Star Wars: Total Annihilation

I played the demo for this game over a period of 3 days, and I have to say that I am impressed very much with this mod. first off, the fact that they have a demo available for download is great, because it allows people to get a sense of the game, and even play through the best parts without having to scour eBay or old game shops for the game.

The game is old. Total Annihilation is years old. The graphics therefore are not the best. But regardless, the SW:TA team did very well with what they could with the engine. The vehicles look authentic, and they included all the aspects of SW they could, from AT-ST walkers to A-Wing, X-Wings, and AT-PT's. A fair amount of the vehicles come from EU, so they may not be directly recognizable to you, but you'll find yourself loving them soon. A few "Star Wars" exceptions are missing, there are no AT-AT's, because of the difficulty in implementing them, and there are no Jedi, because they don't fit witht he theme very well. A few times the units are stretched, out of artistic license and out of a lack of source material to use, but regardless, it has the Star Wars feel to it.

The gameplay is very good. Terraign makes a differnece in how shots hit (or don't hit) and wreckage lays in the battlefields. So much wreckage actually, that it can become a problem. In one of my extremely long and drawn out games with the computer, I was having serious problems getting through the wreckage of all my walkers to get into his base.

All in all, if you're a fan of Battlegrounds, Command and Conquer, Starcraft or other Real Time Strategy Games, and a Star Wars game, you should give the demo a shot. It costs you nothing and I'm sure you'll get several good games out of =)