The most recent articles from Personal Computer World

Review: Audiosurf

Jonathan Parkyn — 2008-04-28T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Monday 28 April 2008 at 00:00:00

Race to become top of the pops with this innovative indie game

One of the great things about computer gaming is that for every expensive, samey shooter there are several instantly playable free games online (here, for instance). Audiosurf sits somewhere between these polar extremes. It’s an independently produced game available through Valve’s online distribution system, Steam, for just $9.99 (approx £5).

Looking initially like an odd blend of Wipeout, Guitar Hero and Tetris, the premise behind Audiosurf is highly innovative. It uses the MP3 collection stored on your computer’s hard drive to generate tracks on which you race a small spaceship. The shape and speed of each track is unique to your chosen song, which also becomes the soundtrack to your game.

As you speed down the track, you have limited movement (left and right is about it), but the idea is to catch various colour-coded blocks as they hurtle past you. Warmer colours (reds, yellows) score higher than colder colours (blue) and collecting them in larger clusters or using power-ups boosts scores even further. There’s no specific goal other than getting high scores.

However, even this aspect of the game has a spin in that Audiosurf features an international online league table, meaning you can be the best in the world at a specific song. The more obscure the song, the better your chance of a shot at a top score – so it’s easier to become king of Sons of the Stage by World of Twist than Twist and Shout by the Beatles, for example.

Presentation-wise, Audiosurf is a little basic, though it partially makes up for this with its highly individual style. Fans of complicated role-players may find the gameplay a little one dimensional, but that would be kind of missing the point.

Review: Sega Rally game

Will Stapley — 2007-10-19T00:00:00.000Z

Will Stapley, Personal Computer World, Friday 19 October 2007 at 00:00:00

Fast and furious arcade racing

Since it appeared in the arcades back in 1995, Sega Rally has gained a loyal following, and now it has made a comeback on the PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and even the PSP.

On the PC version, controlling the car using the keyboard is pretty much impossible, so you'll need to invest in a controller if you don't already have one.

As soon as you slam your car into gear for the first time, you'll instantly be reminded that Sega Rally is primarily an arcade game, not a racing simulator.

The cars look great and handle realistically, but the game's prime aim is to keep you thundering along the various tracks as fast as possible. Hit a tree, rock or wayward spectator and you'll simply bounce back onto the track, losing very little speed in the process.

You won't veer off into a forest and be left hopelessly lost while your rivals race off into the distance, nor will you plunge over the edge of a cliff. While this makes the game easy to pick up and play, it doesn't really put your skills to the test.

An interesting touch is Sega's track deformation feature, which means the surface will cut up and deteriorate after each lap, ultimately affecting the control of the car. The graphics are also impressive - mud splatters over the car as you speed around, with a quick splash through a puddle to wash the dirt off.

There are over 30 cars to choose from and various game modes, including Championship, Time Attack and, of course, online Multiplayer.

Those who enjoy the challenge of negotiating corners perfectly while running the risk of slapping head-on into a tree will no doubt be left frustrated at the arcade nature of Sega Rally, but if you're after a game you can leap into without any prior experience itís terrific fun.

Review: Spider-man 3 game

Jonathan Parkyn — 2007-05-23T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 23 May 2007 at 00:00:00

The web-slinger returns to your friendly, neighbourhood game store for another movie-based adventure

With the start of the summer blockbuster season comes the opportunity for Hollywood studios to capitalise on their respective big-budget theatrical releases with some kind of tie-in game.

Traditionally speaking, Spider-man games have tended to be a cut above the average torpid movie cash-in.

But then, traditionally speaking, the Spider-man films themselves have tended to be a cut above the average action movie, and those who have already paid good money to see Spidey’s third outing at the cinemas will know that this isn’t necessarily the case this time around.

The worst elements of movie – such as its distinct lack of focus and bad-guy overkill – have sadly found their way into the game too.

Indeed, on top of the three whole baddies featured in the film (Sandman, Venom and Green Goblin Jnr), several more of Spidey’s arch-nemeses, including the Lizard and the Scorpion, have been wheeled out, presumably to make the game more of a challenge. The result is a game that sort of attempts to follow the plot of the film but doesn’t, spreading an already weak story even thinner.

