Previews

With a history spanning nearly 20 years, the Command & Conquer series can take credit for establishing the legendary genre that is real-time strategy. It's also the franchise that got us obsessed with Tiberium, Tesla Coils and the Brotherhood of Nod (which I swear were also a 70s prog band...). And now, it's available in one mighty package - the Command & Conquer: Ultimate Collection for the PC.

This epic - and epically generous - collection features 17 games of vintage and contemporary RTS mayhem; from the 1995 original that built on the foundations of developer Westwood's brilliant Dune II RTS through to the spangly 2010 Tiberian Twilight - and everything in between. The premise is simple enough - harvest ore, build up an army of kick-ass units and then send them into battle against the enemy. The ultimate aim? To strangle your rival's supply chain and raze their base to the ground.

Along the way, you'll wince at familiar actors as they chew scenery in Red Alert's famous live action cut-scenes (get ready again to see Hollyoaks' Gemma Atkinson in Red Alert 3); rock out to the overblown, heavy metal-powered soundtracks; admire the big, brass balls of the innovative first-person-shooter, Renegade - and for veterans of the series, curse all over again at those wretched Soviet Attack Dogs...

Most importantly, you can submerge yourself fully in the series' three universes. The Tiberian saga features the Global Defense Initiative battling the Nod (or vice-versa) while harvesting as much Tiberium as possible. Red Alert sees the Allies and Soviets fighting each other for global supremacy, while the two Generals spin-offs let players take on the roles of USA and China as they fight to vanquish the Global Liberation Army, a nefarious terrorist organisation with invariable megalomanic tendencies.

It's an epic compilation then, and one that also includes early access to the up-and-coming free-to-play Command & Conquer reboot due in 2013. While existing fans of the series will snap this collection up, newbies can be rest assured that they will be getting several silos worth of action-packed entertainment, all for the meagre outlay of £22.99...