When it comes to strategy games, you don't see many outside of the realm of the PC…and for good reason too! You see, the limited buttons of a controller can never truly match the possibilities of a mouse and keyboard. However, that doesn't stop people from the ports, and the newest one is Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, which certainly looks like it has the tools for when it is released. Do you have what it takes to amass a huge fleet of soldier and way waste to the NOD?

The story of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (CC from here on) looks to be a driving force for the game, as you'll experience it in both pre-mission briefings and through the events of your actions on the battlefield. In the future Tiberium has taken over huge portions of the world's land, warping it to utter destruction: there are mutilated lands, corrupted lands where most of the populace lives, and then there are a few scattering of fertile lands. The Brotherhood of NOD are out to take control of the Tiberium and warp the future in their visage, while the GDI is out to stop them from accomplishing that plan. A change of pace for modern day games, CC is in favor of using live actors, which have the notoriety of being quite bad in games of the past. Here, though, the game is packed with talented actors, featuring such actors as Sam Fisher himself (Mr. Michael Ironside), Battlestar Galactica's sexy Cylons (Tricia Helfer and Grace Park), Sawyer from Lost (Josh Holloway), Lando (Billy Dee Williams), and Dr. Allison Cameron from House (the lovely Jennifer Morrison). Most of the story plays out with these FMV (full motion video) cutscenes, but during actual missions you'll get chatter detailing more events, and Jennifer Morrison will pop up in a little picture-in-picture screen to say something from time to time.

There is a nice and lengthy tutorial training area that gradually will introduce you to the play mechanics and the workings of the controls. You'll learn how you will move your cursor and scroll over the battlefield, issue commands, build new units, construct more buildings, and other such typical controls when it comes to RTS games. The tutorial will also help you learn the controls of the game and what buttons to press to do things like select a single unit, select them all, ordering powers, and other goodies. If anyone has played The Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle-earth II on the Xbox 360, controls should provide a bit of deja-vu feeling, as they are almost identical to CC (should come as no surprise since both EA games) though here they appear to have been tweaked a tad bit to fix some problems that were around for the LOTR game. The big controls were the thumbsticks to move your cursor and zoom you in and out of the action, the A-button to act as the left click of a mouse button, and the left and right triggers being used in conjunction with other buttons to select all the units at once, ordering buildings, and placing them into the field; those aren't all the buttons used, but they seem to make up the bulk of the action.

One of my greatest problems with RTS games are the needless micromanagement of resources, where you'll have to build units, manually send them out somewhere to mine that resource, come back, and repeat it all again. Thankfully, CC is much more streamlined, as it contains itself to one resource the titular Tiberium. Tiberium is your one stop source for everything, so build some harvesters and they'll automatically go hunting out the Tiberium and bringing it back to you, and you don't have to lift a finger. Tiberium acts as the power source in the game, as you'll need an ample supply to purchase new units, buildings, and use powers as well (such as a wicked laser orbiting in space that fires the area). One neat idea is that you can power off buildings you aren't using, saving up some of the resources you just might need should you find yourself in a pinch later on.

The natural progression of unit types and their power should be familiar to RTS fans, as you'll start out with some simple grunt soldiers, and as you build new building types you'll be able to outfit them and make new, more advanced soldiers, or create new vehicle units, going from the jeeps to the power punching heavy tanks. Units control by selecting them and pointing to a place on the map and clicking the A-button; if you only clicked the A-button once they'll head to that location, blissfully compliant and unaware of any dangers that may be around them, but if you double click the A-button instead, your units will head towards that destination, but will engage any enemies that should come across their path while on that journey.

The graphical style of the game is a big selling point, because the art style is quite pretty, considering the fact that this is a post apocalypse setting where most of the ground is scratched and dirty, but it's pretty in its decay. The architecture of the GDI and NOD buildings and unit types also have their own unique traits, giving the game a flashy style about it. There also wasn't really any slowdown noticeable at any time, despite the fact that there were quite a few units on the screen at once, trying to blow each other to kingdom come. The sound work is there too, featuring of course that of the actors on the screen, but the ordinary sound of radio chatter was presented nicely, as well as that of all the construction sounds and constant firing happening back and forth.

CC is also a quick playing game, as turtling up your forces, which often seems like a good idea in most RTS games, was met with little success this time around, as your enemies like to attack fast and ferociously, and you really need to keep up the pace to be on their level. The action and get pretty intense when everything is in play and in motion, as you can be building tanks one place, have a huge army fighting it out over a base at another, and then find your base getting bombed when the enemy sends over a line of bombers flying overhead, laying waste to all your plans. If you need a RTS fix on the consoles, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars might be what you are looking for, as it seems to have the goods needed to make a quality game.