RTS Games: Building an exhaustive list of the best.

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: Malladine

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: Malladine
Hmm, nice. Another to try!

If you try it, then get "The Moon Project" version which really fixed up a lot of little annoyances, and I would avoid the newer version like the plague, because there is really no change at all between them and the moon project. Bah, I hate it when companies go 3DO.

Damn, $40 from gogamer...looks like i'll have to save for that one.

*EDIT* Just found it for $10 @ amazon

What newer version? Original, Moon Project then something else? Lost Souls is the 3rd to avoid?

Unless you can get it for ten bucks (another reason to like the moon project) then I wouldn't bother with it, since it is pretty much the same as the other game only more expensive. I :heart: amazon.com

 

[sandorski]

Total Annihilation was the best IMO, I wish they'd update it.

Unlike Sunner, I think Cossaks(especially the addon packs) is great. A lot of the MP issues have been fixed with the add-ons.

A game I rarely hear mentioned, but is the first RTS I ever played was Command HQ. It's old(early 90's) and it didn't have much for graphics(think: Civ(1) in realtime, tiles), but it was a great WWI/II/III game that allowed things like withdrawal, repair, and flanking actually made a difference. I'm sure it's abandonware now. I doubt it'll work in WinXP, but it should be checked out for the gameplay was excellent.

 

[Spyro]

I kinda liked Earth 2150, but it wasn't as good as some other games at the time, so I never played it much.

"The moon project", fixed up a few of the bothersome issues in Earth 2150, so you may want to give it a try.

As for Age, I've played AoE 1&2 multiplayer, bored the he** out of me.
The game(s) would be great if the battles weren't so slow and...don't know how to describe it, it's just a bunch of guys slowly moving against each other, there's no blood, no noise, cept for a couple of dudes saying "Da-bo" now and then, no nothing, it just doesn't remind me of a battle.

Slow battles????? Lemme guess, you like using tuetonic knights, right? Or maybe you were playing in the newbie sandbox or something like that. You must have never seen a good castle-age rush in action......You'll never know the true glory of age of empires until you've played with pop limit 200 as the teutons on the "black forest" map. Slow, bahahahaha, you can't be serious

 

[Sunner]

Oh I've played plenty, a bunch of friends always wanted to play, and I tagged along if I had nothing better to do.

Kinda hard to describe like this, I guess the best I could offer is, it's not violent enough.
Not that violence is what makes a game great, but in a game like that, violence has a place, take for example the battles in StarCraft, marines screaming, a hydralisk blowing up, an ultralist cutting a marine in two, and the music kicked ass as well, the music in the AoE series sucked, made me sleepy.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: Sunner
Oh I've played plenty, a bunch of friends always wanted to play, and I tagged along if I had nothing better to do.

Kinda hard to describe like this, I guess the best I could offer is, it's not violent enough.
Not that violence is what makes a game great, but in a game like that, violence has a place, take for example the battles in StarCraft, marines screaming, a hydralisk blowing up, an ultralist cutting a marine in two, and the music kicked ass as well, the music in the AoE series sucked, made me sleepy.

Ahhh, O.K. I think I see what you mean now. The battles are boring because they're lacking the *out in the field with the troops* feel to them. Hmmmm, good point there. I probably never noticed this because I tend to turn off all game sounds except for the music (and sometimes even that) in most of the RTS games that I play. I find noise to be very.... distracting....

 

[Malladine]

Damn Spyro...sound is so important to me! Hence, I agree with Sunner to a certain extent about AoE. It does seem rather, flat, sometimes. RAAAW WOODJEH!

I must admit that it's less important than in an FPS like CS.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: Malladine
Damn Spyro...sound is so important to me! Hence, I agree with Sunner to a certain extent about AoE. It does seem rather, flat, sometimes. RAAAW WOODJEH! .

Heh, lol

That might be why, AOE2 is the only RTS game that I never bothered to adjust the volumes with :/

 

[DannyLove]

you are forgetting one in your list, Earth 2150, old game, but great.

danny~!

 

[Malladine]

Just started playing that last night

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: Malladine
Just started playing that last night

The original one or a sequel?