Several clear missed opportunities might well lead you to suspect that the game’s development was rushed to meet the strict deadline of the movie’s release. While the ‘realistic’ map of New York city appears to be slightly larger and more detailed than in previous Spider-man games, for instance, there seems to be distinctly less fun to be had in it compared to earlier outings.

The Grand Theft Auto-style mini-games and side missions that were present in Spider-man 2 have all but disappeared. And, while you can kind of choose the order in which you tackle some missions, this doesn’t present players with a particularly overpowering sense of freedom.

As well as suffering from serious movie tie-in syndrome, Spider-man 3 is also severely hampered by being a multi-platform title. Basically, this means that PC gamers get a crude port of a game that was clearly designed to be played on the very latest home console hardware.

Compared to the Xbox 360 version (which we also tested), the PC release is hampered by a crushingly poor control system and some serious technical issues. Pump up all the video options to the max and you can actually get the game to look a little smarter than its console cousin, but we would seriously recommend against trying this.

Even at the most basic settings, Spider-man 3 crawled along on our test system at what can only be described as a snail’s pace. We tested the game on two separate systems, both of which far exceeded the manufacturer’s recommended requirements, and the same problems were evident: frame rate slow-downs, distorted sound effects and randomly disappearing textures.

Until a patch is released, this makes the game quite hard to play, particularly in semi-scripted sequences that require precisely timed button presses.

On top of that, if you don’t have a dual analogue game controller of some kind then you may as well forget it, as keyboard and mouse control makes the game virtually unplayable. If you have set up an Xbox 360 gamepad with your PC, on the other hand, on-screen button prompts are colour-coded to match those on the console controller, which is a nice touch.

There are some other good points. The sheer joy of being able to sling your way through NYC and swing webbed-up bad guys round your head is hard to beat. The majority of the film’s cast (with the exception of Kirstin Dunst) reprise their roles in voice form for the game, too.

But oddly unfinished-looking graphics and overwhelming technical troubles make the Spider-man 3 game even more of a letdown than the film.

Review: Sony Playstation 3 launch title roundup

Jonathan Parkyn — 2007-04-28T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Saturday 28 April 2007 at 00:00:00

Sony’s new gaming hardware has arrived, but are the games themselves any good?

It’s all about the games – at least that’s what they used to say.

In fact, the Playstation 3 (PS3) may well be the first games console where the games themselves take a back seat to many of the other multimedia features on offer.

After all, there’s no doubt that its £425 price tag makes the PS3 a very expensive games machine, but once you start thinking about it as a Blu-ray movie player and it suddenly seems pretty good value (compared to other dedicated Blu-ray devices such as the Samsung BD1000, at least).

On top of Blu-ray support, the PS3 can play music and movie files from memory card and external USB devices, browse the web and download yet more media from the Playstation online store. But for some it will still be all about the games, so we gave Sony’s first-party software line-up a test drive.

And test drive is probably the best way to describe it, given that the majority of titles on offer focus firmly on racing or driving simulations of one type or another.

Indeed out of Sony’s five home-grown UK launch releases, only two – Resistance: Fall of Man and Genji: Days of the Blade – can’t be categorised as racers.

From the looks of it, Resistance was probably the game Sony intended to be the ‘must-have’ launch release for the US and European markets.

A gritty first-person shooter, Fall of Man has all the hallmarks of a western blockbuster title, fusing the Halo-type alien invasion scenario with a World War II setting (in fact, the game is set in a parallel version of the 1950s), and featuring staples such as online play and lots of big guns.

But somehow the actual gameplay experience is a strangely empty one. Graphically it looks somewhat unfinished too and, though there are some good set pieces, the run-and-shoot sections can be pretty samey.

That said, Resistance is an awful lot better than Genji: Days of the Blade, a third-person action title with a medieval Japanese setting. The sequel to a fairly enjoyable Playstation 2 title, Days of the Blade is amazing to look at, but frustrating to play thanks to a crippling fixed-camera system and over-sensitive controls.

