THERE was a time when a developer would announce that it was just starting work on a new game, and within a week you'd find it in the shops. Nowadays, it tends to be that a game is announced as having already been in development for two years, and you're then lucky if you get to see it on shelves before you die.

One such game is DMA Design's Spacestation Silicon Valley, which all but the sharpest of cynics expected to see released around last Christmas. But as we now all know, last Christmas was only the start of the whole arduous process.

It's since been refined and honed into a fine product of the uppermost quality, and should be released (the Apocalypse permitting) later this year, courtesy of Take 2 Interactive.

Your mission ...
It's the future, and the legendary titular spacestation has returned to our solar system after 1,000 years missing in the depths of the galaxy. The experimental spacestation was launched full of self-replicating, intelligent, evolving, artificial lifeforms, and as a wee robot called EVO, you must board the station and find out what's been going on for the last 1,000 years.

Naturally, the robot creatures onboard have evolved, and only by defeating and assuming the powers and abilities of the 40 types of creature he'll encounter can EVO get to the bottom of the mystery.

The vast spacestation contains sprawling areas of grassland, arctic tundra and desert, in addition to underwater sections, and the high-tech outerstructure. EVO is unable to cross such locations without first evolving into the area's indigenous lifeforms.

And so the game progresses as a sort of evolutionary Mario 64. With the promise of chainsaw-wielding llamas, armour-piercing tortoises and the like, the potential is certainly there for Silicon Valley to be something really swell.