Xbox

Play as yourself, not a pro skater, and make your way through a plot-twisting, true-to-life story that takes you from unknown local skate punk to fame and fortune as Skater of the Year. * Get off your board and explore 9 expansive levels on foot or jump on a motorcycle, BMX bike or go-kart and go for a joy ride. Enjoy unprecedented customization by designing and naming your own original tricks through the all-new Create-a-Trick. Or create bigger parks and include your own goals in the expanded Skate Park Editor. * After you're done, share your tricks and parks online with your friends. You can even download your own face into the game! And, with all-new online play - new games, support for clans - you'll have infinite expansion through downloadable content.Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre:SportLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating16+. Play as yourself, not a pro skater, and make your way through a plot-twisting, true-to-life story that takes you from unknown local skate punk to fame and fortune as Skater of the Year. * Get off your board and explore 9 expansive levels on foot or jump on a motorcycle, BMX bike or go-kart and go for a joy ride. Enjoy unprecedented customization by designing and naming your own original tricks through the all-new Create-a-Trick. Or cre

Project Gotham Racing 2 is the newest version of the critically acclaimed ''Project Gotham Racing'' franchise. Rewarding drivers for focusing on speed and style while still taking risks around every corner, ''Project Gotham Racing 2'' offers circuit-based racing through highly detailed, photorealistic urban environments. Racers can choose from more than 50 of the hottest cars while learning their way around new and exciting cities, mastering corners, and accelerating through the straightaways before moving to a different venue. Players also can race against up to three friends at once through a multiplayer SystemLink or match up against players online utilizing Xbox Live. * More cities, including Hong Kong and Edinburgh, Scotland. Maintaining its international theme, the game allows players to travel the globe while racing in the some of the world's most dynamic cities. The final number of cities is still being determined, but gamers can expect there to be many more than in ''Project Gotham Racing.'' * More than 50 of the fastest, most desirable and stylish cars - all fully licensed and fully damageable - from top manufacturers. A wide range of high-performance vehicles, including models from top manufacturers such as Ferrari (the new Enzo Ferrari is slated to be in the game) and Porsche, will offer gamers an exciting driving experience. * Online play. ''Project Gotham Racing 2'' will support Xbox Live, allowing gamers to challenge friends and others with online play and downloadable content (online play details to be disclosed at a later date). * Multiplayer SystemLink also allows four players to race head-to-head in the same room. * Kudos reward system. Gamers can experience more ways to earn Kudos, as well as a new rating system with a more accurate way to rank players rather than just by the number of Kudos they have earned. * Beautiful game environments. The game's highly detailed, mapped-out levels allow players to drive in photorealistic city environments, demonstrating the superior graphics technology of Xbox.Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre:RacingLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+. Project Gotham Racing 2 is the newest version of the critically acclaimed ''Project Gotham Racing'' franchise. Rewarding drivers for focusing on speed and style while still taking risks around every corner, ''Project Gotham Racing 2'' offers circuit-based racing through highly detailed, photorealistic urban environments. Racers can choose from more than 50 of the hottest cars while learning their way around new and exciting cities, mastering corners,

STOLEN is an ultra realistic, third person, stealth-based, action game, based around a high-tech female thief. Along with innovative high-tech stealth/robbery game actions and events, STOLEN also boasts some truly amazing technical and presentational features to give it a spectacular look that will captivate gamers.Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+. STOLEN is an ultra realistic, third person, stealth-based, action game, based around a high-tech female thief. Along with innovative high-tech stealth/robbery game actions and events, STOLEN also boasts some truly amazing technical and presentational features to give it a spectacular look that will captivate gamers.Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL sto

Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:XboxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating16+. Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:XboxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating16+

Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating16+. Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating16+

Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+. Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+

Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre:StrategyLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+. Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre:StrategyLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+

