Will RTSs ever be as good as...

[reg42]

Try Sins of a Solar Empire. No seriously.

Isn't that a grand strategy?

OT: My personal favourite RTS is WC3, just because of now playable it is today. Somewhere out there, there is a WC3 mod for each and every one of you.
It's the best game for LANs ever IMO.

The real question is: Will they ever be as good as Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings?

Don't be silly. That's impossible!

 

[xdgt]

How about Emperor: Battle for Dune?(Dune started the RTS genre after all) Or WH 40K awn of War? There are a bunch of good ones, I do love me some starcraft though.

I agree with this..kind of

but i cant take it seriously...i can see a "" in it.. .xD

also..C&C is glorious.. <3..

as you can guess

Dune: The battle for Arrakis on Sega Genesis was THE stuff back when it came out, trust me. Ah good old devastaters... And the music was awesome. Ofcourse the controls sucked, but what exactly did you expect.

I'll take your word for it

im not old enough (i think, must check that) to have been around to witness it

The early 90s/late 80s, back when noone heard of a "Pentium". But i guess there's just a huge chunk of nostalgia in that for me so i'm not exactly objective (though the new Dune games rocked from my point of view), either that or i just like the Harkonnen too much.
In recent news i heard of a game called "achron" an RTS in development by two guys that integrates time travel as a feature, sounds pretty awesome to me.

Aah..there was a Video segment on the escapist about at some point ( i think..might have been somewhere else,my memory is crap ) but..i believe it was been finished?..or am i again, a victim of my memory? D:

and..nostalgias a great thing to have, how else would we remember our inner child?

Yes i think there was a video here somewhere, but I only saw it after a friend mentioned the game to me. And it either in Beta or Alpha I think. It will take some while for it to get released.

Why thank you for updating me, it's always nice to learn new things =D

but..as has been said in this thread before..

Rise Of Nations was good too..and Dawn of War..as you said

although i havent Got them anymore..my favourite was Dark Crusade, it just seemed more my area

I'm more of a single player/campaign guy so I liked the original alot, but I played through all the races in the Dark Crusade (space marines are my favourite so played through atleast 3 times with them) and Soul Storm too, DoW II shattered my hopes and dreams - its more of a tactical game than a strategic game, but that aside I was playing for over 14 hour straight to the point where my eyes started to itch (worst feeling EVER) and the thing crashed on me and deleted my account...haven't played it since.

 

[omega 616]

I think blitzkrieg was an awesome RTS, there wasn't base building or anything, it was heres X amount of units now do the mission objective.

Not heres 10,000 and and a construction vehicle now build till tanks come out your ears, planes out of your nose and infantry out your mouth.

It made you think about things, not go WW2 stylie and throw men at the problem, till you win/lose.

 

[xdgt]

World in Conflict was one I really enjoyed, but I'll always have fond memories of C&C and Total Annihilation. Dawn of War was really fun as far as RTS's go too, but as I suck arse thru a straw when it somes to RTS, Ive not played a great deal of them since the C&C days. My bro however loves SC and WC3 DOTA (Whatever that is???)

DOTA is defense of the ancients, a map/mod (whatever you would like to consider it) in WC3 which is the mother of tower defense games - you have two bases and heroes on each side, and a bunch of underlings, the goal is to destroy the enemy base.

 

[Pietho]

I guess it all depends on what benchmark you use to define "good," which I have alway found to be intensely personal. I enjoyed Starcraft and C&C for what they were, but I don't think it is just those that have had an impact.

Age of Empires was a fun game with great art design and addictive game play.

Alien Nation and The Nations were both addictive RTS titles where killing off the enemy wasn't necessarily the only way to win.

Total Annihilation was, if nothing else, the only "Truth is in the title" game and a fun time at the PC.

Tribal Rage was a fantastic concept even if the game play was buggy. Elvis vs. The Terminator, anyone?

Speaking for myself, I find a lot of great concepts and elements in games that I appreciate. I don't expect others to feel the same way, but for my part, a good or great game is one that takes an idea and twists it a different way, or goes in a different direction. It may be an odd game experience, but in many cases that is what makes it a good game.

