"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Someone at Eidos must have known that the film '"300" was likely to cause a great deal of interest in ancient Greek history, because the April 24 release of its new real time strategy (RTS) game Ancient Wars: Sparta couldn't have been bettered timed. Whereas the film takes certain liberties with the facts, developer PlayLogic's sticks closer to real history.

Set between 500 and 450 B.C., Ancient Wars lets players dabble in the struggles of the Spartans, Egyptians and Persians. While this RTS pays close attention to history, it promises not to get too bogged down by boring details and game mechanics. Plus, like the movie "300," there are some fanciful "liberties" taken along the way to liven things up.

It seems that Playlogic took its queue from some of the greatest RTS games ever made, like the Age of Empires series and StarCraft. As with most strategy games, harvesting necessary resources must be done to keep the war machine humming. Because there was no end to human meat shields back then, the game instead places tactical limitations on resources like food, gold and building materials. One can increase the size of the army only so long as there are enough farms to feed the extra troops and gold to supply them with equipment. If food becomes depleted men will slowly wither away, and if weapons are in short supply enemy hordes will overrun everything for lack of defensive capabilities. In addition, cities can be upgraded to fortresses.

Speaking of combat... the game focuses on large-scale battles replete with complex tactical maneuvers. "Hero" characters are, as expected, stronger and tougher than the normal soldiers, but Playlogic does something a bit different with them. Both classes can utilize the vast array of vehicles and animals found in the game. Players can have troops hop on horses, climb into chariots or board ships to change up the battle scenario and increase certain attributes.