In addition to the international teams and bonus squads, you can now play with domestic teams and compete in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The all-new Twenty20 tournament will be fully licensed with season modes also on offer. Cricket will revolve around a TV style presentation including a full action replay mode, third umpire, animated ducks, TV style overlays, field position editor and much more. The field position editor will allow for auto or manual fielding. Over 35 dynamically lit stadiums will be modelled from all over the world, including Lords in England, as well as other world-class venues in Calcutta, Melbourne, Auckland, Cape Town, Barbados and Lahore.Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre:SportLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+. In addition to the international teams and bonus squads, you can now play with domestic teams and compete in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The all-new Twenty20 tournament will be fully licensed with season modes also on offer. Cricket will revolve around a TV style presentation including a full action replay mode, third umpire, animated ducks, TV style overlays, field position editor and much more. The field position editor wi

Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+. Notice: Coolshop is a Danish owned UK based webshop. All orders are dispatched from our UK hub.All games will be UK/EU PAL stock - guaranteeing all games to work for the UK market. Platform:X-boxGenre: ActionLanguage in gameCover languagePEGI Rating3+

The black and white spies of Mad magazine are no strangers to the world of video games, with an ancestry going back to the days of the Master System. The sort of vicious split-screen rivalry it provoked, while a familiar enough style of gameplay to console owners these days, was at the time a much rarer thing, and it's about time the series was updated to take advantage of the power and sophistication of contemporary systems. Presumably these were the thoughts of Global Star and developers Vicious Cycle too, and so it is that we find ourselves quite excited at the prospect of a reworking on Xbox and PS2. Played in the third-person, to better show the cartoonish movements of the manic protagonists, the game supports multiplayer in both split-screen and online flavours. Perhaps you will despatch your opponent using direct methods - a flame thrower perhaps? Maybe a Tommy gun or heat-seeking rocket launcher is more to your taste? Or perhaps you'd prefer to do things a little more sneakily... a hidden bomb, a Perfect Dark-style sentry gun, or a hilarious electrified doorknob: all these and more are available in your determined-but-never-explained quest to rid the world of your chromatically contrasting counterpart. In your mission to secure the top secret information, as well as all the traps, bombs and other weapons, you'll also be able to make use of disguises, and the Mod-a-Spy mode gives you the freedom to have your snooper looking just the way you want him. As you continue to play the game, you'll unlock even more costumes and more outlandish methods of elimination. As well as five multiplayer modes, in which you can play three others on one system or online, there are three single player ones as well, so you can hone your skills with your devilish devices. So, pull down your wide-brimmed hat and set out to prove your cunning!.

The most recognisable face in golf since Sam Torrance shaved off his 'tache returns for another round in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, and he's brought along a few of his talented friends - Furyk, Singh, Daly and a dozen more. Electronic Arts selection of sports titles is the stuff of legend; they are the biggest publisher in the world, after all, and it's games such as this which will keep them at the top of the tree. EA get a lot of criticism for their seemingly bottomless pit of sports updates, but Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is, to use a non-golfing term, a doozy, and well worth a look. The 2004 update is the only game where you can earn your Tour Card while playing the best courses the golfing world has to offer - St Andrews, Royal Birkdale and Torrey Pines for example - a handful of fantasy courses, including The Highlands and The Predator, plus the chance to create your own. The Game Face option lets you put yourself, or a more handsome version of yourself, in the game. Game Face is a kind of virtual beauty salon-cum-fashion house where you can customise almost every aspect of your golfer. Daft hairstyles, regrettable tattoos and pastel shades are all available at a cost. And all this is before you actually get to swing a club... To get to the first hole, you have to select from the various modes on offer. Multiple game modes deliver quick, competitive situations and side games, including Skills competition, Shoot-out, Best Ball, team matches, a scramble mode, and PGA Tour Season mode. Tournament Mode is a series of multi-round competitions against Tour Pros in which you can earn career money and sponsorships. The World Tour option pits the user against the course. Completing a number of challenges designed to teach you the best way to play a particular course is the key here, and when you're ready, you can take a shot at beating the course Pro. As you defeat each opponent and dominate each region, you'll earn more money, thus enabling you to attract more sponsors and further customise your player. The gameplay in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 hasn't changed a great deal since last time out, but it's still worth going through the tutorial at the outset, and looking out for tips on-screen. When you're confident that you can play without any advice or assistance, you can always turn off the hints and tips. The TrueSwing technology incorporated into the game provides a more realistic experience for the virtual golfer. There's even a point at tee-off where your man can take a short run-up before hitting the ball for that extra bit of power. Have a fiddle about with the button configuration and see what happens. Golf as an extreme sport? Not quite, but it is a surprise to see something like this in a game that, as a simulation, is about as good as it gets..