For long-term fans of Sony consoles it won’t be much of a surprise to find a Ridge Racer 7 game amongst the PS3’s launch games. There’s been a new Ridge Racer for every new PlayStation that’s been released, from the original Playstation 1 to the more recent Playstation Portable (PSP).

Well, we say ‘new’, but Ridge Racer 7 is very similar to Ridge Racer 6, which came out on the Xbox 360 more than a year ago. That said, it’s pretty good fun in an arcade racer sort of a way. Graphically it shows off the PS3’s power pretty nicely, with lots of glistening metalwork and fast-moving scenery.

But, like all its predecessors, Ridge Racer is a fundamentally shallow experience – even if you buy into the game’s whole mechanical tinkering element.

Also among the launch litter are two more Sony-published racing titles.

Formula One Championship Edition is a fairly average F1 racing simulator that has been polished up to look nice and shiny thanks to the PS3’s HD graphics, but the real star of the show is Motorstorm.

This dust-blown, off-road arcade racer looks absolutely stunning and is about as addictive and exhilarating to play as games of this type get.

Motorstorm really shouldn’t work, but it does. There’s a limited number of tracks, virtually no customisation and no split-screen multiplayer (although you can compete online).

But there’s really nothing quite like the thrill of driving a dirt bike or dune buggy along a razor-thin ledge only to have the ground disappear beneath you as you leap from one side of a rocky canyon to another.

Motorstorm aside, some of the PS3’s better titles are those for sale online at the Playstation Store (Sony’s equivalent of the Xbox Live Marketplace).

Flow, where you play as some kind of deep sea plankton and use the PS3’s motion-sensing controller to move about, is a particular highlight, although GripShift (a driving puzzle game) and Blast Factor (a variant on the Geometry Wars theme) are both highly addictive too and cost less than a fiver a piece.

Gran Turismo HD, meanwhile, is little more than a showcase, but it’s completely free to download and well worth signing up to the Playstation Network for.

In addition to Sony’s own titles, there are some promising early releases from other publishers – Ubisoft’s Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion and Sega’s Virtua Tennis 3 have got a good track record on other platforms and are bound to look good and play well on the powerful PS3.

But with a retail lineup largely populated by aging ports and underwhelming first-party titles, Motorstorm is the only real stand-out game. It’s hardly the most profound gaming experience, but it’s going to be the one that PS3 owners keep coming back to once the novelty of those high-def cosmetics wear off.

Scores:

Formula One Championship Edition : 3/5

Genji: Days of the Blade: 2/5

Motorstorm: 5/5

Resistance: Fall of Man: 3/5

Ridge Racer 7: 4/5

Review: Wings over Europe: Cold War: Soviet Invasion

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-10-09T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Monday 9 October 2006 at 00:00:00

Dogfight your way through Empire Interactive’s airborne adventure

What if the Cold War weren’t cold at all, but instead uncomfortably hot – particularly in the skies above us?

Well, that’s precisely the question posed by this new combat flight sim, which labours under the curiously multifaceted title of Wings Over Europe: Cold War: Soviet Invasion.

The what if? premise is, in essence, just an excuse for a spot of air-to-air combat involving some of the coolest planes of the 1960s and 70s.

Throughout the game’s three main campaigns – multiple one-off missions, and network or online multiplayer – you’ll be able to hop into the cockpit of 12 different jet fighters, including the F-100 Super Sabre, the F-4 Phantom and, of course, the Harrier jump jet.

The first thing you’ll notice on starting the game is that its presentation values are markedly lower than those of most modern games. Cheesy, compressed rock music greets you as the very basic opening menu screen appears. And things don’t get much better.

Even at the highest quality settings, the in-game graphics are distinctly unimpressive; detail is low and textures are blocky and bland. On the upside, the game’s basic visuals and audio mean you don’t need a jet-powered PC to play it. However, we would expect a lot more from a full-price, non-budget title.

The game’s designers have attempted to make Wings Over Europe a pick-up-and-play experience, cutting out a lot of the complexity associated with flight simulators in the hope of broadening the game’s appeal.

In doing so, however, they seem to have created a hybrid game that’s too crude for true flight sim fanatics and equally unappealing to casual gamers.

Consequently, Wings Over Europe is likely to crash and burn with almost anyone who plays it.

