as Launcelot is concerned, this may be a blessing in disguise 'cause he's giving Guinevere, your wife, er... more attention than he should. Some friend he is! [A knight of passion?! - Ed]

Deciding that you must now join the quest for the grail before your kingdom falls on dark times, you begin the game by searching Camelot for all the things you need for the journey.

Information, a lodestone, your adventuring gear (including shield and sword), money and a rose from your wife are all important. And don't forget your horse; bunions would not befit a king.

Before you leave Camelot in pursuit of your three knights it's a good idea to pay homage to your Gods - plural, as you're given a choice in the chapel, it's wise to praise both of them.

Once outside the walls of Camelot a map is displayed from which you choose your destination - decided upon by the information gleaned from talking to people in your castle. You can only journey to three locations - Ot Moor, Southampton or Glastonbury Tor - which is disappointing especially as many more locations are highlighted on the map. I headed for Glastonbury Tor - the last known whereabouts of Gawaine - and adventure.

The parser is up to Sierra's usual good standard and they've incorporated lots of shortcuts for often-used phrases such as Open Purse, Ask About and Look At. Pull-down menus for adjusting game speed, saving and restoring games and certain commands are easy and quick to use.

In fact, I was having a great time wandering around the forest on my horse. Then came the jousting: one location away from Gawaine I was challenged by the Black Knight, dark guardian of the forest, to a joust. I accepted his challenge - being king I had to - and entered the most frustrating, uninteresting, poorly implemented Sierra 'arcade element' I've ever had to endure! Some of the sequences in the Manhunter series (also by Sierra) are fairly fire, but this one takes the cake!

The main screen section shows the position of your lance and shield; the jousting hedge and the black knight jerking his way slowly towards you, lance erect. The idea is to use eight(!) keys to move your shield and lance to both block his blow and land one of your own. I find this type of sequence frustrating to begin with but persistence and controlled breathing usually see me through - in this case, they didn't and the time soon came to switch the computer off and have a cup of tea to cool down.

Even the option to adjust the arcade difficulty level (hard, easy or normal) doesn't seem to help. The jousting sequence is, at this point in the game, unavoidable. You can refuse the challenge but then the black knight kills Gawaine and Merlin refuses to talk to you ever again!

Conquests Of Camelot is more difficult than most Sierra adventures (i.e. I didn't finish it in a day!) but it features the usual attractive graphics, generally good animation, poor music, realistic FX and some painfully slow screen updates. A feeling of being there is evoked by the amount of researched detail featured and although the jousting sequence (have I mentioned that before?) is abysmal, once it's behind you, Conquests Of Camelot opens up into an enjoyable search for your three friends and the holy grail.

The accompanying booklet is an interesting read also, full of fascinating facts about the legends of King Arthur.

Gosh! A whole Sierra On-Line review and I haven't mentioned the high price tag!