Real-time strategy games have yet to take off on the console, both with critics and consumers alike with only a few notable exceptions like Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II. Most real-time gamers prefer the control and interface options on the PC. Surprisingly enough, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars manages to be a good filler game for those that love the genre but don’t have a high-end PC to run the game on its preferred and originally intended platform.

The gameplay is just as tactically skewed and fast-paced as on the PC. Constructing buildings is an easy affair for the most part, though the entirely separate build queue for defensive structures and Tiberium silos is incredibly cumbersome. Unit queues are made simple due to the queue tabs on the minimap which is incredibly useful when you know your current forces are going to get slaughtered in the next battle and would like a fresh group ready to go when you get back to viewing your base.

The Xbox 360 doesn't exactly have the versatility and accuracy that a keyboard and mouse bring to the table but EA has done a pretty good job of making it at least come close. The left stick pans the camera while the right stick rotates and zooms it, and clicking the right stick in brings the camera back to its default rotation and elevation; to get the view back to your base after a sudden attack simply click in the left stick. It's vastly different than how the game is controlled on a PC, but at the same time makes great use of the strengths in control possessed by the analog stick.

The ability to set up and use groups of units is hands down one of the most important set controls that can be wielded in any modern RTS, and Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars does falter somewhat in this regard. On the PC version groups are easy to set up; select a group and press Ctrl + #, and from that point forward you simply press that number to select that group of units regardless from where you are viewing the battlefield. On the Xbox 360 version you must select the group of units, then hold the right trigger and navigate to the groups tab. Once there you must press left or right on the directional pad to select one of the eight group slots, then finally press and hold A on that slot to assign the currently selected units as that group number. It’s a bit unwieldy to say the least and when you are in thye middle of a firefight...it’s easy to get a bit flustered.

While grouping is a bit annoying, controlling the units themselves in combat, once you pass the rather short learning curve, quickly becomes second nature. Yes, a console RTS finally gets the controls down for the most part and yes; the reason you are seeing pigs fly is due to the ground being so cold from hell itself freezing over. Positioning your viewpoint and ordering units around becomes the fluid motions not unlike a painter uses on his canvas, and though it handles like a completely different beast the control scheme at times feels more welcoming and involved than on the PC.

The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. The gameplay does tend to slow down a great deal if many units are exchanging fire at once, or lots of explosions are going off, and in a title like this the odds that both are happening on screen at once is fairly high. Additionally a depth of field or similar effect is used to blur out the landscape and units that your camera isn't directly pointed at, and while from a cinematic standpoint it works—from a gameplay standpoint it does nothing but blur out sometimes vital details. Sound mixing is one of the areas of the game that really shines and regardless of where you position the camera you always get realistic 3D sound of the currently waging battle.

Command and Conquer 3 hosts quite a large amount of full motion video footage for cut-scenes and mission briefings from your commanding officers, and some big names appear in many of the roles. In the GDI campaign you command under the authority of Gen. Jack Granger (Michael Ironside, best known by gamers as the voice of Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell) who himself has Lt. Sandra Telfair (Grace Park, known as Lt. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii on Battlestar Galactica) and Captain Kirce James (Jennifer Morrison, known as Dr. Allison Cameron on House). To top them all off in geek heritage status the new GDI director in the storyline, Director Redmond Boyle, is played by Billy Dee Williams best known as Lando (by gamer geeks anyway) from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

In-game videos are usually overly cheesy at best and are either skipped entirely or used as a chance to get up and refill your drink, and while the FMVs in Command and Conquer 3 are in fact quite cheesy it's almost endearingly so and seeing an entire slew of recognizable actors and actresses does make for each one to be a fairly enjoyable experience.