While in no way a precursor to the drab argument over which format is best to play games on, there is one particularly strong factor in the PC's favour. In spite of the varying problems you get by opting for a computer over a console, you do get access to some superb, original games that leave a penny change from a fiver.

Chief protagonists are Sold Out Software, who for the best part of a decade have released dozens upon dozens of titles at a £4.99 price point. And it's the latest selection that we're taking a look at here.

The best of the new lot is Championship Manager 4, even though it inevitably feels a little way behind its latest incarnation, Football Manager 2006. But if you're happy about not having the very latest, and can live with data that's a little out of date, then this remains a stunningly-detailed football management simulation.

There's no mystery to the franchise, of course. You pick the team you want to manage and then go through the trials and tribulations of trying to hold onto your job while also attempting to bring success to your side of choice. To help (or hinder), there's an immensely detailed transfer market, a wealth of tactical options and all sorts of little considerations. It's a game you could quite easily lose months of your life to, and many people have.

On the downside, even in spite of numerous patches, there's an unwelcome number of bugs that have a habit of interfering with the game should they kick in. Yet the strength of the game itself significantly outweighs them.

Hitman 2 is a bit more of a curiosity. For such a successful franchise, you'd be hard pushed to argue that it's been lavished with critical acclaim, and that's not a huge surprise. It has its moments; some of the hits that your genetically-engineered hitman has to undergo are tense and involving affairs, for example.

Yet it's a little too much of a puzzle game for our liking, where you find the acceptable way to complete a mission and do your utmost to execute your plan. Replete with enemy AI that doesn't always hold together, and moments that just feel unfairly tricky, it's a commendable game but no classic. But the £4.99 price tag far better serves those who want to indulge their curiosity than the original full price.

And then there's Project IGI 2, a first-person shooter that seems to have ended its short-lived franchise. The original was a fun diversion, hurt by laboured gaps between restart points and an unwelcome difficulty level. The sequel does, to be fair, sort a lot of those problems out, and the end result is primarily positive.

The problem, though, is that by the time Project IGI 2 came out, the FPS genre had moved on. Thus, in spite of its clear strengths, the game couldn't carve much of a niche out for itself and kind of got lost in the scrum. It didn't deserve that, though, and again, while you'd be hard pushed to nominate it for anything resembling classic status, taken as a diverting FPS that won't break the bank, it's an easy title to commend.

Finally, Republic: The Revolution, a game that always looked better on paper, and so it proved. The idea that you were one person who needed to slowly build up support and allegiances to topple a government was certainly intriguing, but the implementation proved quite laboured. It's certainly engrossing in the short term, but Republic should have been a long term treat, and it isn't.

If none of those takes your fancy, then Sold Out's release cycle sees around five or six new games earning a fresh lease of life every five or six or weeks. And while we wouldn't normally advocate a blind buy, we've been guilty of it ourselves at such an impulsive price point. Of the games we've looked at here, we'd give Hitman 2 a miss, look at Republic as a curiosity and be perfectly happy with the others.

Another lively and interesting selection of releases from Sold Out. Championship Manager 4 is the highlight here, Project IGI 2 is the one that deserves a fresh lease of life and Hitman 2 happily makes up the numbers. Republic? Worth a dabble, but time hasn't been particularly forgiving.