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"Oh, wow! Wooaah! Bogeys all over me!" Urgh! What's happening in CU's computer room? Well, Gary Penn (callsign 'Mohican') and myself (callsign 'Hothead') are involved in a desperate life or death dogfight with two MiG-29s.

Interceptor will rock you back on your heels when you see it. We've put in quite a few hours flying time and I still get a buzz watching it. As a flight simulator, it's no big deal. If you want to know what it's like to fly a jet fighter there are more exacting games around. Where EA's game scores is with the celebrated look and feel. It looks fantastic and feels great.

The first thing you'll notice when you get up and running with it is the beautiful filled-in 3D solid effect. But the real thrill with it is the way you can switch viewpoints both inside and outside the aircraft just by tapping the keys on the numerical keypad. I guarantee you'll be darting around watching the action from more angles than a protractor. For some really great effects switch to a rear view as you take off from the carrier, or watch as you eject from a stricken jet as the canopy flies off and a man with a swirling chute flies out. That should convince you this is the business.

Interceptor will take you through a series of progressively tough missions. A menu allows you to select from a number of different scenarios, but it's a good idea to kick off with a demo to get your mouth salivating and eyes a-bulging. You can then take up a trainer and practise a few manoeuvres yourself but if you're any kind of a cool mutha you'll want to get stuck into some serious scrappin'.

To get further into Interceptor you have to qualify for mission selection. That means earning some wings, taking off from the carrier (easy) and landing (not quite so easy). Taking off in your steel bird is a breeze, just power up to 90% thrust and pull the nose up as you go off the edge and you're away. A couple of attempts and you'll be doing a barrel roll off the flight deck and upsetting the guy in the control tower by making him spill his coffee in his lap. Put some distance between yourself and the ship by increasing your thrust to 100% and tapping the plus key - this locks in the afterburner (nip out to the rear view for a sight of the exhausts, flame on - wowza!). Make a wide turn and power down (or 180 degree loop if you're a flash son of a Top Gun like me) and head back to the ship.

You may not make it though, because Russian MiGs are pretty cheeky about flying around the bay of San Francisco and you may find yourself involved in a bit of aerial fisticuffs. The dogfights are hot stuff, and whilst they prove Interceptor to be more in the mould of DI's Fighter Pilot than Sublogic's Jet, it's got big, shiny brass knobs on. Take her up to Mach 1.5 and 40,000 feet and come out of the sun on an unsuspecting MiG. Bang! Suck on that, comrade! Old Ivan is no sucker and he'll be twisting and turning on your ass before you know it, IR missiles at the ready. Make sure your ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) are on and make ready to spill more chaff than an Okie farmer. Jees! That was an IR missile passing right past the canopy!

Interceptor, as you might have guessed, gets you a bit involved.

Landing the jet back on deck is a bit of a swine. Two things to remember here, make sure you're above 145 feet otherwise you'll slap right into the carrier (nasty!) and make sure you land on the back - it won't accept that you've completed the task unless you do. The manual does not make this clear, so consider yourself well briefed.

One little moan here. Well, actually it's more of a whinge really. Interceptor has a bug. You can land on the sea! And, what's more, you can't get out of it, the game locks up and you have to abort!

If you do manage to land on the carrier you'll be able to go on to the qualified missions. The first has you intercepting unidentified aircraft. You take off from the ground this time and you'll have to find the airstrip if you want to get back, because neither of the two planes you can fly are carrier-based. No arrestor hook, see? And when it instructs you not to engage unless attacked it means it. This is Visual Confirmation.

Mission Two is a defence operation. Scramble from the Enterprise and take out a couple of MiGs. Other missions (no, we haven't completed them yet, but Free America's depending on us, so we won't fail) include intercepting a couple of stolen aircraft, and doing a search and rescue operation. Oh, on the intercept mission ignore the instructions and blow the stealing sons of Stalin out the sky.

Interceptor really is quite staggering stuff. It's fast, it's a dream to play and just as nice to look at. I can imagine games appearing with more depth, but until then this is my fave. Get one and go gettem!