Brute Force proves the old maxim about video games: it's not how they look, it's how they play. As an exercise in digital artistry, the game is a total clunker. It often looks bad and then for a change surprises us by looking even worse. It is frequently confused about what it ought to show on the screen and where it ought to put its virtual camera. It will not help convince anyone that the Xbox is the home of great graphics and slick animation. Somebody ought to be embarrassed, frankly.

Still. The game is a total hoot. It is a laff riot. It features an overmuscled chucklehead named "Tex" and a big giant lizard named "Brutus" as its heroes. It features babes named "Hawk" and "Flint." It is stuffed full of ridiculous guns. It encourages you to throw hand grenades into crowds of zombie mutants. You will totally have a super time with it, never mind the amateur-hour graphics work.

Like all great loud fast dumb sci-fi shooting games, Brute Force comes with a wispy back story. There are these elite space soldiers, see. Collectively they are called "Brute Force." Sometimes their boss gives them assignments, so they fly to distant planets, where they shoot bad guys. Their boss is a disembodied hologram who looks like Rip Torn. They are like Charlie's Angels, really, except that there are four of them and one of them is a lizard.

In the beginning the elite fighting squad consists only of the square-jawed Tex and his room-sized attitude. You must guide Tex as he shoots his way through a cloud of villains, and then you must help him fight off a cloud of evil giant lizards, who are holding poor Brutus in a cell. You pull off the rescue, Brutus joins Brute Force, and then the two of you go off looking for Hawk and Flint. Soon you have the whole team put together, and then the real jolliness begins.

You can control any of the four at any time, switching from Tex to Hawk by tapping a button. As rayguns blaze all 'round, the soldiers not under your control do their best to represent for the team: They shoot bad guys, they take cover behind rocks and trees, they pick up stray ammunition, they collect medical supplies and tend to their own injuries. You can order them about with simple commands, telling them to cover you or to stand their ground or to fire at will. Brute Force is an elite squad, true, but you are still outnumbered and outgunned, so for best results you must keep everybody alive and play to your strengths. This means you use Flint when you need a sniper, and Tex when you need crazy firepower, and Hawk when you need to tiptoe up on a bad guy without being seen, and you must get the injured ones out of the line of fire. Loads of fun, yes? Yes.

Now, about the pictures.

Problem 1: Diagonal lines in Brute Force look like little staircases. If you are a geek you know this is called "aliasing." If you are not a geek you nonetheless know computer graphics stopped needing to look that way around the time that first Nirvana album came out.

Problem 2: The camera thrashes about wildly, making you carsick.

Problem 3: When things blow up, the frame-rate goes all chuggy and slow. This + Problem #2 = extra carsickness.

On the bright side, Brutus can summon the "Spirit of Vengar," which makes him glow with bright orange citrusy cleaning power.