Last week, I got an early look at End of Nations, the latest RTS from Petroglyph, the developer of Star Wars: Empire at War and, more recently, Universe at War: Earth Assault. Founded by some of the principals behind the original Command & Conquer at Westwood Studios, the team is pouring its experience in the genre into End of Nations for publisher Trion Worlds. Due for release in 2011, the game is being pitched as the first "MMORTS" with a persistent game world, community features and player-vs-environment gameplay with support for 50 simultaneous players "and growing," according to the developer.

End of Nations will undergo many enhancements and a lot of fine-tuning before release, but even in its current state, the game is unquestionably impressive. Specifically, the scale of the action is simply astonishing. The demo map I saw spanned many (virtual) square miles, featuring an array of locations and topography. One second I was seeing a skirmish in a burning forest, and in the next, several players were working together to bring down a massive Panzer Hulk (think: battleship with tank treads) at a heavily fortified construction facility.