 

[AfroTree]

How about Emperor: Battle for Dune?(Dune started the RTS genre after all) Or WH 40K awn of War? There are a bunch of good ones, I do love me some starcraft though.

I agree with this..kind of

but i cant take it seriously...i can see a "" in it.. .xD

also..C&C is glorious.. <3..

as you can guess

Dune: The battle for Arrakis on Sega Genesis was THE stuff back when it came out, trust me. Ah good old devastaters... And the music was awesome. Ofcourse the controls sucked, but what exactly did you expect.

I'll take your word for it

im not old enough (i think, must check that) to have been around to witness it

The early 90s/late 80s, back when noone heard of a "Pentium". But i guess there's just a huge chunk of nostalgia in that for me so i'm not exactly objective (though the new Dune games rocked from my point of view), either that or i just like the Harkonnen too much.
In recent news i heard of a game called "achron" an RTS in development by two guys that integrates time travel as a feature, sounds pretty awesome to me.

Aah..there was a Video segment on the escapist about at some point ( i think..might have been somewhere else,my memory is crap ) but..i believe it was been finished?..or am i again, a victim of my memory? D:

and..nostalgias a great thing to have, how else would we remember our inner child?

Yes i think there was a video here somewhere, but I only saw it after a friend mentioned the game to me. And it either in Beta or Alpha I think. It will take some while for it to get released.

Why thank you for updating me, it's always nice to learn new things =D

but..as has been said in this thread before..

Rise Of Nations was good too..and Dawn of War..as you said

although i havent Got them anymore..my favourite was Dark Crusade, it just seemed more my area

I'm more of a single player/campaign guy so I liked the original alot, but I played through all the races in the Dark Crusade (space marines are my favourite so played through atleast 3 times with them) and Soul Storm too, DoW II shattered my hopes and dreams - its more of a tactical game than a strategic game, but that aside I was playing for over 14 hour straight to the point where my eyes started to itch (worst feeling EVER) and the thing crashed on me and deleted my account...haven't played it since.

Funnily enough that happened to my Crusade account ,

but my favourite race was the Imperial Guard.
I just loved the motto that I could just put down gods and demons with laserpens..just amused me so..i got a couple giggles out of it

I have not yet played DOW2 yet..think i might give it a miss when i get my laptot/pc/whatever back though

 

[Helmutye]

Not sure if this would actually be considered an RTS or some other type of game, but does anyone remember the old Myth games? They were basically like fantasy battle simulators, where you commanded a given army of troops. The battle controls were superior to something like Warcraft or Starcraft, but the focus was on specific mission-like battles, rather than base and army building and resource gathering. You didn't control the army in between battles. You basically used what you were given as best you could. What I liked about them was that they took place in real time at a pace that felt like real time while you did things that made sense in real time.

In a game like Age of Empires or Starcraft the action unfolds in real time but it is kind of a weird, distorted, abstract flow of time. For example, in a Starcraft battle seconds can matter as you move and coordinate your forces. It happens at a pace that feels like a real battle. But while your troops are fighting you can be training new ones back in your base, building new tanks, and assembling new star cruisers in time to send them as reinforcements to the battle. I love Starcraft, don't get me wrong! I think it is a wonderful game, the likes of which we may not see again for some time. But I've always found that odd time disconnect weird.

 

[JIst00]

DOTA is defense of the ancients, a map/mod (whatever you would like to consider it) in WC3 which is the mother of tower defense games - you have two bases and heroes on each side, and a bunch of underlings, the goal is to destroy the enemy base.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me, explains why he loves it so much. =)

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I have never played Starcraft but i'm not a big fan of C&C. Age of Empires is my favourite RTS series.

 

[xHipaboo420x]

Company Of Heroes.

It's no RA2, but rather a different beast altogether. Bloody good.

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

Starcraft or C&C? I've played Halo Wars, LotR:BFME, and many other RTSs but none compare to my experiences with Starcraft and the C&C series. Will a a future RTS knock these giants off their pedestal?

