BullGuard Internet Security Gamer's Edition review

The world is a nasty place. At least you would think so if you subscribe to vision peddled by purveyors of security suites.

Everyone's out to steal your virtual persona, abuse your connection and stop you relaxing. Enter BullGuard Gamer's Edition, a suite designed to protect gamers from such nastiness.

Basic interface

It's a normal security suite, but one that won't interrupt you when playing – no inconsequential messages from your firewall, virus checker or spam filter. It works too – storing up problems and questions until you've finished gaming.

When you're not gaming, it's very much the inquisitive BullGuard of old though – pleading that you back up, run a full scan, and check this and that.

It's as if it's trying to prove its worth so you feel you're getting value for money. The interface isn't particularly great, and tracking down some options is surprisingly unintuitive too.

Necessary software?

Here's the real catch – with a little common sense, you simply don't need a suite like this.

Our test machine is a wonderful case in point: a gaming dumping ground for nearly two years, boasting little more than the free version of AVG and the Windows Firewall, yet BullGuard failed to find anything juicy even after scouring the rig for the best part of three hours.

Maybe the world is out to get you? And even if it were, online backup, spam filters and all the bells and whistles that come with this package aren't a patch for a little common sense. Of course, if you're too lazy or carefree, this will do the job, but we'd prefer to spend the cash on a game or two.