Continuing the line of board games turned into computer games, this is TurboRisk. The game of Risk converted into a very playable game. If you have the skills you can even write your own computer opponent! By watching the computer players it seems like Australia and South America are the places to be.
The only downside is that you have to download this game. However it seems to be fine on my computer and I've had it for a while now.
Another board game made into online game, and this one's great. It's a bit complicated if you haven't played before, and the computer players are sometimes a bit annoying and gang up on you, but on the whole this game is really well made. You can play a game of Settlers that would normally take over an hour with human opponents in ten minutes!
You can also play against other people, but it helps to play with people you know won't take ages over their go. I don't think you can get the rules from Wikipedia (probably due to copyright), so you'll have to pick it up by playing.
So this isn't by any scope of the imagination a quick distraction. This is a huge life-time of a distraction. It's a download game, which instantly spells out long, but it's also amazing. If you've ever player Civilization, then this game is very similar (verging on the same). It's much more customisable, and is also much more free.
I can't possibly hope to sum up the whole game here, but basically the aim is to take charge of a civilization and lead them through the ages, keeping up to the times with military, economic and scientific advances. You start in 4000BC and the game goes all the way up to the present day.
This game is also multiplayer, and I'd love to organise a multiplayer game some day in the future, if only so everyone can see how bad I am at it!
A weird game with instructions in Japanese (I think), but actually a very simple concept. Click on each of the terminal things (the grey boxes), and use the clue to work out the five digit number. Type in the number, click "Lift", and away you go. If you get it right then the terminal will be replaced by bits of something else (I'm sure you'll work out what quite quickly).
I managed all but three fairly quickly, and have now managed all but the grey and black pattern puzzle (feel free to give me any hints!).
