TIMESPLITTERS: FUTURE PERFECT, Publisher: EA. Format: PS2. Price: £39.99. Family friendly? Not for sale to those under 15: TIMESPLITTERS has always been a blast to play - in more ways than one - but its mission-based structure always made the games feel a bit light on anything resembling a meaningful story.

All that has changed with this game. Now there is a meaningful plot linking the game and Cortez - the hard-as-nails hero from the previous instalments - returns for another bout of shooting and time travelling.

Science fiction writers have long toyed with the idea of time travel but most of them shy away from the obvious attractions (such as watching the Grand National then popping back in time to place a bet on the winner). If there's an immutable rule of time it's that you don't change history. Timesplitters: Future Perfect takes that rule, screws it up and throws it in the trash.

One of the great conceits of Future Perfect is the way your character must travel in time to help himself get out of trouble. Early on, you'll meet yourself and hand over a key. Later on, you return to the same place and see the same sequence from a different perspective. It's a crazy idea and it works beautifully.

The story mode that ties all the missions together is an epic adventure spanning the years 1914 to 2401. Locations span the world from Vietnam to Siberia. There's a nice line in adult humour that's straight out of a Die Hard movie and every level is a well balanced challenge. The game also allows two players to fight through the story in Co-op mode, as well as extensive Challenge and Arcade modes. It's not too hard and if you find Cortez gets shot too much, you can always tweak the difficulty level a bit.

But the really big news is the online multiplayer game which allows up to 16 gamers to take part at once. With something like 150 playable characters and a vast array of interesting levels, anyone who enjoys playing against real adversaries will find Future Perfect addictive stuff.

Another great addition is the improved map maker feature which allows you easily to create new levels and share them online. Maps can also be saved to memory card and shared with your mates.

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is one of the most extensive arcade shooters on the console, with hundreds of unlockables, more realistic environments, spectacular special effects, high quality animated cut scenes, an improved physics engine, smarter enemy AI, and much more.

Timesplitters: Future Perfect is a great game to pick up and play when you're alone or with friends. It may not be the PS2's long awaited Halo beater but the frenetic arcade-style gameplay makes a welcome break from the X-Box's finest shooter.

TRACKMANIA SUNRISE, Publisher: Digital Jesters. Format: PC. Family friendly? Yes: THE original Trackmania was something of a sleeper success thanks to its excellent online action elements.

Trackmania Sunrise takes everything that made the original so popular - the speed, the ultra competitive multiplayer races and easily accessible tools to create and distribute outrageous tracks - and throws in a whole lot more.

You'd probably expect a roster of new cars to burn up the track at gravity-defying speeds (250mph anyone?) and a whole lot of gorgeous new environments.

But you can also have a lot more fun designing your own tracks with a host of new tools. Fancy sweeping S- bends leading to a tunnel and then over a ramp? No problem - it's just a few mouse clicks away. It's a bit like owning a giant version of those Hot Wheels plastic track sets you got when you were a kid - only the execution is a lot, lot better.

Crazy physics let you achieve ridiculous speeds and fly through the air for what seems like minutes at a time (you can even apply the brakes mid-air to slow your car down).

Fans will be delighted to hear that the popular puzzle mode returns for a fresh outing. For newbies what this amounts to is a challenge to drive from A to B. You have to come up with the quickest route and put together the perfect track before tearing up the tarmac in real time.

Visually, it all looks very nice. There are some state-of-the-art environmental effects that will probably be lost on many players because of the pace of the action, although to the game's credit, you don't need a terribly powerful PC to get the game up and running (a PIII 500 will just about do the trick).

Published: 15/04/2005