Review - Dreamfall: The Longest Journey 3D adventure game

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-06-23T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Friday 23 June 2006 at 00:00:00

Dust off your best adventuring trousers for this rare opportunity to explore a once-popular gaming genre

Keen gamers may or may not remember the original Longest Journey title, released to generally high praise from critics and fans of the adventure genre back in 2000. Dreamfall is a direct sequel, which means it has rather a lot to live up to.

After a brief prologue inspired by HP Lovecraft, the action switches to Zoe, a seemingly apathetic young woman who is suddenly thrust into the middle of a dangerous and fantastical intrigue.

In fact, as the game progresses, you'll end up playing as several characters across different worlds, both futuristic and medieval.

Production values are high and the overall presentation is very sleek. The storyline is probably the game's real highlight, since it goes way beyond the flimsy fight-off-an-evil-alien-force-type excuse for plot that most games appear to be based upon.

The script and voice acting, too, are a cut above the average game - although that's not saying very much. Zoe's teenage drone, for example, soon becomes mildly irritating.

Gameplay occasionally feels clunky and even a little dated. An attempt has been made to modernise the old point-and-click 2D approach to adventure gaming with the inclusion of third-person, action-type character controls.

By and large this works reasonably well, but it also includes rudimentary combat and stealth systems, neither of which are particularly well executed or, indeed, fun.

The biggest letdown is that the puzzling aspect has been greatly simplified, often reduced to little more than collecting a few items in order to progress.

Dreamfall looks quite pretty and has a great soundtrack. Fans of adventure games will undoubtedly gobble it up, given the genre's slim pickings these days.

The game certainly weaves a good yarn, but poses little in the way of a challenge and is occasionally a little frustrating to play.

Toca 3 game review

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-03-17T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Friday 17 March 2006 at 00:00:00

Drive yourself to distraction with more motor sports than you can shake a gearstick at

The Toca series of racing games has always been a bit of a rank outsider. Not as detailed as something like Colin McRae Rally or as glamorous as some of its console rivals, like Project Gotham Racing or Grand Turismo, Toca has nonetheless earned itself a reputation as a fun, realistic racing sim with plenty of variety.

The franchise’s sense of diversity reaches new dizzy heights with the third game in the series.

Toca 3 offers almost double the amount of different race types, licensed vehicles and real-world racing circuits as the previous version did, which adds up to a whole lot of racing.

With over 35 different motor sports covering everything from Formula 1 to go-cart racing over 120 championships, it’s very hard to get bored by Toca 3, whether you’re playing the Pro Career game or the World Tour game.

But if you’re imagining that the game’s wide scope results in some kind of throwaway arcade racing experience you’d be very wrong.

In fact, Toca takes the simulation angle fairly seriously. You won’t have to faff around in a virtual garage tinkering with transmissions like some racing games encourage you to do, but when it comes to the racing itself, Toca tries to stay as faithful as possible to each discipline, which means that cars handle very differently and the assorted track types all take a bit of getting used to.

Damage, too, is a key element. Not only does it look spectacular, but crashing into opponents or scenery can have a big impact on how your car behaves.

The realism never gets in the way of the action though and is backed up by some very smart visuals. Occasional pre-rendered cut scenes involving your Scottish coach seem a little unnecessary, but help to pace the otherwise excellent action.

System requirements:

1.4GHz processor

256MB of Ram

6GB hard disk

DVD-Rom drive

Windows XP

Star Wars Empire at War

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-03-15T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 15 March 2006 at 00:00:00

Lead the Rebel Alliance or strike back as the Empire in this Star Wars-themed strategy game

Let’s face it; Star Wars boils down to big battles between good and evil, which is probably why the most successful video games based on the series tend to focus on the epic combat element.

But, while the Battlefront series has got the action end of the market sewn up, budding military tacticians have had a long wait for a decent Star Wars strategy game.

Lucasarts has had several stabs at it, of which 2001’s Galactic Battlegrounds (essentially a Star Wars themed version of Age of Empires) was probably the best of a bad bunch.

Set during the era of the original trilogy rather than the more recent prequels, Empire at War is the latest attempt to bring real-time strategy to the Star Wars universe.

