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Best War: The Operational Art of War
Every time we think we might have TalonSoft figured out, the company surprises us again. After all, almost anything that follows the award-winning Battleground series risks failing to meet high expectations. Now that The Operational Art Of War has brought us back again and again for endless campaigning, why we ever worried...we'll never know. Combining the best elements of a turn-based format with a number of clever subsystems, the game re-creates 20th-century warfare like no other. What board game, for instance, could ever calculate more than 90 different modifiers for each combat, much less keep the pace fairly lively? What other computer game comes close to offering such a demanding and ruthlessly unforgiving silicon opponent, plus the ability to wage war against a human armchair general?
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Not even Steel Panthers so vividly puts you in the mind-set of a modern-era operational-level commander. Not only do you deal with logistics, battlefield morale, and a variety of mission types in Art of War, you must also develop your instincts, rather than your ability to gain a three-to-one odds attack. With its innovative combination of time, movement, and combat action, The Operational Art Of War shows that there is still plenty of life left in serious wargames.
Julius Caesar gets his due in the last of Interactive Magic's Great Battles series. With improved graphics, aggressive AI, a solid campaign, and an excellent scenario editor, it's the best ancients game in more than a decade for the PC.
Runner-up: Great Battles of Julius Caesar, Interactive Magic
Other Finalists: Aide de Camp 2, HPS Simulations; West Front, TalonSoft
Next: Add-On of the Year
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