Everybody gasped when Microsoft bought up long-time Nintendo affiliate Rare, whose portfolio inlcuded GoldenEye and the last-gasp N64 masterpiece, the unashamedly profane Conker's Bad Fur Day. Analysts said that the console market toe-dipping software megalith could never hope to recoup the staggering amount of money paid, even if the developers churned out 10 games a week for the next million years. Even more surprising then, that even with Xbox 360 looming ever bigger on the horizon, Rare has yet to release more than one Xbox title, the coolly-received Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Now the long-awaited and long-promised Conker Live and Reloaded is finally here. The game comprises two main parts. The Live part does indeed refer to Xbox Live and Rare have created a multiplayer-focused experience following the war between the brave squirrels of Squirrel High Command and the evil and menacing Tediz. This war, that formed the backdrop to Conker's madcap adventures in Conker's Bad Fur Day, has now been expanded on fully, with six types of soldier on either side, controllable vehicles, and a dynamic where, via a time machine in a pub basement, the war can be fought in the 'present day' or in the future. Players can join the team of their choice and play this quite tactical third-person experience, whether it be on one Xbox with AI goodies and baddies, or against up to 16 players via Live or simply system link. The Squirrel forces consist of ordinary grunts, and experts in demolition, pyrotechnics, sniping, infiltration/close combat and pilots. These characters all have their own bespoke weapons, and differ when found in the future or past, in the Old War and Future War. The Tediz also have as many different characters to choose from, and the vehicles available include five types from planes to tanks. Players will have to communicate and use their special abilities wisely if they and their comrades are to triumph on the battlefield. Missions available for selection feature different scenarios and players can also choose to play either of the past and future campaigns online, where there is a plot progression from one mission to the next. As much as all this is, it only constitutes the Live part of the title. Reloaded features the original Conker's Bad Fur Day, re-jigged and beautified to make the most of the console's powers. All the quirky and humorous gameplay, puzzles and movie references are there, and promised to be ruder than ever before. An attractive enough prospect in itself, particularly for those who never played the original, but packaged with a unique, all-new team shoot-'em-up makes it pretty difficult to resist..

The darker side of the James Bond universe reveals itself in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, as you assume the role of the aforementioned agent and take on a selection of the most notorious Bond villains in some of the memorable movie settings such as the Pyramids from The Spy Who Loved Me, and the Volcano Lair from You Only Live Twice. A first-person experience with a host of combat styles from single-punch knockdowns to taking out the baddies with a harpoon or a railgun, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent trawls the Bond archive and comes up with some of the most explosive action we've seen since Pierce Brosnan got off the train somewhere in North Korea. As a Rogue Agent, you carry the SPEC-9 personal side-arm, which is never dropped and always has ammunition. Handy, you might say. But as any respectable Bond-affiliated game will attest, there's a lot more on offer than a simple handgun. The titular GoldenEye refers to the damage done to your right eye at the outset. With a new synthetic eye at your disposal, you can see enemies through cover using MRI vision, manipulate electronics and weapons using the EM Hack, deflect damage with the Magnetic Polarity Shield, and send enemies flying across the room with the Magnetic Field. More than handy, we reckon. Theoretically, progression in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is simple. In Campaign mode - the heart of the game in which you exact revenge on Dr No - missions are presented in sequence, and the trick is to complete one, thus unlocking the next. At the end of each mission you are scored on how well you completed your assignment. Your Rogue score is the sum of the total eliminations you accomplish during the mission, plus several bonuses. Special unlocks, such as multiplayer maps, become available by achieving high scores. With the all-new E.V.I.L. AI controlling the in-game enemies meaning that the game never plays the same way twice, and a mercilessly brutal split-screen multiplayer offering including some seriously heavy weaponry, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is literally a blast..

