Crimson Skies offers solid and savage action

While Nintendo's GameCube remains effectively disconnected from the internet and Sony's PlayStation 2 seems oddly muted about its Network Gaming, Microsoft are really pushing Xbox Live.

Halo 2 might not be out for a while, but it will not necessarily be missed too painfully this season, as Xbox is getting a slew of excellent releases in the hectic pre-Christmas schedule.

There are 50-plus Live-enabled games now, although many of them only offer downloadable content not actual multiplay action.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein has long been pre-eminent among existing titles for online multiplay, but it could lose its crown this season because of competition from other titles.

One such game is Crimson Skies, which not only features a solid solo mode, but its online multiplay offers the chance to indulge in majestically savage bouts of aerial dog-fighting.

This is one I have actually had a chance to play online.

Unfortunately, despite my best intentions, I cannot offer any honest opinions on the online multiplay provided by some of the other highly anticipated titles.

Until this all gets a tad easier for us non-techie types, it is not going to entirely replace nice straightforward offline gaming Discuss this story on BBCi Collective

These include snowboarding game Amped 2, urban racer Project Gotham Racing 2, tennis title Top Spin and squad-based stealth/FPS Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, although it can be said they are all dandy offline.

Yup, the curse of technical problems has struck, and as luck would have it happened when I was planning this piece.

Death and obscenities

Xbox Live did seem to be relatively user-friendly.

By way of a BT broadband connection, Windows XP's internet connection sharing and a crossover cable, I have had a good few months of access.

Then, by some fluke, it died.

In lieu of the online antics I was anticipating, it offered me a catalogue of DNS and IP issues that even the Xbox, BT Openworld and Microsoft support folk could not help with.

I will say though, as the sort of person who regularly yells obscenities into the receiver after five minutes on hold, at least the Xbox Live support crew answered quickly, had decent hold music (Air) and pleasant staff.

In comparison to some other abject corporate disgraces who put you on hold for 10-plus minutes of convoluted queues and distorted classical hits before you eventually get a bad line to India, the service was excellent.

Other than the bit about not finding a solution.

These days, I am coming round to the argument that online is the way forward for gaming, thanks in large part to the mighty PlanetSide on PC.

However, from these Xbox woes, it is still fair to say that until this all gets a tad easier for us non-techie types, it is not going to entirely replace nice straightforward offline gaming.