Your camera's best friend

A mountain of digital photos needs a friend and a master. A friend to help organise the good ones and a master to discipline the bad. One that fits the bill on both counts is Adobe's Photoshop Elements. It was good in version 3 but now version 4 is even better. It comes in flavours for Windows (XP only) or Mac OS X.

Its companion product, Premiere Elements (v2), is similarly capable with camcorder footage. The two are available in a good-value bundle for 150 notes and you can read the full review of both in today's paper.

In games, Psychonauts (PS2/Xbox) is a trip, an acid-drenched wild ride that just happens to be a platform puzzler on the side. Full Auto (Xbox 360) does the Burnout schtick - but with guns. The visual fireworks aren't matched by long-term appeal but it's fun for a while.

Rugby 06 (PS2/Xbox) continues the upward evolution of the series - it's still lacks wide-ranging appeal (maybe that's just rugby's convoluted nature) but fans will relish how it's finally getting so much right. Lemmings (PSP) is, well, Lemmings, but it feels all 1991 again.

A Vision of loveliness

Creative was beaten to the punch by Apple in launching a standard-sized MP3 player with video capabilities but that doesn't mean the Zen Vision M is inferior to the iPod. The dubious merits of watching broadcasts on such a small screen aside, Creative has done a fine job with the €360 Vision M. Read the full review today.

In games, Shadow of the Colossus is something of a revelation, a puzzler/platformer from the people who brought you Ico. Save your soul from endless sequelitis and buy an original game for once.

Dead or Alive 4 arrives late to the Xbox 360 and the extra time was spent polishing the lush graphics rather than augmenting the gameplay significantly. But it remains highly playable. Finally, Urban Reign is a dim brawler that's taken too many punches to the head.

Squeezed out

This week's column has been held over due to pressures of space. That old excuse... Normal service resumes next week.

Pretty dumb

Motorola's new SLVR creates a great first impression but, like the pretty blonde who shatters illusions when she opens her mouth, the phone lets itself down when you start to use it. It's as if the last 18 months of phone development never happened. From the crap camera to the sappy Moto menus, there really is little more to the SLVR than a pretty face. Read the full review in today's paper.

In games, Devil Kings (PS2) appears to be mindless hack and slash but hides its subtlety in barmy characters and non-stop combat. Rugby Challenge 2006 is more than just an opportunistic 6 Nations release. It's not perfect but plays a heap better than the competition from EA. Finally, Sega Classics Collection fatally misses the point of such nostalgic trawls by rewriting originals such as OutRun and Golden Axe.