Alexander to conquer PCs

Ubisoft announced today that it will publish a real-time strategy game based on Alexander, director Oliver Stone's upcoming sword-and-sandal epic. The game Alexander is slated to ship on November 5, the same day the film unspools in theaters nationwide.

Alexander is being developed by Ubisoft with the collaboration of Warner Bros. and Stone himself. Currently planned only for PCs, the game will feature clips from the film as well as excerpts from its soundtrack by famed composer Vangelis.

Like in most real-time strategy games, Alexander's gameplay will focus on a combination of resource management and military tactics. The game will follow the historic campaign of conquest outlined in the film and will feature various heroes, including Alexander the Great himself.

The game will also feature hypothetical scenarios for alternate-history buffs. "Historical and 'what if' strategies are being scrupulously rendered by Ubisoft," said Stone. "One variation even has [Persian King] Darius emerging the victor over Alexander. Players will have serious possibilities for winning and losing empires," he added.

Budgeted at over $100 million, Alexander the film aims to profile the real-life emperor via a Gladiator-scale spectacle. It begins as Alexander (Colin Farrell) ascends the throne of Macedonia, a small kingdom near modern-day Greece. Under the guidance of his mother, Olympias (Angelina Jolie), he begins a long string of conquests of surrounding kingdoms. By age 25, the real-life Alexander had conquered most of the Mediterranean and Middle East, and his empire eventually extended all the way to modern-day Pakistan. He died of a sudden illness when he was 33.