If you have access to the Sci Fi Channel and spend any time at all watching it, you probably have noticed that Battlestar Galactica is the latest franchise to have its turn in the sun. Sci Fi has taken the premise of the old TV cult hit and created a slick, good-looking miniseries that tracks Commander Adama's struggle to use the Galactica to fight off the Cylon menace one more time.

The video games take the opposite side of the storyline, starting with Adama's assignment as a rookie fighter pilot. You play as Adama, tackling tough missions that are critical to the future of the human race. If you are a fan of the series, you will immediately realize that the attention to detail here is quite good, with the Vipers and Cylon raiders appearing to be spot-on.

As space flight sims go, this game is a good-looking, smooth playing joy to play. The flight mechanics are very good, and even beginner players can pick up the feel of space combat very quickly. The sensation of speed and spatial movement in relation to other ships, floating asteroids, debris, etc is very realistic and immersive. You can almost convince yourself you are there.

Since the story line for Battlestar is that the Cylons were created by humans networking their computers together, maybe the explanation for the problems in the targeting system is that the humans are afraid to have too many systems talking to each other, like the mission computer and the targeting computer. The problem with the targeting system is that you must cycle through every enemy target one at a time in order to find the one you are looking for. In levels with 20 or 30 enemy targets, this can needlessly slow you down. You can tap the targeting button, which will pick the nearest target, or you can hold the targeting button down, which will show you where your objectives are in relation to your ship, but you cannot change your target to them directly.

Another difficulty with this game is the lack of any in-mission save system. Many of the game's levels are quite long, especially the first one. It can take 10-15 minutes to play through the opening sequences of the mission just to return to a difficult spot and try it again. This can be very frustrating as you try to progress through the game's varied and interesting missions.

A unique system that works as well as it sounds is the ability to vary the behavior of your missiles right from the cockpit. You can shift the power balance between range and power, accuracy and speed, giving you the chance to tailor your response to any situation. This really is a neat feature and one that I think is pretty innovative.

Battlestar Galactica is a franchise that is long overdue for a revival. The series was a good example of the sci-fi formula of a scientifically advanced military force battling a numerically superior enemy force and winning nearly every battle. Kudos to Warthog for their work on making this space combat game work within the Battlestar franchise, but the lack of an in-mission save system and intelligent target/objective system make this game both difficult and only likely to be completed by the true fan.