Darts on the computer is a weird concept. What's really the idea here - darts for lazy people? Because you could hardly call the beer-gutted monsters that wobble up to the oche every year "athletes" in the traditional sense of the word. Exactly how unfit do you have to be not to be able to play real darts? Dead, we would think.

Of course, we're being excessively flippant. Not everyone has the space to put up a dartboard, or a wife who's understanding enough to have a wall peppered with small holes. Also, video darts gives you a chance to score 180s, which in real life happens with around the same frequency as Halley's Comet appears.

The success of a darts game hangs largely on the control system. Traditionally, this has been the wobbly cursor method: the aiming is done with a reticule that veers about randomly, which you attempt to guide as best you can, timing your mouse click to throw when it's over the target. Just like playing in the pub after ten pints of gut-rotter.

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PDC Darts works differently, appropriating the control scheme which has been used by most golf games of late. The mouse is pulled back to bring the dart player's arm back, then pushed forward to throw. Any deviation to the side will knock your aim askew, so you've got to keep the mouse as straight as possible, and the power of the throw is determined by how far back you pull. It doesn't feel quite as intuitive as the familiar golf swing, but this control method still works very well.

To add tension, when you get down towards a finish the aiming cursor starts to wobble a little and the sweat starts to gather on your eyebrows, just as in the real game. The atmosphere of a pressure darts match is captured with aplomb, and there's a realistic sense of momentum as you tend to get hot and cold streaks.

The authentic scorer ("One-hundred-and-eighty!") and decent graphics add to the ambience, although the background sound effects (mainly the clinking of pint pots in the audience) let the side down, being obviously looped. And the less said about the main commentator - whose daft remarks are often inappropriate - the better.

You can play in a tournament or partake of the full career mode, although the presentation is fairly basic and, worse still, there's only one save game slot available. This means that if someone else wants to play a career, they'll have to save over yours.

Presumably this is because the game is ported from the PS2 version (that would also explain the horribly clunky menus) but that's no excuse for this sort of laziness. Another major downer is that during two player games against a friend, constantly having to swap seats to take your turn gets quite irritating and puts you off your rhythm.

There are some darts party games included (such as "killer" and "cricket"), the idea being that you can have a laugh with up to three mates, but these use the old style wobbly cursor control method (or variants of it). They're also very shoddily presented and quite frankly, pretty pants all round.

The party darts games aren't up to much and some elements of PDC Darts' presentation and design leave a lot to be desired. However, the main career mode showcases an enjoyable and quite realistic simulation of the not-so-noble sport, and darts fans are unlikely to get board of it (sorry!) for some time.