Empire Earth III also uses a new World Domination mode for its single player campaign. Players use a 3-D globe that divides the world into provinces. A player or a "native tribe" either occupies each province and selecting an area to invade determines the direction of expansion. Or, empires can play nice with their neighbors by setting up trade and diplomatic relationships. World Domination plays much like a game of Civilization, where players manage their economy, research and military according to a clock. Each turn advances the clock a certain number of years, starting at 500 years per turn in the early stages, so players must carefully make their way through the epochs or quickly end up surrounded by technologically superior enemies.

No one wants to be caught using muskets when the enemy has tanks. The future technology of the European countries will center on using advanced devices and computers, including an earth quake gun to rock enemy bases. Middle Eastern nations will capitalize on stealth and mobility with vehicles equipped with heavy weapons, but that doesn't mean that they won't get their hands on a few weapons of mass destruction. Asian nations, however, will perfect biotechnology and grow giant, living tanks.

Scheduled to release this fall, Empire Earth III will seek to deliver the same depth of strategy using a significantly scaled back game. Come back to GameDaily to see how the next stage of human development turns out.