Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath

We've typed it a thousand times - doing complete justice to the real-time strategy genre on a console is damn near impossible. Just look at what we wrote about the original Command & Conquer 3 in our otherwise favorablereview: "[The game] still hasn't hit on a satisfactory alternative to mouse and keyboard control ... the [developers] have had the better part of a year to come up with a better control scheme and, to be blunt, they just haven't delivered."

Fortunately, the folks behind Command & Conquer 3 are well aware of this problem - this difficulty in translation - and they haven't stopped working to correct it since the game shipped. Now, with the expansion Kane's Wrath, they have a second chance at perfection.

How? Well, we could attempt to describe the new radial "command stick" and how its use of muscle memory makes playing the game a faster and simpler experience. We could try to put into text how helpful things like "true force fire" and "reverse unit movement" really are to a 360 commander. We could go on for paragraphs about the power of issuing orders to your base even when you're entire screens away.

We could... but we figure the game's Lead Producer, Jim Vessella, could explain everything far better. Here he is, explaining why Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (which releases as a $40 standalone product on June 23) is a deeper, and more importantly, friendlier RTS experience than the original.

May 22, 2008