World in Conflict (Xbox 360, Windows)

WORLD IN CONFLICT lets players imagine the "what ifs" of the Cold War and then lets them play it out in all of its grittiness. It's 1989, and the Soviets have made a surprise attack on the United States. Seattle is overrun, and it's up to a few rag-tag divisions to try to turn the tide. World War III is in full gear, and it's the player's job to win back the United States.

In one of the biggest breaks from the standard RTS genre, World in Conflict has no resource-gathering. Instead each player is given a pool of reinforcement points, which they can choose to spend on military units: troops, tanks, helicopters, etc. As the player's units are destroyed during the battle, the point values for those units are slowly added back to the player's overall pool of reinforcement points. Players also acquire tactical points when they accomplish certain objectives that can be spent to call in artillery strikes, napalm runs, and even nuclear weapons.

The game's story is told through outstanding cut scenes and in-game narration. World in Conflict spends a lot of time developing character personalities -- the player can identify with the turmoil some of characters are going through. Players get to focus almost entirely on battlefield strategy, rather than micro-managing the collection of gold, wood, oil, etc. As good as the single-player campaign is, the game really shines with its multiplayer options.

Like Battlefield 2 and other recent online war games, the leader board has a whole host of medals, ribbons, and awards for players to win. Teams that work together in multiplayer mode have a huge advantage, since each player only specializes in one area: air, support, infantry, etc.