Computer game developers have always seen a hit movie as a possible cash cow and often coding begins the moment the film is in production. Unfortunately, the usual 2-3 year period that it takes most games to reach the finished stage is often abandoned in order to tie the game's release to that of the movie.

It would be nice to say that Terminator 3: War of the Machines goes against that grain, but instead it symbolises virtually everything that is negative about movie franchise gaming. For a start, the storyline is not directly linked to the movie, apart from the tenuous connection that the action takes place after Judgment Day in waste-strewn urban landscapes.

In fact, there's no storyline as such, as the single-player option simply involves one side (the Tech-Com human rebels or the Skynet Terminators) trying to wipe out the others and/or capture their bases. In this first-person shooter, you can either play as one of three Terminator models (or commandeer one of two vehicles) or as one of four classes of humans (hunter, heavy hunter, scout or supply).

Weaponry for the Terminators is restricted to plasma guns, cannons and machine-guns, while the humans have additional rocket launchers and sniper rifles. Terminators, though, can use the FK flying machines armed with lasers and rockets as well as the T-1 tank. Both sides can use a variety of armed vehicles but they are clunky to operate and most combat will be fought on foot.

None of this would be too bad if the graphics and animation weren't so dire. The industrial backgrounds look as though they were created five years ago, so feeble is the detail and definition. Movement is mechanical in every sense and when either a human or Terminator is killed, they fall over like a skittle. Explosions are unrealistic and the sound effects are muted, as if the developers didn't trust themselves to replicate the true sounds of the movie.

So far so bad, but what about the multiplayer mode which is where points should be heavily stacked up? Clearly this game was designed to be an online frag-fest, so why did Atari not give it a dedicated server? Also, the most promising Terminator is the infiltrator who looks exactly like a human Tech-Com fighter and could be excellent in fooling the opposition while attacking their base. Yet this surprise element is squandered when you realise that passing your cursor across him reveals instantly that he's an enemy agent.

You do have the option of three game modes in multiplayer mode: Termination (capturing bases), Team Deathmatch and Mission (defending an object or area). Yet the single-player mode will only allow you to play the Termination variety. Also, when you play as a Terminator you see everything through a red haze which further deteriorates the already sub-standard visuals. But, hey, you can play as Arnie briefly if you turn out to be the best shooter of the round.

It's amazing that a 2GHz Pentium 4 is recommended to play one of the most graphically inferior and seriously under-developed film adaptations of recent years. We won't be back.