Metro Choice: CD=Christmas Day

The games box hotly tipped to distend Christmas stockings is the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer System, priced at pounds 400 from Panasonic. It can also play Kodak's Photo-CD home photography albums and CD video, the new format for movies. The games come in CD-ROM format, cheaper to produce than Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo, while 3DO's sumptuous use of the latest silicon makes it the superior performer: the hardware is as close to TV-quality as you'll get, but it's the software that matters. Early 3DO games weren't very good, but with titles like 'Twisted' (an interactive quiz show with more personality than most of the real genre, above) and 'Total Eclipse' (space war deluxe) starting to cut the mustard, the machine should win the battle that matters - on shop demo stands. You can judge at the HMV shop (150 Oxford Street) from Monday to Wednesday, when the 3DO roadshow proffers its joysticks to the London public.

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