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Genre: Real-time strategy

Format: DVD

Developer: i5Works

Publisher: EA Games

Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media

Minimum System Requirements: 1GHz PowerPC, Mac OS X v10.2.8, 256MB RAM, 32MB 3D graphics acceleration (ATI Radeon 7500/NVidia GeForce 2 MX or better), 2.8GB free hard disk space, DVD drive, full version of Command & Conquer Generals

Review Computer: 1GHz iMac, 256MB RAM, Nvidia GeForce2 MX, Mac OS X v10.3.5 and a 17" 1.5Hz Powerbook, 512MB RAM, 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (AGP 4X) graphics processor

Network Feature: Internet and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported (Internet play requires a 56Kbps or faster connection, Network play Mac to Mac only), Game Ranger supported

Price: $29.99

ESRB Rating: T for Teen (violence)

Availability: Now

Official Website: generals.ea.com

"The new China is sleek as a bullet train, yet brash and bustling as MTV." - EA Games Command and Conquer website

Reading that sentence should help you determine how you'll react to Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour (ZH). Do you consider MTV to be brash and bustling? Or do you consider it to be made up of shrieking idiots who shouldn't be allowed to park your car, let alone help determine the opinions of young people?

ZH, as an expansion set, does its job: it gives you more of the original game, with new scenarios, new units, and upgrades. If you enjoyed Command & Conquer Generals (a game desperately in need of a colon), you'll enjoy this.

Command & Conquer Generals is a real-time strategy game with a modern combat setting. That is to say, instead of leading elves who can turn themselves invisible, you've got Pathfinders who use stealth to sneak up on the enemy. Instead of having peasants build the wizard a tower where he can study new spells, you have a bulldozer that assembles Quonset huts to upgrade your weaponry. This all has about as much to do with a real army simulation as Warcraft is an accurate simulator for the Battle of Agincourt.

Which is fine. ZH is more of an MTV version of battle, anyway: each scenario begins with an update from a reporter "in the field" giving the latest information on the battle, followed by a cut scene taking place just before you begin to play. That both of these are unskippable is an annoyance: if there were some way to get around them, it might makes ZH's long load times a bit shorter. Even more annoying is the fact that if you restart a scenario, you have to go through both cut-scenes again.

The plot lines are straight out of an 80s action movie; in the first US scenario, you have to capture a train depot so that you can sneak your units aboard and infiltrate a missile base of the terrorist Global Liberation Front. You have to destroy all the GLA's buildings so that US bombers can then come in and destroy the rocket gantries.

Well, of course, that makes perfect...wait, what?

Yes, check your brain at the door for this one, as your next mission involves rendezvousing with a Chinese operative who captures GLA buildings by downloading computer files. If you can get over that, you'll enjoy using Rangers who can capture a building by firing a grenade into it, and tanks that can disable machine gun nests by dousing them with microwaves. I half expected to see Patrick Swayze running up a hill and shouting, "Wolverines!"

But none of that would really matter if ZH were fun to play. And it can be, when you're not fighting the interface. I had a big problem with switching between units while they were moving. I'd have a set selected, would click to tell them where to go, then, while trying to select a moving unit, I'd often miss, and end up telling the previous units to go to the location I was now looking at.

I also ran into a problem where units simply wouldn't respond to commands at all, which was even stranger when I click-dragged to select them en masse. If I selected three tanks, sometimes two of them would move off to fight the enemy, and the third would just sit there.

But it's not all bad. The level design features some genuinely fun "puzzles" to solve, and once you start to get a feel for each unit's abilities and special powers, figuring out the best way to use them can lead to some interesting strategies. The graphics are good, though the level of detail will quickly bog down your system. And, like in all RTS games, keeping track of all your units in the heat of battle can often be as much of a challenge as meeting your objectives.

Those who enjoyed Command & Conquer Generals should already have this expansion, and those who love RTS games like the Warcraft series (and who are willing to try something with a different take on the same kind of system) should check this out. But people with an interest in realistic military sims and those who want a short learning curve should look elsewhere.

Strengths: Good graphics, interesting level design

Weaknesses: Eats up a lot of disk space, long load times, unskippable cut scenes, interface weirdness.

Bill's been using Macs since the late 80s. When he's not making smartass remarks to amuse Kirk Hiner, he enjoys fighting for the user.