Lucas arts couldn't have picked a better weekend to have released Empire at War in Houston. The rain, cold, and cloudiness made it a perfect day to waste with a computer game. The only problem is, the game isn't that good, yet it's addictive. Oh Lucas, why didn't you just call this game what it really is, star wars crack for nerds?

In the first two days of the game's release, patches were out that fixed more than a dozen bugs each. These things should have been caught in Beta testing. Maybe Lucas Arts needs more beta testers? I tried to apply as a beta tester for the game, but my email was never responded to, even after writing a small dissertation on the proper utilization of boid AI behavior in RTS games!

Well, to make a long story short, I've managed to break the games algorithm in 5 moves. Also, the game ceases to progress it's missions in the normal republic mode if you let Boba Fett kill the millenium falcon more than a few times in the astoroid field.

My verdict, the game is great when a weekend of lousy weather keeps you indoors, but you may want to delay your purchase untill the bugs are worked out by the star wars nerds that have to have the game on the release day.