Circus Maximus: Chariot Wars is a fairly original concept in this day and age, considering the huge array of pastiches, conversions and sequels released each week. Admittedly, there are a million and one racing games out there but this one has gone for the bizarre options in the cases of the vehicles and setting. Chariot racing anyone? With a noticeable inspiration from Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator, Circus Maximus casts the player as a chariot racer in Ancient Rome. Set across 19 tracks spanning seven cinematic environments, from the sands of Alexandria to the Coliseum, the goal is to earn Dinari and advance through the ranks to become the greatest racer in town. Each chariot has both a driver and a warrior; the player has either complete control over the team or can let the A.I drive whilst taking control of the warrior. A second player can also join in for two-player co-operative play. Winning races rakes in the cash, which is required in order to progress to subsequent races. Running over helpless pedestrians or riding on one wheel also earns Dinari, which is thrown from the admiring crowd. Game modes include Arcade, Career, Training and Multi-player. Career mode sees the player begin the quest to be the best, offering various unlockable features along the way. Arcade mode allows for quick-fix, straight racing, whilst Multi-player supports two player co-operation or one-on-one races. In a genre that sometimes seems to be in danger of exhausting its possibilities, Circus Maximus has attempted to do something a little different with the racing game. .

There's no denying that the five books in the Harry Potter series were a massive success, but when Hogwarts' most troublesome student arrived on the big screen, the franchise became so much more. The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets alone raked in more than a billion pounds, but the big screen representation of the third and arguably best book in the series, The Prisoner of Azkaban, is set to raise the bar even further. And like its predecessors, The Prisoner of Azkaban has also made it onto Xbox, courtesy of Electronic Arts. As Harry Potter and his closest friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, return to Hogwarts' for an unpredictable third year, the heat is turned up when escapee of the wizard prison Azkaban, Sirius Black, shows a vested interest in the young wizard Harry. Indeed, the setting for the film is much darker, and this is brilliantly reflected in EA's virtual offering. Where the previous games saw players assuming control of Harry Potter alone, The Prisoner of Azkaban allows them to partake in the adventure as any one of the mischievous threesome. But whoever you control, your goal throughout remains clear: to put a stop to the evil doings of Sirius Black and defend yourself from the Dementors, a sinister breed of Azkaban guardians. The single player adventure remains pretty much the same as before, in that Potter and friends must negotiate a variety of faithful fantasy locales, traversing platforms and defeating a familiar bestiary of enemies along the way. But, as expected, what is different is that players must now use the strengths of all three characters in order to complete certain tasks and puzzles. Harry's grappling spell serves as a means to reach those hidden ledges, whilst Hermione is a natural with magic. Then there's Ron Weasley; he's not an outstanding character, but he does pull his weight as best he can throughout the adventure. As so many would say, it wouldn't be the same without him, and his general 'wimpishness' adds to the humour no end. Overall, you have a standard third-person adventure with multiple playing styles, a fine story and some gorgeous environments. It's a great game, and paves the way for 2005's fourth Harry Potter outing, The Goblet of Fire. We can hardly wait..

Basketball fans get ready for some slam-dunking action with the 2006 version of the NBA series when it hits the hardwood. NBA 2K6 offers the most detailed, comprehensive and all-round fun basketballing videogame experience yet. The game boasts a whole range of new features including the 'Shot Stick' ability to control the direction of your shots with the right analog stick. This gives you much greater control over the ball than ever before, and you will soon be pulling off runners, fade-aways, finger rolls and dunks with a flick of the stick. The Dual Player Control option means that you can set team-mates into motion for alley-oops, give and gos, or to hit an open man for a three-point play with the touch of the d-pad. And to intercept/steal the ball, the 'Strip n Rip System' lets you anticipate passes by jumping into passing lanes to deflect or intercept a pass, as well as strip the ball from a player driving to the hoop, or a player with weak hands coming down with the rebound. New to NBA 2K6 this year is a feature called 'The Crib'. Earn crib credits with every game you play to deck out your crib, buy music, or play mini-games. Keeping it street, you can also take to the streets of Harlem in the Entertainer's Basketball Classic to play against NBA players and Def Jam celebrities including Redman, Method Man, Flavor Flav and many other special guests. However, playing ball in The Big Apple with Flavor Flav aside, the game still boasts an impressive level of NBA reality simulation - with the opportunity to take total control of your NBA franchise by hiring your own coaching staff, scouting top draft picks year-round, developing individual player skills with multiple in game-drills, and optimising your team chemistry with team workouts. With continuous stat tracking including league injuries, trades, winning streaks, league leaders, play-off races, and post season awards, you will never be uninformed..

