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Falklands '82 is the latest war game offering from PSS, a campaign game of the land forces in East Falkland from the British landing to capture of Port Stanley.

The game was put out before much of the research on the Falklands had been published, and as a result some details, notably the Argentine order of battle, are slightly wrong. But this is nothing compared to the errors in the overall conception of the game. In order, they say, to improve playability, the authors have "intentionally understated" the poor fighting abilities of the Argentine troops, who will only start to surrender when all the major settlements on the island have been occupied by the British. Once the British have landed, they may not again use sea transport or land in another location (making the Fitzroy landing impossible) nor have they any helicopter lift capacity, which the game designers thought made things too easy for them.

Presumably in compensation, there are no supply rules at all and the whole of East Falkland is treated as passable terrain for all units, including Argentine armour.

This complete disregard of realism would not matter so much if the playing mechanism was a good one. In fact, it is slow moving and unimaginative, with the battalions behaving like chess pieces.

I wish I could find something good to say about this game. Five years ago it would have been a remarkable programming achievement. As it stands, it is an insult, not only to anyone who buys it but to those who fought in the Falklands War.