Technically COH Opposing Fronts is an expansion pack but is designed to be played without needing the original game.

For those who do own the original game, installing the expansion pack will result in the previous game being deleted from your machine, but don't worry your save games are left intact, trust us on this.

However unless you own a fast DVD drive you will find the game takes an age to install, which can get frustrating as you simply want to get stuck into the action. But once the game is installed you have to register the product key with a relic account and then re-register your original COH product key to activate the software. This will allow you to play the original game from the front Menu.

The above install, downloading of the latest patch and registration does take a fair while, so we estimated around 20 mins before you can even start playing the game.

But once it's all installed we have to admit the wait was worth it! Dare we say we enjoyed the game more than the original, well yes we did.

Relic have introduced two new armies and two new campaigns, you can now play as the British or the Germans and each set has their own unique abilities and armour.

The story lines are still focused on the days after the initial D-Day landings of WW2 and for the British your mission involves the 'Liberation of Caen' and for the Germans you have 'Operation Market Garden' which involves the Germans trying to stop the British from getting into their home country.

We opted for the British missions first and after nipping into the tutorial to see what some of the new abilities were like, we then headed straight for the campaign.

For newbie’s COH OF is an RTS, but unlike games like 'Command & Conquer' the resource collecting and unit sizes are a lot more balanced. To start with the game will guide you for the first mission to give you an idea of what to do and eventually you will learn to go it alone, so it’s a very easy game to get into.

Each mission is covered by a briefing - as in the original game - which lays down your objectives, these could be from capturing strategic points, to defending your position from advanced attacks.

The basic aim of the game is to capture resources so you can build factories, personal and vehicles.

But unlike the first game your troops do not secure points, now you have to use trucks instead. Also when points are secured no enemies can capture them unless your trucks are destroyed, this opens up more strategy in the multiplayer game, as you now need additional assaults to brake the flow of resources that your enemies have captured.