SpawnPoint

Dinosaurs and real-time strategy--when you think about this combination, you probably wonder why it hasn't really been done yet. That's about to change with Paraworld, a new PC strategy game from Sunflowers that we got a peek at during E3 2006. Paraworld puts you in a parallel dimension where men and dinosaurs coexist. Three tribes: the Norsemen, Dust Riders, and Dragon Clan, vie for control of this world, and all can field armies that combine human soldiers as well as dinosaurs and other large beasts used as mounts.

The game's units are as fanciful and creative as a child reading his first dinosaur book. In the demonstration we saw, we got to see units like a wooly mammoth carrying a mounted ballista on its back, as well as cavalrymen mounted on two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs. Mounted brontosauruses can use a stomp ability to knock over tree lines and create surprise avenues for invasion. Other dinosaurs we saw could catapult eggs over tree lines, which hatched small raptors--these can effectively harass gatherer units hidden in the back of bases. The gigantic titan units unique to each tribe were perhaps the most impressive of all. The Norsemen can unleash a giant triceratops with mounted archers firing arrows from its back. The Dragon Clan's brontosaurus titan one-ups that with gatling guns and a mortar mounted on top of it, while the Dust Riders' T-rex can terrorize and eat enemy infantry.

Even dinosaurs, ninjas, and Vikings can't really elevate this real-time strategy game above its generic roots.