Let's kill pixel people for pixel oil! (aka "The RTS thread")

Yoska

I noticed there are lots of big name heavy hitting Real Time Strategy games coming out during next 12 months:

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 by Electronic Arts LA
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I have always enjoyed RA games over vanilla C&C games. Besides a game which has armored polar bears with parachutes can not possibly be bad. Sea warfare is the name of the game and it will have a new faction to play with: Empire of Rising Sun, practically Japanese. There should be a public beta test this Summer (for those who has bought Kane's Wrath, that is ).

Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2 by Relic Entertainment
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It's a Relic game so it's pretty much guaranteed to be great. We don't know much about the game itself yet but it's probably more like Company of Heroes than Daw of War 1. Space Marines and Orks are in, two other factions are still unknown.

Halo Wars by Ensemble Studios
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Build from ground up for a console. I'm willing to give it the benefit of doubt as people of Ensemble Studios should know what they are doing. The story follows early battles between UNSC and the Covenant. I dunno if Master Chief is in or not.

StarCraft II by Blizzard Entertainment
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I don't think there's much to say about this one. Lots of things has changed in 10 years but it's still "StarCraft" with "II" and it still has lovely Queen Bitch of the Universe. I'm really looking forward the singleplayer portion of this even though it doesn't have Co-op play of RA3 or DoW2.

Demigod by Gas Powered Games

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No, no it's not Shadow of the Colossus 2. It's basicly a high end version of DoTa which just happens to hate your computer. I still haven't actually played GPG's Supreme Commander, I will pick it up in one of these days even though just a mere demo of that game was almost (but not quite) too much for my laptop.

I will buy of all these of course, I don't like missing out, but are you going to buy any of these?

Gaiyae

Demigod certainly looks cool..
But honestly the only 2 RTS games that got me hooked where "populous: the beginning" and "Dungeon Keeper" . I never seem to be able to get into them somehow. Although i played plenty TBS strategy games. Maybe i'll just give Demigod a shot, it seems interesting.

Lazzie

I played the bejeezus out of Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Total Annihilation, Homeworld, Age of Empires II, Zeus: Master of Olympus, Warcraft III, and Age of Mythology back in the day, and I definitely had fun with all of them. I was pretty stoked for Supreme Commander when it was coming out, but I lack the hardware to actually play it. Of course, I am very interested to see how Starcraft II turns out.

Insider2000

Zeus rules! If only my disc didn't break…..

Starcraft and Warcraft kinda began my RTS addiction. Warcraft III made it solid. I swear, I did things on that game that I wouldn't do in real life. Not only did I join a clan, but I was the temporary chieftan of one once.

A friend of mine tried to get me into a clan, but the clan had a level 10 requirement. I had a brand new level 1 account. They gave me a chance if I could turn level 10 by Friday (it was Monday). I was level 11 by Wednesday.

Yeah. I think it's a good thing that I'm away from that game.

Yoska

First Command and Conquer took my RTS virginity. Although now looking back I probably didn't have a clue about what I was doing…

But I'm currently playing Company of Heroes, or it's expansion, and C&C3: Kane's Wrath.

I really don't care about World War 2 themed games at all but CoH is pretty superb in almost every way. And most surprisingly the game has lots of golden unit quotes too. Hearing stuff like "I hear the Nazis are all eight feet tall!", "S_andbags done, if I see one more bag of fuckin' dirt…_" and "If I knew how much walking we'd do, I'd have joined the Navy." just cracks me every time. Seriously, recommended. Especially if you have hard time getting into more old school RTS games or if you digged Relic's other games such as Dawn of War or even Homeworld.

Kane's Wrath is good. Gameplay wise it's better than C&C3 was. It simply has lots of more options to screw around. C&C3 had a better campaign though. By the way the game probably has the best hotkey layout ever. The guy who designed the hotkeys in this one should be given a medal or something. Once EA patches this baby, KW will be a solid fun game, and I recall the game won't kill low end PCs since it's using the old SAGE engine.

Gorlom

I'm usually not that big of an RTS fan. (I never go beyond easy casual gaming. Never used a single hotkey except for grouping units with ctrl)

They are fun to play around with but I don't get hooked on them as much as other games though.

