THE DA VINCI CODE
2K Games, PS2/Xbox/GameCube, $49.99
You’ve probably been too busy playing videogames to read anything other than on-screen commands or instruction manuals on how to hack your Xbox. If your eyes actually digested non-moving text in the last few years, you probably finished Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, the espionage novel that has become the best-selling book of all time (with over 38 million copies in print). This month, 2K Games takes the tale of nerdy professor-turned-super-spy Robert Langdon to the virtual world, timed with the Ron Howard-directed movie hitting the big screen. This third-person action/adventure title–developed by movie-to-videogame specialists The Collective (who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith)–finds you guiding Langdon and French cryptographer hottie Sophie Neveu on the same quest as the book: to solve the murder of Neveu’s grandfather while uncovering the true location of the Holy Grail. Gameplay promises to be rather intricate, combining chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat, and lots of sneaking around with intense puzzle solving. You also must choose between brains and brawn, switching between Landgon’s strength and knowledge and Neveu’s speed and agility to get the job done. Movie adaptations tend to be a bit weak, so we’re not holding our breath, although we hope to grapple with an albino monk at least once this summer. Tyra Bangs
www.2kgames.com

Love: Mercenary monks, intricate plots
Hate: Laborious puzzles, intricate plots
Final word: Hardly the Holy Grail