Games

Tomb Raider Chronicles

LARA CROFT is missing presumed squashed, buried under a pyramid at the end of Tomb Raider The Last Revelation.

Her old friends have gathered for a memorial service and begin to swap stories about her past treasure-hunting exploits.

That's the set-up for this fifth Lara game, following the world's favourite computerised girlie on four separate adventures.

There's stealth in an office block, shoot-outs in a submarine, puzzling as a teenager on an Irish island, and good old-fashioned tomb-raiding in a Roman ruin.

This diversity is where Chronicles scores, as each adventure evokes a different mood, showcases a different outfit and requires very different tactics.

The variety, and new moves like tightrope-walking, help avoid the sameness that marred the long and involving Last Revelation

Elsewhere, thankfully, everything that made Last Revelation great is in place: fiendish puzzles, graceful movement, boundary-pushing graphics, thrilling action.

As Lara prepares to move to the big screen, she shows no signs of tiredness on the small one!

Bob the Builder

The BBC has a good reputation for its PC games based on children's TV characters. Now Bob the Builder joins Noddy and Pingu in the virtual world - and his Can We Fix It? disc is just as slick and enjoyable.

Most of the activities are easy enough for any child old enough to handle a mouse, and suitable for those aged up to about five.

In Bob's office they can choose several activities to gently tax their little brains, reflexes and imaginations. There's tunnel building, radiator mending, leak fixing, bubble flattening, hedgehog herding and cake decorating.

Children can use Lofty to knock down and rebuild a bridge, race with Dizzy and Scoop or - in a rather bizarre game - help Bob line dance. Along the way there are film sequences and and several "find the Pilchard" games.

Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask

Groundhog Day comes to the Nintendo 64 in this new game - but instead of groundhogs we have Dekus, Gorons and the Skull Kid.

Link, hero of the brilliant Zelda adventure series, has three days to save the land of Termina from collision with a moon. For the player time is even more of the essence, for 72 game hours takes less than one hour of real time.

This is where Groundhog Day comes in: our hero lives the same three-day period again and again. Link discovers more each time because other characters do the same things at the same time.

But Majora's Mask is never repetitive: a massive 3D world offers so much to do, so much to discover. And like predecessor Ocarina of Time, this intricate and engrossing game looks and plays beautifully.

Video

Vinnie's Revenge

A whole video dedicated to onfield football violence stars with a series of attacks on referees then proceeds to brawls. This is hardly entertaining stuff.

Vinnie Jones is wooden, obviously reading from a dreadful script, but it's really just harmless stuff.

This video is one for the boys, definitely, and it's got to be said that at times it is hilariously funny.

There are more "handbags" than on the dancefloor at Club 101, and some of the movers are more Billy Elliot than Vinnie Jones.

There's a lot of posing, high kicks and little slaps in Vinnie's Revenge, but there's also some quite nasty stuff too.

It's only really watchable with the lads after seven pints of Tetleys. One for the Christmas football stocking.

Albums

Pick any decade from the past five and there's a new compilation album to keep you happy.

Decades is the name of one triple album, whose subtitle "The Story of the 60s, 70s and 80s" is quite apt. The 70 classic tracks cover a few styles from each era, treading a sure path through a forest of pop and rock.

The 60s veers from Good Vibrations and The Young Ones to Mellow Yellow and A Whiter Shade of Pale. The 70s name-check Queen, Steve Harley, Wizzard, Roxy Music and Blondie, while the 80s takes in electro-pop, New Romanticism, Two Tone and both soft and pomp rock.

It's right back to the 50s and 60s for The Best Rock 'n' Roll Love Songs in the World.... Ever. A review is pretty pointless: read the tracklisting and you know whether you want this 52-song collection.

Between the familiar are a few songs that don't often turn up: with a couple of exceptions they're worth the inclusion. From light and innocent to moody and dramatic, the collection makes for a great nostalgia trip.

Moving to the present, there's Smash Hits 2001 with two discs of chart hits from recent months. The album leans towards the teen-friendly pop of boy-bands and Britney-babes, but there's also a sizeable selection of top dance tracks.

Also in the present, but delving into the past, is the intriguing two-disc album Sampled that proves imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

All of these soul, funk, disco and jazz originals have been sampled by the creators of recent chart hits. Some of the tracks are unrecognisable, others have the same masterful grooves, riffs, beats or melodies as the "new" songs.

Some are classics in their own right and many are infinitely better than the remakes: certainly most of them are prime cuts that will keep 21st century dance fans happy.

Some of the updated versions pop up on The Best Club Anthems in the World.... Ever, which also features tracks by the likes of Fatboy Slim, Madison Avenue, CRW and Lucy Pearl.

Erasure

Erasure is back, and it's as if Andy Bell and Vince Clarke haven't been away. Their ninth album contains the same sort of electro-pop tunes they turned out during their late 80s/early 90s heyday.

Amazingly Loveboat comes across fresh as a newly-picked plum. There's the same clean production, complex arrangements, catchy tunes, meaningful lyrics, melancholy vocals and overall likeability.

Despite their electronic foundations, these songs are a very human antidote to a music scene dominated by soul-less dance, serious R&B and pounding pop. There is diversity but nothing to surprise on Loveboat. Erasure won't get back in the charts, but a lot of fans will be very happy.

Books

The Tale of Rickety Hall

Penny Dolan's short novel for children of primary age deserves to become a Christmas classic.

It's a simple but inspired story of good-versus-evil set in a Dickensian world of Victorian poverty.

Told with poetic, rhythmic prose that is a delight to read aloud to children, it cries out to be read again and again.

The captivating 80-page paperback follows orphan Jonas Jones as he struggles to find money to buy a dog collar.

Without the collar his little friend Scraps will be snatched by Megrim, the evil dog catcher.

Jonas trudges through the snow in search of a last sixpence, ending his quest at mysterious Rickety Hall.

It's there, as he meets a succession of strange old men in the endless maze of rooms, that Jonas' good heart brings him success.

The first chapters are evocative, the middle uses repetition without becoming boring, and the ending is gloriously happy.

This £3.99 Scholastic book is perfect for a Christmas stocking.

The Fifth Elephant

Terry Pratchett is on towering form in a hilarious novel lifting the coffin lid on international diplomacy. He returns to his best characters, the men of Ankh-Morpork city watch.

Watch boss Samuel Vimes is sent to a distant land as the emperor's representative but finds dwarfs, werewolves and vampires on the brink of war. The rest of the watch, made up of zombies, gnomes, gargoyles and the odd human, suffer at the hands of a new boss.

Pratchett juggles various sub-plots and characters and a complex theme, leaving plenty of room for comedy set-pieces.

Timeline

Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton sends people from the present to the past in his new thriller. An archaeologist vanishes on the site of a medieval French castle - then his colleagues uncover a parchment he wrote in the 14th century.

Three students are sent back in time to rescue him but encounter a nightmarish world. Timeline is an entertaining yarn whose breakneck action and twists make up for superficial characterisation and lack of originality.

Irresistible Forces

Steve and Meredith know they're in love even though they rarely see each other in Danielle Steel's latest paperback. He's a dedicated ER surgeon, she's a high-powered businesswoman, and their fleeting time together is usually spent in bed.

Meredith is offered a job at the other side of the States, and she leaves Steve tying up loose ends before joining her. The time apart, coupled with the pull of new suitors, forces the couple to take a hard look at whether they were really made for each other.

This is an archetypal Steel romance, very readable, the story moving at a breakneck pace while offering surprising depth to its main characters.