But I'v had alot of fun with blizzards warcraft and starcraft series (specially the custom maps with alternative objectives) and really looking forward to SC2.

dragonfrost

If Red alert 3 is as good as red alert 2 and yuris i could die a happy man.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34141.html
trailer is 100x better here

Yoska

The more I see and read about Red Alert 3, the more confident I feel about it. Hey, I now even have a RA3 avatar! It's seems like after years of taking tiny missteps EA LA finally got it right spot on.

They are taking the best bits of RA2, Generals, BfME and C&C3 and then improving on those. Plus they are taking some bold design decisions too. EA LA is really makings Red Alert 3 something quite unique yet familiar. I freaking can't wait the beta because I smell excellence in making.

@Gorlom:

(I never go beyond easy casual gaming. Never used a single hotkey except for grouping units with ctrl)

I'm also rather casual. Athough I do enjoy the feeling of adrenalin rush that I get from playing against somebody of equal skill level – using all the tricks and techiques to outsmart and outplay another person. It can be extremely fun or extremely frustrating.

But, anyhow, I never used to use hotkeys either but few years ago I suddenly decided to try and learn them for one game and I couldn't go back anymore. Simply most RTS games are designed to be used with hotkeys. Sure you can always play with just a mouse (or, in my case, with just a Wacom) but you get so much more control over what's happing on the screen with hotkeys that, once I got used to them, playing without them started to feel a much less fun and alot more shallow experience.

dragonfrost

did you play red alert 2 yR? ….. ever play it online

Yoska

I played RA2 pretty extensively. But for some reason I never really got that into YR. I probably played YR less than 30 games online. I did love the unit design of Yuri's faction though.

Anyway, a Red Alert 3 gameplay commentary:
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No new info, it's basicly 14 minutes version of the trailer, but it's still cool to see.

Lazzie

I recently went back to TFT for kicks, and noticed that the bonus Horde campaign had two chapters added to it! Of course, this probably happened two or three years ago, but I stopped playing WCIII before then. Still, I'm having a great time with it. Gotta love that Chen Stormstout.

Yoska

Updating. Updating.

Kane's Wrath finally received it's first patch. 1.01. Take that you people who thought, said, whined and yelled that EA wouldn't support the game (not aimed at anyone of you here). I haven't had time to play it much but the patch is really top notch. Makes the game much more balanced, less spammy and slower (was needed).

Also, at the EA front, they are slowly revealing all the units for RA3. Like sort of in the same fashion as what Nintendo did with Brawl or what Blizzard is doing with SCII. Check 'em out here: http://www.ea.com/redalert/factions.jsp

Meanwhile Gamereplays already has a preview of the all factions of RA3 and their units: http://www.gamereplays.org/redalert3/portals.php?show=page&name=red_alert_3_game_play_preview. The box art got out too:

The (awesome) intro movie of Dawn of War II was revealed at the E3:

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So Eldars are in. I hope the cliffhanger ending means one and the only one thing. Infamous Tyradins will be there too.

I almost forgot these two.

RA3: Empire of the Rising Sun trailer:
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Halo Wars 5 Long Years trailer:
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Yoska

Futile thread CPR.
I have been playing Red Alert 3 Beta. It's a lot of fun :happy:. Too many newcomers who has no idea about their are doing tho.

But even if Beta would suck, EA knows what sells video games:

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I think the game is a lot of fun and my penis agrees.

A Demigod trailer.
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GuetaMinute

@Yoska:

Futile thread CPR.
I have been playing Red Alert 3 Beta. It's a lot of fun :happy:. Too many newcomers who has no idea about their are doing tho.

But even if Beta would suck, EA knows what sells video games:

!

!
I think the game a lot of fun and my penis agrees.

A Demigod trailer.
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Mine seems to be nodding "yes, I agree."

Yoska

See, huh. It's working.

Okey, I'm getting annoyed by people who are playing the Beta. It's totally not their fault. Not everyone spend their days reading forums and news about every little detail about a game. It's just… they are so clueless.

Yoska

Get your diapers ready!
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Because that's the best cast of actors and actress for a game any geek could ask for. Andrew Divoff, J.K. Simmons , Peter Stormare, Tim Curry, George Takei… damn EA. That's hot.