Project Zero
Xbox, £39.99 Tecmo/Microsoft ****

The main star of Project Zero is a camera with "mystical powers". Sadly, these powers don't work on celebrities, but do allow you to fend off ghostly spirits and solve puzzles.

This may not be particularly useful when stalking celeb hangouts, but it's crucial for surviving in Project Zero - probably the scariest videogame ever. Not that the plot suggests anything other than cheese, as you guide your avatar - a young Japanese girl called Miku - into a mysterious mansion. This is a survival horror very much in the Resident Evil/Silent Hill mould. The creepy environments, laughable vocal acting and detailed visuals are all in place. But in Zero, you shoot your assailants with film rather than bullets.

These ghostly apparitions - far more frightening than the lumbering zombies of Resident Evil - can only be seen through the camera, with well-timed snaps needed to defeat them. The camera can be upgraded for more powerful ghostbusting, which is vital for later in the game.

Project Zero transcends its influences in another crucial factor - a sense of unease. This is a bleakly unnerving experience: think Luigi's Mansion directed by David Lynch.

Sudden movements in the corner of the screen or ghostly confrontations as a creaking door opens are typical. But it is the heightened feeling of palpable tension, caused by the marvellously atmospheric sound effects that really engages. Some of the controls can be fiddly and the initial thrill of spirit contact does recede, but Project Zero is a cult classic that deserves a wider audience.
GH

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Xbox, £39.99 Interplay/VU Games/ Snowblind Studios, ****
PC users have been spoilt rotten when it comes to role-playing games (RPG). The famous Baldur's Gate series may have its spiritual home on the beige box, but it is only fair that the consoles get in on the action. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the Xbox may only have a passing resemblance to anything bearing the BG prefix on the PC, but it is a direct port of last year's successful PS2 version.

You take on the forces of evil as one of three different warriors: Human Archer, Dwarven Fighter or Eleven Sorceress. The character you choose has an impact on the way you play through the game. As a fighter, you will use lots of up-close and personal melee fighting, while archers opt for more long-range killing.

Dark Alliance is all about unrestrained combat and, for that reason, the traditional RPG features such as statistics juggling are kept to a bare minimum, leaving you free to unleash hell on anything that looks at you suspiciously. It is a good-looking game with nice details, including realistic-looking water. There is also a fair amount of replayability with three difficulty levels and two unlockable modes, plus great voices from the likes of John Rhys-Davies.

Those expecting an in-depth RPG would be advised to stick to some thing like Morrowind, because Dark Alliance has much more in common with such hack'n'slash games as Diablo and Dungeon Siege. That's no bad thing, because the sweet repetitive sound of blade meeting monster and the tinkle of falling treasure is an extremely addictive serenade.
RP

Panzer Dragoon Orta
Xbox, £39.99 Sega/Infogrames, ****
Japanese games are renowned for having weird names, but Panzer Dragoon Orta must be the most misleading title in history. Rather than a second world war effort in which you are press-ganged into piloting German tanks, it is an airborne shoot-'em-up in which you fly around on the back of a heavily armed dragon. Panzer Dragoon Orta is a curious mix of cutting-edge visuals and old-skool gameplay.

Although you can manoeuvre small distances, you are essentially dragged through each level on rails: the skill involves loosing off homing missiles at hordes of enemies that come from all directions, and orienting yourself carefully to hit the bosses' weak spots. It is very similar to Rez, down to the control that lets you highlight multiple enemies. Complexity is added by the ability to transform your dragon into three states (one enhances firepower, another manoeuvrability); there are also a few power-ups to collect and, when charged up, a Berserk Attack that obliterates everything on screen amid a glorious psychedelic solarisation visual effect.

But Panzer Dragoon Orta's graphics set it apart: they are gorgeous, and you could argue they are the best seen in a game. The painstakingly created landscapes and freakish monsters are reminiscent of the best RPGs, yet the gameplay is full-onaction. There is no multiplayer mode, and the main game is rather short, although you can unlock all sorts of sub-games, which put you in radically different scenarios. Not a ground-breaker, but near essential for Xbox owners.
SB