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Patton Vs. Rommel is a curious name for what turns out to be a curious game, neither quite one thing nor another. The two flashiest, if not the best, generals on the German and American sides in World War Two never actually fought each other in Europe.

This game supposes that Patton had commanded during that great offensive, and that Rommel had led the defence to stop him.

The limitations of the program have produced a battle that never happened, and the names Rommel and Patton have been added as a selling point.

Despite this, the game mechanism is a good one, a simple icon-drive allowing the player to select the tactics of each division over the next twenty-four hours. The player can take either side, but as all the Germans can do is defend playing with them gets dull rather quickly. The computer as an opponent defends well, but its main problem is a lack of morale factors about the level of a division. While the rest of its army is in full retreat a single unit is quite likely to suddenly attack by itself.

At the end of each move, a picture (badly drawn on the C64) of Patton or Rommel appears and tells you what you are doing wrong. Some of this advice is actually pretty unhelpful and best ignored. The way to win is to spread your forces out and grab as many small villages as soon as you can - which in the real battle would have been suicidal.

All this produces a good enough game, but like the idea of Patton Vs. Rommel, it is a bit of a fantasy.