Frontline: Fields of Thunder

The Biggest Tank battle in history is the subject of this WWII RTS - Kursk, 1943, Russia. It was the moment when Hitler threw the lion's share of his best remaining Panzer divisions into a meat grinder, in a tired old rehash of previously successful Blitzkrieg tactics. Which is ironic, as this game is itself a tired old rehash of Blitzkrieg - the last RTS game from developers Nival.

Despite the mid-Russian setting, the terrain here feels mighty familiar. It's one of that veritable battalion of up-'n-at-'em RTSs that rushed through the gap that Sudden Strike punched in the market back in 2000. No resource gathering, reinforcements triggered by events, large-scale drag-and-drop battles. Mucho fiddling with supply and repair units.

But to be fair, the format is essentially a good one, and despite the overwhelming deja vu all these T34s and Panzer IVs cook up, Frontline is mildly entertaining. It's no challenge to master, and the on-screen armies do their damndest to put on a show, pyrotechnic explosions, rattling machine guns and tanks demolishing everything in their way.

The emphasis here is slightly more on realism, with all manner of armoured vehicles roaming the battlefield. But the end result feels as throw-away as do too many of these RTS clones, without any of the class that makes Company Of Heroes such a blast.