As a professional journalist for more than 20 years, I was skeptical about the concept, but I hoped it could realistically give action gamers an entirely new set of challenges and skills to master. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but war correspondents aren't likely to feel that way facing a hostile solider with a machine gun.

"Global Conflicts" falls far short of its potential, however, presenting a mostly linear point-and-click plot leaning toward the simplistic and shallow end of the game-play scale. The player will report (and may even be a victim of) solider raids, suicide bombings and other miseries of war, but passively since the hottest action occurs in cut scenes. Also, just about everything from graphics to sound to interface are reminiscent of a game at least 10 years old.

On the plus side, there are interesting offerings for target audiences, such as a thorough overview of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict revealed during interviews, and at least a rudimentary glimpse of the news-gathering process. Also, the game has low system requirements and should run on any PC or Mac made during the past several years.

The choice of newspaper and subsequent questions asked will determine the level of trust of sources, who may offer crucial inside comments or clam up depending on how they view the reporter's allegiance. The reporter also will be asked to do favors, such as delivering a letter to a friend or exchanging currency, which can make both friends and enemies.

The interface is overhead 3D, and the player interviews sources by walking around the modest-sized city playfield and clicking on them with the mouse. The player then gets a list of questions, usually two or three, with each selection affecting the source's comments and willingness to comment further. Comments the player considers quote-worthy are written in his or her notebook, although a maximum of five quotes are allowed.

Once the player feels that he or she has enough for an article, the reporter calls the newspaper and selects a headline, photo and three quotes. The newspaper then lets the player know on what page the story ran and what kind of reader reaction it received.

Considering earning trust and using the notebook are the most important aspects of the game, it's troubling that each suffers serious flaws:

• Attempting to be as thorough and impartial as possible pretty much guarantees poor story placement and trust levels, since sources require a favorable bias to disclose their most useful information, and papers won't run stories on page one without it. Bias may well be impossible to avoid in real life, but the essence of good reporting is asking tough questions of people with similar opinions and fairly presenting opposing views. Striving to be Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann is a worthy goal only in a business simulation, in which the almighty rating is favored over the sacred altar of truth.

• The five-quote notebook limit is clumsy and, worse, totally counterintuitive for knowledgeable journalists. Quotes can only be deleted between interviews, so if your notebook is full when a source discloses something vital, you're out of luck since they won't repeat it (and there's no mid-episode save feature). Any reporter knows to write down everything and save the weeding-out process until writing the story.

The three-quote limit in stories feels frustratingly inadequate, but at least that's a familiar experience for most reporters (an even more realistic twist would be a "deadline" option, in which the player has to gather and select material in a limited amount of time).

Finishing the six scenarios doesn't require a lot of time, but there's some replay value for players wanting to go back and see how plots develop by taking different allegiances. Also, the truly hard-core gamer will probably have to play this many, many times if he or she wants to land all of his or her stories on page one, since getting even one there is a formidable task.

"Global Conflicts" is getting middling reviews from people interested in low-key strategy games and scathing assessments from those more likely to be playing "Halo 3." Truth is, this is basically teenage-level edutainment that's a pleasant way of absorbing the basics of the Middle East conflict for those interested in doing so and a lousy alternative to strapping on a Wii and being the one with the AK-47.

• Mark Sabbatini is a professional retrogamer who was forced to play craptacular "educational" games such as "Math Football" and "Spelling Invaders" in school.