Hamburg - One side wants to build something up while the other wants to knock down some monsters. These urges may seem to be polar opposites, but they do in fact have a common denominator: both are the key principles behind PC games hitting the stores in September. The biggest attention has gone to the life simulation Spore.

The other is Warhammer Online, a role playing game that is being viewed as one of the most important competitors to the best-selling World of Warcraft. Not that the two games are completely alone: the game to the film Wall-E, a strategy game called Romance XI and a snooker simulator are also slated to appear.

Even so, the lion's share of attention has gone to Spore. Few games have garnered as much talk-and press coverage than this game that has yet to even pass through the cash registers. It's not a real mystery, though: the man behind the game is Will Wright. Two of his earlier creations, Sim City and The Sims, have already written large chunks of gaming history.

His newest masterpiece in principle follows the same pattern as the older successes: start with something small and nurture it into a world beater. Spore bravely heads to the extremes on both sides: players start with a single-cell organism and are expected to see it through to the creation of civilization and on to dominance of the home planet and eventually space as well.

It's not as easy as it sounds: players must decide whether to take a bellicose or diplomatic approach in their contact with other creatures. Spore is expected from Electronic Arts in early September for roughly 50 dollars.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) aims at a very different kind of gaming. The fantasy world is colourful from the start, and is in fact populated by familiar mythological races like elves, orcs and dwarves. Yet these species don't get along particularly well, soon putting the War into the titular Warhammer.

The basic principle is that of most classic online role playing game: the gamer selects a character, builds it up by undertaking quests and battles, and eventually has a model hero. Here however the characters are cast into a never ending battle of the "good" and "evil" races for mastery of the fantasy world. This concept taken to such depths that entire hordes of gamers can join together to assault and plunder the other side's capital city.

The game draws its underlying content from the long tradition of the Warhammer paper-and-pencil role playing game. The online version from Mythic Entertainment is scheduled to open for combatants on September 18. As has become typical for online games, players must not only buy the game itself for 50 dollars, but also pay monthly fees to play as well. No exact pricing figures have been named as yet, however.

There are several other options for players wanting to head in a different direction. THQ has two new titles slated for release in September. The first, Wall-E, is based on the recent animated film from Disney Pixar. The second, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI offers a rounds-based strategy game set in 2nd and 3rd century BC China.

Sports fans can also try out World Snooker Championship Real 2008 (around 30 dollars). While not everyone may get their thrills from the billiards championship, not everyone wants to start as an amoeba or beat up monsters either. (dpa)