Amidst the hype and hyperbole of E3's opening moments a new video bringing the first real glimpes at the Red Alert universes newest waring faction, the Empire of the Rising Sun, was released (although mystifyingly only as part of Cashwhores E3 coverage.) In it we get to see the EotRS go Gundam on the Soviets and the Allies.

Oh and a new version of the series main theme "Hell March".



The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the return of the Allied dolphin unit amid the unvailing of the new sides units, sadly though no visible Soviet bears.

So, I liked Red Alert 2. It's toungue in cheek B-movie storyline was preferable, to me at least, to the Tiberean sagas more straight laced sci-fi yarn and it infected the gameplay with a whistful charm. This looks set to continue with the Empire of the Rising Sun having equal parts an inspired and stereotyped design to thier units, in keeping with Japanese technological dominance here in the real world the EotRS has a much more futuristic look to it, all chrome and smooth edges.

Once again Red Alert 3's new move towards stronger sea battles is pushed with the appearance of a land and an air unit that can become a formidable force on the open waves in combat, with the very manouverable looking Sky-Wing capable of becoming a submersible unit although it appears in the video as nothing more capable than in a scouting or evasive capacity. At no point underwater does the Sky/Sea-Wing appear to attack enemy units.

One point of concern that I'd like to raise is that the King Oni unit fires what looks like a Prism laser. Those of you who played Red Alert 2 (more so the Yuri's Revenge espansion pack than the original game) will remember that if you attacked with even a small number of Allied Prism Tanks then there combined power ensured unstoppable victory every time. Hopefully the units apparently high cost will make it more like the Soviet Kirov Airship, taking along time to build and therefore never in huge supply.

One final thing is the occasional glimpses of a unit that is never addressed, the Dragonfly air unit that is fleetingly seen at 26 and 33 seconds in. I have no idea what it does but it's design has me intregued.

So any thoughts? What is you opinion of Red Alert 3's third side? Do you think that it will have a detrimental effect on the balancing of the game?