Supreme Commander (PC)

There were many great strategy games at E3, from Will Wright's mind-bending Spore to the wicked World War II devastation of Company of Heroes. But the game that elicited the most excitement was Supreme Commander, the next real-time strategy game from Total Annihilation creator Chris Taylor.

Now imagine this taking place on a map that's thousands of square kilometers in size, and you have an idea why we're so excited.

Recall the frenetic space battles of any of the recent Star Wars films, and that's the feeling you get watching two armies meet in Supreme Commander. Tanks and mechs clash, fighters and transports scream overhead, and missile trails and laser beams litter the skies. It's simply awesome to behold. Yet that's not even the coolest part of Supreme Commander. That moment is when the camera pulls back to show you the battlefield, all 400 square kilometers of it! And that's a "small" map for Supreme Commander, as the largest ones are up to 6,400 kilometers in size. That sense of scale is unheard of for a real-time strategy game, but Taylor is giving you the room now to really feel as if you're waging war.

The sheer size is so audacious it's exhilarating, but you also get you a feeling that it's also long overdue. For too long, real-time strategy games have taken place in small sandboxes that don't give you any room to maneuver. With Supreme Commander you have battlefields that are 50 miles across, which should give your inner Patton plenty of room to play with. It's no wonder that strategy fans everywhere are eagerly looking for 2007, because that's when Supreme Commander will ship.

Finalists

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (PC)
Company of Heroes (PC)
Spore (PC)
World in Conflict (PC)