The game allows you to take on the role of either the evil Empire or the Rebel Alliance as you vie for control of the galaxy.

As with any strategy game, the idea is to win over more territory than your opponent through a series of strategic manoeuvres and tactical space and land battles.

The game has several different modes, including a vast main Campaign, a series of shorter Galactic Conquest scenarios, instant-action Skirmish Battles and a Lan or online multiplayer mode with support for up to eight players.

The basic gameplay is pretty much the same in all cases. Build up your forces, send them to a new planet and try to take it over. If the planet in question is already occupied by the enemy, then you’ll have a bit of a fight on your hands – either in space above the world or on the ground itself.

If you play as the Empire, the game’s theme is conquest, while as a Rebel, gameplay is skewed more to ‘liberation’. Choosing sides can also have a fairly big impact on the way that the game actually plays, too.

As an Imperial commander, you’ll have vast resources at your bidding from the offset and a brute force approach can often pay off. If you choose to be an Alliance leader, you’ll have to earn money the hard way and advance your technological status via less obvious means, such as espionage.

As a Rebel, you’ll be able to see Imperial planets marked on the map. But as the Empire, Alliance-affiliated worlds will appear neutral until you investigate them and discover a Rebel presence.

There are definitely enough variations to warrant multiple plays through the game’s main campaign as both factions.

Graphics, sound and overall presentation are spot on. All the familiar Star Wars noises and music help to create a suitable background atmosphere. With a good graphics card, the visuals are stunning.

In the heat of a battle you can pull back to marvel at the scale of the carnage or zoom in to a single trooper to get a more personal perspective.

A special cinematic camera mode allows you to sit back and enjoy a movie-style view of the action. Just don’t get too distracted by this or your forces could quickly become decimated.

Also worth mentioning is the game’s interface, which is more polished and intuitive than those found in many other strategy titles.

There isn’t enough innovation here to excite strategy gaming stalwarts and the Star Wars theme occasionally feels a little crowbarred into the genre.

But for those who grew up with the movie franchise, Empire at War is a bit like the adult version of acting out battles with your Star Wars figures and is probably, therefore, wish-fulfilment for a multitude of fans.

System requirements:

1GHz processor

256MB of Ram

2.5GB hard disk

DVD-Rom drive

Windows 2000/XP

And Then There Were None

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-02-24T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Friday 24 February 2006 at 00:00:00

The queen of the whodunit comes to the desktop with this adventure game

It’s amazing no-one has thought of basing a point-and-click adventure game on an Agatha Christie book before.

Christie’s slightly old-fashioned murder-mystery style suits the slightly old-fashioned gameplay of the adventure genre perfectly.

And Then There Were None takes its plot from one of the novelist’s most popular books, which was recently adapted for the West End stage.

Fans of the original book, which has seen a few title changes over the years, will no doubt take enormous pleasure from being able to solve the mystery themselves, but may be slightly less pleased with the amount of artistic licence that has been taken.

The mechanics of converting the story into a game means that several of the alterations are unavoidable.

In the novel, for example, only 10 characters were stuck on Shipwreck Island, getting bumped off one by one.

In the game an eleventh character, Patrick, has been added so the player can take on the role of someone unconnected with the story.

Similarly, the ending has been left open so that even those who know the story by heart can enjoy the mystery as it unravels.

As Patrick you are part observer, part amateur sleuth as you nose your way around the mansion, explore the island and interact with the rapidly diminishing number of guests.

And then there were none’s point and click gameplay might seem quaint to those who are used to the pyrotechnics of modern shooters and action games.

Graphically too, it looks a little dated, particularly the character models.

Nevertheless, it’s one of the better adventure games to have been released in recent years and has enough intrigue and atmosphere to keep you playing through its lengthy (20 or so hours) running time.

System requirements:

850MHz processor

256MB of Ram

1.5GB hard disk

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Real World Golf

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-02-23T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Thursday 23 February 2006 at 00:00:00

Become the king of the swingers with this motion-capture golfing game

Along with the humble joystick or gamepad, there are a number of specialised game controllers that are meant to simulate real-world controls, such as steering wheels for driving games or light guns for shooters.

