The real-time strategy genre hasn't had too many games that deal with modern warfare. Generally, games in this genre have either fantasy or sci-fi themes, or are historically based. Even Command & Conquer games, which seem modern, are too fantastic to be considered present-day. It makes you wonder why, in a genre swarmed with clones of popular games, there haven't been more games designed around current technology. Well, strategy fans need to look no further, because a swarm of modern warfare games are on the horizon: Conflict Zone, Real War, Divided Ground, and of course, the subject of this preview, World War III: Black Gold.

If you look at the game and think it looks familiar, that's because World War III uses the Earth 2150 engine. Earth 2150 and its sequel, The Moon Project, both developed by TopWare Interactive, used this engine with success. The developer's next project was supposed to be World War III, but that was put in jeopardy when the company filed for bankruptcy and was bought by Zuxxez Entertainment. Fortunately, the remnants of TopWare Interactive formed Reality Pump and continued work on the game.

You can see troops manning their posts when zoomed in all the way.

We were able to play a preview build of World War III to see how the game is coming along. The cinematic cutscenes and music still need to be finished, and balancing isn't entirely complete. But we did get an impression on how the game will play, and we've determined that it differs from previous TopWare/Reality Pump titles. First of all, the engine itself has seen even more improvement since The Moon Project. You can now zoom in much closer than before and view the terrain in near horizontal viewpoint. Individual troops manning machine guns in jeeps and tanks are distinguishable when zoomed in on. Menu adjustments have also been made; previously, to build a unit you'd need to click on the right building and select the unit from a menu that popped up. Now, there's a single menu with tabs set in the bottom right corner with all the available options. This facilitates construction because you aren't made to fumble around to find the correct building when you are in a heated battle and need immediate reinforcements. There is even a way to configure what direction transport planes and helicopters come from to improve overall efficiency.

World War III enjoys one drastic gameplay change over its sibling games: You aren't given a main base of operations. Rather, each mission is independent of the next. This means you can't carry over units and extra credits from a completed mission to the next one. Any technology that you research during any given mission will be permanent throughout the campaign, however. The style of unit and building construction is reminiscent of the Command & Conquer series, which would explain the menu changes mentioned previously. Also, you can only build one type of unit or building at any given moment. For example, if you have two airfields, cargo planes transporting new units will only land on one of them.

Iraq may be weak, but it has many weapons of mass destruction.

New units and buildings are acquired through research. You can customize units available to you to fit your needs. You can equip an Apache attack chopper with either air-to-surface rockets to take out enemy ground vehicles, or you can strap on some air-to-air rockets if your opponent has a lot of air units. You pay for all of this by drilling for oil and converting it to credits. In fact, the war being fought in the game is for control over this oil. The Arab nations led by Iraq cut off oil to the world, prompting Russia and America into a massive conflict. You can play as the USA, Russia, or Iraq in single-player campaign and skirmish modes, or in multiplayer games with up to eight players. Despite sharing similar basic units, each side is unique and employs different strategies. The following page will describe each side and some of its units.