Top Secret Magazine Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation is a great game, with TONS of units for each side. There are two different sides, the ARM and the CORE. Each side has its own unique units...land, sea, air...you name it, this game has it. The expansion pack even gives you hovercrafts, seaplanes, mine layers, and more! Total Annihilation is unique because EVERY unit in the game is true 3d. All of the units have been run-time generated, so they are in perfect 3d. When you shoot a unit or attack an enemy, the shots and explosions are all 3d. When your unit gets hit by a missile, it will rock back and forth from the blast. When your units explode, there is a huge blast, then parts go flying everywhere. The wreckage of your unit will remain on the map until somebody either destroys it or reclaims the metal in order to build something.

Originally, there were two human sides in the war of Total Annihilation. The Arm made mechanical robots their men could operate, while the Core just replaced their men with robots. This war raged on for a really LONG time, and eventually all the humans

died and the only things that were left were both side's robots - still fighting. Now you must command these robots and try to win the war. Each side has TONS of units....over 75 Per side, with new units that you can download each week at TotalAnnihilation.Com. There are some pretty awesome downloadable units. although the graphics and everything are very well done, the game's only downside is the lag. In very large games, your system will most likely be slowed to a crawl.

Overall, if you love Real Time Strategy games, I suggest you download the demo and give this game a try. However, if you don't have a computer that is very fast or has a ton of RAM, I don't suggest you get it. Total Annihilation has TERRIBLE lag due to all of the 3d units. Once you get over 100 units, the game will start slowing your system to a crawl. The requirements to run this game is only a Pentium 100, but I would say MINIMUM should be a Pentium 2 (any speed). You can not enjoyably play a game on any system less than a Pentium 2...although many people DO play it on slower systems, it gets annoying and not enjoyable after a while...

Company:
Cavedog
www.cavedog.com

Category:
Strategy

NOTES:

Interest: 70%
Control: 50%
Graphics: 75%
Sound : 85%
Originality : 55%

TOTAL : 71%

Requirements:

Operating System:
Windows 95/98 with DirectX 5.0

Processor:
Pentium 100MHz

Memory:
16MB RAM (32MB+
Recommended)

Hard Drive:
20MB Hard Drive Space

CD-ROM:
Double Speed Required

Video:
SVGA Video Required

Sound:
Sound Card is Required

Michael Pieczynski

DEMO