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Gaming on a budget

Geometry Wars: Eye crack

You have to question the logic of some games manufacturers. How can they feasibly expect people to pay £50 for a piece of software that's crap?

Whether it's another shoddy film tie-in, another all-mouth-no-trousers overhyped experience (yes, Too Human people, we're talking to you), so many games expect you to pay half a ton for a game that's had less than that spent on development.

So this week, we're going to congratulate the people who have got it sorted in terms of value for money.

First up then is XBOX Live Arcade who've recently launched Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 for the princely sum of £6.80. Judging by the last week of sleepless nights and thumb-related RSIs, that works out to about £0.0001p per hour of play.

It's mostly the same as the previous sleep-sucking Geometry Wars with its eye-popping visuals and easy-to-pick-up gameplay, however much time has clearly been spent developing some new game modes. Of these, King is the pick. Here you can only shoot at endless waves of attackers when you're inside circles... but the circles rapidly decay meaning you have to move on to the next. To get a decent score means plotting your route carefully making this a decent cross between a manic shoot-em-up and More Brain Training.

Don't have an XBOX? Never mind. You've got a whole raft of new Platinum Edition games to consider at the princely sum of £20 each. The new batch includes the fine swrod-swinging fantasy adventure of Heavenly Sword, the alarmingly challenging graphics demonstration of MotorStorm, the darkly tough Resistance: Fall of Man and, best of all, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

As well as showing off the PS3's graphic capabilities, R&C is probably the funniest installment of this cartoony series'. It's not often a game can make you laugh out loud for the right reasons, but this does it on a regular basis. It does get a little repetitive but several hours of fun for £20 is still a fine deal.

More alarming is the release of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This gorgeous looking game – play it on a HD set and you'll damn near weep during the cut scenes – was occasionally written off as Tomb Raider with testicles. Plot wise, that's a good summary. You're Nathan Drake, a distant relation of Sir Francis, you've got clues leading to El Dorado, a sidekick and a love interest, and an army of people trying to stop you.

You run around jungles, you dangle from ledges, you solve problems, you shoot people... However, the production values, the humour and the challenge of the gameplay make this a fantastic, five star experience. This isn't a game you can rush through, firing wildly. You can only carry one gun at a time so squander the bullets and you're going to pay. It's also hard to dislike a hero who occasionally screams when a grenade comes his way or whimpers when he has to jump off a high ledge.

This was a great game at full price. At £20 – well, £19.99 to be accurate – this is damn near a legal requirement.

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