A year ago this week (FG16, February 25, 1999) we were concerning ourselves with establishing the human race on planets around our second nearest star in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Following the basic premise Sid had established in his seminal 'explore and conquer' strategy games Civ and Civ II, Alpha Centauri enabled the player to join one of seven factions with a view to oust all the other factions from the planet before they did the same to him. Steve Owen reviewed the game for us at the time and loved it, saying, "But deep down it's still Civ, and that's to take nothing away. The gameplay is utterly compelling (that 'just one more turn' factor is still there), and despite the unfamiliarity of space travel, Meier's world is so intricately constructed that you can't help but feel you are modelling some great history. He is a strategy genius, and Alpha Centauri is damn fine". Steve awarded the game a very respectable 91 per cent.

One year later and we'd still agree that Alpha Centauri is a damn fine game, but it hasn't shown the longevity we were hoping for. Today we'd give it a respectable, but not particularly outstanding, 81 per cent, and tell you to get hold of it if you see it being offered on the cheap.