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Well, here's a nice change for a start - a naval simulation that doesn't use World War II as an excuse for being slow and crap (Ah, but warships really did go at four knots in 1943?)

Strike Fleet is just about as up-to-the-minute shiny and modern as you could possibly expect, boasting Exocet missiles, Lynx helicopters and nuclear submarines as well as a huge fleet of more traditional battleships, frigates and cruisers.

All this modern technology doesn't even have a price to pay in terms of forbidding complexity, either - this is one of the most accessible sims around, and with a helpful manual that assumes absolutely nothing, you can patrol the Straits Of Hormuz with the best of 'em inside half an hour.

It's not all patrolling, patrolling, patrolling, of course. There's no shortage of action in Strike Fleet, with theatres of war ranging from the Gulf to the Falklands, and every shade of enemy you could ask for to do seabound battle with. You control up to sixteen ships at a time, as well as reconnaissance helicopters for added strategic information, so there's no need for any of the long hours of featureless steaming around that dogs so many olde-worlde sea-faring sims. When you do come across something to shoot at, it's heandled well too, and within the predictable constaints of the genre, it even looks alright, although as you might expect, when you're shooting something from three miles away you don't actually get to see much in the way of graphic detail.

Despite the fact that it is at the distinctly pricey end of the budget market, it's very hard to argue that you're not getting value for money for your £12.99 when you purchase Strike Fleet. You can have days and even weeks of delightful fun out of this, and not just because you're waiting for the screen to update either.

Even arcade-fixated landlubbers are likely to get a little bit of fun out of this, so if you've ever harboured (ho ho) naval ambitions, Strike Fleet will be right up your strait. Sorry.

1. Tense and atmospheric, lots to do once you get into it, more up to date than most boat sims.

1. Very slow moving, looks as bad as you'd expect - one for specialists only.