Now Games 3 is the latest compilation from Virgin, with a pretty fair quality level if no real winners.

Titles included are Nick Faldo Plays the Open, Sorcery, Codename Mat iI, Everyone's a Wally and a View to a Kill.

A View to a Kill was, it was generally agreed awful, an astoundingly bad three-part exercise in flickery sprites and dull plots featuring a James Bond who appears to move like a ballroom dancer. Well worth totally avoiding.

Codename Mat II was inferior to the original game, and came over as a poor man's Elite with sprite graphics and simpler gameplay. It looks reasonable on screen with the effect of ships moving towards you achieved by using updated sprites. Not actually a bad game but not going to keep your attention for long - for space game addicts only.

Sorcery is not the same as the near legendary Amstrad version. Lacking the wonderful graphics what you are left with is a reasonable broomstick bash 'em up in which you zoom around finding keys to locked doors and being killed plenty. The version of Sorcery on the compilation is a beefed up one which has never seen the light of day before with souped up graphics and more locations. It's the equivalent of those infuriating compilation albums where there is one unreleased track by your favourite group.

Everyone's a Wally is well, a Wally game, which means it has enormous sprites and massive attribute clashes. The entire Wally family is here and you shunt them around solving problems and collecting objects. Deeply irritating or a lot of fun depending on your perspective.

Nick Faldo Plays the Open is perhaps my favourite program here but then I have this strange weakness for golf programs. This is one of the best with strong graphics and a lot of inventive touches. Particularly noteworthy is your know-it-all caddie who comments sagely on your choices of club and generally criticises your performance. My only complaint is the game is so designed that at the last stages of the hole, when it's down to short puts, finishing becomes something very close to a matter of luck or the resolution of your TV.

Not a mega value compilation but certainly a couple of titles there worth catching.

Label: Virgin Author: various Price: £9.95 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Graham Taylor

***

Reasonable compilation of mostly above average games. No real winners but no real 'padding' either.