Sigma: The Adventures of Rex Chance

Sigma: The Adventures Of Rex Chance spans 15 missions played across 14 beautiful living, breathing islands. We overheard quite a few people mentioning that graphically the game is reminiscent of Giants: Citizen Kalmto and it was causing quite a stir on that basis alone, but that's where the similarities end.

The overall aim of this innovative RTS is to thwart the megalomaniac plans of a 1930s super-villain by pitching a veritable Noah's Ark of genetically produced warrior creatures against him. Weird? Well, you could say that, but at least it shows Relic at their imaginative best - and that's a force that cannot be ignored.

The bright ideas don't stop there either. We were shown huge armies of mutated monstrosities and the developers were keen to point out that you'll be able to transfer these from single- to multiplayer games or vice versa. So, if your battle tactics aren't up to scratch you can always attempt to bewilder your opponent to death with abominations like the 'rhinofish' or 'wolfant'.

Once again, the developers were keen to inform us that they're scaling back the levels of micro-management in favour of a more streamlined, fast-paced approach. One of the team, Alex Garden, was also keen to point out that having the ability to create your own units is changing the rules of a standard RTS by allowing the player to have more freedom.

Whether this will reveal desperate gameplay imbalances is something we will keep a close eye on. One thing that's not up for dispute is the way Sigma gives players the chance to exercise their own imagination and creativity. That's something us gamers have had little opportunity to do recently, and on that score alone Sigma could be a real breath of fresh air.