DVD News: Star Wars

In case, like Eliot, you have lost your original videotape, the very first Star Wars movie is being released later this year with bonus material, including the original "1977 theatrical version".

Click on the above link for more information and to pre-order through Amazon.

This message has been brought to you to prove this blog is still operational!

Review: Mindscape Kakuro for PC

There are two main reasons why you should not buy, let alone install, the latest release from Mindscape on your PC. First, you will get nothing done. If you have not yet been bitten by the Kakuro or Sudoku bugs, you have presumably been plane-wrecked on an uncharted island, live on some far-flung planet in a time that Dr Who has not yet visited - or maybe you just don't get the daily papers.

Kakuro and Sudoku are basically number puzzles, using the numbers 1 to 9 on grids of squares where no number is repeated in a line. What happens then depends on which game you are playing. They were devised in Japan and are guaranteed to hook you in, chew you up and spit you out.

The software - Mindscape Sudoku comes as a bonus CD with Mindscape Kakuro - gives you a virtually unlimited range of Kakuro and Sudoku puzzles all the way up to grids of 16x16 squares - which is about as mind-blowing as you would want these games. There are few bells and whistles, but with classic puzzles like this, who needs them? The options are things such as difficulty levels, fonts, colours or background graphics. And, more usefully, practice and "pencil" modes which help you learn the game.

You can even print the puzzles out and take them to work with you - you need never buy another newspaper again. Which is the other reason why you should not buy, let alone install, the latest release from Mindscape on your PC. I will be out of a day job. But if you really want to, go ahead. It seems a bit weird comparing a puzzle such as Kakuro with a whole imaginary world such as 24, but at this price, you won't find a better game this year...

Mindscape Kakuro is published by Mindscape at £9.99. Bytes: Rebooted score 9/10 (because you can always go one better.)

24: The Game for PS2

Pa-Dink, Pa-Ding, Pa-Dink, Pa-Ding… If you understand this peculiar reference you probably own this game already, and good for you! This is one of the best uses of a film/TV licence in a video game to date, and everything oozes 24: from the use of split screen, the infamous clock (Pa-Dink!) and the likeness and voice talent of every actor involved in the show from seasons 2 and 3. 24: The Game is set snugly in-between, and the story is intriguing and just the right side of ridiculous to please the most ardent fan.

But let’s not get carried away: strip away the awesome 24 appeal and what is left? Sadly, a marginally above-average platformer, with sometimes excellent/sometimes buggy graphics, a plethora of game-play modes and mini-games that will distract some and bore others; a great score (when it’s there); lacklustre driving mission; some so-so stealth missions; a decent targeting system and artificial intelligence like machinegun fodder from the worst Bond film.

If the idea was to make the player feel like Jack Bauer then they sure as hell made a good effort, and 24 fans will have a great time for the eight hours or so it’ll take to complete, and fans can add a point to my final score. But you’ll be grateful it’s not real-time. Maybe I’m being harsh, the game is certainly serviceable as an action shooter… but it’s already a crowded market. I think I have been spoiled by Resident Evil 4.

Review by Eliot Gurrin. 24: The Game is developed and published by SCEE. Bytes: Rebooted score: 5/10.