1503 AD The New World (Sunflower PC G8+)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * * * )

Imagine SimCity, but set in the historically momentous early 16th century when Europeans were flocking to the New World and you have 1503 AD.

It is an open-ended strategy and simulation game in which you have to establish a colony on the inhospitable shores of America.

From then it's a matter of surviving and thriving by harvesting resources, building up a commercial and manufacturing base and trading.

Success comes from taking your fledgling colony all the way to empire status.

It is a sequel, if going back in time can be called that, to 1602 AD, a game which was a big hit in Germany and France some years ago but 1503 AD is much improved visually and in scope.

The in-game graphics don't live up to the promise of the spectacular opening sequence which captures the excitement and fear people who made the journey from Europe to America then must have felt.

The detail in the landscape and sea is a little sparse, but this changes once you start building, and quite spectacular cities can be created.

Around 350 different buildings can be created, many with a specific purpose, which gives a good indication of the game's depth.

Another improvement on the original title is 1503's combat mode, which, while not as robust as traditional real-time strategy games, gives it an edge.

You don't have to fight if you don't want to, and you can establish dominance over rival cultures by trade.

Cleverly, once you begin to build military structures and units, so do they, and conflict is likely to follow.

But the strength of 1503 AD is its economic and social modelling. Players wanting a war game would do better to buy something like Age of Mythology or Generals.

It's a game that can be played almost endlessly and because of this it represents value for money. System requirements are reasonably modest - a Pentium 3 or similar, 128mb ram and a 16mb graphics card.

* Email Peter Eley