Sudden Strike: Forever

As far as expansion packs go, CDV is rather proud of Sudden Strike Forever. It highlights the fact that against other add-ons, like Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Firestorm for Command And Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Age of Empires II Expansion: The Conquerors for Age of Empires II, SS Forever (a rather unfortunate contraction) offers an unprecedented number of new units, maps and terrain types over which to fight yet more battles set during World War II. And if that wasn't enough, for the price of a lamb bhuna, pilau ric6, naan, poppadoms and two pints of Stella, you also get a mission editor with which to create your own stand-alone missions and campaigns. Not bad then.

It helps of course that Sudden Strike was something of a cracker to begin with (perhaps, until Commandos 2 arrives, the best WWII RTS around). Unfortunately this add-on is, forgive the cliche, simply more of the same, good and bad. The excellent interface remains intact, as does the sometimes iffy route-finding. Line of sight has been improved, with a new General unit that can see far away through binoculars. The new autumn terrain is rather messy, while the new desert environments are perfectly suited to Sudden Strikes big battles. Which leaves the units, which for the most part are insignificant in gameplay terms, as are the levels themselves, save for the fact you can now choose your difficulty level.

But like the main game, it's the scale of the battles that will draw people back, and here no one will be disappointed. New heavy artillery units, medics and British-only maps help things along, but perhaps more time should have been spent fixing what little was broken instead of churning out new units that will only confuse those still getting used to the original batch.