007 NightFire, Sony Playstation

James Bond sits happily alongside other videogame characters. It's almost like he's always been around, perhaps making eyes at Lara, whilst planning to dispatch Waluigi with a bolt from his watch and a humorous quip. With the Bond license now residing at Electronic Arts, it's worth bearing in mind that 007 got his feet under the console table with the release of the astoundingly good and entirely revolutionary GoldenEye, developed by the former Rare team, now working away on the TimeSplitters franchise. EA picked up the baton, now moulded forever more as a first-person shooter, and ran with it. Featuring an original storyline. NightFire pits Bond in another adventure set in glamorous locations around the world, from the top of the Swiss Alps to deep space, a la Moonraker. You see, EA has free licence to borrow from the film series' rich heritage of gadgetry, location and action, brewing a Bond soup that will, without question, bring delight to fans of the movies. The game runs along the rails of a mission-based FPS as you would expect, with levels varying in context. Some will involve simply blasting reams of baddies to reach your goal, whereas others will insist on the use of stealth, the new black on the gaming catwalk. This is well supplemented by driving levels, free of the plague that was 007 Racing, featuring the Aston Martin Vanquish, a very nice car indeed. With NightFire, more attention has been paid to the out of Bond levels. The driving missions have a decent feel to them, with various motors getting the applied physics treatment. Nightfire stands as an interactive James Bond experience, aimed squarely at fans of the movies, riddled with in-jokes and references to the film series. If you can't get your dad off your PlayStation 2, buy him this for Christmas and shoot him dead in the multiplayer mode.

Buy 007 NightFire for 12.99 GBP

SingStar Rocks!
This is the April 2006 instalment in the SingStar series and another chance to be the lead singer of your favourite band. SingStar Rocks! is a singing-based game that uses software and microphones specially designed to work out your tone, pitch and rhythm to give you a score. This party game features 30 fully licensed tracks from grunge superstars Nirvana to Glasgow's finest Franz Ferdinand, via o...
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex
Crash has finally made his next generation debut for PlayStation 2 in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Crash Bandicoot first saw the light of day in 1996 on PlayStation. Soon after, the hip marsupial was dubbed as Sony's new 'mascot'. Even today, many gamers believe Crash is to Sony what Mario is to Nintendo. The Wrath of Cortex sees the return of many popular characters from the famous Naugh...
Brian Lara International Cricket
The original Brian Lara Cricket for the PlayStation is still spoken of in hushed tones by gaming cricket fans today. It's not even unknown for them still to play it on occasion. The game, developed by Audiogenic Software, was the by far the best cricket game of its time in an admittedly oft-neglected genre. A large roster of real players, a selection of 'scenarios' inspired by real life matches, a...
Prince of Persia: Revelations
Prince of Persia: Revelations is the popular series' first outing on the PSP. The story begins a few years after the conclusion of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, with the Prince having returned to Babylon, only to find himself hunted by a supernatural creature bent on his destruction. Don't you just hate it when that happens!? Forced to live a life on the run, he seeks counsel from an old my...
Virtua Tennis 2
It was a sad day when this title was released for the Dreamcast. Sad because, although a great game, the machine itself was almost dead. We all knew it. Sega knew it. And the game did indeed turn out to be one of the last released for the console. It's nice to know then that, through Sega's recent adoption of a multi-platform strategy, the spirit of the DC can live on with PS2 releases such as Vir...
Pro Evolution Soccer
PC's may have their RTS and role-playing games in abundance, but sometimes it seems that it's all football and fast cars on console. That's fair enough, and while driving games have, paradoxically, come to a grinding halt in the aftermath of Gran Turismo 3, football games just keep getting better and better. Well, it all stops right here. Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer rules! And if any soccer titl...