Company of Heroes

Anyone with the vaguest interest in strategy, tension or do-or-die heroics should own Company of Heroes. With most RTS games there's an element of emotional distance involved, clicking on a unit and watching it blankly hose down an enemy emplacement just like the hundreds before it. but with Company of Heroes there's grit, fear and determination thrown into the mix. Bereft of resource management and instead coupled to Relic's brilliant (patent presumably not still pending) kills for units and unlocks system, COH consistently urges you into the fray and into cover rather than sullenly turtling in wrecked French towns.

Making you feel like a true military tactician one minute and the man who shouted 'That way!' at the Light Brigade the next COH still provides a weighty gut-wrenching punch on all levels. COH can be had at Steam for about the same amount of cash.