Terrorists, eh? Can’t live with them, can’t kill them all by yourself. And they’re everywhere now, demanding this and that, brandishing their favourite AK-47, and prancing about in balaclavas. Thankfully the boys in the SAS administer regular beatings to any macho fool with a cause trying to threaten dear old Blighty. But what about those times when you just want to put the boot in yourself? You have two options:

- Pick a cause, sign up, and fight for one of the following: Ulster Loyalists or Republicans, Israel, USA, France or Spain (come to think of it, any Western country’s armed forces will do). Likely outcome: ignominious death by AK47 or semtex.

- Pick a local games store, buy a game involving killing terrorists, install and play, until homicidal instincts have subsided. Likely outcome: possible repetitive strain injury, high phone bill.

Okay, so I’m sure most of you aren’t quite so psychotically motivated, so perhaps I can just interest you an a little gaming of the ‘realistic’ first-person tactical kind…

Always the game of choice in this field was Counter-Strike, and the popularity of the Half-life mod has been astonishing, with tens of thousand of people across the world every night, dishing out death to the terrorist scum. And tens of thousands dish it out to the hated authority figures in return.