GameAccount is a well laid out website which offers several different strategy and skill games which can be played over the internet either for free, or in a competition form, where you can win money. The games include sniper shootout strategy games (Silent Strike and Jungle Wars), a golf game, Mah Jong, Darts, a card game (Pyramid Panic) and a game called "Fruit Punch" which is very similar to "Bejewelled" which we review here. All of the games are well designed, with nice graphics and an easy to understand interface (rules and instructions are available on the GameAccount website for all games).

In order to win money, you need to register with the site and deposit a sum into an account with GameAccount - it is always a good idea to practice beforehand, which you can do without any limitations, for free. If you feel you are good enough to test your talents and try to win some money, then deposit some money in your account (they match this up to a maximum of £10) and then you can play any of the games on the site for prices ranging from 25p per game to around £2.50 per game. The prizes and costs for each type of game are clearly laid out and it is nice to see that even amateurs can stand a chance of winning.

In order to make the competitions fairer, your standard of play is judged by how well you play each game, and you can be awarded "rookie", "amateur" or "professional" level. Some of the competitions are then limited to players within only one or two of these categories, so that you know that you will not be playing against someone who can amass 1000s of points within seconds! As well as playing against the highest scores, you can also limit your risk to some extent by entering 2 or 5 player tournaments for each game, although these do carry a lower prize fund. Prizes range from around £1.80 to £1000 for the highest score each month.

The games themselves are very interesting, while remaining easy to play and addictive, which means that you should soon improve your rating and be able to get a place on the high score tables. It may however, take some practice if you are to win any of the large prizes. Some of the games are easy enough for starters, such as Silent Strike, but others take a lot of patience and brain-power - such as Fruit Punch and Num Runner.

Silent Strike is a sniper shoot-out game. You control the cross-hairs of a sniper rifle and have to spot the enemy soldiers and shoot them as quickly as possible. Points are awarded depending on the speed with which you clear each area. This is a good test of observation, as not all of the enemy soldiers are easy to spot! 6/10

Jungle Wars is similar to Silent Strike, except set in jungle undergrowth. 6/10

Fruit Punch, as stated above, is very similar to Bejewelled (please read our review). The main difference is that pieces of fruit are used as well as jewels and you are given an indication of how many pieces of fruit (or jewels) you need to complete each level. Each level is played against the clock, but thankfully, the game does not end when you cannot make any more legal moves on a grid - instead, the grid is re-distributed. 9/10

Mah Jong is an implementation of the classic chinese tile game. Various tiles with pictures,. chinese characters and symbols are stacked on a board in a pyramid shape. You see the game from an overhead point of view and the aim is to remove matching tiles, two at a time. Although the game is made slightly easier by the fact that flowers and fruit tiles do not have to exactly match with each other, you can only match tiles which appear at the edges (not ones surrounded by other tiles). The overhead viewpoint can sometimes make this a little difficult to judge which tiles are at the edge of each layer and the fact that the characters used can appear very similar, can make this game more puzzling than you would at first think. A well balanced game - easy to play and yet taxing. 10/10

Pyramid Panic is a classic card game where you have a pyramid of cards on the table, and have to clear them from the bottom row to the top row by turning over the top card in the deck and building a run of cards from that one, by adding a card from the pyramid which has a value of one more or one below. This is tricky and needs some thought to get a run of cards, and clear the pyramid. You also need to remember what cards have gone as once you have turned over all of the cards in the deck, the game is over 7/10

Golf has good graphics, with a top down view for making the various shots. The method of making shots takes a little getting used to, but after reading the instructions (which have plenty of good diagrams) and a bit of practice, you soon get used to it. The game has all the normal hazards you would expect, sand traps, water, wind and rough ground. Certainly a pleasant way to spend a rainy day !! 9/10

Darts is a simple game - you have to play against another player and it is the first to get their score from 501 to zero, using the standard rules of the game. It adds another dimension to the game, as you can chat with the other player as you play. You can even chat with the other players in the bar as you wait for someone to agree to play against you. It does however, take a bit of getting used to, as you have to click on a dart and use your mouse to drag it across to the dartboard to take aim - it wavers a bit in mid air (probably easier with beer goggles, as in real life), and you release it when you think the power bar is at the right position. An addictive game which you can play for fun or for £1 per game. 8/10

Num Runner is an interesting game where you start with a large grid of numbers. There are bombs on certain spots within the grid and a green spot, which is your starting point. You have to move the green spot, by clicking on an adjacent number (in any direction, including diagonal). The green spot will move that number of places in the given direction. However, you have to be careful, as your game ends when you move the green spot off the side of the grid, hit a square you have already been on, or hit one of the bombs!! Interesting and needs a lot of brain power !! 8/10

It was also nice to see that when we had a query with our account - their email response was quick and helpful, rather than just an automatic acknowledgement. The query concerned a problem we had in starting up the games under the Opera web browser. Opera insisted on installing the macromedia shockwave plug-in every time we tried to play the games, even though we had installed it. Customer services for GameAccount soon reassured us that fees were automatically returned to our account where a game fails to launch properly - a nice touch. The answer for Opera was to reset the PC and try again - it then worked flawlessly.

GameAccount is a novel site, with plenty to keep players interested and yet is not too challenging - with the different levels of player and range of competitions available, this is one site where it is hard to say no to taking a risk !!

(Page Last Updated 14/1/04)