 

[exp]

What, no love for Homeworld: Cataclysm? I thought it was even better than the original (which was/is awesome).

 

[mundane]

Sandorski - I remember Command HQ. I think I might still have the old 5 1/4 " disks laying around, kept them for posterity. I enjoyed the fun of nuking the East European front back into the Stone Age, or seizing the Middle East and SE Asia oil fields to strangle my opponent. For a game of its age and time, it was remarkable. Right up there with Nobunaga's Ambition (with CGA graphics =) ).
Thanks for bringing back some fond memories. We (my friend and I) never did get the multiplayer to work over our 2400 baud modem, though.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: diegoalcatraz
Sandorski - I remember Command HQ. I think I might still have the old 5 1/4 " disks laying around, kept them for posterity. I enjoyed the fun of nuking the East European front back into the Stone Age, or seizing the Middle East and SE Asia oil fields to strangle my opponent. For a game of its age and time, it was remarkable. Right up there with Nobunaga's Ambition (with CGA graphics =) ).
Thanks for bringing back some fond memories. We (my friend and I) never did get the multiplayer to work over our 2400 baud modem, though.

Ya, I got the box and disks kicking around somewhere. Tried to play 2 player on one PC once, but it was kinda difficult(inconvenient). I still remember the Death and Kill sounds.

 

[Sid59]

i can't say enough about Rise of Nations .. so good. Except on my poor machine, with great huge battles i get like 5 FPS. =\

 

[Glitchny]

MOO2?
any of the Civs
Warcraft 2
Dune

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: Glitchny
MOO2?
any of the Civs
Warcraft 2
Dune

MOO2: Turn based, not real-time
Civs: Turn based
Warcraft 2: Not up to current RTS standards (which is not to say it wasn't a great game in its day)
Dune: Dune 2 for the same reason as war2, Dune 1 isn't an RTS. Good game though

Sid59: Yeah, my machine struggles through any battle above average in size. It's an Athlon 800 on a Biostar KT133 board w/ a 64mb GF2 MX440 and 640mb of PC133. That said, my wife's machine runs it perfectly, never going below 35fps: Athlon 1700+ @ stock, 9700 non-pro, 1gb PC2700 on an ECS k7s5a board. Looks like mine probably has very similar performance to your "Layla"

Spyro: Playing Lost Souls. I know you said don't bother with that version, but I got it...cheap.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Those interested in picking up EE cheap:

I saw in my local Staples last night several copies of EE (small boxes) in the clearance section for $10. Seems like a pretty nice deal for a fairly recently, highly recommended game.

I am not a huge fan of the RTS genre, but I am considering picking EE up...

 

[oLLie]

I heard Dark Reign wasn't bad.

 

[Spyro]

Spyro: Playing Lost Souls. I know you said don't bother with that version, but I got it...cheap.

I like cheap. Cheap is good

How'dya like it?

 

[BFG10K]

Starcraft is definitely the best RTS ever and it's also probably the most addictive game I've ever played.

Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 are both excellent in single player but they're quite weak in multiplayer - Warcraft 3 is too cluttered and restrictive (aside from the fact that it's not a true RTS) while Warcraft 2 is horribly unbalanced; Orcs are far too powerful.

As for other RTSes I can't really say that I've ever gotten into them.

 

[CubicZirconia]

I'd just like to take back any and all bad things I said about Rise of Nations, this game is awesome. The city/national border system makes frequent attacking justifiable and rewarding. Instead of building up for one massive attack to win it all (as it seems is the case in many other RTS games), it makes sense to attack early on and attempt to gain territory. Plus, the system gives you a clear sense of who is in control of what areas. This makes the game a whole lot more enjoyable, at least for me. The clear seperation of nations creates interesting "border battles" as well. When you cross into enemy territory, rout one of his cities, and expand your own lands, there is a sense of actually accomplishing something (as far as games go anyway). The importance of caravans and cities in acquiring gold make the capturing of territory all that more valuable. You simply must have multiple cities to survive. Anyway, great game. If you are looking for an RTS, this is it.