World of Warcraft

What's the matter? Scared, are you? Well, it's time to be brave and dip your toe into an online world - a world where you're not the only important one. Massively multi-player online RPGs have finally grown up, so there's never been a better time to try.

World of Warcraft perfects all the basics: create a character, enter a beautifully detailed fantasy world along with hundreds of other real people, take on quests and develop your character.

To be honest, there's not a lot of innovation, but would you rather play a game with loads of ideas that didn't work? Exactly.

Warrior, warlock, rogue, priest - there's the usual choice of classes, and a few trade skills thrown in for good measure, but the most important choice you make is whether you fight for the Alliance or the Horde; the goodies or the baddies.

There's a cast of humans, gnomes, dwarves and elves against orcs, undead, trolls and tauren to choose from.

As you become more powerful, you'll come into contact with enemy players, and if you play on a 'player-versus-player' server you'll have the chance to fight them - sometimes in massive groups of cooperating players.

The star of the show has to be the world itself. There's an unbelievable amount of variety to be discovered, from dusty deserts to lush grassland and spooky forests. The cartoon-like presentation ties everything together nicely - you'll never look at something and think it looks stupid.

Play it for too long, though, and you'll start to wonder why real people look so weird. There's never been a better time to let the real world take a back seat.