After reporting that LineOne had opened a new, free Internet game called Netropolis a couple of issues back, we've been hooked on wheeling and dealing within its cities.

Essentially, Netropolis is a simple management game in which you start up a company and then begin buying commercial properties that earn you a sum of money each game month (every five minutes or so). The more money you earn, the more properties you can buy. Er, until the town you're in runs out of space, and then things get interesting.

The key to 'winning' a town (getting your company's total worth over £2m) is being downright dirty. If you've run out of free space to build on, you can take over other people's properties. This tends to upset them though, so be prepared to have your remaining properties fire-bombed, cherry-bombed or simply destroyed. You can add security to your buildings but they're not 100% effective, and if you've upset a powerful adversary you can find yourself struggling to survive. Remember, just because a particular company is below you on the list of top companies, it doesn't mean they can't go out and hire assassins and bomb squads, who, for a price, are quite willing to move into your town, target you and rain all manner of destructive things on your burgeoning empire.

Make friends with some other companies and they might be willing to instigate a bombing campaign on your behalf. Are you beginning to get the picture? Good, because it's downright good fun and you should get yourself along to the Netropolis website right now. Oh, and if you come across Mary Had a Little Lamb Ltd, fire-bomb them because they've been making the Ed's life as Wiffy Burgers in Woking sheer hell.