Dark Age of Camelot: Darkness Rising

With The user-friendly likes of Guild Wars and City Of Villains almost giving online role-playing a veneer of respectability - within the gaming community, if not the world at large - the defiantly old school DAOC limps into its sixth expansion pack with a hey-nonny-nonny and a pint of Olde Peculiar if you please, stout yeoman of the bar.

In its defence, the game does do a good horse, and this is one aspect that has been elaborated upon in Darkness Rising. Become a level 45 Champion of the Realm (by which time you're probably already dead) and you'll be eligible for a so-called advanced mount. Majestic steeds, one and all, these include such equine treats as Nightmare, Unicorn, Warhorse and the Undead Phantom, all of which can be given a pet name and fitted with saddlebags and armour. My Little Pony for dungeon-fanciers.

At the very least graphics have been improved and a huge high-level quest has been added, but elsewhere, there's scarcely any improvement on the original. It's a largely impenetrable world, crippled by an arcane interface and almost bereft of human contact. Four years after the game launched, a small band of merry adventurers are seemingly prepared to accept this nofrills approach. That said, with barely 15,000 online on a bleak Wednesday night during Match Of The Day, the battle of the abbreviations is unlikely to see DOAC usurp MOTD in the nation's hearts any time soon.