Age of Mythology plays a lot like the original Age' games, as well as other real-time strategy games. You gather resources, use them to build armies, and then use those armies to destroy your enemies. Did you expect something else? :) Of course, it's not exactly the same game as Age of Kings or Age of Empires 2, they have added a number of entirely new gameplay features, impressive graphics in a fully 3D environment and many other goodies which make this game one of the best strategies ever. Basically, Age of Mythology preserves the familiar elements popular in previous Age of Empires games. Despite the hype, I think that all those who loved the originals, Age of Empires, Age of Kings and their expansions, will find this game pretty satisfying because the battle of the gods has finally begun :)

There are three sides in Age of Mythology, the Egyptians, the Norse, and the Greeks, each with unique units and resource gathering rules. The Greeks excel in raw power, and are the easiest race to pick up and play immediately, as their basic game mechanics should be familiar to anyone who has player other Age's games. The Egyptians are all about building a vast empire with legions of troops, and they have an incredibly versatile economy.

Lastly, the Norse are all about wild aggression, with the ability to build up anywhere so you can expect rather constant fighting with this race. In addition you have to worship gods, and they will help you kill your enemies - each god (Hades, Hor, Isis, Odin, Osiris, Zeus..) provides different strengths for your civilization, and new god powers such as weapons of mass destruction (two different kinds of lightning, meteor swarm etc). Alike the Age of Empires games, there's also fourth resource in the game called Favor (a new resource which replaces Stone), which represents the powers of your civilizations' gods and is used for summoning your civilization's powerful mythological units (Cyclopes, Medusas...) , as well as for armor and weaponry upgrades. Favor is gathered in different ways, Greek villagers pray at a temple, Egyptian workers construct statues and the Norse getting Favor through battles.

Overall, Age of Mythology features story-driven single-player campaign divided into 36 missions, more than 20 mythological creatures, quite challenging AI, a random map skirmish mode, multiplayer up to 12 players (Scenarios /include co-op/, Lightening, Deathmatch, Conquest, Supremacy) via LAN/Internet (ESO) and highly intuitive interface that's very similar to that of Age of Empires II.

Ford is without a doubt one of the biggest and most famous brands in the world. Publisher Empire Interactive sent us a preview copy of Ford Racing 2 (formerly known as Ford Racing Evolution), their upcoming arcade racing game that puts you in the driver's seat of some great racing cars, from the 1968 Mustang to the latest Mustang GT Concept car.

This game certainly fulfills its promise as a true arcade racing game. No matter what you do you cannot damage your car or run out of gas. Ford Racing Evolution features 32 cars including the Ford GT, The New 2004 F-150, SVT Lightning, SVT Mustang Cobra, 2002 Thunderbird, Mustang Mach III, Gran Torino, 1955 Thunderbird, 1971 Mustang, Focus Rally, and 49 Coupe, a couple of diverse themed tracks including: Road Tracks, Off-Road Tracks, Jungle, Desert and Ovals.You can choose from Quick Race and Single player that contains Standard Race, Elimination, Duel, Drafting, Driving Skills, Seconds Out, Racing Line and Time Attacks modes. There's also a split-screen multiplayer race mode.

Empire Interactive also sent us some 50Hz vs.60Hz technical information regarding to both the PC and console versions of Ford Racing 2: Those who have relevant modern TV sets (most people nowadays) can select the 60Hz display option and enjoy the game as it was originally designed to be shown. As a result, expect the game to fill the entire screen (unlike most PAL releases that show black borders at the top and bottom of the screen, and squash the displayed graphics), and run at the correct speed (PAL versions of games are typically around 17% slower than their NTSC counterparts). There are some PAL TV sets that don't support a 60Hz display, but they are generally the really old ones (with brown wooden frames etc).

Age Of Wonders is turn-based fantasy strategy game taking place at land of the ancient races. Each of the races (Human, Elves, Undead, Dwarves, Orcs and others) has it's own specific units with different characteristics. What I really appreciate is, that the races are well balanced, for example human units are weaker than the other races' ones but they're build faster. it is possible to upgrade every town/castle but only to the particular level, which makes you build the strongest units at capitols but also you must defend well the border towns. There are special air / fire / water nodes which can be used to cast deadly spells, so they're subject of all-time battles.

Another really cool thing on AOW is that there are two ways to fight particular battle. The first is 'do it fast' way, where all the participating units appear in special slots on the screens and strike each against other ones. You can skip to the end of the battle by pressing one button, so you really don't need to watch all the animations and battle is finished in few seconds. The second possibility is slow, but great for the people who want to have control over as much as possible. It's like the all units move to the small world showing the place where the battle takes place, and now here you can control every unit separately, like in Civilization game, but this way of battling takes a couple of minutes.