Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga - PC Games

There's nothing essentially new here for the hardened RTS gamer. Resources need to be mined, units built and technologies researched in the race to crush the opposition. What gives this the edge is the Star Wars setting and the quality of the graphics, which are visually appealing and stay accurate to the wealth of Star Wars information that already exists.

There are six basic "races": human Rebels, the Empire, Gungans, Wookiees, the Trade Federation and the Naboo, each with their own specific weapons and tools--there's nothing quite like sending a squadron of AT-ATs into battle and watching them smash the Alliance to bits.

In addition to the standard hardware afforded each side, Force alliances come into play and it's possible to side with either the Jedi or the Sith depending on your preference. It's also possible to conjure up Jedi Knights and Sith Dark Lords.

Clone Campaigns is the first add-on disk. This content mainly comes in the form of two new campaigns: the Old Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. You can choose to either take control of the shiny new Jedi controlled Army of the Republic, forefathers of those pesky Imperial Stormtroopers, or the combined armies of the Confederacy complete with the insect-like Genosians and Techno Droids.

The action in Clone Campaigns commences on Geonosis, with the aftermath of the big battle scene at the end of the movie. Each campaign features seven missions to complete and over 200 new troop, vehicle and ship units and takes you through the beginning of the infamous clone wars. New features are also added to the original game with new units, orders and effects all selectable in the older campaigns. All the new and old armies are selectable in the multi-player and Skirmish modes, ensuring you'll need to re-evaluate those tactics for warfare against the new combatants. Overall this is a great add-on which adds to and enhances an already fantastic game. --Laurent S Hall