When a new type of controller works, it’s usually because it’s either incredibly realistic or because it provides an element of arcade novelty to an otherwise straightforward game.

Real World Golf (RWG) comes with one of the more unusual controllers we’ve handled. It’s not quite up there with Sega’s virtual fishing rod, but RWG’s mini golf club and motion-capture accessory is still a pretty silly prospect. And it’s fairly convoluted too.

A large black box sits on the floor directly in front of your PC screen and, once you don the special golfing gloves provided, you must attach your hands to the unit via the spring-loaded cables that poke out of the box’s surface.

A further foot button device needs to be attached to the main unit and the whole caboodle is then plugged into a USB port.

The complicated setup’s saving grace is that Windows seems happy to recognise the device and install it automatically.

Once you get out on the Links, you can’t help feeling that the game itself is a bit of an anticlimax.

It’s a long way from the polished graphics and well-honed gameplay that players of more recent golf games will be used to. The courses and player models are also relatively limited.

The mechanics of physically taking a swing are certainly rewarding but, as a single-player experience, Real World Golf does feel faintly ludicrous.

The game becomes a lot more fun in multiplayer mode with a bunch of mates and a fridge full of beer, but be prepared to get in a bit of a tangle when it comes to handing over the controls to the next player.

System requirements

800MHz processor

128MB of Ram

32MB video card

Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP

The Movies

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-02-21T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 21 February 2006 at 00:00:00

It’s hooray for Hollywood with Lionhead’s cinematic sim game

Games such as The Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon have proved that the simulation genre can produce some phenomenally popular titles.

Hoping to continue the tradition is Lionhead's The Movies, which is a simulation of building and operating a Hollywood-style film studio.

Players start with an empty lot at the dawn of the cinema era and have to achieve and maintain both critical and financial success as the industry progresses from silent films to talkies, then colour and beyond.

The fact that time is marching on provides constant variations on the theme. As technology progresses in the game world, your studio will have to adapt and spend some of its hard-earned dollars on new sound stages, better equipment and more staff.

You’ll soon learn to keep one eye on the timeline at the top of the screen as it scrolls from right to left. Keeping up to date with current affairs (the outbreak of war, scientific discoveries and so forth) can, for example, help you to produce films that are more in tune with popular tastes.

Part of The Movies experience is putting together the films themselves. Players who prefer not to spend time on this can automate the movie-making process to a large degree, but it is possible to get fairly hands-on, creating your very own starlets, editing scenes and even recording your own dialogue, sound effects and music.

An online community has quickly grown up around the game, with players from all over the world uploading, viewing and rating each other’s mini-masterpieces.

The Movies is packed with detail, full of wit and bags of fun to play. But the subject material won’t necessarily appeal to everybody, and it is unlikely to attain the blockbuster status of more immediate, universal games such as The Sims.

System requirements:

800MHz processor

256MB of Ram

32MB video card with T & L (transform and lighting)

Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP

Psychonauts

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-02-15T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 15 February 2006 at 00:00:00

A colourful and imaginative platform game for desktops

When it comes to quality platform games, the PC is often sorely neglected. The Playstation has its Ratchets and Clanks, Nintendo has its Marios and Luigis, but there are few colourful coin collecting characters outside of the console format.

This is one of the reasons why Psychonauts comes as such a breath of fresh air.

The other reason is that the development of Psychonauts was overseen by one of PC gaming's legends, Tim Schaffer.

And since Schaffer was one of the creative forces behind some of the most original adventure titles ever to grace the desktop - namely The Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango - it's no wonder that Psychonauts is a little, well, different.

The action kicks off when our diminutive hero, Razputin, gatecrashes a summer camp for psychic kids and joins the rag-tag bunch of 'gifted' children in a bid to hone his own extrasensory abilities.

The early stages offer a lot of freedom, leaving you to wander about, talk to people and explore. There's also a fairly extended set of introductory tasks intended to acclimatise you to the gameplay.

But soon a fiendish plot is revealed at which point it suddenly becomes Raz's responsibility to save the day.

This he does by entering a series of characters' minds and traversing their perilous subconscious planes in order to find out exactly who is behind the mystery and defeat them.

