The war began like any other: with a dog. While walking through a military base with the leader of the Human Faction, General McGutterpants, a canine kicked over a weapon, knocking it down, and triggering the device. This weapon proceeded to fire what appeared to be a nuclear missile over a nearby fence and into a city in the distance. While the city burnt, the inhabitants' final meows echoed. This unprovoked and illegal attack prompted an immediate response from their leader, Chairman Meow. Being the benevolent dictator he is, Meow demanded an apology from McGutterpants, but the military man wasn't known for backing down. And thus, war began. Yes, that's one section of the story (apparently there's a story) behind RISK: Factions, EA's upcoming Xbox Live version of Hasbro's popular board game.

In 2009, Hasbro revamped the rules for RISK, taking the world domination game on a slightly different path. Instead of simply taking over the world, a number of objectives are given that need to be completed. While the basics of taking over territories, gaining armies, and rolling dice remain intact, other missions fuel to overall goal of the game. This is the core game of RISK: Factions, based around this alternate rule set that allows for quicker games and more balanced two-player battles. The "factions" element comes into play with the several playable... well, factions, each of which are represented with unique characters and armies in game. While they don't have any features or abilities to differentiate them from each other, the different factions add a necessary amount of kooky to the mix.



Other elements cater to the power of consoles, like being able to use terrain or environmental hazards. At one point, Chairman Meow opened up a dam, flooding an area and wiping out all troops. There are likely more of these, but we didn't get a chance to see them at the event, so we can't really comment on exactly how important they will end up being in the grand scope of things. The same goes for the actual game mode itself, since it's hard to really say how the objective-based gameplay will work, considering how new it is.

For most RISK fans, however, the most important element of Factions is the classic game, which is included in its entirety in the XBLA release. While it certainly wasn't given the full treatment that the Factions side was, lacking the graphical flare this bare-bones approach to the classic game is all most fans of the game want. Mix that in with online multiplayer with up to five people (and the ability to save and resume games at any time) and RISK: Factions is literally two games in one: ne you care about, and another you don't, but likely should.

RISK: Factions is due out in late spring/early summer for Xbox Live.