What's New?

It's another cold and pointless week for those of us trudging to the shops in search of games, and since we skipped a few totally barren weeks over Christmas, this is the first time the PS2 has gone begging on these pages. No new releases for the console that just topped 50 million sales worldwide.

That said, its self-proclaimed number two manages (we think) to ship just one title this week, Infogrames' Furious Karting. Gameplay couldn't verify it but Amazon and others concur. It's probably out.

So, has Nintendo won the fourth Friday of the New Year? Legacy Of Kain: Blood Omen II is as good as it was when it appeared on PS2 and Xbox, which means fans of the series will enjoy it, and it stands up quite respectably as an example of the genre, but why suffer the rigours of a fallen vampire when you can hunt them down instead?

Konami this week releases Castlevania Chronicles on the PSone - sadly not a compendium, but an update (more or less) of the original NES Castlevania.

And after failing (we've lost count of how many times) to get ISS Advance out, here it is again from Konami. Apparently. Also due out next week.