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In a world where simplicity and accessibility are usually considered to be the most desirable attributes of almost everything (with the possible exception of the video recorder), it's refreshing to know that people are still keen to try to make me play an incredibly complex game.

Midwinter 2: Flames Of Freedom (or is it the other way around?) is big. No, really. When you get a 179-page manual, you usually expect it to be that big because it contains all the instructions in four languages. Not so here, oh no... The whole thing is in English and all of it is important if you want to play the whole game. Does that give you some impression of its bigness?

Thankfully, you can get involved in the whole thing straight away, without having to read all the manual, and it's possible to play Midwinter 2 as either an action game, a tactical game or a full-blown action/tactical/strategy game. but what, you ask impatiently, is it all about?

If only I had 179 pages, I'd tell you. Suffice it to say that you're a secret agent (though quite what profit there'd be in being any other sort of agent is beyond me - you'd not get far behind enemy lines if you wore a big placard saying 'Hello, you chaps, I'm an agent' or, say, took out an ad in their local paper announcing your intention to spy on them and sabotage their war efforts). Anyway, it's the future, you're an agent (either male or female) and you've got absolutely loads of agenting to do.

Some of the action is point-and-click stuff, some is polygon-3D-moving-about-the-landscape stuff and there's always plenty to think about. There's also plenty of ways of getting about the place, including my personal favourite - the hot air balloon. Did I ever tell you about the time I took control of a hot air balloon in the clear skies over Berkshire? Well, there we were, in our lovely wicker basket... [Snip - Ed]

There's just so much to it. Have I mentioned that it's big? I know that big isn't necessarily beautiful but in this case, big also equates to complex, and in the world of adventurey strategy-type things, complexity is generally considered to be a Good Thing.

The worst thing a chap can say in these circumstances is that this is just the sort of thing you'd like if you like this sort of thing. But, er, that's pretty much the case here [You're fired - Ed]. If you want an absorbing game that'll keep you busy for decades, then this one's definitely for you. but it takes a goodly long while to get into it, which means that if you haven't got the patience for strategy-type games and you can't be bothered to read big fat manuals, then you'll never get past the training section and find out what all the fuss is about.

It's not the best game ever by any manner of means, but as a budget release it seems slightly more worthy a bit of praise. It's just so big.

It's so big. It's huge. I mean - heck, look at the size of the thing. It's so big it's literally not small. No.