Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is a real-time strategy game set in an alternate history of the Cold War, in which the Soviet bloc, the Allies, and the new Japanese faction the Empire of the Rising Sun fight for world domination using bizarre military technology - giant mechs, flying ships, and bear-carrying submarines. The game became famous for its live-action cutscenes featuring actors like Tim Curry and Jonathan Pryce, its exaggerated comic-book take on the conflict, and a two-player cooperative campaign that can be completed as any of the three factions, each with its own separate story. It was precisely this combination of classic base-building and army management with live-action cinematic storytelling that made the Command & Conquer series famous, drawing in even players who otherwise aren't fond of real-time strategy.

The Xbox 360 version launched alongside the PC release in 2008 and had to adapt the RTS controls, traditionally built around a mouse and keyboard with precise clicking and dragging of selection boxes, to a gamepad. Unit selection and base building are therefore handled through circular and context menus controlled with sticks and buttons instead of mouse clicks, an unusual, simplified control scheme for the series designed so the game could also be played without a keyboard. The campaign, factions, and cutscenes remained the same as on PC, but the console version runs at a fixed resolution and frame rate suited to the Xbox 360's hardware, whereas the PC version could scale detail according to the computer's performance. Modding and the precision of mouse-driven unit selection that genre fans were used to on PC are naturally absent on the console, which changes the pace of play especially in large battles involving many units. Multiplayer over the console's network connection runs through Xbox Live instead of PC servers, but otherwise offers the same selection of maps and factions as the PC counterpart, so players on both platforms accessed the same content, just with a different control scheme and slightly different demands on coordinating base building with directly commanding units in battle.

Why play it: For players on the couch, the Xbox 360 version offers the same campaign and factions as the PC, just with controls reworked into circular menus operated by gamepad instead of precise mouse selection.