The reasons for this answer are pretty obvious: - Straightforward, classic RTS gameplay. A half-plausible historical setting. Plenty of variety, with a fair range of nations to play and nice crisp colourful production. Just the kind of game to leave on your hard drive and fire up for a random battle when you have a couple of hours to kill.

Some of those fans might be updating their 'top 5' lists soon. While Ensemble Studios was cranking out AOE2, the lead designer of the original Age of Empires had set up his own studio - Stainless Steel Studios - and was hard at work implementing his vision of an RTS that would model more than just the Middle Ages. Rick Goodman would stop at nothing until he had an RTS that would encompass the whole of human history! [Cue maniacal laughter]

Empire Earth is the result. Published by Sierra, if features straightforward, classic RTS gameplay. Half-plausible historical settings. Plenty of variety ... actually, that's an understatement. Empire Earth does indeed, as the rather grandiose title suggests, model the whole of human history and beyond - from grunting hairy prehistoric cavemen to clunking futuristic robots.

From the moment you jump into the game, its lineage is obvious. For anyone who has played AOE or any other RTS in the classic Command & Conquer vein, the whole game will feel as comfortable and familiar as an old pair of socks. In a good way. The interface conforms to the trusty formula of left click select, right click to issue a context-sensitive order. The tool bar overlays feature all the usual helpful indicators like resource counters, mini-map, unit information, order buttons and so on.

Gameplay also adheres to the classic RTS formula: civilians gather resources, so you can build a base, raise an army, and defeat the enemy or enemies.

Graphically the game is technically impressive but aesthetically average. Everything is modelled in 3D. The functional effect of this is to make unit movement over the landscape very smooth and physically realistic, as tanks tilt moving up slopes, ships swing slowly around and so on. Hills and ridges are well modelled if occasionally hard to make out without units moving across them to reveal the contours, and there are troughs visible even beneath the seas. The engine is powerful enough to run several hundred 3D units in a battle, complete with wafting smoke, though on the review machine we had to make some compromises with palette depth and detail levels to avoid chugging performance. If your machine's specs are significantly below ours - be warned.

The 3D graphics don't actually have much effect on the way the game plays though. It still looks and feels like a classic 2D RTS, bar the effects described above, except that the units and buildings don't look quite as richly detailed as you would expect. There are no camera controls - unnecessary as these are in an RTS anyway - other than a zoom using the mouse wheel. Using the zoom though only serves to show close up just how blocky and wooden-looking the units actually are. The differences between the 3D units in Empire Earth and Emperor: Battle for Dune, for example, are quite stark.

Of course, when you have a couple of dozen phalanx men marching up and down hills with their 3D spears and shields bobbing around as they go, closing on the barbarian hordes and with a mounted hero at their head, you tend to forgive the fact that at high zoom each has a face like the cardboard Three Wise Men you made in primary school to decorate your Christmas tree.

The range of units available is quite varied, both within and across epochs. During the Imperial Age, for example, there are about 6 infantry types alone. In the Atomic Age there are at least that many types of aircraft, including helicopters. However, the generic units available are exactly the same regardless of which nation you play. It doesn't matter if you are the US or China, you will be flying F-15s and F-117s. Regardless of which nation you are, the only difference between your M1 tank platoon and your enemy's is the colour.