Tanarus

If you've ever dropped 10p coins into a Battlezone arcade cabinet, you've got a pretty good idea of what Tanarus is about - add in the team-based gameplay of Tribes and there's little more to tell. Online arenas hold up to 20 players organised into various teams, with everyone tucked away inside a variety of heavily armed tanks. The idea is to conquer your opponents, capture their flags, and progress through the ranks until people begin to speak your name in a revered whisper.

At first, it's hard going. You need to be intimately familiar with a boggling array of controls just to drive your tank without people asking if you're looking for a disabled car parking space. But if you ignore the jibes and make an effort to learn what you're doing, it suddenly clicks and you can really get stuck in.

Now three years old, the game won a number of awards and accolades when it was originally released, chiefly because it encouraged teamwork and strategy and was a real hoot to play - the only downside was that Sony charged you for doing it. That, however, has now changed. Tanarus is available as a free download, and there's no cost to battle it out in the multiplayer arenas. You just register on Sony's gaming website, download a 7Mb file and get straight in.

As you might imagine, the game's graphics are nothing to coo-coo at, but they serve their purpose, and on modern machinery they help make the game feel impressively slick. Sounds are a little weak, but in the middle of battle with the volume cranked you really couldn't care less.