Hobble off Holed Out!, lose Leaderboard and shelve Superior Golf, for I'd like you to meet Microdrive, your unconventional new rival. Following in the footsteps of Fireball II, CIS's golf game is set to score a hole in one.

But Microdrive is a simulator, not a game, because it passes the true test of a simulator - it's very difficult to play! The golfer is controlled directly, none of that namby-pamby power meter stuff. The mouse, as ever, is used to do this and lots of practice is advisable. It's typical that the easy golf games have practice greens when they're not really needed, and then along comes one in which a bit of practice is vital, but... no practice green!

Microdrive has proper contours and the two courses provided contain plenty of hills. This, added to the excellent graphics, makes for a very realistic course. The enormous variety of trees is nice, and these are very well drawn. When (not if!) the ball hits one it deflects, falls of travels straight through depending on the position of the branches.

The attention to detail is good. For example, the ball disappears from view when in the rough and even the advice on how to play is given in a 'commentator' style.

On the downside, Microdrive suffers from Basic-itis and is very slow. The front end is bad and club selection is rather tedious. It would have been nice to see the information box disappear when it is not needed - being ugly, it contrasts badly with the peaceful scenery of hills and trees.

Microdrive is a commendable attempt at solving the problem of artificiality in previous golf games, though it could be argued that the artificiality is good since it makes playing both fun and easy.