ChopX is the latest offering from the coding group GEK. The game is basically a ChopLifter clone but with lots of added bells and whistles which will hopefully add some extra spice to the gameplay. At its most crude level, the game is just a sideways scrolling helicopter shoot 'em up with the ability to fly your craft in any direction within the 2D scope of the playing area. However, GEK are aiming to make the strategy side of things a fundamental part of the gameplay in ChopX with the inclusion of missions where your task is to guard another craft from enemy attack and also numerous ground-based targets are planned.

Two very early screenshots of the game

Edwin Groenendaal of GEK programmes tells me: "There's a lot into it, and it's going to be real mayhem, we can assure you. The amount of soldiers that you'll get won't be limited to just 5 either; there could be around 50 of the little buggers, trying to win a battle with 50 enemy soldiers. Not to mention all the aircraft and ground vehicles. And don't you think that the aliens'll sit down in that spaceship and just do nothing!"

The game will run in hi-res VGA, at 36fps and will probably only run smoothly on StrongARM machines. A lot of time is currently being spent on the graphics. The game will hopefully still be playable on the lower-end RiscPCs too and will be distributed on CD-ROM due to the extensive use of high-resolution graphics. Hopefully this will mean we'll see some audio tracks to accompany play.

No details of an expected release date or price have yet been made public but we can tell you that GEK are also working on anther freeware game which will grace your screens in the very near future!