Ever since Total Annihilation hit the PC world back in 97, gushing gamers have fallen all over themselves to heap praise on this amazing real-time strategy game. In classic understatement, PC Games called TA "the Greatest Game of All Time." Without a doubt, this title is an RTS standard, even years after its release. So that's why we Mac folk can still count our blessings with the release of Total Annihilation Gold, a pack that includes the basic game, plus the Battle Tactics suite of missions (a kind of strategy-clinic/quick-play add-on) and the TA: Core Contingency (a set of 75 new units and 25 new missions). While Total Annihilation may not have the back-story and sophisticated solo-campaign play of its competitors, the game blows them away in nearly every other category. Combat is lightning quick, even on a good 604e, thanks to TA's 3-D engine, which uses polygons in favour of bitmaps to allow tons of players and units to mix it up without the usual slowdowns--you don't even need to invest in 3-D hardware to get this boost.
The game just gets better when you add on stupendous graphics, an astounding number of units between the Arm and the Core (over 250 in the base game), a thoughtfully designed resource-management system that rewards aggressive play and allows for amazing comebacks (way better than the "oh, you lost that mine, you lost the game" fate of Warcraft and its ilk), and even an award-winning score performed by a chorus and a 75-piece orchestra.
TA Gold gives you a rocking good start with the base game, Battle Tactics, and the Core Contingency, and is a well-equipped introduction to this RTS classic for the Mac crowd. About the only strike against this otherwise exceptional port is that Mac and PC players still can't duke it out in multiplayer, but that's just an unfortunate quibble with a title this solid. --Paul Hughes
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