Even though jumping into a game of C&C 3 takes only minutes and has what seems to be a fairly user-friendly interface including the 'sidebar' command menu, the game seems to offer plenty of strategic depth for veteran players looking to hunker down and get their hands dirty. The sidebar, for instance, lets you issue just about every basic command you need to give without having to scroll through the map to find the base or units you're looking for. This handy interface includes a minimap on which you can give direct move and attack orders, as well as a full build queue that separates your next projects into general buildings, defensive structures, infantry, tanks, and aircraft. While you can't queue up long lines of individual buildings, you can build additional production centers that unlock separate production queues for more buildings or more armies. Each unit also has several different battle stances to go with their movement orders, including defensive movement (which causes units to move to a location without attacking anything), as well as other stances with varying degrees of aggressiveness. In some cases, you may just want to burn and pillage everything in your way; in others, you may want to destroy enemy units but leave their buildings or the discarded hulks of your enemies' most powerful units. In those cases, you can use engineer units to capture enemy buildings and repair discarded vehicle chassis under your control, which makes bringing your biggest guns to bear an even riskier tactic--will you be able to annihilate your enemy with your avatar warmech? Or, if you fail, will you be leaving him a Christmas present to repair and use against you?

In addition to building a story-based single-player campaign and a very competitive multiplayer component, EALA also plans to release a multiplayer spectator component for the game on launch day, which should make it possible for an unlimited number of players to view online multiplayer games in progress, and even provide commentary using a voice-over-IP headset, along with a "telestrator"--the kind of superimposed drawing board that sports commentators often use to sketch diagrams on top of player footage. The studio hopes that these features will see players gain notoriety not only as skilled players, but also as commentators throughout the fan community, encouraging players of all skill levels to watch multiplayer replays not only to learn from the tactics that other players use, but also to enjoy a competitive match in the same way sports fans enjoy watching their favorite teams play