SPECS: Pentium 266, 64MB RAM, 4xCD-ROM, 400MB hard disk space, 4MB graphics card

IN terms of gaming history, Fallout was one of the most important titles in recent years, laying the groundwork for the resurgence of role-playing games. While the programmers saw more success with their later Baldur's Gate series of games, for me, Fallout has always been of more interest.

Fallout: Tactics returns to the post-nuclear wasteland the previous games were set in, but we're not in RPG territory here.

Instead, this is a strategy game, with your soldiers fighting out battles in either turn-based or real-time modes across 20 different maps.

The fighting plays out like the combat scenes in the original Fallout, only on a bigger scale. Plus, you get the added bonus of being able to trundle around in vehicles, most of them heavily armed.

The single player game is smashing, but Fallout also throws in a multiplayer mode in which you can take on all comers.

Turn-based strategy fans sometimes get a raw deal in the computing market, with a plague of poor real-time games clogging up the market. Fallout is a peach of a game to redress the balance, with superb production values and filled with the same grim, dark humour found in the original. Highly recommended.

Graphics 4/5

Sound 4/5

Gameplay 5/5

Gamespan 5/5

Overall 5/5