It took 700 million years for Worms on earth to evolve from flat mud-dwelling strips of flesh into the sophisticated, fast-living, fun-loving earth-filled tubes we see today. Fortunately it's only taken Team 17 about 10 years to pull off a similar trick for their Worms. Not bad going in the Darwinian Derby stakes.

So Worms 3D on the Mac? Yes indeedy - the third generation of Worms has gone all 3 dimensional on us, but before any flat earthers start getting fidgety, let's make this clear - it has retained all the best bits. Team 17 have made a superb job of making flatworms into roundworms (bad puns are part of the deal) - none of this "it's in 3 dimensions and none of them are fun" malarkey.

Worms 3D expands the strategic options in previous Worms games in some fascinating new directions. Think of cliffs, caves, roping, tunneling, multiple random levels and real-time landscape deformation.

And what they haven't done is mess up the game. As Team 17 explain it, the problem with moving the game into three dimensions was one of the technology allowing them to do a good job of randomly generating and destroying landscape.

It was not until they were confident that the technology they had developed allowed for both true-3D landscape deformation as well as the faithful translation of the established Worms visual style, that they were prepared to do the 3D thing.

Question of the week - 3D Worms - annelids or nematodes?

Here are some key features of "Worms 3D":

· Teams of worms, dukin' it out for victory. The team with the last worm standing is the winner. Simple, yet addictive.
· Bizarre collection of ludicrously destructive weapons, exploding bananas, flatulent old women, bazookas, sheep - you name it, it's probably in there.
· Combat across either custom-created 3D landscapes, or randomly-generated terrain. With millions of permutations, the combat never gets predictable.
· A more immersive single player experience based on unlocking challenges, secret missions, sound sets and landscapes.
· 3 different camera modes - 3rd person to move your worm around, 1st person to target your weapon and 'blimp' view for a strategic overhead view of the situation.
· Environmental conditions such as rain, snow, night and day add to the tactical decisions facing the players.
· The 'Wormopedia' allows you to peruse your achievements and view the story behind some of the Worms legends.
· Spectacular voice sets to give your worms from scurvy pirate "Arrrrh!" to Southern Belles, the Spanish Inquisition, cab drivers and Vikings.
· Truly Worldwide Internet gaming. Either from your office or the comfort of your own home, compete with other wormers anywhere in the world.
· More game options than you could shake a stick at - plus the ability to try random combinations of modes with Wormpot.

Requirements:

· Processor: 600MHz (867 MHz recommended)
· RAM: 256MB (256MB recommended)
· Graphics: 32MB
· Hard Disk: 1.2GB
· Drive: DVD
· Input: Mouse
· The "Worms 3D" DVD

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Universal Application - Now runs native on Intel (and PPC) processors.
· Networking - Improved Online and LAN stability.
· Sparkle - Game uses Sparkle auto update to update the game
· New Icon - Very Shiny 512px icon supports "Quicklook" at full resolution.
· Dropped