What's New

Summer is officially over today, with the recent lull in new releases ended by a veritable flood of big name games - good, bad and just plain ugly. Nintendo fans deprived of extreme sports titles in the last couple of months can rejoice, as the excellent Aggressive Inline has now arrived on both GameCube and GameBoy Advance. A fresh arrival on the Xbox today is Turok Evolution, bringing the dinosaur fixated first person shooter series to a new generation of consoles having been mired down on the N64 for the last few years. With tasty graphics, over-the-top weapons and the chance to fly a chaingun-toting pterodactyl, it should be a lot of fun. Our review copy just arrived, so we'll let you know next week whether or not it lives up to expectations. The PlayStation 2 version of the game is also now available, although Cube owners will have to wait until later in the month before going all Jurassic. The PlayStation 2 is (as usual) the busiest of the console platforms, with a flood of budget re-releases and a few brand new games as well. Stuntman finally makes it to Europe today, although early impressions aren't entirely positive. Again, we should have a full review soon. Meanwhile Eidos' popular tactical action game Commandos 2 has made its long awaited console debut on the PS2, with a new direct control system to replace the point and click tomfoolery of the PC original. Even PC owners aren't left out this week, with two big titles emerging on to store shelves. Mafia is a kind of Grand Theft Auto 3 meets The Untouchables affair, although sadly it's let down by numerous graphical and gameplay flaws. If you can look past these there is a good game under there somewhere, but it all proved too frustrating for me to stomach. On a lighter note, Beach Life is now available, giving you the chance to relive your summer holidays by building your own island resort, complete with leering builders, smelly toilets, half-built hotels and food poisoning. Lovely. New Releases - CubeAggressive InlineGBA Aggressive Inline PCBeach LifeLargo WinchMafia Budget - Age Of Empires Gold Budget - Combat Flight Simulator Budget - Dark Reign 2 Budget - Desperados Budget - Mat Hoffman Pro BMX Budget - Midtown Madness Budget - Supercar Street Challenge PSXLargo Winch Budget - Atlantis: The Lost Empire Budget - Formula 1 2001 Budget - Monsters Inc Budget - Syphon Filter 3 PS2Commandos 2Largo WinchStuntmanTurok Evolution UFC Throwdown Budget - Army Men: Sarge's Heroes Budget - Heroes Of Might & Magic Budget - International Cue Club Budget - Warriors Of Might & Magic XboxBruce Lee: Quest Of The DragonTurok EvolutionRelated Feature - UK Release Date List