A fake Bond

This week’s column in the paper rounds up the trickle of games on release in the past fortnight. First up we have the GoldenEye-styled Cold Winter, an 18-rated FPS for PS2 and Xbox. In many ways, it’s a bog-standard spy shooter but the levels are dotted with collapsible environments to rain destruction down on enemies. It looks and sounds sharp too but overall the cliché count is high.

Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition eases up on the crazy difficulty of MC2 plus the cheesy dialogue is pared to a minimum – everything else is pretty much what you’d expect from a racer, save the occasionally bland graphics. Lacks the euphoric traffic crashes of Burnout 3, though.

Just in time for the end of the French Open (oh, OK, a few days after), the on-court antics of Roland Garros 2005 have an unmistakable familiarity. The subtitle (Powered by Smash Court Tennis) gives the game away, RG2005 is a rebadged and lightly tweaked edition of Smash Court Tennis Pro 2, released last year. Don’t be sucked in, unless you can’t find SCTP2 in the bargain bins somewhere.