Webview: The Reith Lectures

So what if it pays its DJs too much money, the BBC has done a great job this year of presenting the Reith Lectures. The annual event - aim: to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of the nation - is archived on the corporation's web site back to 1999, both to read or to listen to, but what I like particularly about this year's series, apart from presenter Daniel Barenboim, is that each lecture is available as a podcast for seven days after its original broadcast, so I can download it, transfer it to my Pure DAB radio or Creative Jukebox (nb no mention here of an iPod!) and listen to it at my leisure, invariably on the train on my way to work. Don't know about the rest of the nation, but my intellectual and cultural life is certainly enriched.

Review: Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams for PS2

I have to admit to being new to the Onimusha series. This one picks up 15 years after Nobunaga's annihilation, as his successor Hideyoshi aligns himself to the dark side. But you don't need to have played the earlier instalments to have a terrific game. Especially as this time it's played out in three dimensions, with incredibly detailed graphics over a huge environment - which is of course mainly down to the evolution of the silicon chip.

Gameplay is wonderful - you get to know the characters and learn their moves while actually playing, and you get a lot of excitement while moving the story along. You play the part of Soki, a young and powerful warrior, along with several others, each with their own field of expertise, that he meets along the way. There is one rather annoying little upside down creature who should have been left in Pokemon or wherever he was found, but you can't have everything.

The baddies - the Genma demons - are highly skeletal, not very nice, and the bosses are even more nasty, but you just have to move those fingers quicker.

The field of play is non-linear, so there is plenty of scope for exploration of the environment. Graphics are fantastic and incorporate real Japanese drawings, architecture and costumes, which all add to the authentic flavour of the game. With a variety of mini-games and challenges on the way, this is a highly entertaining addition to the Onimusha series and the PS2 stable.

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams is published by Capcom. Bytes: Rebooted score: 8/10

Review: Bust-a-Move for Nintendo DS

The Bust-a-Move series of games has enjoyed a long and fruitful life on various consoles over the past ten years. Taking the characters from the popular Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Island games and putting them in a puzzler seems to have paid off. The latest instalment brings the classic style of Bust-a-Move gameplay to the DS with excellent results. You use the stylus on the bottom screen to shoot multicoloured balls (catapult-style) into the top screen. When you stick three balls of the same colour together they disappear and the game ends when the top screen is clear.

The Bust-a-Move style gameplay works well on the DS's touch-screen. Though many might find it a little too sensitive at first, it offers excellent, highly accurate aiming which is absolutely necessary in trying to get the quickest times and the highest scores. There are more than two hundred different puzzles to solve, and a great wireless multi-player, but sadly the package is quite sparse after that. The other thing that should be said is that Bust-a-Move is entering a crowded market on the DS, and probably won't offer much to people who already own games like Meteos and Zoo Keeper (or those who are saving up for Tetris!)

All in all, a worthy, albeit vanilla, Bust-a-Move title for the DS that fans or puzzle fans in general will enjoy.

Review by Eliot Gurrin. Bust-a-Move was developed by Taito/Happy Happening and costs £29.99. Bytes: Rebooted score 7/10