Los Angeles (CA) - The year is 1989. In the midst of political turmoil in the Soviet Union, leading to the toppling of its reformist president, a more hard-line regime takes on the task of systematically conquering its ultimate enemy, the United States of America. Carefully avoiding the path of mutually-assured destruction, the new regime instead constrains itself to conventional tactics, with the aim of securing territory and expanding its reach in the Western Hemisphere, rather than laying waste to it. Not that laying waste to it isn’t an option, though.

One of Massive Entertainment’s European developers represents the Soviets in a live network battle against the Americans invading Volgograd, in Sierra’s World in Conflict

It is a frightfully plausible, though thankfully fictitious, view of a World War III scenario that is played out in astounding, near photo-realistic detail in Massive Entertainment’s upcoming PC game World in Conflict for Sierra Games. There is a dark beauty to the rendering and execution of this game ; the "fun" factor is in how seriously it approaches this topic. This isn’t a winner-takes-all cross-commando shootout ; this is the future that might have been, and your success depends not upon destruction of the territory but control. Click here to go further into this stormy scenario, as we present a pictorial preview of this genre-changing title.

The Americans have invaded Volgograd, and as the Soviet Army, you defend your homeland against the capitalist horde.

See the World in Conflict slide show here...