2006 Year of the RTS....

[astrosfan64]

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/swempireatwar/indexFlash.html
Empires at War -- looks great. It appears to be the first great RTS game in the Star Wars Series. I really dig the idea of a galactic battle.

http://www.companyofheroesgame.com/
This is made by Relic Entertainment. The guys who brought you the excellent Dawn of War RTS. Warhammer 40k game. This game is based in WW2 and looks to have the best physics engine ever put into a game. The whole game is based upon supperiour AI, for your soldiers. I'm really excited about this one.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/supreme-commander/632026p1.html
http://supcom.gaspowered.com/
The ultime MACRO RTS game. It is all about massive war, instead of microing your small amounts of troops with heros. Some unites will take up screens e.g. giant battleships. Why is this game cool? Chris Taylor the Dungeon Siege guy and more importantly the guy who made the origonal Total Annilation. Arguably the best RTS ever made.

http://www.riseoflegends.com/
The guys who brought us Rise of Nations and worked on the origonal CIV with Sid Mier. Graphics look great and the setting is pretty unique. The games 3d landscapes will actually matter. RoN was a great game.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/warhammer/index.html
Warhammer Mark of Chaos -- Looks great. Looks like we might get a Warhammer game that does the world justice. I'm a bit worried because it is Namco's first published RTS for the PC and the developer created armies of Exigo I think. That game was pretty average.

http://www.ea.com/official/lordoftherings/bfme2/us/home.jsp
Battle for Middle Earth II
Looks like they are fixing all the issues from the first one. Giving us more races like elves, dwarves, goblins. I think it is going to be great. I really liked the first one and this one will allow us to build our cities anywhere we want.


I know I'm missing one or two. But these look great.

[gkb]

I'm interested in a lot of these, but WoW has sucked me in and I'm not playing anything else right now and don't forsee myself dropping it anytime soon.

[astrosfan64]

I go back and forth between MMO's and RTS games. I just broke my WoW addiction like 3 months ago. When Age of Empires III and CIV 4 came out.

[sabotai]

I actually read an article in one of the gaming magazines a several months ago about how a bunch of RTS games that looked really good were coming out this year. Like this year would mark the next generation of RTS games.

Some of them do look really good.

[astrosfan64]

Age of Empires III was pretty good, but overall it was a letdown.

[sachmo71]

:rolleyes:

[astrosfan64]

:rolleyes:

What are you rolling your eyes at. I don't get it.

[sachmo71]

What are you rolling your eyes at. I don't get it.


Just the thought of more RTS makes my stomach hurt. Hence, 2006 being the year of the RTS means that I'm in for a long year.

[astrosfan64]

Just the thought of more RTS makes my stomach hurt. Hence, 2006 being the year of the RTS means that I'm in for a long year.

LOL, I get now! :D Though the RTS Games this year, I think will be a bit different then those from the past. At least I hope so...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just the thought of more RTS makes my stomach hurt. Hence, 2006 being the year of the RTS means that I'm in for a long year.

Thanks for saying that better than I was about to.

[Groundhog]

I think I must be one of the 2 or 3 people in the world who despises RTS and longs for the day of a new, great turn-based war game.

The only newish game I've enjoyed of late is Rome: Total War, and that was because I could pause it to issue commands to my entire army individually.

[sachmo71]

I think I must be one of the 2 or 3 people in the world who despises RTS and longs for the day of a new, great turn-based war game.

The only newish game I've enjoyed of late is Rome: Total War, and that was because I could pause it to issue commands to my entire army individually.


errr...it seems you've stumbled into a treasure trove!!

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[astrosfan64]

I suppose it makes sense that you would all migrate to a board dedicated to text based sports games. :)

[Calis]

You know, I do highly recommend the Kohan series of games for anyone who hates RTS games. I'm not an RTS fan at all, and much prefer a good TBS game, but man oh man did I love the Kohan games.

Very different feel than your Starcraft/C&C style game. Great stuff, although the 2nd one was a bit of a letdown.

Now if you want me to get excited about an RTS, tell me something about another REAL(Not the 3rd abomination) Myth game being made.

[sabotai]

Now if you want me to get excited about an RTS, tell me something about another REAL(Not the 3rd abomination) Myth game being made.The Warhammer RTS looks to be similar to that. It seems like the RTS part of the game is just army battles and not "mine gold, chop down trees, build barracks" typical play.

In fact, it's sounding more like a Rome: Total War type game then an RTS, with a heavy focus on the RTS battles. But I haven't read all that much yet.

