Ratchet & Clank lead the network gaming charge

Of the three game console manufacturers, Microsoft was the first to embrace online gaming, and its Xbox Live has become essential to anyone who wants to play against faraway competitors. Sony and Nintendo are trying to catch up with, respectively, the PlayStation Network and the Virtual Console.

PSN has more momentum and is already home to solid multiplayer games like Metal Gear Online and Warhawk, and future projects like DC Universe Online and the 256-player war game MAG promise to stretch internet play in new ways.

Sony also lets you download games directly to your PS3 hard drive. The library isn't as impressive as Microsoft's or Nintendo's, but there are gems (Echochrome and PixelJunk Monsters) that you can find only on PSN.

Each of the Sony games reviewed here – all for the PS3 – brings some fresh ideas to the network.

—Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (from Dh55): At the end of last year's Tools of Destruction, Clank disappeared with a tribe of his fellow robots. As this new chapter begins, Ratchet (the furry half of the duo) learns that the pirate Captain Darkwater may know where Clank went.

Quest for Booty plays like a stripped-down version of its predecessor, leaving out all side missions and minigames in favour of straight-ahead action. Even Ratchet's arsenal of wacky weapons has been scaled back.

But there are still plenty of puzzles and running-and-jumping action, though, so things never slow down.

—PixelJunk Eden (from Dh40): From Q-Games, the makers of the slot-car game PixelJunk Racers and the strategy game PixelJunk Monsters, comes the uncategorisable PixelJunk Eden".

Each level begins in an underpopulated garden with a minuscule hero who can swing and jump from leaf to leaf. When he swings into a "prowler," it releases pollen, which helps more plants grow. The goal is to grow the plants high enough to reach the prized "Spectra."

The psychedelic visuals and techno soundtrack give PixelJunk Eden a trippy vibe, but its controls take getting used to and may be frustrating at first. Still, the deeper you get into Eden, the more satisfying it becomes.

—Siren: Blood Curse (from Dh55 for four episodes): In an interesting experiment in episodic gaming, Sony has retooled 2004's Siren, chopped it into a dozen chapters and set them loose. The graphics aren't a lot better, but the developers have tightened up the gameplay and added some American characters.

In the first episode, a US camera crew stumbles across a Japanese village populated by zombies, and you briefly assume the role of a college student trying to escape from an undead cop. In later episodes you see the events in the village through different characters' eyes.

It's an effective survival horror adventure, but the episodic structure doesn't help. I'm hoping Sony takes more chances on episodic games, but next time its developers need to build one from scratch.

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