PRIMAL, Publisher: SCEE, Platform: PS2, Price: £40

UNTIL now, female games characters haven't enjoyed a decent adventure on next generation platforms. All that is about to change.

Eidos is putting the final touches to Lara Croft's PS2 debut adventure which should be ready in the next few weeks. Before then Sony is hoping to entice girl power types with Primal, a gothic adventure that's far more than just a Lara-lite.

Your character is Jen, a gutsy heroine who counts a gargoyle called Scree among her best pals. Scree has a cut-glass Brit accent and Jen may not be as pneumatically built as Lara but she can certainly punch more than her weight in a fight. You can switch between the two at any time during the game by tapping select on your control pad.

Jen is the pugilist but Scree has his uses - primarily to store demonic energy and to possess the odd statue or two. That demonic energy comes in handy too. At certain points Jen can mutate into a demon - kind of like a knockout punch when the bad guys appear to have the upper hand.

The adventure begins when Jen embarks on a quest to rescue her dumb boyfriend Jack. From that point onward it's level after level of fighting, exploration and straightforward puzzle solving.

Primal reminded me of Soul Reaver - an under-rated adventure series also published by Eidos - but it looks far, far better. Sony's programmers really are getting to grips with the PS2 hardware these days and the current range of software looks a world away from the early titles that had gamers wondering if they'd done the right thing trading up from a PSOne.

Primal won't catch the public mood in the way Tomb Raider did seven years ago and Jen's polygonal face won't be staring back the next time you decide to buy a copy of The Face in Smiths.

In that respect this game will probably be seen by some as a warm-up for the real thing. Roll on Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.

Dr Muto, Publisher: Midway, Platforms: PS2, Xbox, Price: £40

AHH now you're talking. Here we have a platform game hero who isn't a slightly overweight plumber, an orange bandicoot, a goofy bear or a spiky blue hedgehog.

In fact, Dr Muto is far from cute. He's a slightly barking scientist with a hunched back and an irritating voice. And in the first few minutes of this game he's already sparked the end of the world. Accidents will happen.

Having brought about the end of civilisation as we know it, Muto decides to do the decent thing and sets about rebuilding - as best he can.

Unfortunately - and entirely expectedly - things don't go quite according to plan. After all, Dr Muto is the klutz who caused the problem in the first place.

It's all rather fun and, even if it is all a bit derivative, being in charge of a slightly cracked protagonist lends an interesting twist to the usually childish antics.

Dr Muto is no Mario 64 - the camera is frustratingly wayward at times and the sheer sense of adventure and invention is lacking - but he's certainly up there with Crash Bandicot et al in the second division.

Freelancer, Publisher: Microsoft, Format: PC CD, Price: £30

SOME PC gamers reckon Elite is still the best space exploration adventure ever published.

It was certainly one of the most ambitious. Way back in the 1980s it pushed PC hardware to the limit. Freelancer is Elite brought bang up to date. Only this time it has a better plot, beautiful graphics and even sharper gameplay.

Freelancer offers so much. You can trade your way to millions or try a spot of space smuggling. Even better, why not throw in your lot with a local renegade and carve out a career as a pirate?

Alternatively you may fancy a life on the right side of the law. How about helping the local military to sort out some cyber-terrorists?

As I said, there's a story that's played out around the game but the missions are so diverse that you can pretty much do as you please in the Freelancer universe.

After a while, though, you start to crave a bit more for your money. A bit like the original Elite, really, where endless space-based missions sent all but the staunchest fan looking for something new.

Freelancer is an epic game that offers hours and hours of adventure - provided, that is, you enjoy science fiction software.