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The beliefs that split mankind into opposing camps are many and varied. Politics, religion, Association Football - all of these and more have been responsible for conflict and dispute.

One topic, however, has been responsible for more disagreement than any other. Families have been divided, lifelong friendships broken, husband set against wife, brother against sister - all by a mere board game. You either love it or loathe it.

Trivial Pursuit, for those of you who have been cut off from the rest of civilisation for the last few years, is a game that makes use of those odd snippets of information that collect like so much fluff in the belly button of your mind and emerge, only after the administration of large amounts of lubricating fluid, to amaze your companions.

If you are the sort of person who finds it immensely significant that Denmark has the highest rate of borrowing from public libraries per capita, then you are likely to become an addict. If you are not, then you will be condemned to suffer long periods of intense boredom broken only by moments of extreme anger as you are told more than you want to know about the mating habits of the Common Stickleback.

It was only a matter of time before Trivial Pursuit was developed as a computer game, complete with stunning graphics and whizzo sound effects. The original has now been superseded by the new.

So what's new? Well, instead of just sitting around answering questions, we now have a plot. The game is set far into the next century, Earth is a dying planet and you have been assigned the task of carrying civilisation to Genus 2.

The object of the game is to pilot your laser-driven rocket into space and be the first player to be accepted by the elders on Genus 2.

You will have to travel through six galaxies, each of which contains many planets. On a few of them are hidden objects, which you will need to collect in order to gain access to the next galaxy. The only way to locate these objects is to land on each planet. A native will ask you a question, and only if you answer correctly will you be allowed to continue.

When you have collected an object from each of the six galaxies you will be able to land on Genus 2. There you will be questioned by the six elders to ensure that you are genuinely trivial.

You must select which elder is to question you, although only one has the key question that will enable you to win. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it isn't. It soon becomes obvious that this is nothing more than the original game dressed up with a fancy story. The laser spaceships and mysterious planets add nothing because you are never allowed to fly anything, search anything or even shoot anything. They just provide a way of moving from one question to another. So is this a game worth buying?

Well, you do get 3,000 questions for your money. Given the price of the standard board game, which comes with 1,000, that represents reasonable value. However, all the complications of the plot make it painfully slow to play, and even the most devoted fan is likely to find his or her enthusiasm waning rapidly.

The graphics and sound effects are mundane. The irrelevant plot, average graphics and sheer tedium of the game give a new meaning to the word trivial.