I really liked the first 2 Myths too....might have to reinstall them soon.

[sterlingice]

I've enjoying turn-based "Advance Wars: Dual Strike" right now for the DS *runs away before getting beaten to death by PC gamers*

SI

[Marc Vaughan]

Turn based strategy > Real-time strategy

(for me at least RTS has always been somewhat of a contradiction in terms ..)

[Groundhog]

I've enjoying turn-based "Advance Wars: Dual Strike" right now for the DS *runs away before getting beaten to death by PC gamers*

SI

Haven't played that one, but I had the original Advance Wars on my GBA and it was really more of a puzzle game than a turn-based strategy, as in the missions there was generally only one way to do it.

[Bee]

Turn based strategy > Real-time strategy

(for me at least RTS has always been somewhat of a contradiction in terms ..)

I completely agree. I occasionally try a RTS and almost always regret it.

[astrosfan64]

Kohan the origonal was probably the best RTS made in the last 5 years. It was pretty unique. They ruined their game with Kohan II, trying to make it to Warcraft III like.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I completely agree. I occasionally try a RTS and almost always regret it.
Same here. Last RTS game I bought was that "Lord of the Rings" game. I enjoyed it for about 3 days and then lost it. I love turn based games. I am still baffled that no one has made a squad-level turn based game better than X-Com. I tried those UFO: Aftershock games and Silent Storm. They are close, but still not there. It's been almost 15 years for crissakes. What's wrong with people?

I need someone in the industry to explain this to me. Vaughn! I am looking at you, Vaughn.

[astrosfan64]

Same here. Last RTS game I bought was that "Lord of the Rings" game. I enjoyed it for about 3 days and then lost it. I love turn based games. I am still baffled that no one has made a squad-level turn based game better than X-Com. I tried those UFO: Aftershock games and Silent Storm. They are close, but still not there. It's been almost 15 years for crissakes. What's wrong with people?

I need someone in the industry to explain this to me. Vaughn! I am looking at you, Vaughn.

For the same reason you don't see a ton of major developers creating text based sims. The current generation is whizz bang not cerebral. I believe the trend is going back and forth. I'm 32 and my generation grew up on gameplay not graphics. C64, Atari etc... The current 18 year olds, grew up with graphics over gameplay.

I think you will see a mesh of the styles more and more in the future.

[TazFTW]

The demo for Battle for Middle Earth II was released on Thursday. It clocks in at 1.36 GBs.

IGN posted a list of RTS expected to be released this year.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/687/687925p1.html

[Honolulu_Blue]

For the same reason you don't see a ton of major developers creating text based sims. The current generation is whizz bang not cerebral. I believe the trend is going back and forth. I'm 32 and my generation grew up on gameplay not graphics. C64, Atari etc... The current 18 year olds, grew up with graphics over gameplay.

I think you will see a mesh of the styles more and more in the future.
I understand the economics of it and I understand that turn-based games don't generate the type of sales that a RTS or first-person shooter games do. I don't know if I agree with the premise that "kids these days just don't give a damn about gameplay", but that's neither here nor there.

I still don't think the economics/popularity of turn-based games explains why there hasn't been a squad-level turn-based game made in over 10 years that has surpassed X-Com. Look at the development of text-based sims over the last 10 years. SI has come out with a superior soccer sim year after year after year (though I know some people claim they don't always take steps forward, I think it's safe to assume that the latest version of FM is head and shoulders over the '98 version of CM). Look at Eastside Hockey Manager. This latest version was amazing. It made huge steps from the free-ware version in only a couple of years. Front Office Football 4 (the latest version) is light years ahead of the first incarnation.

It's not like people haven't made squad-level turn-based games over the last 10 years. There have been quite a few. Some were pretty good and some weren't. I just find it amazing that someone hasn't been able to even be able to recreate what X-Com had with some updated graphics. Each incarnation of a game just misses something. I am sure some will blame this on nostalgia or what not. But I've played X-Com recently in emulators and it still has a lot going for it.

I still don't get it. I could sit down with some friends of mine and put together a checklist of things you need in this type of game to make it what it should be. I don't know why some game company hasn't/can't seem to do the same.

[Galaril]

Back to the RTSs' for '06'. After playing the Str wares Empires at war demo and the new Battle for Middle Earth 2 demo my impression is:
Star Wars game is release day pick up
Lord of the Rings 2 game is a wait till itmgets to the Target 9.99 bin. I was fun but seemed just like the last one with more units and like evry other old school RTS.