While Total Annihilation may not have the back-story and sophisticated solo campaign play of its competitors, the game blows them away in nearly every other category. Combat is kick-ass and lightning quick, even on a good 604e, thanks to TA's 3-D engine, which uses polygons in favor of bitmaps to allow tons of players and units to mix it up without the usual slowdowns--you don't even need to invest in 3-D hardware to get this boost. The game just gets better when you add on stupendous graphics, an astounding number of units between the Arm and the Core (over 250 in the base game), a thoughtfully designed resource-management system that rewards aggressive play and allows for amazing comebacks (way better than the "oh, you lost that mine, you lost the game" fate of Warcraft and its ilk), and even an award-winning score performed by a chorus and a 75-piece orchestra.

TA Gold gives you a rocking good start with the base game, Battle Tactics, and the Core Contingency, and is a well-equipped introduction to this RTS classic for the Mac crowd. About the only strike against this otherwise exceptional port is that Mac and PC players still can't duke it out in multiplayer, but that's just an unfortunate quibble with a title this solid. --Paul Hughes

Pros:

• Just a fantastic RTS game finally ported to the Mac
• Superior 3-D engine
• Excellent game design, along with tons of units and scenarios

• Lackluster campaign play
• No network games with Wintel opponents