Tin Soldiers Alexander the Great

Tin Soldiers Alexander the Great is an impressive real-time strategy game, and it looks like it might turn out to be a pretty interesting game. It's being developed by F.A.R.M.S., a division of Take-Two Interactive and Stainless Steel Studios. Like the original Alexander, it will be built on the Frostbyte engine. While it's yet to be announced for the US market, the game's developer, Stainless Steel Studios, recently showed off the game in a three-level beta test that began July 21.

This strategy game casts you as one of four nations: France, Britain, and the United States. A conflict between the tribes is raging between the Greeks and the Egyptians, who have the advantage of superior numbers. You can choose to play the game as the Greeks, the Persians, or the Egyptians. Each civilization has its own different unit types and heroes, as well as a wide range of abilities. For example, the Persians are fast but weak, but don't have any inherent weaknesses; the Persians are ranged, and don't have the ability to summon siege weapons. As the game progresses, you'll recruit units to gain power, such as the great catapult, which can knock down the enemy in one hit. For example, the mighty battering ram is one of the strongest units in the game, and it is resistant to the usual counterattacks.

GS: One of the few areas of gameplay in Champions is resource gathering. What can you tell us about the resource gathering system in the game? Will you have to spend some resources to get up and running, or will you be able to upgrade buildings or structures as you play through the game?

The resource gathering system is set up in a similar fashion to the original Command & Conquer games, and it will be integrated with the familiar RTS gameplay. Each resource will be scattered throughout the game, and they're split into different types of nodes that will yield different rewards. For instance, one node will yield resources for destroying the enemy unit, while another node will yield some new resource, such as crystal shards. Like in the original games, it will be possible to unlock a lot of different resources--this will come in handy when you're trying to improve your base, as well as if you want to build your own mining facility to upgrade your existing mining facility.

Travel will be important in the game. As you complete missions, you'll be rewarded with gold and other resources that will in turn unlock new upgrade types for your buildings. The game will offer a quick tutorial that walks you through the various training missions, which will teach you the basics of constructing units and their abilities. You'll also be required to complete specific missions in order to advance to higher areas in the game, such as with cities, temples, and towns.

Combat will play a big role in Age of Mythology.

The battles will offer a significant variety to combat. The early battles we saw pit you against the enemies you'll come to expect from Age of Mythology. Once we had finished training with our army, we began the mode of combat. A top-down view of the battle map, the movement and attack options on the bottom screen, and a free-look mode that let you line up multiple units and target their weaknesses on the action in an instant. Battles have three phases, with your forces being able to use up to four of your units and two units to attack from a distance. The phase starts out with a skirmish that features what the designers call "capture the essence of the unit." These capture the essence of the enemy unit, and can then be unleashed against your enemies in the hope of claiming victory. As you defeat the enemy, you'll gain experience points that can be used to upgrade your units. And when you build up enough of them, you'll be able to assign you units to perform specific actions.

Then we got to the meat of the combat. We saw an earlier demo mission in which we had to destroy a troop carrier and then destroy the carrier to complete a mission. This mission took place in a nebula that featured a circular fortress, and we were able to gain new units from that objective. You can assign your units to move a unit or speed up the movement of a unit or to use special abilities such as hover units to launch rockets and other flying units. You'll also be able to control a hover unit, which is an infantry unit, to change up how you approach combat. If you put down an infantry unit, it will be sent flying to the nearest enemy base, making it a good defensive weapon against enemy units.

Your base is a run-down fortress, so you'll need to build a few defensive structures in order to protect it from the enemy attack. While you can construct structures, you'll be able to increase the defensive capabilities of your base by doing so.