In the online, multiplayer modes, the historical angle largely fades away and the game becomes a straight-out competition over imaginary maps between each country's armies. -- John Breeden II

Win 98 or newer, $40

A QUIET WEEKEND IN CAPRI,

Got Game Entertainment

A Quiet Weekend in Capri was designed by two Italians and endorsed by the island's board of tourism, so it's not surprising that the game unfolds like an interactive travel brochure. By the time you finish it, you'll feel like you know every inch of the Mediterranean island's quaint main village, from the small shops and restaurants to the breathtaking views of tree-covered cliffs and azure waters.

The game itself, meanwhile, is an open-ended adventure along the lines of Myst, as you navigate around the island by pointing-and-clicking on detailed photographs. The meandering storyline revolves around your mysterious transportation to an alternate dimension and subsequent quest to return home, but the nuts and bolts of the game involve puzzle-solving and lots of errand-running.

You'll meet a variety of people -- all real-life island inhabitants, not actors -- and are supposed to pick up an assortment of objects along the way. Making progress, however, takes a keen eye and a roaming mouse, as many important items are hidden and none carry any sort of label. The on-screen map is also a chore to decipher.

Because of flaws such as these, the narrated, self-guided tour of Capri that's included on the CD is almost more appealing than the game itself. So the tourism board's crafty plot may have worked after all. -- Anthony Zurcher

Win 98 or newer, $30

MOVE ME 2.4, Spearit Software

The hard part about getting a new computer is making sure it works like the old one -- reinstalling the programs you like, tweaking all the settings and moving over all your old files. Move Me can simplify things by hauling over all your files, settings and even programs in one massive transplant operation.

Install it on both computers, select a transfer method -- home network, removable media or USB or parallel cables -- and Move Me crams the contents of the old computer into a Moving Van file for unpacking on the new machine. But this crew of movers won't accept many directions from you. Without complex tinkering with the program's Control Center, Move Me's sole options are to copy just your data files and the settings for a handful of well-known applications, such as Microsoft Word (a task Windows XP's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard can tackle), or to move everything, right down to the old PC's spyware.

In any case, transplanting entire applications between different Windows installations is an inherently complex, chancy process. Many programs, such as Morpheus and TurboTax, transferred flawlessly, but others, including Roxio's Easy Media Creator and Microsoft's Office XP, demanded a reinstallation or reactivation on the new computer. A "StartUp This" component lets you pick what applications run each time the new PC boots up, but you'll still need to invest a lot of time uninstalling the unwanted programs copied over by this over-eager helper. -- Michael Tedeschi

Win 95 or newer, $20 at www.spearit.com