Burton's Bytes: A game for grown-ups

Take one Lazarus Jones - he's a trendy-looking detective working the mean streets of Detroit.

Maybe that's why he can't resist opening the strange machine he finds in a school basement.

Trouble is, that machine contains the spirits of some pretty mean ghosts - a veritable Pandora's Box of malevolent ghouls - and once the top is off, they are free to roam the earth causing all manner of mayhem.

As Lazarus has got mankind into this mess it is up to him to find the ghosts and capture them again. Oh and did I mention his partner Anna? She's pretty and she has been kidnapped as a result of Laz's recklessness.

Thankfully Laz is pretty well tooled up for the job at hand. He goes into the game toting a plasma rifle that drains a spook's energy and ghost-grenades that can be used to trap 'em. Those grenades have to be targeted manually though, this game has no automatic lock-on.

He also teams up with a helpful ghost called Astral (groan!) who can sometimes reach levels that Laz cannot thanks to his unearthly abilities. You can use him to explore the levels before Laz walks into (yet another) trap.

On the basis of this plotline, you probably can't make up your mind if Ghosthunter is a Resident Evil or Ghostbusters. Let me set your mind at rest. The baddies in this game are every bit as scary as anything the Umbrella Corporation ever dreamt up for a Resident Evil title. Give this to junior and he is guaranteed to have nightmares.

The monsters range from dead sailors on a ship, their bodies bloated from too much time in Davey Jones' locker, to alien-like monstrosities with teeth like razors. You certainly need your wits about you if you are to survive this story.

Surprisingly, though, Ghosthunter also has a black sense of humour that serves to lighten the mood at key points in the story. Heck, even the in-game camera co-operates in Ghosthunter - allowing you to see what's going on most of the time.

I'd have appreciated a lock-on mode for weapons but such a thing would have made the game less of a challenge, I suppose. Still, the choice would have been nice.

Is it as good as Resident Evil? It's not the equal of the first ground-breaking adventure but it's certainly up there with the likes of Nemesis and far, far better than Sole Survivor et al.

If you fancy a creepy adventure for those long winter evenings then you could do far worse than snap up a copy of Ghosthunter.

REAL WORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY 2nd Edition. By: Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan and Tim Grey. Publisher: Peachpit Press. Price: £37.99.

THERE'S nothing more satisfying than moving from 35mm film to digital photography. Provided, that is, you know what you are doing. Otherwise the intricacies of software, hardware and downloads could have you dusting down the old Olympus Trip in no time.

Whether you are a professional photographer or a keen snapper, you'll need a source of authoritative answers when you make the switch. And with sales of digital forecast to overtake 35mm in 2003/4, that could be sooner than you think.

This weighty tome addresses the problems you are likely to face and provides straightforward concise answers on how to overcome them.

It's pretty much up-to-date (there are discussions of the imaging chips used in the innovative Sigma SD9 digital SLR and the Super CCD technology to be found in the Fuji S7000 for instance) and the chapters are logically divided to get you snapping away as quickly as possible.

It's a shame the authors assumed every home photographer would have a copy of Photoshop. The price of Adobe's software (more than £500) makes that highly unlikely.

Thankfully many of the imaging tricks detailed here can be duplicated in the cheaper Adobe Photoshop Elements or Paintshop Pro software packages.

Other chapters are devoted to the fundamentals of good photography such as how to use light, how to make sure your exposures are spot-on and how to compose the perfect pic.

For readers still thinking about taking the plunge, there is a chapter of useful advice on what to look for in a camera, although the book tends to recommend very high spec (and expensive) equipment when good results can be had from cheaper equipment if you are prepared to put in the effort.

This may not be a digital photography "bible" but it's a damned good read nonetheless.