World War III and its hypothesized aftermath has been the subject of countless novels, films, video games and even music for the last sixty years. Basically, since the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945, people from nations around the globe have prophesized about what the parameters would be for the next Great War. As Americans, we have been subject to these possibilities since their inception. But as time marched on, our speculations as far as the “who” and “where” of the next world conflict have evolved.

In the 60’s it looked as if it was going to come from Cuba. In the 80’s it seemed mainland Russia would be the source. Today our attention is focused on the Middle East and North Korea. Enter Tom Clancy. A man who has sold over 80 million books, lent his name to over 12 games and has had adaptations of his novels turned into 4 well received feature films tackling this very subject. In Clancy’s latest effort, EndWar, he goes about doing what he does best…telling us how the bombs are going to fall.

EndWar is a real time strategy game being developed by Ubisoft’s Shanghai team and is the first game of it’s kind being made under the Tom Clancy moniker. The Clancy name is something that is synonymous with tactical and squad based shooters like Rainbow Six, as well as their highly successful espionage series Splinter Cell (which also has a new entry for next gen consoles being slated for next year). These games focused the player’s attention on a particular soldier or group of soldiers. Now, Ubisoft wants to draw that focus back to consider the entire war that you are engaged in. From infantry to artillery, you will be in charge. The player will be given the opportunity to govern the movements of an entire front.

RTS games have been attempted on consoles before (some with less than favorable results), but none like this. Ubisoft and Creative Director Michael De Platter want you to be the general. They want you to bark the orders…and they do mean literally. Part of the reason that many attempts to transfer the magic of strategy games from PC to Console have failed is due to the poorly adapted control schemes. In reaction to that, De Platter and company have designed the game to be played with the XBOX headset.

You tell squad Red-5 to attack Alpha and they snap into action: hugging cover and staying in formation along the way. Good A.I. will definitely need to play a part in all this, but if it works as its supposed to it should help take out a lot of the Stalinistic authority needed to watch over each individual soldier, freeing you up to consider the entire battalion’s course of action. This doesn’t mean that the controller will be completely struck from the record though. Think of it as playing the role of a walkie-talkie. You press the right trigger to initiate the voice recognition and issue your orders accordingly through the headset.

A heads up display will be available for referencing your available commands, however any orders you’ve memorized can be issued without bringing up said display. Stubborn D-pad purist can rest easy knowing that the directional buttons can still be used to tell your army to move, attack, defend and capture. So, anyone that has played previous entries of the Clancy canon (GRAW, Rainbow Six: Vegas) should be comfortable with the setup.

The success of this bold technology relies on the voice recognition accuracy. According to De Platter at the game convention in Leipzig, Germany the team has achieved 90% accuracy thus far and are shooting for 95%. It’s good to see how much attention Shanghai is putting on this aspect. There’s nothing worse than ordering a platoon to take out a beachhead gun emplacement, only to witness your men start grilling burgers while their comrades are viciously mowed down – all because the computer mistook your Midwestern accent of the word “execute” as “barbecue”.

Aside from the exciting prospect of using your voice to command your legions, another thing that makes this title immediately standout are the amazing battle possibilities that will be found on XBOX Live. The game in fact has been designed specifically with online involved, which is evident due to the variety ways in which EndWar can be played. Any of the missions can be taken on in Single Player, Multiplayer or Co-op mode. Not only that, but there will also be a massive multiplayer online campaign available to the swarms of XBOX Live account holders all over the world.

Command a particular section of your faction’s military force along with your comrades. Your battle record will tip the scales of the entire war. Win a battle and you’ll advance the line. Lose a skirmish and that line will recede (along with you receiving a barrage of voice modulated ridicule from the 13 year old Erwin Rommel wannabe on the other side).

There will be about 40 fully destructible battlefields to wreak havoc in when the game is released, with almost inevitable online additions in tow. The battlefields will be set in locales such as Paris, Washington DC, Moscow, Germany, New York Harbor, Spain and rural America. The screen will be packed. Each one is clocking in at hundreds of megabytes each, according to De Platter. Upgrading will also play a large roll in EndWar with over 300 equipment and training upgrades available for your units (Riflemen, Engineers, etc.) and vehicles (tanks, helicopter gunships, camera drones, hunterkiller robots, sentry drones and planes).

All in all EndWar is looking very promising. If Ubisoft can deliver on their claims then a must have addition to your XBOX 360 library will be out the first quarter of 2008. Considering Halo 3 will be launching in September, EndWar may be sliding in at just the right time to snag a good amount of players needing a break from Master Chief in search of a new online fix. After all, why be the puppet when you could be the man pulling the strings.

Sources: www.endwargame.uk.ubi.com , www.ubi.com/us/news/info , www.computerandvideogames.com

Tags: EndWar, Tom-Clancy, Ubisoft

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