Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
PC, £34.99 Storm/UbiSoft ****
You have to hand it to Tom Clancy. Despite being something of a one-trick pony, his mix of cold-war intrigue and modern firepower makes perfect material for videogames.
Raven Shield has all the depth you might expect and combines it with the Unreal 3D engine, which is perfect for gloomy urban landscapes. But the value of RS is all in the detail: choosing the right weapons, teammates and tactical plan - that's why you pick it over dozens of lighter shoot-'em-ups around.
The 15 missions are suitably varied and commanding your squad is always fun. Still, each level is fraught with unexpected danger and as every direct hit kills you, there is a genuine tension not felt in many other games.
For my own taste, Rainbow Six remains too fiddly to be fun. However, you can't criticise it for cornering its niche market. As far as squad-based tactical shooters go, there is no serious alternative to Clancy. (MA)
Super Monkey Ball 2
GameCube, £39.99 Sega/Infogrames ****
If you deplore the overwhelming trend towards dizzying complexity fuelled by the advent of super-powerful next-generation consoles, then the chances are that you own a copy of Super Monkey Ball.
Hailed as the purest game since Tetris, it came across like a 21st- century version of Marble Madness, augmented by a bunch of wonderfully imaginative and addictive mini-games. With Super Monkey Ball 2, Sega has concentrated on providing more of the same with tweaks. This time around you are exposed to fearsomely difficult levels much earlier, and marked improvements have been made to the mini-games.
There are six new ones - Monkey Boat, Monkey Shot, Monkey Dogfight, Monkey Soccer, Monkey Baseball and Monkey Tennis - of which Monkey Tennis and Monkey Soccer are most likely to acquire cult status.
If you were in a churlish mood, you could argue that Super Monkey Ball 1.5 would be a more apposite appellation. But Super Monkey Ball 2, like its predecessor, is such a joyously fun-packed and addictive game that you would be a fool not to buy it if you own a GameCube.
Freelancer
PC, £39.99 Digital Anvil/Microsoft ***
Freelancers are often late with their work, but even the most cynical hack would blanch at the six years it has taken Freelancer to appear.
Originally announced in 1997, Freelancer set out to capture one of gaming's holy grails - recreating Elite for the 21st century. By attempting to marry the free-flowing freedom of the classic 80s space sim with state-of-the-art graphics, Freelancer had gamers dribbling in anticipation. Sadly, while being a solid achievement, Freelancer fails to live up to these lofty expectations.
It's the absence of depth that is its downfall. Yes you can choose your own way in-between missions, but the variety of tasks is limited. It soon becomes clear that there is only so much you can do beyond the confines of the storyline.
Despite all this, there is something addictive about Freelancer. The easy controls and shallow learning curve play their part, as does the overall visual polish. Even though Freelancer fails to live up to its immense promise, it is still an appealing proposition.
