It seems as though Massive have thought of everything, from TnL (Geometry Engines) to the shadows made by clouds high above. We defy anybody to not look at GC and come away with open jaws gasping for air. However you will need quite a system in order to cope with such extremes, even GeForce DDR cards couldn't render above 50% of the landscape (viewable distance).

It took an Athlon900 + GeForce2 before we could have everything tipped right up to max and even then it could get sluggish, GC is as demanding game as ever there was. It's most certainly not for those with older cards, at the very least a TNT2 or Voodoo3 is required, anything below is sheer madness for a game of this beauty and even then running it can be a choir.

Sounds like a war to me

Cleverly rendered dust trails and tracks don't seem to be the only thing that follow those biggest of units around, sound does too. Whether it's the whale of birds flying from tree to tree or a fierce growl from that of a tank trekking ever closer, GC has it all. Music comes in the form of rather poorly designed 90's style battle music, could have been better but since it doesn't follow you into the action then you don't notice it.

Quality is extremely high and to be honest we could find no faults next to that of the music, it's all immaculately put together with the softest of touches. For a Swedish developer, of which there is only them, Massive have done a simply astounding job with GC, god knows how it could ever be topped. With support for all sound standards and formats you'll have no complaints from us.

The Verdict

This is simply the most addictive, attractive and lovely to listen to game we've seen in nearly half a year. If it doesn't blow you away then we'd be quite surprised because it sure did us, don't believe anybody who rates it below 80%! Perhaps a little screwy with the AI and iffy on the music, not to mention the inability to build units is rather frustrating, however we loved it.

You can't rate this any lower than 80% in our opinion and we've slapped it with a sexy 90% because by god, it's DAMN FINE!

by Mark 'KILLZAT' Jackson

Graphics - 9 Sound - 9 Gameplay - 9 Originality - 8.5
Overall - 9 (90%)

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