Sold Out announces February line-up

Sold Out has announced its first run of £4.99-priced budget releases for 2005, which should be out sometime next month. Stand up Command & Conquer Renegade, Championship Manager Season 00/01, Zeus, Ski Park Manager, Space Tripper and Haegemonia.

And, despite looking like quite a weak line-up on the surface, judging by the grand old general consensus you might find that some of them are actually surprisingly good.

Apparently "Ski Park Manager" isn't one of them, but then one has to ask under what circumstances it sounded like a good idea in the first place.

Command & Conquer Renegade we also have our doubts about, particularly given the simply vast numbers of significantly better first-person efforts that have already found their way onto budget labels - including Sold Out's. Do you own both budget Thiefs, for example? Or Deus Ex?

CM Season 00/01, naturally, is very good for what it is (an update of Championship Manager featuring the 00/01 season data, somewhat obviously), while Zeus was apparently quite a good god game even though this writer has absolutely no recollection of it and suspects it's been made up.

As for Haegemonia and Space Tripper: the former reviewed quite positively, and there's always been an air of excitement surrounding the old school shoot-'em-ups antics of the latter - or a space of excitement, or something.

There are bound to be better ways to spend your dirty old fivers, but if you cut out a couple of KFCs in the next few weeks you'll probably find it levels out. And if not, you can always rummage around down the back of the sofa for a refund.