Dragons. Somewhere along the way, we've all got the conception that dragons only appear in Dungeons & Dragons-style nerdy RPGs and bad fantasy movies. This has steered their image away from the fact that they're just plain cool. Come on; scaly, towering beasts flying through the air and burning anything and anybody that gets in their way to the ground. Certainly not a mythical monster you'd want to get on the wrong side of.

But Reign of Fire is set to make dragons cool again, and with style. Based on the recent movie (that looks pretty damn good if I do say to myself) the game is set in the year 2084 (dragons in the future? Unusual to say the least). By some apparent mishap, someone has awoken the last of the ancient great dragons that is naturally a little peeved at being disturbed. So what does this great dragon decide to do? Err destroy the world. What else. Soon there are loads of dragons running around (don't ask me how) destroying (or rather, burning) everything. But of course, the human race isn't just going to sit there with its thumb up its arse. Some people resist the dragons. The human side of the game is played as a variety of these Human Resistance Fighters. There's the US Military, the Norfolk Militia, and the Kentucky Irregulars, each with varied weapons and vehicles.

As the Norfolk Militia, you'll have biplanes and a cavalry at your disposal, while as the Kentucky Irregulars you'll have a host of military-style vehicles like a Mini Buggy, Jeep, Tank and a Fire Truck. No prizes for guessing what that's for. We don't know about the Military yet, but my money is on huge tanks, fighter jets and combat helicopters. Quite similar in parts to the Xbox stunner, Halo, really. Your fight against the scaly ones will be split into 9 huge missions, with you having to complete different scenarios to progress. These will be things like protecting a building under attack, rescuing people from burning buildings, taking out certain dragons etc. You work your way to the final encounter with the boss dragon in London Tower (Ganons castle mustn't have been free that day). Although this may seem a little to structured, the missions become more open when you realise things you do in one can affect a later mission. You can decide to just complete the mission as quick as possible or take longer and harder actions to help you in a difficult mission later on. One example of this we've seen is the ability to take over a gun tower in one of the missions. You don't have to, presumably it'll be more difficult than just completing the mission, but doing so allows you to take control of it in a later mission to make taking those dragons down a tad easier. Because there are only 9 missions, there is a lot of variety in them. Some will have you having to use strategy and tactics, balancing the rescuing of innocents with the attacking of hostile dragons, while some will just have you running into hectic battles guns-blazing.

All that may be great, but I know what you're dying to ask, and yes you can play things from the scaly point of view. You start off as a young, small dragon having to mature through the game into a towering, fearsome beast. Little has been revealed of this side of the game, but if we had to choose between shooting dragons down from jeeps, to flying through the sky, stomping on villagers, and burning buildings to the ground with our scoldering fiery breath, we'd know which one we'd choose. You can easier show off with a dragon, flying through the air, pulling off barrel rolls and tight turns, gracefully animated. And being the evil, merciless being you are, you can even pick up people and objects and hurl them through the air. Very pleasing indeed. But sometimes you'll have to do so to complete an objective. Chucking a gas truck at something will blow it up you see. But once you get control of a dragon you'll be looking to do one thing and one thing only; burn things to a crisp. You'll be happy to know that this is quite simple. Although we haven't heard the GameCube controls yet, the PS2 ones make it clear how breathing fire will done on the GC. R will charge up a massive fireball that grows more intense and stronger the only you hold in the trigger and holding L will breath out a stream of fire, covering a large area. These missions look to be brilliant fun. But, and there's always a but, you'll have to complete the human side of the game first to get the dragon side of the game. He he.

One thing that has to get mentioned is the superb fire effects and engine the developer has implemented in the game. The fire the dragons' breath looks brilliant, impressively like real, fluid, fire. More impressive is the effect the fire has on the environments. Land looks suitably scorched after an attack and when things go on fire they stay on fire, even setting something (or someone) beside it aflame if it's flammable. And the world in which this all takes perfectly sets the atmosphere; a bleak, barren, desolate, post-apocalyptic wasteland. And as an added bonus, cut scenes, interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff will be on offer in return for completing certain things. Missions in certain times perhaps.

Although we haven't seen an awful lot on Reign of Fire, what we have seen is very promising. With ace vehicular-combat sections and dragon sections that look like brilliant fun ROF is sure to become a hit with GameCube owners who want their games just a bit more violent. Oh, and you can burn things. We like to burn things.