Sid Meier's Civilization V

Fans of Sid Meir's seminal strategy game tend to be purists – one reason why 2008's Civilization Revolution was so panned by some for slimming down the formula in just about every respect.

Yet for all its limitations, the console version addressed many of the problems that the old PC franchise had ignored for too long, and the proof is here for all to see. Civilization V returns to Civ IV's epic scale but combines it with CivRev's emphasis on simplicity and clarity. As a result, this is probably the best (or at least the most user friendly) version of the game since the original and certainly the best-equipped for the now-obligatory multiplayer mode.

The first thing PC owners will notice is the interface. Heavily influenced by CivRev, it's a thing of minimalist beauty designed to display information clearly and succinctly. This also has the effect of allowing pride of place to the new-look World Map, which is now a thing of shimmering beauty as your empire develops into a tableau of fields, factories and road networks. Zooming in and out is smoother than before and it makes the game annoyingly easy to keep playing.

If you get lost, the city advisers' advice seems more timely and pertinent than before. Not that you need it – as hovering your mouse over, say, your happiness rating quickly reveals exactly why your population is either cheering your success or about to start rioting. It's not all cosmetic either. Civ V has been rebalanced and structured in all the four main areas on which victory depends. Diplomacy, as ever, is the weakest of the bunch, but even this has been improved thanks to the newly evolved City States which now cherish their independence. As they outnumber other nations but have no territorial ambitions of their own, they are well worth allying with – not least as they will attack your enemies with blind loyalty whenever called upon.

However, the biggest change is to the military side of things, thanks to replacing the old square-based geometry with a hexagonal one. This means you can now attack enemies from two extra angles, even firing from two or three squares behind with some ranged or progressed units. However, to compensate you can no longer stack units in the same place, leading to a more strategic if cumbersome form of combat that Civ fans will either hate to bits or find to be a revelation. How it all plays out online remains to be seen but, for me, Civ V is a hugely accomplished reinvention of a franchise that was showing signs of dotage.