Cue the fanfare - or at least an accordian-accompanied drunken jig - because Confounding Factor's swashbuckling adventure is finally (yes finally!) here. Originally announced so long ago that we were to expect a Dreamcast version, Galleon has since promised appearances on the majority of gaming hardware, before winding up now (yes, finally!) on Xbox. And only on Xbox, we hastene to add. In the unlikely event that you hadn't heard, Galleon is the epic high seas adventure from the brain of Lara Croft-inventor Toby Gard, and has aroused considerable anticipation since it was first announced sometime in the late eighteenth century. The story tells of charming yet dangerous protagonist Rhama Sabrier, a guy who's always up for adventure and who subsequently jumps at the chance to head off and assess a mysterious ship at the request of a wise healer. What follows is a venture into a mystifying world alive with invincible warriors, eerie shipwrecks, heroic battles, and epic legends of folklore, on a journey to discover a source of incredible powers before the obligatory 'treacherous enemy' does. Obviously, you take on the role of Rhama as you embark on the above quest, set within an expansive game world that spans six islands. And Rhama's not just your ordinary guy either, as he's endowed with a range of impressive kung fu skills for dealing with the game's hordes of enemies, as well as some incredible Qing-Gong abilities, which enable him to do things like run up walls, jump enormous crevasses, fall from great heights, run at incredible speeds, and swim down to mighty depths. As with any captain of a galleon, Rhama doesn't have to do things alone and can thus rely on support from his crew. Along the way you can recruit new characters to assist you in your quest, each one offering new skills and advantages and subsequently helping to conquer challenges and defeat certain enemies. Female company for the hero includes Faith, a red-headed mystic healer and Mihoko, an oriental martial arts master. Throughout the game, a rather meaty storyline throws up all the choice cuts such as greed, murder, betrayal and revenge, resulting in what we would all hope for from such a lengthily-developed and greatly hyped game - an epic adventure. It's been a long time coming but Galleon has been worth the wait. .

Some of you may be familiar with the name Carmen Sandiego. If so, you may also recall that this is one elusive character, appearing (or not) in such past titles as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego. In each case, where that particular person was obviously not known, but what they did was to head up the evil VILE Network, which was a notorious organisation that carried out thefts of some of the world's most precious artefacts and needed to be stopped by you. Well that premise continues in good faith with this revamp of the popular series, but now appears courtesy of a 3D action adventure, complete with plenty of exploration, puzzle solving and the now-obligatory bit of stealth. The game's story tells how, on his deathbed, an African King revealed the existence of an ancient hidden temple, deep in the jungles of Rwanda, containing a great diamond that possesses the knowledge of all nations. Of course there's a map but, to make things a little difficult, it has been etched onto the skins of eight drums, which, unsurprisingly, have been scattered across the four corners of the globe. Recent reports of thefts from museums all over the world are hinting that Carmen Sandiego may well be on the hunt for these drums, so you must join the ACME team and once again take up the trail of the infamous thief. You take on the role of Cole Gannon, ACME agent-in-training, and team up with Jules Argent and Shadow Hawkins as you explore nine exotic locations around the world, from a museum in New York, through the beaches of New Zealand, to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. Armed with a trusty PC for communicating with the ACME team and performing various techy procedures, as well as a handy staff that doubles as a blowgun, you must implement a combination of acrobatics, martial arts-based combat and puzzle-solving as you hunt down the mysterious Carmen Sandiego. As mentioned before, stealth plays quite a large part in the proceedings and, as such, along the way you must avoid detection, do plenty of sneaking around, and also make use of your staff/blowgun in order to do things like distract enemies and activate distant switches. Another feature that was common in the older Carmen Sandiego titles is an educational aspect. This has also been implemented in The Secret of the Stolen Drums, meaning that, as you explore the diverse international locations, you also get to learn about their respective history and geography. So it's kind of like being at school, but having fun at the same time. .

