The first half of the year has been one of the slowest in recent memory for game releases. The scarce few games that were released were often top quality although we've still decided to include a few great (and not so great) games from late 1999 to fill the void left by an uneventful first two quarters.

Since Dune 2 arrived to define this genre we've seen countless imitations, innovations and of course sequels within the RTS genre. Although it's beginning to show its age, Starcraft still remains the undisputed paragon of sprite-based strategy games. Three entirely different yet very balanced races battling it out backgrounded by an involving tale involving believable characters - what more could you want. For those seeking a more historical RTS you can't go far wrong with Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings with its historical campaigns and countless units. Microsoft will be releasing an add-on pack, The Conquerors, in about two months so you've still got time to pick up and complete the game before the add-on arrives to take up more of your time.

If you're tired of using your 3D card to push 2D sprites around though, you need to pick up a copy of Homeworld. While previous RTS titles using 3D graphics still played a lot like their sprite based cousins, Homeworld makes excellent use of the third dimension by setting things in space. Ships can fly under each other and move into formations which means Homeworld requires a very different style of tactical thought to many other RTS titles. Although the action in Star Trek: Armada is set along a 2-dimensional plane it uses 3D graphics just to edge a bit more eye candy out of your graphics card. While it doesn't bring anything hugely original to the table, Armada is good fun and easily one of the best Trek titles yet. Its solid story will appeal to fans of the series and the four well balanced races should interest strategy fans. We still think Borg Cubes are a tad easy to destroy though...