“Company of Heroes”THQ; Windows PC; $49.99ESRB Rating: Mature (17+)(blood and gore, intense vio-lence, strong language)

By SHAUN CONLINand DAVID BOWRINGCox News Service

Though you may nothave high expectationsfor the real-time strat-

egy (RTS) genre, that top-down, micromanagerial,point-click-drag-drop army-overseer thing that’s alwayscompelling but rarely daz-zling, THQ’s WWII-flavored“Company of Heroes” offersa pleasant surprise. First,it’s really good — and reallygood looking. It’s also reallylong, taking you from D-Dayto, well, without spoiling it,that end bit you’ll probablyrecall from 10th-grade histo-ry classes.

But within all that aresome innovations that takeRTS to the nextlevel. There’s gen-uine emotion here,so your soldiersdon’t come acrossas mere “units” tobe tossed aroundlike grains of sandin your giant, ex-ploding sandbox;they’re “your boys.”

They screamamidst the mayhem, lamentthe loss of their fellows,even call them out by namesometimes. If your PC hasthe horsepower to run“Company of Heroes” at itshighest level of detail, youcan zoom right in and seetheir facial expressionsamidst the buildings andterrain being blown to bits.Several scenes in the cam-paign convey the anger andberserker rage that the char-acters in this RTS cinemaare feeling so well that it’seerie. But it’s not all flash,bang and hand-me-a-tissue

fare; there is a lot of game-play innovation here as well.

The striking visuals arematched by an artificial in-telligence (AI) system thatmakes units behave like,well, like they have intelli-gence. If you give units an“attack move” order, for ex-

ample, they won’tjust totter off blind-ly toward their ob-jective like so manylambs-to-the-slaugh-ter RTS units ofyore; on foot or invehicles, they ad-vance, use cover,take good shots andactually try not toget killed.

The sounds of war arealso brought home withfrightening veracity. When awell-defended position is as-saulted by a large enemyforce, for example, your earsring from the barrage ofhigh-fidelity artillery, themenacing clank of tanks,machine gunnery and thescreams of the fallen.

Three main resources —manpower, munitions andfuel — to build your war ma-chine are doled out fromheadquarters and acquiredfrom capturing strategicpoints. To make things a bit

more interesting, each re-source point you capturehas a different value, so it’snot just about taking territo-ry, it’s about taking the rightterritory.

Naturally, conquering/lib-erating Europe (you canplay as either the Allies orthe Axis) involves many asplendid opportunity toblow stuff up. Practicallyeverything you see can bedestroyed (subject to yourguns) and in areas of in-tense battle, it is. You mightstart in a city square sur-rounded by houses andother domestic landmarks,for example, but by battle’send, it more resembles anarbitrarily razed parkinglot.

At the end of the day,“Company of Heroes” isstill an RTS game and stillwon’t appeal to everybody.However, if you alreadyhave a reluctant fondnessfor the otherwise exhaustedgenre or have shied awayfrom it simply for the me-thodical micromanagementof it all, waiting for some-thing more innovative, moreimmersive or more engag-ing, wait no more.“Company of Heroes” is thebest RTS yet. Having troubles with your game? Post questions on Shaun

Conlin’s message board at www.ageofplay.com/forum.Responses may also appear here in the coming weeks.

“Clubhouse Games”Nintendo; Nintendo DS; $34.99ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) (sim-ulated gambling)

Nintendo’s fogey-friendly“Touch Generations” brand istaking off like wildfire for goodreason; it appeals to the 90 per-cent of gamers who aren’t consid-ered “hard core.” So while theSonys and Microsofts of thevideo-game world might interpret

disinterest in“GrandTheft”/“Halo”-type games asdisinterest invideo games asa whole,Nintendo con-tinues to re-

lease games for people who thinkof games as a diversion, not alifestyle.

Though it can be said thatMicrosoft has made significantheadway with the casual gamersmarket with the quick fixOckham’s “Live Arcade,” it isNintendo that continues to leadwith new offerings like“Clubhouse Games” for theNintendo DS.

“Clubhouse Games” is basical-ly a collection of parlor gamesand retro fluff, blackjack,backgammon, bowling and thelike — 42 games, all told — inter-faced in that unique and intuitiveway of the DS with a stylus and abutton or two. None of them isparticularly enthralling, but all ofthem offer the solid diversionthey intend.

Valve Software’s digital content delivery and managementservice, Steam, continues to gather, uh, momentum with therecent addition of top-tier Activision games, including three“Call of Duty” titles and the Western shooter, “Gun.” Other re-cent additions to the Steam library include the critically ac-claimed “Psychonauts,” Ubisoft’s “Dark Messiah of Might andMagic” and Monte Cristo Games’ city-building sim, “CityLife.”

Earlier this year, Valve partnered with PopCap games, so ca-sual titles like “Bejeweled” and “Zuma” sit in stark contrast toValve’s hard-core offering of “Half-Life 2,” “CounterStrike:Source” and the like.

Bypassing traditional retail channels altogether, Valve’sSteam service allows users to purchase and install games di-rectly via the Internet (along with free demos and video clips)while the user account and the games associated with it canbe accessed from any computer, anywhere.

More info at www.steampowered.com.

While in-game with “Company ofHeroes,” hit Ctrl + Shift + tilde (~) toopen the developer console, then enter“restart” to restart the game;“abortgame” to abort it;“ee_bigheadmode 1 (or 0)” for Big HeadMode on/off, “FOW_Toggle” for Fog ofWar on/off; and“setsimrate <number>” to set the gamespeed (default is 8). Hit Ctrl + Shift +tilde (~) again to close the console.

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Provided by NPD Group/NPD Funworld

Electronic Software Rating Board (ESRB) guide: Early childhood (EC);Everyone (E); Everyone 10 and older (E10+);Teen (T); Mature (M); AdultsOnly (AO); Rating Pending (RP).

Title Publisher1. “World of Warcraft” (T) Vivendi2. “Company of Heroes” (M) THQ3. “The Sims 2: Glamour Life” (T) Electronic Arts4. “The Sims 2” (T) Electronic Arts5. “Lego Star Wars II” (T) LucasArts6. “Sim City 4 Deluxe” (E) Electronic Arts7. “Cars: Radiator Springs” (E) THQ8. “The Sims 2: Business” (T) Electronic Arts9. “Star Wars: Empire at War” (T) LucasArts10. “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06” (E) Electronic Arts

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Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate for Cox News Service. (800) 255-6734. *For release the week of October 16, 2006.