Command and Conquer Renegade. Format: PC. Published by EA. Price: £29.99.

YOU won't be surprised to learn that video games are now the second most popular form of entertainment, surpassed in dollar terms only by the movies.

And just like the movies, successful video games suffer their fair share of rip-offs.

The dearth of creativity that has crippled Hollywood for the last 20 years now seems to be afflicting the software industry.

Take Doom (please!). It was a moderately enjoyable shoot 'em up from the first person perspective, that did absolutely phenomenal business world-wide.

Then came Quake, a similar affair, albeit with better graphics and more variety. It was also a smash hit.

And so it is that the PC platform has been totally inundated with first-person shooters, some very good (Unreal/Half-Life), some bad (Daikatana) and a great many...err simply OK.

Before the FPS (first-person shooter) took over, PC gamers had been submerged by real-time strategy games with titles like Seventh Legion, Dark Reign, and Starcraft.

The grand-daddy of these strategy romps was Command & Conquer, a title so good that it's still got a world-wide following some seven years after it first hit the stores.

Electronic Arts - which owns the C & C franchise - knows it has a prime property and won't let a little thing like changing public tastes get in the way. Yes, that's right, C & C has become a first person shoot 'em up.

At least by drawing inspiration from a totally different genre, the programmers behind Command and Conquer Renegade have managed to come up with something a bit more original than the usual Quake clone.

The idea is simplicity itself. In the original Command and Conquer, you ordered around scores of tiny little soldiers on a two dimensional map. When one got killed you didn't really care because another one was always around the corner.

This time around, you are that soldier. Thrown into the thick of the C & C action, you have to be on your guard if you're to survive.

There are some nice touches too. The tactical battle computers used at headquarters are scenes from the original game and destructible enemies have the same energy bar everything did in C & C.

Even better, anyone who has spent hours perfecting strategies in C & C will find their patience rewarded in Renegade. There's no tank rush available but the best way to slow the bad guys is still to knock out their harvesters, collecting precious tiberium energy. And killing a commanding officer remains a surfer strategy for tipping the odds in your troops' favour.

Everything has been well thought out and I had the feeling that a great deal of care had been taken not to offend the sensibilities of C & C faithful. At the end of the day, though, it's just another shooter. Fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy but strategy types may still find the action a bit too mindless for their liking.

Ico. Format: DVD. Pub: Sony. Platform: PS2. Price: £39.99

FROM one game that asks nothing more of you than total annhiliation to something totally different in Ico, Sony America's intriguing new role-playing title.

Anyone who owned a Master System will remember a game called Prince of Persia. It was an adventure platform game that made innovative use of primitive graphics to tell a simple story.

The blend of gentle puzzling, platforming and action was addictive. Prince of Persia was a hit on several formats, although the PC 3-D version is best forgotten.

Ico is best thought of as Prince of Persia for the 21st Century.

Your hero - Ico - has to escape from a huge castle with the damsel in distress hanging on his arm. And when she isn't clutching limpet-like to your shoulders, watch, because the bad guys will try to steal her back.

It's a truly sumptuous-looking title with fantastically rendered backgrounds that will take your breath away when you first clap eyes on them. The puzzles are tough but not too difficult. Ico is a game that demands you engage your brain a little more often than the usual console platformer.

Players who enjoyed Lara's first Tomb Raid will enjoy this one. In an age when violent content in games is starting to incur the wrath of the morale majority, Ico makes a refreshing riposte.

Buy it. You'll like it.

And speaking of Lara Croft, Brit-soft publisher Eidos has confirmed just about the worst kept secret in gaming by announcing details of Tomb Raider - the next generation.

So far screen shots have been limited to stills (and they can be doctored) so it's a little difficult to know how good the game will be.

No mention of the plot, either, although rumour has it that Miss Croft has a sidekick this time.

Expect the Tomb Raiding to begin nearer this Christmas.

CHEAT OF THE WEEK

Devil May Cry is one of the best games you can slap in your PS2's drive. If you're finding it too tough try this trick: complete missions 1, 2 or 3, using at least one continue. At the start of the next mission you'll find an option to carry on in easy mode. Beware though - if it all gets a bit too easy, you won't be able to switch back so persevere at first