Empire Earth III's computer opponents should put up a pretty good fight, too. Mad Doc is a company that prides itself in its artificial intelligence (founder and CEO Ian Davis has a doctorate in robotics), and what we heard about Empire Earth III has us excited. We were told that the AI plays by the same rules as the human player, meaning it doesn't cheat. At harder difficulty levels, the computer simply gets more time to think rather than any production or combat bonuses. On top of that, we can expect a variety of AI personalities and strategies in the game, as well as the AI making effective use of espionage and its other options in the world domination game.

The multiplayer element of Empire Earth III also sounds promising. There will be the typical multiplayer skirmish, which allows you to play one or more players online, but the more ambitious plans include a persistent multiplayer world domination campaign, which would play sort of like a tournament. Players will take turns making their moves on the world map, and when two players collide, the game will schedule a real-time strategy battle for them to play. Once the results are in, the game updates the world map and the game continues. This will obviously require a long-term commitment to play, so Mad Doc has a persistent multiplayer server in mind, similar to Civilization IV's pitboss server. One player can keep the server running 24/7, and other players will be able to log in when they have a moment, make their moves, and then log out. Meanwhile, the tug-of-war multiplayer mode introduced in Empire Earth II is no more, so it looks as though skirmish and world domination will be the two key multiplayer modes.