Now I'm not going to say PCs are better than consoles or anything like that, but at least the developers have the guts to produce and release games with ideas on the PC. Half-Life, Midtown Madness, Bauldurs Gate... the list could go on forever.

What I ask Sony (especially), Nintendo or THE Games is to wake up and release games which actually make you think, "Oh, that's a good idea, never had that before in a game." But wait - I know what they'll say. "There's no demand or audience for these games. Look what happened to Castlevania on the PlayStation - that was original but it didn't sell."

"Bullshit," I reply, because the only reason these games don't do well is because the publishers think they'll fail so they don't put any advertising or promotion behind them. Magazines realised Castlevania was a good game but that isn't enough to sell a game.

A good example of taking a risk is Secret of Mana, a game you wouldn't expect to be released over here now, but it was released a few years ago and it did very well, as far as I know. So come on console giants, wake up to what you're shovelling and take a risk with an original game from the USA or Japan, give it some decent advertising and see how well it does.

Rob Wilson