Eye Toy: Chat Bundle (PS2) - PlayStation 2

The EyeToy: Chat software actually allows four different methods of communication, namely text, voice, video mail and one-to-one-video chat. The text method is basically an ordinary chat room in which up to 256 people can talk together, whereas the voice chat rooms allow up to sixteen people to conference call together. The really clever bit though is the video chat system where you can talk to someone face to face, in real-time. This only works with one person at a time, but you can instantly switch between different people, allowing you to carry on an extended natter with all your friends.

If you can't think of anything interesting to say you can also play one of three online games in video mode, namely chess, draughts and "Naval War" (i.e. Battleships). Finally there's the video mail option which lets you send a 30 second long video message to anyone on your "buddies" list.

And if you're worried that all this seems a bit open to abuse Sony have worked together with several children's charities to make sure EyeToy: Chat is as safe to use as possible. So, there you have it: free video phone calls to anyone in the world – who said EyeToy was just a gimmick? --David Jenkins