A surprise hit from developer UDS, Xbox's Futurama, based on the TV series of the same name, is the latest addition to the library of third-person adventures. And in spite of the fact that most TV series turned video game projects result in disaster, Futurama looks to be an exception. In this particular episode, evil businesswoman Mom has bought Planet Express Deliveries from Professor Farnsworth, affording her the majority share of the planet Earth and making her ruler of the human race, which she now plans to enslave. What's worse, she's bent on converting Earth itself into an over-sized warship capable of galactic conquest. Your goal, assuming control of the Futurama cast, is to travel back in time and prevent the deal from going ahead, thus, saving the entire human race from a life of misery. In all fairness, it's actually quite an intriguing story, and typical of what you would expect from an episode of Matt Groening's surreal creation. Futurama has players controlling cast members Fry, Bender, Leela and Dr Zoidberg across several diverse scenarios before combining their efforts to thwart Mom's plans of galactic domination. Each of the playable characters boasts a set of unique moves and attacks. Where one character is good with weapons, the other excels in hand-to-hand combat. But despite these different playing styles, the control method remains the same throughout, featuring a series of comfortable attack, jump and action moves. The game world itself, although not as advanced as say, Gran Turismo 3 or Splinter Cell, makes admirable use of cell-shading techniques that help make it look as faithful to the TV series as possible. And in that respect it looks fantastic. Gameplay is largely played in the third-person and character movement is fluid, as is most of the on-screen action. Certain elements of play do offer a welcome change in perspective though. For example, when wielding a rather large robotic chicken, the camera changes to first-person mode and a cross hair appears, a la Doom... but for kids, of course. It's refreshing to see a game like Futurama demonstrate how capable lesser-known developers are of producing a class A game. Great stuff..

When the age of 3D gaming began in the mid-90s, the beat-em-up genre was among the first to receive a graphical overhaul. Soon after, two of the most competitive fighting series were born - Virtua Fighter and Tekken. But some would argue that Sega's efforts with the Virtua series always managed to outperform the play mechanics of Tekken. It was during this rivalry that arcade giant Namco came up with Soul Calibur in 1999. It was a massive hit for Dreamcast, demonstrating a fine game engine, combat system and breathtaking visuals that are gorgeous even by today's standards. We don't know why it's taken four years, but Namco has finally released its sequel, Soul Calibur 2, for Xbox. An extremely well presented title, Soul Calibur 2 wows within the first few seconds, eager to show off its visual prowess. Characters are beautifully rendered in amazing detail. The simple but nonetheless spectacular weapon-blur remains for the second outing amidst the game's lush and varied game environments. Visuals are sharp, clean and there is no slow-down. We hesitate to say it, but visually, it's just about perfect. Exploring the game and its many options, players are able to choose from a large selection of both new and familiar combatants, and there is one fighter exclusive to each version of the game. In this instance, it's Todd McFarlane's Spawn character. Regardless of your choices, success boils down to your ability to fight in a virtual arena in a one-on-one knockout contest. Again, weapons are the most prolific aspect of fighting in Soul Calibur 2, with most of the game's pre-programmed moves and combinations making use of one blade or another. All the player has to do is learn them. With more experience, you'll master the intricacies weapons combat, as you learn to perfect timing and gain the ability to defend yourself as well as attack. The control method, like the first in the series, is intuitive and sophisticated, and rarely leaves the player frustrated. It's a true test of hand-to-eye coordination and wits. There are a total of seven game modes at the player's disposal, comprising of Arcade, Vs, Time Attack, Survival, Team Battle and Practice, but most interestingly, Weapon Master Mode. This ongoing exercise allows players to compete for some 200 weapons - each bigger and better than the last - as they plough through continuous encounters with formidable foes. Soul Calibur 2 is without a doubt everything it promised to be. It doesn't disappoint and it deserves to take top spot in the charts as 2003's finest beat-em-up..