Speed is the name of the game, here. The guys at EA pulled no punches in making sure that Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was as fast as they could possibly make it. A base takes no more than five minutes to fully construct: defenses and tech trees fully developed and deployed. A full match, with battles included, takes about twenty minutes, with Ion Cannon and Nuclear ICBM super weapons flying. This made our multiplayer experience very tense and exciting.

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In multiplayer mode, there are a multitude of maps available for play, ranging across all three zones – blue, yellow and red – with full 8-player Internet support. There are also three factions to choose from, the GDI and Brotherhood of Nod, of course, but also the Scrin, that we didn’t have the opportunity to play in single player. While GDI is the powerhouse and Nod is the sneak-tactic "gotcha" faction, the Scrin play as an odd combination of the two. This alien species, that we can only speculate are the origin of the mysterious Tiberium, plays very weak at first glance, but towards the end are incredibly powerful, with unique Ion Storm weapons and teleportation devices.

In terms of the strategy, we found that tank rushes just weren’t enough to cut the mustard here. Combinations of units were key. For example, the Juggernaut – GDI’s massive uber-artillery unit – could not use its artillery barrage ability without the use of sniper teams – a GDI infantry squad. Sniper teams can go across the map and "spot" for the Juggernaut, allowing it to use its devastating artillery safely from across the map. The Scrin also can combine entire units, using the defensive abilities of one unit to augment another. Nod also, with its Avatar warmech – a massive walking death-machine – can rip the turrets off of friendly tanks to augment itself with extra cannons or abilities.

Graphically, Tiberium Wars does an excellent job. Taking the SAGE engine from previous titles like Battle for Middle Earth and Command & Conquer: Generals, Tiberium Wars sports visual effects such as heat distortion and reflectivity, as well as a decent polygon count per unit. All this, and the system requirements are very easy on the computer, allowing for massive swarms of infantry and effects, with little slowdown. If your PC still isn’t beefy enough to handle it, look forward to the Xbox 360 version, coming out sometime after the PC release.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is set for release on the PC worldwide on March 26, with the game arriving on shelves March 28.

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