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In the year 2047 the Third Tiberium War has broken out after Nod forces attack a GDI orbital military command centre (or space-station). GDI and Nod are at fundamental odds with each other in their fight over Tiberium, which is a highly volatile green crystal of alien origin. Whoever controls Tiberium decides the fate of the Earth, and mankind. Nod want to harness its power to create a new world order and GDI want to rid the Earth of Tiberium.

Tiberium has spread around the globe and destroyed the Earth's fragile eco-system, dividing it into three zones. The Green zone is free of Tiberium and is safe to inhabit and this is where the GDI strongholds are found. The Yellow Zones mark Nod territory and support due to the social and economic issues relating to the Tiberium contamination. Finally, the Red Zones are completely uninhabitable with the Tiberium having completely radiated the zones.

These two forces really live up to the clichés of history we expect from C&C. GDI being powerful, well funded and organised, pitted against Nod who rely on numbers, cheap units and fanatics. With these parallels to the Cold War being repeated, it is refreshing to find that once you have completed the GDI and Nod campaigns, a third campaign is opened up. The Skrin are a strange Alien race who also are after the power that Tiberium inevitably holds. This results in three unique story-lines intertwining with each other, being fleshed out well and with unique and entertaining cut scenes, aside from the Skrin campaign which is notably shorter but very difficult.

The cut scenes are an aspect which really made C&C unique, and only in recent iterations had the developers moved from using live-action cut scenes to rendered ones. It is refreshing that the cut scenes of old have been brought back, giving us a rush of nostalgia and some light humour. And this time around they have quite a star-studded line-up. Josh Holloway (Lost), Michael Ironside (Top Gun, Starship Troopers) and Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars Episodes V & VI) to mention a few.

The graphics do shine on the 360 with some spectacular smoke and fire effects as your units decimate, or are destroyed by opponents. It makes sending infantry into a fiery ambush so much more enjoyable. The super-weapons which have inevitably been included are huge fun to use and watch, for example the ion cannon uses a powerful beam of energy from a satellite to destroy anything it contacts. Really impressive work has been done to make the world look accurate.

Modern buildings, beautifully rendered trees and alike make the environments authentic; throw in a few historical buildings such as the White House and you really feel like you are battling for the future of the Earth. This entire environment provides a spectacle of accurate real-time shadows which also depict clouds moving across the sky or aircraft flying overhead.

The units look as you would expect, and move accordingly and are a pleasure to zoom in on. There is occasionally noticeable stuttering of the shadows, and this not necessarily even when there is a lot of action. The shadows alone would not be a problem, but even worse is the fact that when the fire-fights get too large the game does struggle somewhat. Clearly EA have pushed the 360 to its limits, creating a beautiful environment, but it does suffer from noticeable slow down.

The gameplay in C&C 3 has remained largely as one would expect from an RTS. It focuses on resource farming to build structures and units. The missions start of with the player being given one or two objectives and, as the mission progresses, bonus objectives will be added to this. This results in a dynamic feeling to the levels and you will be returning to complete bonus objectives you missed the first time around. A nice addition, too, is the strategic map which allows you to select the missions you would like to complete which will affect the later missions, i.e., destroying an air-base will mean the enemy is without supply drop

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The units movements are impressive and realistic. This means no turning on a pin to move in another direction and vehicles wheel around to change their facing. Annoyingly though infantry do the same often leading them through potential mayhem, or exposing them to more casualties. A nice effect is the addition of suppression and cover. Units can become suppressed by heavy fire, meaning they will take less casualties, but will also be unable to inflict much damage on the enemy. Units can also take cover around buildings or objects which will help to protect them and prevent them from being suppressed and the animations will reflect all this in detail.

The AI is as you would expect, its nothing spectacular as they send wave after wave of units to be crushed by your defences, but there is enough in there to make it challenging. The AI will route units to engage you if you attack their base, and this will usually result in enemy attack waves ceasing on your own base as resources are shifted.

The physical limitations of playing an RTS with a controller make the fact that this game is functional astounding, and it definitely is functional. However you will be holding triggers and pressing shoulder buttons like a crazed barbarian at times as you attempt to select the units you want. This can be even more frustrating in the battle situations when speed is of the utmost essence. The small size of some units makes selecting them a chore, although a magnetic cursor has been included this doesn't always work as you would like it to. The difficulty to react as quickly as you would on a PC means plenty of planning has to go into your strategy, and this will mean a lot of trial and error whereby you find yourself restarting missions so as to complete the many objectives.

The beauty of the multiplayer lies almost in the fact that none of the above AI advantages apply and each player is hindered almost equally by using the controller. Some interesting game modes are included alongside the usual versus modes. Siege pits up to four players in a versus match but with an invisible barrier in place between them until a timer counts down. This gives all sides time to amass a force with which to attack and means there won't be any early rushing. Capture the Flag and King of the Hill modes are also included meaning there is a diverse mix here and it should keep most players satisfied for a while. Multiplayer also supports the Vision Camera meaning that your avatar will be replaced by the Vision Camera meaning you can visually see the effect of your attacks on your opponents demeanour. I was utterly destroyed in my online matches and it is clear this will take some time to master, so fortunately EA has included a skirmish mode with which to practice multiplayer tactics against the AI.

C&C 3: Tiberium Wars is a worthy addition to the C&C universe. It is nothing revolutionary but it does a very good job as one of the few RTS titles on a console. It looks beautiful and although the slow-down can be difficult it does not detract from the game. What does detract however are the controls which can feel clumsy. They work, but they don't result in the same level of speed you would get from a keyboard and mouse. Enjoyable is the return of live-action cut scenes which belong in C&C although this ultimately is a matter of taste. If you are hankering for a decent RTS, C&C 3 is it, its not ideal, but it is fun and a very good effort which will hopefully result in more RTS titles coming to consoles.