Companies like Relic, Stardock and Gas Powered Games are all massive contributors to making the RTS genre sexy again. The new generation of give-it-to-me-now gamers had all but left it to die. Of course, it remains a staple in tournament play, but for the genre to thrive, it needed a much deserved series of changes.

Supreme Commander is the balls to the wall spiritual sequel to Total Annihilation. Hundreds of units on screen combined with simplistically clever gameplay has deviated the least from the genre, while still managing to bring even the best of gaming PCs to their knees when the massive battles heat up. SupCom has brought the classic RTS formula into the future and with a sequel on the horizon, the future looks bright for the massive-scale RTS.

Company of Heroes is the sign of the times; Emergent tactical gameplay allows for slower, more skill based gameplay. Micromanagement is less of a chore and is a lot more rewarding when it works in your favour. Squads will seek cover, and tanks will often reverse rather than turn all the way around and expose their weak easily-penetrated rear armour. Small but clever additions like these are what truly makes Company of Heroes such an enthralling and replayable experience. Graphically, the individual attention to detail is immediately obvious. Lowering the camera to the ground allows you to truly see the effort that has been put into realizing the characters.  Online multiplayer is essentially flawless with games beginning in minutes, and the clever automatch system imported from the Dawn of War series, Company of Heroes has crafted a nice niche in the genre which will last until the sequel is released.

World in Conflict is is an action game trapped in the body of an RTS, creating consistent warfare and allowing tactics to be key in securing a victory. As a result, the story mode feels a lot more like story. Key characters are developed, and during loading the situation is well narrated by Alec Baldwin in a concise manner, preventing boredom but setting the scene. The multiplayer is a very different animal indeed from your typical RTS fare, mainly being that it’s server based, and players can drop in and out at any time. Each player has a role to play with a choice of Armour, Air, Infantry and Support. Co-operation is essential to victory and winning itself is extremely satisfying when pulled off well. Well, that and there’s nukes.