Devil May Cry 3

Dante is one cool guy. You might not have thought it while playing the slightly disappointing Devil May Cry 2, but this game will reaffirm everything you thought you knew about him.Like something out of The Matrix, Dante can shoot six monsters dead while spinning cartwheels. He can spin around a pole faster and faster, kicking anyone who gets in his way in the mush . He can even - get this - knock out an enemy then use them as a surfboard to plough down all the others. And it all looks as great

DMC3 is the kind of action game that would pause to preen itself in front of a mirror during a gunfight: in fact, it wouldn't be surprising to catch the game's young and hungry Dante doing just that as he whoops and pouts his way through his debut devil-hunting performance. There's a winning lack of self-consciousness to its style - or 'stylish crazy action', to use the proper invented term - careening as it does between camp, cheese and music-video cool with machinegun rapidity.An apparent

It's hard now to remember, back in the grainy, sepia-toned days of 2001 when our steam-powered PS2s were all shiny and new, just how amazing the first Devil May Cry game was. Sure, you fought dead things, but you didn't have to turn in a tight circle like you did in Resident Evil. You carried a sword, but you could destroy enemies in a hail of bullets as well. You explored a gigantic castle, but you didn't have to wait ages for each room to load. In short, it took the clichZs of survival

Refreshingly, the third game in the stellar Devil May Cry series is a true sequel rather than a fumbling re-hash. The shiny new graphics engine has been built from the ground up and the fact that it's a prequel means that a whole new plot is on offer. As well as the dazzling new graphics, a major gameplay overhaul has been initiated - you can now tailor Dante to suit your playing style by selecting one of several character classes. Firstly, the Gunslinger class lets Dante fire in all