Twenty-four hours in less than twelve

With its reliance on cliff-hanging spectacle and rapid-fire action sequences to cover up massive gaps in logic, 24 is perfect fodder for a video game.

Interestingly, Sony gave the job of developing a game from the hit show to a team from the UK instead of America. The result is a video game that tries so hard to be good that it sometimes over reaches itself.

Anyone who has sat through 24 episodes of the TV series will tell you that the "real time" claim is nonsense. To make space for the networks' commercials each hour-long episode only runs for 41 minutes.

It's the same with the video game. Depending on your skills it should be possible to complete your adventure in less than 12 hours.

But what an adventure. Scripted by a 24 TV series veteran and set between the events of seasons two and three, the game starts with a bang.

Counter terrorist expert Jack Bauer leads an assault on a freighter believed to be carrying the deadly nerve agent Ricin into Los Angeles harbour. Of course things don't go to plan and Bauer finds himself drawn into a new conspiracy.

As you'd expect, along the way Bauer has to deal with kidnappings, terrorist outrages and assassination attempts - and that's only the first 12 hours.

The entire 24 cast has been roped in for the video game spin-off to provide their vocal talent for the on-screen characters.

Kiefer Sutherland, Reiko Aylesworth, Dennis Haysbert and Elisha Cuthbert are all present and correct.

Adding a professional cast really makes a difference to the linking sequences - fans of the show will want to complete a level just to see and hear their favourite characters again. The soundtrack is excellent, full of drama and packed with neat sound effects. To get the best from 24 you need to play it through a full-on surround sound audio rig.

What holds 24: The Game back, however, is the determination to pack in as much as possible across the 100 levels.

In order to do so it rips off several successful franchises (Metal Gear and Need for Speed being the two most obvious) to variable degrees.

Most of the time you control Jack from the third person perspective (think Solid Snake) as he runs and guns the bad guys. When you take control of Kim (yes, she's the damsel in distress again) you pretty much have to creep around everywhere because she can't handle weaponry.

There are plenty of enemies to keep Jack on his toes but most of the time they are pretty thick. Sometimes they dive for cover when Bauer opens fire but mostly they just walk forward with disastrously lethal consequences.

The game makes certain Jack is always holding the best weapon available to him. There's no need to delve into your inventory to equip him. For instance, if he is sneaking around Jack will select his silenced weapon, whereas for a full-on firefight he'll opt for the most powerful automatic machine gun possible.

The only fly in the ointment is the camera, which sometimes makes taking aim on an attacking enemy unnecessarily hard.

The driving sequences are held back by strange car handling characteristics that make fine control virtually impossible. And when the bad guys try to ram Jack off the road his eventual fate seems to be down to pure luck not skill. The frame-rate slows down when there are a lot of cars on screen, making life even more unpleasant.

At least you can be certain that if you're not enjoying the current level there's bound to be something different just around the corner.

Some are more like mini games. The best are the interrogation sequences. Jack has to use his considerable powers of persuasion on suspects to get them to spill the beans. He does that by acting calm, getting aggressive or simply having a normal conversation.

Predictably, all this has to be done against the clock with one eye on the countdown and the other on the suspect's stress levels. It works rather well, although Jack exhibits severe schizophrenic tendencies as he veers between icy cool and totally bonkers in the space of a single button press.

So 24: The Game pretty much covers every base on the way to its, admittedly, rather satisfying conclusion, but like the TV show it is based on, the end result is rather hit and miss.

On completion I couldn't help but think that I had enjoyed the game because of the input it received from the TV show talent and not the game programmers. At least fans of 24 will get a kick out of playing as Bauer, but Metal Gear Solid this ain't.

VIRUS WATCH

Experts at anti-virus company Sophos have reminded Internet users of the importance of computer security after revelations that sensitive police information has been leaked onto the Internet from a virus-infected computer.

According to the Japanese press, information about 1,500 individuals, related to police investigations over a three year period, was leaked from a virus-infected computer belonging to an Okayama police investigator.

The data is said to have been distributed to users of the Winny peer-to-peer file-sharing system. Winny is the most popular file-sharing network in Japan, with over a quarter of a million users.

According to the report, the leak occurred because the policeman was storing data about investigations on his personal computer. The PC was infected with an unnamed computer virus which is said to have enabled Winny users across Japan to access the sensitive information. The exposed data included the names of sex crime victims.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "If you allow your employees to put sensitive company data onto their own home computers, you are running the risk that they will not be as well defended as the PCs within your business."

Published: 14/03/2006