When you break it down, the task of journeying through different characters' mental landscapes is really only a device for creating a series of different platforming levels.

But it's a very imaginative device nonetheless and makes for some weird and wonderful environments.

A military-obsessed character's psyche is decked out with guns and ammo, for example, while a hippy chick's mind is like a rainbow-coloured psychedelic trip.

Not only is every world you visit very different from the last visually, but each environment also provides a totally unique experience with its own tasks, puzzles and challenges.

Naturally, there's a lot of the sort of jumping around and bashing things that you'd normally associate with a platform game, but Psychonauts even manages to inject these humdrum elements with new life.

Being a platform game, Psychonauts provides a series of boss levels that need to be beaten before you can proceed.

Ultimately, it's these sections that are the game's only real weakness, feeling as they do mechanical and perfunctory in comparison with the rest of the action.

Graphically, Psychonauts looks amazing. Its bold cartoon style doesn't mean that the developers have cut any corners in terms of textures and shading and, with a powerful graphics card, it's hard to tell the pre-rendered video cut scenes from the in-game animation. Sound effects and music are both strong too.

It's all backed up by some excellent voice acting and - something you don't often come across in a video game - a cracking script.

Psychonauts can be played using a keyboard and mouse, but we thoroughly recommend getting hold of a gamepad if you haven't already got one and button-mashing your way through as the game's creators intended.

Psychonauts isn't very long, isn't particularly challenging and won't appeal to anybody who has already decided that platform gaming isn't for them.

It also comes from a genre that wouldn't normally appeal to many adult gamers. Nevertheless, this is a game full of the kind of wit, originality and detail that's regrettably lacking in many of today's titles. And, as such, we heartily recommend it to your inner (psychic) child.

System requirements:

1GHz processor

256MB of Ram

3.75GB hard disk

64MB Geforce 3 or Radeon 8500

Windows 98SE/2000/XP

Dead or Alive 4

Chris Cain — 2006-02-09T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Cain, Personal Computer World, Thursday 9 February 2006 at 00:00:00

Great graphics on this next generation beat-em-up for the Xbox 360

Tecmo's battling babes hit Dead or Alive (DOA) 4 was originally scheduled for release at the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360.

A few months of tweaking and the next-generation beat-em-up is finally here, much to the delight of hardcore gamers and adolescent schoolboys alike.

While the DOA series has always offered an interesting cast of characters, the games are especially known for their buxom female fighters.

This latest instalment introduces four new faces and we're pleased to see an equal balance between the sexes - at least in the initial line-up.

DOA4 features no less than 22 international contenders, with 16 selectable from the start.

Keeping the British end up are newcomer Elliot, a young Kung Fu master remarkably similar to Virtua Fighter 2's Lion and the hugely popular assassin Christie.

Fans will be pleased to see the return of this femme fatale, given her noticeable absence from the recent Dead or Alive Ultimate compilation.

Christie also has our favourite ending movie in the single-player story mode - the story itself is practically non-existent, but the final video sequence almost makes up for it.

Other game modes include the usual head-to-head fighting action, tag team tournaments, survival mode and a time attack option.

There are also improved facilities for playing challengers online, which should ensure a healthy lifespan for the title.

Fortunately, it's not just the characters that are well rounded. DOA4 features an overhauled fighting system that now relies more on skill than simple button mashing.

Reversing incoming attacks, for example, is much harder for the casual player, requiring the kind of split second timing that only comes with plenty of practice.

The action is also much faster overall. The basic controls are still easy to pick up though, with only punch, kick, throw and block/hold buttons to master.

Other improvements include more multi-tiered fighting arenas, allowing you to knock opponents down the stairs or off a bridge and an increase in destructible scenery.

That said, not everything you'd expect to break does and some of the new locations are bizarre. The car-filled street scene is a welcome addition, but we're not too sure about the dinosaur-inhabited forest.

The intelligence level of computer-controlled opponents is also a little off - rather than becoming progressively harder to beat, your opponent's skill level seems almost random.

Graphically, however, there's absolutely nothing to complain about. Tecmo has clearly got to grips with the Xbox 360 and the results are spectacular - especially when playing on a high-definition TV.

