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All those family gatherings can get a bit trying. 'No you can't watch the telly, grandad is telling us about the Napoleonic wars', 'No you can't have third helpings, this has to last for sandwiches tomorrow you know!' Tsh! What you need is some mental stimulation.

Trivial Pursuit is, unsurprisingly enough, based on the best selling board game of the same name. You answer questions on one of six categories, or more frequently, fall to answer these questions because you haven't got a flippin' clue what the answer is.

The categories are Sport and Leisure. Science, History, Geography, Entertainment and Art and Literature. The idea is to move around the hexagonal board collecting slices of pie for correctly answering questions on each corner, which serve as the headquarters for each of the topics. Once you've won six slices, you must reach the centre of the board and answer one final question to win. Up to six people can play or more if you form teams.

This game is excellent, its only disadvantages compared with the original is that as a board game it was very social. Everyone sat around a table opposite each other having lots of fun. Now, on TV or monitor everyone must sit on top of each other, and concentrate on the screen rather than the other players. I also feel that unscrupulous people could cheat or argue more in this version. Steve Keen take note.

This is the first time I've actually played Trivial Pursuit and I must say I'm pretty impressed. The questions are very intelligent and the layout of the game is marvellous. I also beat Big Al' first go.