Genre: Strategy
Publisher: CDV
Developer: Enigma
Release Date: TBA

Let's get two things out of the way right now: the guy showing War Leaders: Clash of Nations was having WAY too much fun; and I'd pay $50 right now just to play the tech demo.

Okay, here's the obligatory info. It's a 3D real-time-strategy/turn-based game based on WWII. There's a strategy portion that's turn-based, and the actual battle resolution is real-time. You can skip the RTS portion if you want to, but based on what I saw, you wouldn't want to, and that isn't hyperbole. What's so great? Chain reaction explosions. Blow up a barrel, and it causes a chain reaction that'll take down a building, and that building starts a chain reaction that takes down something else and may end up terraforming. Just watching this was fun.

There's more to this game than how well stuff blows up. You can choose between seven factions and face another 13 belligerent parties. You can control the faction leader, generals, heroes, diplomacy, research, espionage, etc. But the demo just showed them blowing up things, and I'd have gotten popcorn and watched it all day.

There are also nighttime battles, so I can't wait to watch those chain reactions going off at night, woo-hoo! You'll get weather forecasts (partly sunny with the chance of a mid-afternoon chain reaction) and lots and lots of units — let's call it about 600 different ones, all historically accurate. There are about 80 maps, ranging across the world depicting historical battlefields, major cities, etc.

That's all well and good, and I'm sure War Leaders: Clash of Nations is going to be fun, but can I buy the tech demo now, please?