Released recently with little fanfare, Risk: Factions does a splendidly emphatic job of answering the perfectly reasonable "why?" of board-to-video-game conversions. First, through the simple: offering an AI or online opponent, eliminating half the battle – that of finding someone to play with. Then there's the nostalgia. Packaged within this download is "classic" Risk – Irkutsk! Kamchatka! – the gang's all here and playable without having to search for dice, cards or a sturdy table. Brilliant.

Finally, through updating and breathing new life into an established brand. Which Factions does in spades. There are new maps, special weapons, dynamic scenery (will the volcano explode or not – wait until the end of your turn to find out!) and a spiffy 50s cartoon-style animation – all held together by the simple turn-based die-rolling mechanic. And, of course, there are the factions – play as humans, robots, cats, yetis or even zombies. The latter, rather cutely, seem to be looking for somewhere "to live", their presence in a game like this indicative of how these Lebensraum-seeking undead have moved on since making censors nervous in the 70s. Fans of the original game, or its modern counterparts like Advance Wars, will love this chance to roll with it.