While E3 2008's biggest trend involved cooperative modes being added to just about every game, one of the more surprising developments at this year's show was the emergence of several attractive real-time strategy titles - a few of which will be console-only. Among the crop were major sequels for the Command & Conquer: Red Alert franchise as well as the Total War series, a brand new intellectual property in Stormrise, and console exclusives like Tom Clancy's EndWar and Halo Wars (which we sadly didn't get a chance to see). Here's a look at some of the top RTS titles from Ea 2008.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

At the top of the list is none other than Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Electronic Arts' long-awaited sequel that's scheduled for release later this year. I wrote a preview of Red Alert 3, based on my experiences with the pre-beta build from the Red Alert 3 Community Summit last month. But I didn't have much time to play the series' new faction, the Empire of the Rising Sun, during the event because it was still being polished. However, EA whipped out a new build of the game for E3, and it was one of the few attractions on the extremely small exhibit floor that drew a crowd.

Red Alert 3's Empire of the Rising Sun introduces the giant King Oni robots, which are quite powerful on the battlefield.

The E3 demo focused on the Empire of the Rising Sun, and it showed off the new units and wild gameplay offered by the Japanese faction. Perhaps the most important unit for the Empire is the King Oni, which is giant robot that shoots powerful lasers from its eyes. The King Oni takes a long time to build, but as I and Tom's Games' contributing editor Devin Connors discovered, if you can build a few of these mechs and get them rolling behind enemy lines, you can do major damage. As impressive as the robots were, I'm a little concerned the King Oni may be too powerful and lead to some balance issues in Red Alert 3 (though the game's AI was able to take out a few King Oni with some Allied Javelin Soldiers, who were harder for the big mechs to hit).

Other units include the Tankbuster Soldier, which carry powerful anti-armor plasma cannons and wear goofy-looking but valuable bamboo hats that allow the soldiers to hide and set up ambushes; the Mecha Tengu, which can transform from a land-based robot into a powerful jet for air attacks (kind of like the Decepticon character Starscream from "Transformers"). The Tsunami Tanks are also flexible and can move from land to sea quickly; these tanks became extremely valuable when it came time to push back the Allied forces into the sea and then take out the opposition's Aircraft Carriers and Assault Destroyers. One newly revealed unit that I personally did not get to play is the Yuriko Omega soldier, which is a psionic commando dressed in a Japanese schoolgirl uniform. I kid you not. Yes, it's outrageous, but it's also a blast. As I've written before, if EA can keep all three factions balanced, then Red Alert 3 will be the best Command & Conquer title in many years.

Tom Clancy's EndWar

The next title on the list is Ubisoft's EndWar, the new entry for its lucrative Tom Clancy franchise that's loosely based on a Tom Clancy's EndWar novel (that wasn't written by Clancy himself but David Michaels, who isn't a real person but a pseudonym for an unnamed ghost writer). The novel and game both deal with a fictional World War III scenario in the not-so-distant future, which is triggered by a global discord over a new nuclear missile defense system as well as an escalating energy crisis caused by a nuclear conflict in the Middle East (hitting a little too close to home, isn't it?). As a result, three factions emerge in a quest to become the world's single superpower: the United States, Russia, and the new European Federation.

In Tom Clancy's EndWar, the World War III battlfield maps will include locations like Washington, D.C.

EndWar's story is juicy and full of potential, but it's the game's control scheme that really makes this Tom Clancy title stand out. I had a chance to sink my teeth into the demo during E3, and I discovered the voice command system was more than just a gimmick - it was an outstanding, and immersive, gameplay feature that made EndWar more than just a good-looking RTS game (or, if you prefer, real-time tactics game since there is not traditional base building or resource gathering). In fact, you can play EndWar without every picking up a controller and simply speaking commands like "Unit one move to Alpha" or "Units four, five and seven attack" into an Xbox 360 headset.

Therein lies the rub for EndWar: the game is coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (not to mention the handheld platforms) but a PC version of the game has not been made official - yet. I asked the Ubisoft official about the rumored PC version of EndWar and was told that the publisher is looking into it but wouldn't have any official announcement about EndWar on PC at the show. Certainly that will be a big dent into the game's potential customer base. However, if curious RTS fans are willing to give the game a shot on the consoles, I think they may be surprised. Players can customize and upgrade their tanks, infantry, helicopters and artillery vehicles throughout the game. With a heavy emphasis on action, EndWar's visuals are strong; plus, the game will come with an "MMORTS" mode that will allow players to engage in a single World War III scenario online (players will still be competing one-to-one on the battlefield, but the result of each contest will determine which faction ultimately wins the war). The game will be released on Oct. 15.

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