THERE is something about clicking on a dozen tanks and a swamp of ant-like infantry to direct their firepower at hapless enemy headquarters.
That joy, that feeling of "payback time", is what drives you to play the Command & Command (C&C) series of games that literally defined the real-time strategy (RTS) genre in the 1990s.
The same adrenaline rush will get you clicking on Kane's Wrath, the new expansion pack to last year's hugely successful C&C3: Tiberium Wars.
Yes, it's still a clickfest of hurriedly building up your base, troops and tanks and sending them off to wreak havoc.
And yes, you can still rely on the good old tank-rush tactic to overwhelm enemies, especially in the earlier, easier levels.
But if this works, why change?
That is what Electronic Arts seems to be thinking with this expansion pack, which requires the original C&C3.
As usual, you are required to locate and destroy enemy bases, and at times, repel attacks on your own.
Honestly, I experienced deja vu for a while - okay, more of the same in an add-on pack that could have been given free as part of a community nod.
But then, there's the back story.
This works because of the rich universe of the Tiberium Wars. For the uninitiated, this is basically a fight between the "good guys" in the GDI (Global Defence Initiative) and the "terrorists" called Brother of Nod for a rare mineral called Tiberium.
This time round, you play a Kane loyalist, the enigmatic leader of Nod, who was thought to be dead after the last C&C game.
As you'd expect, there are the trademark full-motion video messages that provide the backdrop for your missions.
Without this, Kane's Wrath would just be another expansion pack offering new missions. But video messages from Kane, played by the excellent Joe Kucan and Alexa Kovacs, a smart Nod commander played by the sexy Natasha Henstridge, truly perk up the game.
The action's not bad, too. You have to battle not just the GDI and an alien race called Scrin as in the original C&C3, but also factions which have splintered from Nod.
Your job? To remind them who's boss. C&C has always had interesting units at your disposal, and this expansion pack doesn't disappoint, either.
In the original C&C3, there were giant combat mechs for the GDI faction, like the Behemoth, which could fire a volley of artillery at enemies from a distance.
This time round, Nod gets its massive mech too, in the Redeemer. You get a tri-laser that you can easily aim at hapless infantry that turn up on your sights.
But firepower is just part of the fun here - there is something for the irreverent, too.
For example, there is a Voice of Kane statue you can deploy. What this does is to fire up propaganda messages to lift the morale of troops to make them fight harder.
Your guys get high re-fire rate and armour when you erect one of these towers in the vicinity.
There there are the cute upgrades like cybernetic legs, which you can use to make your troops move faster.
To be fair, none of this will give Kane's Wrath the same epic scale or tactical depth offered by an RTS like Company of Heroes (COH).
It's true, not many games can match COH's beautiful graphics and destructible environments that make it such a great game.
But I don't think Kane's Wrath tries to be that, just like the original C&C3 didn't.
The new expansion pack offers more of the same clickfest that its fans are so happy with.
And if you, like me, grew up with the good old C&C tank rush tactic, this is one add-on you'll be enjoying.
Cheatsheet
SURE, Command & Conquer (C&C) is not a game that demands deep thought, but if you don't just rush in with your troops every time, you might find missions to get past. For starters, don't be shy to deploy air-dropped mines to defend your objectives.
These are extremely useful to stop a horde of enemy tanks from hitting an objective you?re defending. The mines are not always available, so make sure you use them wisely, for example, to choke up a narrow road leading to your defences.
For some reason, enemy mechs may sometimes even trip on them - even though the mines are so obvious.
Other times, the enemy may stop and shoot at them, which gives you a good chance to whack them while they are static.
Try to use your aircraft as scouts as well. They are excellent for exposing enemies when you fly over uncharted terrain. If you are worried about running into an enemy base and its anti-aircraft batteries, then position your jet some way off from your base, for example, at an important junction.
This gives you early warning of enemy scouts, which usually come in the form of light infantry or vehicles, which your plane or base defences can take care off with advanced warning.
