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Prepare to unleash the absolute latest in modern weapons technology against the world’s most powerful Generals in Command & Conquer™: Generals Zero Hour*. In the next era of military strategy and might, you’ll need to command a more technologically advanced arsenal to defeat new, more powerful enemies. The first expansion pack for the critically acclaimed Command & Conquer™: Generals challenges players to square off against the world’s most elite commanders for battlefield domination. Even the most experienced C&C Generals veteran must learn new strategies and tactics to take full advantage of—and learn to defend against—the next generation of the world’s most lethal weapons. With new units, structures, and upgrades, as well as the all-new Generals Challenge Mode, Zero Hour delivers all the firepower you’ll need in your quest to become the ultimate modern warfare General.

Grand Ages: Rome Review Grand Ages: Rome is yet another generic city-builder set in ancient Rome. The GoodCampaign missions based on historical families and events from Roman history Adds online multiplayer support. The BadFormulaic city-building gameplay Little more than a rerelease of last year's Imperium Romanum. You would need to have the smarts of a Cicero to keep track of all the Roman city-building games released in the last few years. Haemimont Games certainly isn't making this task any easier with Grand Ages: Rome. This generic city-builder set during the waning days of the Roman Republic looks and plays almost exactly like its ancestors; good luck telling the difference between the game and kissing cousins such as Caesar IV, CivCity: Rome, and, more to the point, Haemimont's own Glory of the Roman Empire and Imperium Romanum. Although there isn't anything outrageously wrong with this rehash of an old formula, it would be hard to think of a game that needed to be released this year less than this one.

When a series has been around for as long as the Age of Empires has, players begin to expect certain things. At the same time, we don’t simply want more of the same. There’s got to be some changes; some innovation there as well. And with so much competition from other great strategy games we’ve seen over the last couple of years, it’s no easy task being innovative and remaining true to the spirit of the series. The developers at Ensemble Studio have successfully walked the line. Age of Empires III sports some great additions to the strategy genres, yet still feels as comfortable as an old shoe. An “Age-Old” ProblemBut first, a little pet peeve. Sure, Age of Empires III is very similar to any other real-time strategy game. But for the love of God, stop making the first mission in the single-player campaign some huge battle with tons of troops and buildings. When you’re trying to learn the interface and recognize which buildings and units do what, the last thing you want to deal with is a relentless onslaught of enemy troops. It’s not exciting--it’s annoying.Actually, the single-player campaign in general is a bit of a wash. It feels very much like any other with severe limitations on the kinds of units and troops you can build in order to make the canned objectives more challenging. After going through several of these missions, we wanted to completely drop the campaign in favor of skirmish mode.Scrumptious SkirmishHere’s where you’ll find the tasty meat of Age of Empires III. Ensemble has lifted some great design choices from other games and added a couple of original ones as well. In general, Age of Empires III sports a more concise design. The historical time period covered has been scaled back covering five ages from the Age of Discovery to the Imperial Age. The number of playable nationalities has been narrowed down to eight and even the number of different units is less than in Age of Kings.Rise of (Unique) NationsCutting back on the strategy sprawl has allowed Ensemble to go in and make each playable nationality a unique, interesting, and personalized experience. Players will find that each nationality has access to very specific units and bonuses that will radically change your style of play. For example, we’ve been having a grand time with the Portuguese who, by the time you reach the third age, gain access to the Organ Gun, a unique artillery unit that can mow down infantry with ease.Other changes between the nations are much more radical. The Dutch have an economy heavily based on coin, not food or wood. They also have buildings designed to easily generate coin over time. Leave a Dutch player alone for too long and he’ll accumulate enough resources to wipe you off the map with ease. In fact, the entire game appears to emphasize offense even though there are plenty of turtling options from the get-go. The Home City AdvantageEach nation also gets a boost from their home city, a new feature in the game that allows players to receive regular deliveries of units and resources. What your home city contains is based on the nationality you choose to play and the experience level of your home city. Playing skirmish matches generates experience points that are then funneled into the development of your home city. As your home city goes up in level, you can choose new resources and units for it to supply to you. Experience points carry over from game to game, so the more you play, the more you can customize your nationality to your specific style of play.This holds true for multiplayer games as well. Once signed in to Ensemble Online you choose a nationality to play (you can have multiple nations going at one time). Each game you play, win or lose, will provide experience for your home city. Of course there is potential for extremely unbalanced games when a person with a level 2 city squares off against someone with a level 20 city, but online sessions can be narrowed to players with similar experience levels. This adds an exciting level of ownership to online matches that goes beyond the traditional ladder setup.There are lots of other tweaks as well like a revamped trade system and the ability to foster alliances with the natives of the New World (an effective strategy for quickly boosting your troop numbers). The more you play, the more you discover just how many great things have been added to make this game feel fresh.One for the AgesTop it all off with a delicious graphics engine and you’ve got an Age of Empires game for modern machines that sports daring new design ideas for the modern strategy gamer. Just do yourself a favor. Skip the campaign and head straight to the skirmish mode.