Dogz 4 (PC)

Tamgotchi has a lot to answer for. This series of titles, with the accompanying Catz series, started life as a glorified screensaver; the software provides a virtual pet that wanders around Windows whilst you're supposed to be working. As with a real pet, it needed feeding, training and so on, so it can grow up to be a happy, fulfilled member of society - cue soft-focus Disney finish.

This latest version deviates little from this formula, although it adds tons of toys (sorry, Toyz) for your dogs, rooms for them to play in, and speech recognition facilities so you can train your dog to "Sit" on command. At least, that's the idea; the software can't handle Welsh accents, so I found it less than useful. This speech facility is also largely responsible the awe-inspiring 300Mb of hard disk space the game swallows.

Also new in this version is the ability to breed dogs. Unfortunately, the game is far too cuddly to show anything and all the X-rated action happens off screen. Ah well. Also, the dogs are all the same size on the screen, so bang went all my bizarre Doberman/Chihuahua cross ideas.

Frankly, it's hard to see why you need this. If you want a companion who need fuss and attention, but gives you love in return, go get a real dog. If you really must have an electronic simulated pet, then this one fulfils all requirements of cuteness, and at least it doesn't shit everywhere…