THIS week we are all going potty over the latest video game release - World Snooker Championship 2005.

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a Hurricane Higgins or just want to better your record break of 27 then this is just the game for you.

World Snooker Championship 2005 is a release that is a virtual must for any snooker fan. Here, over 100 top professionals from the world of snooker take to the baize including Stephen Hendry, Matthew Stevens and Ronnie 'The Rocket' O'Sulllivan.

You are given a number of game modes. There's Coaching, Trickshots or for that post-pub session, a multi-player tournament mode. But for the dedicated snooker fan there is the Tour mode.

This is where you get to fulfil all your snooker ambitions and take on the world's leading players, battling your way through tournaments. You begin ranked 129th and it's up to you to win your way to the top while hopefully picking up a few trophies along the way.

The aim of all your hard work is to reach the World Snooker Championship final and it's here that your get to play in the famous Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

Achieve this and you'll open up a juicy extra game mode where you get the chance to play against eight previous world champions. We haven't reached that far yet but we are dying to know who they will be. Ray Reardon anyone?

This is pretty much as good as a snooker sim gets. The control system is easy to master and the difficulty-level pretty much spot on. An optional helping arrow shows the partial path the balls will travel meaning there is just the right amount of control over the shot without it ever being too easy. Having this level of control frees up your strategy skills and, unlike down the snooker club, allows you to build sizeable breaks.

You can also control everything about your shot. You can add side for perfect positional play or increase the elevation of your cue to execute jump shots. In fact, you can do pretty much anything you can in the real game.

Graphically it could perhaps have a little more. There's a lack of texture in the visuals although the settings are quite atmospheric. And the game-faces of the professionals could do with a little more detail. But generally it all does the job.

The commentary is provided by John Virgo, Steve Davis and John Parrot which, although a little flat at times, certainly adds to the atmosphere of the game.

You'll find plenty to keep you interested in World Snooker Championship 2005. If you manage to master the tour mode then you've got bar billiards, doubles and several variations of pool to keep you occupied.

With the real life tournament just around the corner this release could just prove to be an essential purchase for the snooker fan.

Now, whose break is it?

8/10

By Blade Interactive Studios / Sega

Review by Paul Currie