Ahoy, me Atari
Sid Meier's Pirates!
PC,£34.99, Atari/Firaxis, ****
Pirates of the Caribbean has made swashbuckling cool again, so it's a good time for Atari to relaunch Sid Meier's 1987 franchise, Pirates!
This 21st-century makeover still contains many of the elements of the original as you assume the role of a pirate captain plundering, duelling and adventuring across the high seas.
In the pirate way, your allegiances can be bought by almost anyone for a price. Meanwhile, forming the backdrop to your protagonist's quest to rescue his family is a war between Spain, France, England and Holland. By completing quests for these factions you can gain money, fame and upgrade your ship. It's also fun to gather tipoffs in the local tavern.
The gameplay is a mixture of mini-games loosely strung around the main storyline. Most tactical of these are the naval battles, where you have to fire upon enemy ships while battling winds and ocean currents.
Once you've softened up your enemies up, you can board them for some swordplay action, which takes the form of basic beat 'em ups.
This makes for a great Errol Flynn atmosphere. However, some of these don't sit quite as well, particularly the dancing game where you have to mimic the dance moves of a governor's daughter - hardly something you'd catch Blackbeard doing.
The repetition of animations in some parts is annoying, as are the archaic-looking female characters. But what Pirates lacks in depth, it makes up for in style and fun.
Rhianna Pratchett
Fist fights
Gametrak: Dark Wind
PlayStation 2, £49.99 In2Games, ****
In the wake of the success of Eye Toy, the games industry has begun to think about further alternatives to the standard controller. In2Games has come up with the most bizarre effort so far: the Gametrak, designed for a PS2 (a PC version is due soon).
It consists of a large plastic hub which sits on the floor with a trapezoidal footpad. You also get two gloves, which attach to wires in the hub. Don the gloves, straddle the footpad, attach the wires, and you can track your hand movements with immense accuracy. After a painless calibration session, you are faced with a virtual punch-bag which you can knock around by shadow boxing.
Gametrak's first game, Dark Wind (which comes free with the controller), is a bog-standard beat 'em up. But the hardware works so well that it feels fresh and exciting.
Dark Wind is quite sophisticated - you must learn to block accurately, to pan around using the footpad and to call on "magic" special moves. It even has a two-player split-screen mode.
Perhaps the best aspect of the game is that it tells you the speed of your fastest punch after each bout as well as the calories you have burned.
Steve Boxer
Race against time
Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space
Xbox, £39.99 Microsoft, ***
The one thing the Xbox lacks is a decent platform game. The PS2 has Jak, Ratchet and Sly for gamers who enjoy leaping around in cartoon worlds. Sadly, the Xbox only has Blinx.
The original Blinx was a mess, with camera and gameplay flaws. But the hook of the game (manipulating time to replay sections) was exciting, even if it wasn't implemented properly. Blinx 2 rectifies this plus other annoyances such as the time limits. Collecting shards is easier and players can get stuck into time manipulation quicker. You also get to control the bad guys. There are more puzzles this time, although an intrusive hints system negates the challenge.
Blinx 2 is an improvement on the original but there's still little here that makes the journey really worthwhile. Because of this, it is recommended to younger players only.
Greg Howson
Top 5 games
All formats
1 Need For Speed: Underground 2
2 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
3 The Incredibles
4 Call of Duty: Finest Hour
5 FIFA 2005
· Source: Elspa, compiled by ChartTrack
blogs.theguardian.com/games
