Diplomacy

Chances Are You might not have heard of Diplomacy. A popular strategic boardgame invented in the '50s, despite a loyal audience among the cognoscenti, it's never really gained the kind of widespread appeal of your Risks, your Monopolys or your Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Diplomacy is one of those games that, due to its niche appeal, is likely to leave potential fans with limited access to fellow real-world players. Hence a computerised version would actually be a boon rather than a crippling waste of human endeavour.

For the most part, Paradox has done a bang-up job of getting this complicated arena of WWI-era European realpolitik onto your screen. The board is nicely presented in swish 3D, the visuals are crisp and well defined and the game's principle setup remains intact.

What doesn't quite work so well is the interface. Cumbersome, sometimes unnecessarily so, especially in the all-important diplomacy sections. Which is a pisser, given the game's fundamental reason for existing. It's not that it's bad, it's just that you can't help thinking there must have been a better way to present it.

Never mind though. The online options are comprehensive enough to let you match up with players across the world (although mostly Europe - which adds a certain spice when you know the German forces encroaching your borders really are controlled by a German), which is really the main point about this version existing at all.