For a company that has produced two games, Valve has done quite well in dominating the hearts, minds and column inches of the gaming world. Not that it isn't deserved.

Their latest plan is to further endear themselves to the public by releasing further episodes of Half Life 2, to chronicle the further adventures of Gordon Freeman, following directly from the end of the game proper. The Orange Box includes three games - the massively delayed Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2: Episode 2 and Portal.

Portal is undoubtedly the most innovative of the games and offers a very different experience to the usual FPS. This is essentially an exercise in spacial puzzles - courtesy of the hand held portal device. Guided by a slightly unnerved AI who clearly aspires to be SHODAN. The novelty is that at no time do you ever have anything more than your portal gun and some handy spring heels that make it impossible to take damage from falls.

There isn't much of a story, it's just good wholesome fun... that will likely make you feel a little confused as to how space works... but the fun of simply being able to fly is fantastic. Or rather, fall out of a portal... The game is hilariously short and even the most slow witted of gamers should be able to finish it in an afternoon at most... this is probably for the best as there are only so many puzzles that one can do involving Portals before they become repetitive or simply too difficult to be enjoyable.

Also hilarious is the dialogue of the game... TF2 is very slapstick but Portal has a subtle, adult humour that is rather dark... doubtless it will go straight over the heads of the dullards but then, what doesn't.

As a single player experience - it's a fun afternoon but really given the wait for Episode 2, it should have been more than just a single afternoon.

The adaption of the Resident Evil franchise to the silver screen has been - at best - uneven.

There can be little doubt that the latest instalment owes little beyond the underlying premise (and perhaps the apocalyptic overtones of the forthcoming game) to the game series. Still, the basic concept is followed - Umbrella messes around with deadly mutagenic T-virus, zombies are unleashed, a good time is had by all... who don't die.

Things have not gone very well since the last film and in the opening seconds we discover that essentially the entire world has been infected with the T-virus - despite the best efforts of Umbrella - and hence, we're in a Dawn/Day of the Dead situation where government has broken down and survivors struggle... well, survive, although instead of heading for a mall, Alice's pals from Apocalypse are busing it across the now desertified USA.

After finding a plot device, the gang decide - after Milla toasts some zombie crows - to head for Alaska. Of course, that's further complicated by the fact Umbrella - currently hiding out in bunkers across the globe - are intent on recovering Alice to use her to domesticate the zombies and use them as telesales marketers and of course, evil obsessional scientist is just super keen to get Milla back so he doesn't have to play with clones of her.

Plan "drive to Alaska" is going just great until evil scientist decides to ignore sunglasses wearing head honcho and decides to drop a cargo container full of super zombies on the road there. Naturally, fighting a cargo container full of super zombies thins the ranks, especially with Milla gets mind controlled for a while.

Of course, nothing riles up a telekinetic zombie killer more than super zombies killing her friends, so they head to evil scientists secret base... ostensibly to take a bus load full of people on a small, commercial helicopter from Nevada... to Alaska. Mutagenic virus? Ok. Telekinetic powers? Sure. Global apocalypse caused by slow moving animated corpses? Why not? Small helicopter taking over a dozen people and supplies all the way to Alaska with no chance of refueling? Get outta town. Or possibly the people are all so immensely stupid they don't realise that they'll probably go a few hundred miles, run out of fuel and then be even more screwed than when they started.

Anyways, while the rest of the cast are getting ready for their short flight to Alaska, Milla is headed into evil scientist's bunker... oh, he got bit by one of the super zombies and is now mutating into an evil monster with telekinetic powers too. The ending is pretty grim... an ARMY of Milla Jovovichs. If THAT isn't apocalyptic...