Pre-E3 06: World in Conflict first look

The general strategic goal revolves around capturing and holding control nodes dotted over the map, which also builds up bonus Tactical Aid points that can be spent on new units. Certain groups of nodes can form special groups, so that capturing all of them confers certain one-time bonuses, like a quick paratroop drop, and also scattered here and there are specialty nodes like oil refineries, bunkers or buildings that can spawn their own defenders ("Wolverines!" - that's for the oldsters who actually remember Red Dawn ).

However, as interesting as all this is about how the game plays, you really have to give it up for how the game looks. The developers have obviously put some time and trouble into creating special effects, and nearly every object and building in the environment appears to be destructible. If you like watching stuff get blowed up real good, this is the RTS for you - tactical nukes, especially, with their drifting clouds of fallout, make for serious, if deadly, eye candy.

World in Conflict may or may not turn out to be the next big thing in Real-time Strategy, but there's no denying that its breakneck 20-minute, flip-flopping power struggles and user-friendly concepts have us itching to give it more time. Just don't ask us to play as the Russian invaders.

May 8, 2006