James says: Time-Wasting Game Of The Week

In our sixth form common room, there is a random room next door, containing, amongst other things, two computers for the purpose of looking at online university prospectuses and the UCAS website. Of course, give a bunch of 17-18 year olds access to the internet, in a room very rarely visited by teachers, and what do you get? Hours of time wasted on pointless web pursuits. Of course, there's Facebook, Myspace and the like (not YouTube; it's blocked), but much time is spent on games. There's the old classics of course, but every now and then a new game is discovered, and it launches a miniature craze among the room's regular visitors. This week is Desktop Tower Defense, where you build a load of heavily-armed towers for the purpose of stopping some odd-shaped monsters from getting from one end of the screen to the other. Apparently, it's a remake of an old game. Either way, it's ridiculously addictive; once you've got the hang of it, try the Fun > 10k Gold mode, build up a massive defense, then release a dozen waves of enemies at the same time. Absolute pandemonium ensues. However, no matter how well you think you've built your maze, eventually something will get through, normally a near-indestructable boss, or a weird triangular flying thing that isn't forced to work it's way through the huge death maze you've just concocted. Once that happens, it's all downhill from there, and everything goes to pot surprisingly quickly.

What will we be playing next week? Who knows...