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If Sevvy, Tom and Nick had played a few rounds of Birdie Barrage before the British Open then they would have been better prepared for the golfing conditions which prevailed. There's gusting wind and water all over the place although the water is mainly established as lakes and hazards rather than coming from above.

The screen displays are effective representations of the holes and when you finally reach the green, it is displayed in close up. This is all two dimensional. One thing you have to watch is the length of the hole since, short or long, they tend to look alike. You feel rather silly taking a wood and driving way over the par 3 just across the stream.

The standard information about length and par are displayed alongside a visual indication of the wind direction. This is the interesting bit about computer golf games, trying to toss the ball up into the imagined wind and watching it veer back towards the green, either for a brilliant shot or, too far, a disaster out of bounds. But you don't have to fetch your ball, it's automatically replaced. This element of computer sports games makes thm a must for the armchair enthusiast. And Birdie Barrage won't cost you more than the golf balls you would undoubtedly lose in the real situation!

Golf games have actually been superceded as computer sport fashion by the Decathlons, Summer Games, Challenges and Hyper Sports. The graphics are ordinary and the sound non existent. The redeeming features of Birdie Barrage are the different "conditions" for each hole and despite its rather dated appearance, it proves fun to play.

Dave ReederPeter Rochford