This commands a spot in my Top Ten - #8

Any of you remember Dune 2? Back in 1993, I played it religiously on my Amiga.

You controlled one of three factions, Atreides, Harkonnen and Ordos, each with different objectives, morals and most importantly, armies.

The game - based on the novel by Frank Herbert - saw an array of units roaming the desert planet of Arrakis. Spice was the name of the game - you had to harvest it to generate income, build a base, develop your defences and develop new weapons to blast your foes away.

The truly ingenious bit was the sandworm...a huge, hungry muther hiding under the sands that responded to the rumble of your vehicles and in one foul swoop, swallowed them whole. Fantastic!

Anyhow, I digress, Westwood went on to develop this kind of management/blow the cr#p out of stuff idea and launched its Command and Conquer (C&C) series, which now resides at the number 8 slot in my self indulgent Top Ten list.

Given no more than a few units, a small base and limited funds, it was up to you - the general - to build, build, build until you could wipe out the enemy.

The C&C franchise saw storylines that featured weird and wonderful enemies from futuristic worlds and alternate realities. Be it the GDO, NOD and Scrin, or the Soviets, Chinese and the US, more often than not Westwood managed to attract "celebrities" to star in the in-game FMV (photo credit: awee_19). An added bonus was that many of these celebs were of the buxom variety.

I loved all the versions but despite my initial reservations, I was quite taken by C&C Generals on my PC, which was the first to go fully 3D.

Superb graphics, especially with a decent graphics card, and a wide variety of units and maps meant I wasted many an hour on this.

It remains to be seen whether the series still has legs, particularly after its 2008 Red Alert 3 release received fairly mixed reviews. Those that were negative, however, were probably down to Westwood's decision to restrict piracy by using controversial DRM software.

Nevertheless, C&C is still one of my all-time favourites and is thoroughly recommended! If only they could somehow include that sandworm in C&C too!!!