Burton's Bytes

Knockout Kings 2002. Format: PS2 and X-Box. Publisher: Electronic Arts. Price: £39.99 (PS2)

KNOCKOUT Kings retained the title of undisputed PS2 boxing sim last year thanks principally to the no-show of a Mike Tyson game from Codemasters and JVC's decision not to publish a 128-bit iteration of Victory Boxing.

A year later and things have changed. Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing is due any day and it looks very promising. If Codemasters has learnt the lessons from the failure of its Prince Naseem game on PS1 (and all the signs are that it has) then it could be a contender.

Even better, a game based on the legendary Rocky Balboa is also on the cards and, if it can replicate the action of the movie, it could be a corker.

But the world's biggest software publisher doesn't take things lying down. Knockout Kings 2002, out this week, claims to be dramatically different to its predecessor.

And while Codemasters may have the most infamous pugilist on the planet, EA's deep pockets have enabled it to assemble an impressive roster of boxing talent including our very own Lennox Lewis (provided, that is, he's still the world champ, otherwise he's a Canadian).

Not surprisingly, given the recent movie starring Will Smith, Lennox has been forced off the front cover of this year's game by arguably the greatest heavyweight of all: Muhammad Ali.

Knockout Kings 2002 is still the only boxing sim that enables you to create dream bouts pitting today's stars against the legends of yesteryear.

Sadly, as the Tyson licence rests with Codemasters, there's no opportunity to pre-empt this summer's clash between Lewis and the self-styled "baddest man on the planet".

Of course, Knockout Kings 2001 boasted a similarly comprehensive set of real life boxers so why should anyone who has last year's game be interested in this one?

Technically, this new edition looks crisper. Last year's edition bore the hallmarks of a game rushed out to coincide with the excitement generated by the arrival of the PS2. Cunningly, many of the so-called screenshots turned out to be stills taken from the in-game movies and many players were disappointed by the graphics of the actual bouts themselves.

This time the programmers have had the time to add a new lick of paint to the game graphics. I found the new facial animations (land a punch and watch as your opponent grimaces in pain) particularly impressive.

Boxers also move around the ring with a bit more alacrity and the motion capture is both smoother and quicker to react - although there's still a slight delay that can prove your undoing in a close-fought match.

EA has been in the fight game for a long time. It brought us the first genuine 32-bit boxing sim (Foes Of Ali on the 3DO) and Knockout Kings 2002 represents the pinnacle of that knowledge. That's why the presentation is top notch.

All the great stadia are present and correct, although why anyone thought to include Wembley (Frank Bruno vs Joe Bugner anyone?) is beyond me, and all the fighters are instantly identifiable. Between rounds, you can relax and watch edited highlights of the previous three minutes or let the ring card girls do their stuff. And when the final bell rings you can stop the action and admire your killer punches doing their stuff in glorious slow motion from any angle.

The Knockout Kings games have always occupied a curious niche. More than ever, this latest edition eschews the instant gratification afforded by games like Tekken in favour of a more strategic way of fighting. Just like the sport it purports to simulate, anyone who just wades in swinging from the first bell will end up out of puff after a couple of rounds and in imminent danger of an early bath.

At the end of the day, however, Knockout Kings 2002 is still uncomfortably similar to last year's effort and only true fans of the noble art will feel they have to own both.

If, however, you have yet to add a boxing sim to your growing PS2 collection, then this represents the best you can buy - for the moment. Over to you Codemasters.

Worms Blast. Publisher: Ubi Soft. Format: PS2. Price: £39.99

YOU'VE just splashed out a couple of hundred quid on a new 128-bit Sony PS2 powerhouse games console. It's the latest thing, capable of running incredible games with pin-sharp graphics at speeds unheard of until now.

So why on earth would you buy a copy of that perennial old stager, Worms, to play on it? After all, Worms was created when an Amiga 500 was a cutting edge computer - about the same time as some bloke called Noah thought it looked like rain and decided to build a big boat.

Worms has managed to wriggle its way on to just about every gaming format known to man so it was perhaps inevitable that for this - the fifth title in the series - it would make a play for the PS2.

And while the graphics wouldn't even have the PSOne breaking into a sweat, the gameplay remains as challenging as ever.

Virtually everyone has played Worms at some point so I won't spend long describing it. Suffice to say it's a game of strategy where you take it in turns to shoot at enemy worms and the last player standing (or wriggling) is the winner.

The fun comes from playing against a few mates when the strategic element leads to some unusually close battles. As a single player experience, it's less satisfying despite the inclusion of some rudimentary mission objectives this time around.

Worms Blast isn't going to impress anyone with its looks and if you've already got a copy on another format there's not really enough here to make it a must-have purchase. If, on the other hand, you've yet to enjoy the apparently simple but fiendishly difficult delights of wiping out power crazed worms then this could be a refreshing change.

Virtual CD v4. Format: PC. Publisher: Mediagold. Price: £29.99

LAPTOP computers are wonderful things but, inevitably, sacrifices have to be made in order to cram so much into such a tight space.

Although every laptop today comes with a CD drive, many can be be removed and left at home in the interests of travelling light. Which is fine, except that almost all of today's software requires the original CD to be in that same drive when you fire 'em up from the desktop.

Until recently there was no choice. You packed laptop, CD drive and a stash of precious CDs whenever you left home. And if those CDs ended up scratched and useless, then that's the price of progress.

Or at least it was until Virtual CD arrived. This cunning programme cons your computer into thinking a game or application CD is in a drive when it isn't.

Virtual CD copies your favourite applications as compressed images files which are saved on your hard disk and emulates up to 22 CD drives to run them. The CDs themselves can stay safe and sound at home.

It even copies DVD movies and games. So now you can take Zombie Flesheaters 2 and Unreal Tournament along on the laptop when you're sent on yet another interminable weekend management seminar.

Virtual CD is already up to version four and runs under Windows 9x and XP. It installed easily (although my CD burner software didn't like it) and, once configured, ran like a dream. As an alternative to using your precious software CDs, it's money well spent.