When you consider the new graphical enhancements, this can make for some really exciting gameplay. For example, the game will feature tense night missions where the darkness can be your greatest enemy. Using the cover of night, an enemy unit could slip through your defenses, into your base, and then capture a key building. But, imagine mounting bright searchlights at the gate of your installation, that constantly sweep the area looking for intruders. If an enemy is caught within one of the lights, your base's automatic defenses will lock onto the poor fool and blow him to bits. Of course, any weapons fire will also illuminate the surrounding area, allowing for an even greater range of tactics. Add to all this a new terrain engine, using Westwood's own MegaVoxel technology, and one can see the potential this game holds: fire can consume buildings and trees, poisonous gas can actually be carried on the wind, the terrain can be scarred, and units can find cover behind terrain.

Regardless of the type of engine used, or the quality of the graphics, there seems to be one constant with real-time strategy games that keeps players coming back for more, and that is the promise of creative and exciting new units to control in battle. In this respect, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun looks to blow other real-time strategy games away. Total Annihilation may be awesome in its own right, and has plenty of units, but those for the Core and Arm are, unfortunately, pretty much the same. Not so in Tiberian Sun. Units for the GDI and Brotherhood of NOD will be completely different, each with its own specialty and weapons. For example, because of the new terrain engine, some units will actually be able to burrow underground to reach their targets. Of course, you can always use the Mobile Sonar Vehicle (MSV) to locate any submerged enemy troops. Other units include genetically-engineered Cyborgs, Jump-Jet Infantry, Hunter-Seeker Drones, the Hover Multi-Rocket Launching System (MRLS), soldiers in Powered Assault Armor (mechs), and the hardcore Drop Pod Light Battle Infantry.

But there is even something even more special about Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun beyond the new units, new graphics, and new gameplay possibilities. While Command & Conquer featured some really great full-motion video cutscenes (some of the best seen at that time), Tiberian Sun will be a full-fledged interactive movie, along the lines of the Wing Commander series. The idea is to present the player with a fully fleshed-out storyline in which he or she plays an integral part, and determines the outcome. Of course, every story needs a hero, and Westwood was sure to deliver: they've recruited Michael Biehn, star of Aliens and Terminator, to play the rough-and-tumble Commander McNeil, the best soldier the GDI has to offer. Also on hand is none other than James Earl Jones as the GDI's supreme commander, General Solomon, the officer responsible for bringing Kane down during the events of the original Command & Conquer. I had the opportunity to view some video footage from the making of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and although I've never been a big FMV fan, I have to say that the sequences I did see looked polished and professional, and were made all the more authentic by the presence of Biehn and Jones. Though I have to say it was a little bizarre watching James Earl Jones, one of the most distinguished actors of our day, taking direction from the bald dude who played Kane in Command & Conquer (looks like he's more than just an actor).

The big question on every strategy gamer's mind is of course the obvious one: will the transformation of Command & Conquer into a multimillion dollar interactive movie breathe new life into the franchise...or crush it dead in its tracks? From what I've seen, the future definitely looks promising: the full-motion video in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun will merely supplement the gameplay -- not replace it. And if that gameplay is as good as it looks, C&C could very well regain the real-time strategy throne it seemed to lose so long ago.