Non-stop action, teeny plot

There are subtle, tasteful, educational videogames to make you and yours better people.

Then there's "Gungrave."

"Gungrave," from Red Entertainment and Sega for the PlayStation 2, is a nonstop, unrelenting gun-fest. Our hero, known as Grave to his friends, packs twin pistols he lovingly calls Cerberos and a coffin which he uses to beat enemies or blow them to pieces with rockets stored inside.

Drawn in a gorgeous anime style, the game has a premise, but aside from some slow-paced, somber cut scenes, you won't be able to tell what it is from playing.

What you will be able to tell is the quality of your reflexes and how much adrenaline you can stand before the top of your head pops off. The action is intense, nonstop and bloody, although it is cartoon blood and your victims in general deserve whatever happens to them.

As you play, waves of enemies attack. Most, even the bosses, are fairly easy to dispatch, although sometimes there are so many that you become overwhelmed. Lead flies nonstop, with no time wasted on minor bothers such as reloading.

Graphics get a B. The art work is gorgeous, in a gory sort of way, and the weapons effects are spectacular. Things get a bit blurry at times, but this is a great game to watch.

Controls get a C. Grave is easy to direct and the weapons and auto-targeting system are responsive. But Grave moves so sloooooowly that it's torture to watch, and the camera often fails to follow the action. In addition, despite the power of the PS2, "Gungrave" suffers from some of the worst slowdown I've seen in recent years.

Sound gets a C+. Good effects, nothing special.

Give "Gungrave" a C. It's too short, too slow and too repetitive to be worth much more.

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What would you pay for peace and quiet?

If you've been searching for something to stifle the kiddies on the road, until recently you've only had Nintendo's Game Boy Advance to provide the videogame fix they need.

But GBA has drawbacks. The screen is small and it's not backlighted, so what you see depends on what kind of light you can throw on the screen.

Sony to the rescue.

The PlayStation One console has been slightly reshaped and set up to run off your car's cigarette lighter (or accessory power source, for you smoke haters). What makes it the portable player of choice (for me) is the add-on 5-inch diagonal screen, which is illuminated and huge compared to the GBA.

The player, with one controller, sells for a suggested retail price of $99. But the package of choice for the harried parent combines the player, controller, add-on screen and one game for a penny less than $200.

The car adapter costs another $40. The entire package, with a few games, can wind up being pricey.

The new traveling PSOne can play any existing PlayStation game (not PS2 titles, though). The stream of new titles may be slowing, but games are still being made for the PSOne.

The cost is substantially above the latest Game Boy, and the PSOne is far from pocket-sized.

But what price back seat silence?

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ON THE NET

www.gungrave.com

www.sega.com

www.sony.com