I've played many RTS in my time and none of them compare to these ones I particularly enjoyed!!

Play age of empires before summing up RTS in two titles, C&C is mediocre predictable gameplay which hasn't really advanced so much since the early C&C.

Starcraft for those who played it when it was good, when it was fresh but it just seems stale now.

Though! Age of empires stands alone on top of the pile it has its own pedestal from which it looks down upon C&C and SC.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

The real question is: Will they ever be as good as Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings?

This.


AoE2 is the very best the genre has to offer if you ask me. AoM was decent, but I think it's gameplay was sacrificed because of the burden transitioning to 3d. AoE3 could have been great, each expansion made it just a bit better, but I can't help but feel the whole card system kind of killed it.

In my mind SC will never be as good as other RTSs until it moves past the prefab maps. I feel like having premade maps and no resource regeneration, forces how one plays the game, so many strategies are made unviable as a result.

 

[acosn]

Probably not as much of a pair of giants in the industry, but good? Eh, sure. We have higher standards now.

RA 2 was literally the high water point for the entire C+C franchise. EA never learned how to handle their only good RTS IP.

Games like supcom and TA are bloody jokes. There's not a whole lot of strategy to mobbing units at your opponent.

RON was good, but it also lacked a certain wide spread appeal, though it was the best of it's sub-genre.

DoW is gimmicky and horridly balanced. Anyone remember the pre-nerf necron?

DoW2 isn't even an RTS in the strict sense.

Homeworld 1 + 2 are great, but they just leave a sour taste in my mouth when I think about what could have been.

Age of Empires 2 was...eh... it lead to a lot of mechanics abuse. AoE3 was better.

 

[xdgt]

Here's another one of my favourites - warlords : battlecry. The warlord series is the first game i played on the PC (played on consoles before hand) which is a great old fashioned fantasy turn based strategy game. At some point Ubisoft decided to turn it on its head and procured the warlord : battlecry offshoot series of RTS, which draw on the originals but gave it a new flavour. I have to say it was pretty entertaining and well done.

 

[Ieyland]

Warcraft III was pretty awesome. Spent thousands of hours on battle.net.

 

[Wicky_42]

I want a new Homeworld-esq game One with good, dynamic AI (like an RTS is ever going to manage that) and great mod support built in.

I want modular ship construction, customising ships by adding physical components that not only affect their aesthetics but also real functionality.

I want to place engine blocks, control centres, fire control systems, power plants, weapon batteries, point defences, armour plating - the whole shibang in three dimensions, and then control this fully customised fleet in a real-time battle where each shot is tracked, and its impact affect the module it hits.

I would be (almost) equally happy with this being a persistent first-person MMO space sim.

Neither of these are ever going to happen, because they would be far too awesome.

 

[Wicky_42]

...I love Starcraft, don't get me wrong! I think it is a wonderful game, the likes of which we may not see again for some time...

Well, you know, apart from on July 27. And then probably for the next 2 years with the rest of its trilogy

 

[Zarokima]

I personally think that both C&C and Starcraft are highly over rated. I prefer Age of Empires, Civilization, Rise of Nations to them. Howver, my favourite RTS is most likely Supreme Commander, which I like far more then the rest.

I can't believe nobody corrected you on this yet: Civilization is not an RTS. It's turn-based.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

there was an RTS i used to love that is named: Imperium Galactica II with planets terraformation/colonization population growth and economy control (taxes and shit) a wide range of species: like 12 if i remember well, lots of technology to research, and design to create for better version of fighters, warships and motherships... there was also an awesome Espionnage system recruiting like 10 spies and training them to be ultimate badasses was epic... etc

Also there was some strategy in the battles, and they were in 3D at that time...

 

[kibayasu]

Earth 2150? The multiplayer never turned out well due to the mass of units you generally needed and the incredibly tight corridors the maps forced you through, but I loved the single player of the original (except for the time limit), The Moon Project, and Lost Souls.