We'd go as far as to say it's the best looking title on the console to date.

Animation is flawless and character costumes are more detailed than ever, although we're pleased to see the Japanese developer has retained the anime-style look to the characters rather than going for photo realism.

Quirky AI aside, DOA4 is easily the most polished version of Tecmo's fun-filled fighter.

With a deep and rewarding combat system, gorgeous graphics and plenty of extra characters and costumes to unlock, it's easy to see this one staying near the top of the charts.

System requirements:

Xbox 360

Memory card or hard disk drive

Controller

Xbox Live Gold account required for online play

Big Mutha Truckers 2: Truck Me Harder

Rory Reid — 2005-11-02T00:00:00.000Z

Rory Reid, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 2 November 2005 at 00:00:00

The redneck race is on to save Big Ma from a jury's wrath

It's not surprising there aren't many games about trucking; hauling cattle across thousands of miles of motorway isn't particularly glamorous.

What better way to spice up a trucking game then, than to inject some redneck humour and give it one of the most puerile titles in the history of gaming.

Before you call Watchdog, there is some logic to the game's unusual moniker. 'Big Mutha Truckers Hauling Inc' is a trucking firm owned by Big Ma, whose shady business dealings have led to her arrest for tax evasion.

It's up to you, as one of her four children, to 'truck' as feverishly as possible in order to raise money for a fancy talkin' lawyer and to pay off corrupt jurors in her trial. This can be done by repeatedly purchasing goods from one location, driving them to another, and selling them on for profit.

Bonuses are awarded for speed, damaging other vehicles, picking up hitchhikers, and avoiding that most pertinent of redneck threats: alien abduction.

Initially, the game is a lot of fun. Ramming other drivers off the road and stealing cargo is enjoyable, and the feel and handling of the trucks is satisfying. The graphics are very well done, and the sounds offer a good dose of humour.

You get a good level of freedom with the choice of available routes and the inclusion of mini-games in the virtual casino. Eventually though, the redneck jibes wear thin, so you may get bored with it sooner rather than later.

There are a number of bonus missions that require you to drive other vehicles, such as an ambulance, but most of the time you are stuck in your rig. Truck Me Harder won't give you the same satisfaction as GTA: San Andreas but, if you're after a quick trucking session that requires little emotional investment, it may be your cup of tea.

System requirements:

2.4GHz processor
256MB Ram
Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP
32MB video card with Transform & Lighting

SCAR (Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo)

Rory Reid — 2005-09-26T00:00:00.000Z

Rory Reid, Personal Computer World, Monday 26 September 2005 at 00:00:00

Racing and role playing in one game

Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo (SCAR) is touted as the first 'CARPG' ever developed, as it combines fast-paced auto racing with elements you'd normally associate with role-playing games.

Whereas most games require you to upgrade parts of your car to improve performance, SCAR uses a skills upgrade system that lets you improve nine different driver abilities across three levels of experience.

Skills include intimidation (the ability to scare other drivers into making mistakes), acceleration (which reduces the amount of time it takes to change gear) and endurance (the rate at which the condition of your driver regenerates).

The way that these skills are put into practice during a race is quite clever. As you hurtle around the track, you can reduce other racers' condition by putting pressure on them from behind. Hogging their bumpers makes them nervous and more likely to make mistakes.

When the tables are turned and the drivers are on your tail, the screen goes temporarily blurry, which makes it more likely that you'll get overtaken. Unusually for a racing game, SCAR lets you turn back time to correct mistakes, using what is known as the Tiger Effect.

Rating SCAR is difficult, as it treads the line between an arcade-style racing game and a simulation (replete with role-playing elements). It does well to mesh all three aspects, but some gamers may prefer titles such as Gran Turismo which concentrate and excels in one particular area. At times, it can seem as if the game is a jack of all trades but master of none.

While they don't always get it right, the makers of SCAR have done a fantastic job in evolving the genre. If you want a fairly realistic racing game with compelling character-building aspects, this is definitely worth considering.

System requirements:

256MB of RAM
64MB graphics card with T&L
2GHz CPU
DirectX 8.1-compatible soundcard
1GB of hard disk space