Strategy & simulation games have gone down the toilet =/

[Maximilian]

Nope haven't flushed my copy of starcraft Ive been playing world of tanks, LoL, BF3 and skyrim and im left in the mood to build stuff (again if anyone saw my other thread) so some strategy would be ideal! Something new! I found these games on the steam sale:

Stronghold 3
So i come across stronghold 3, seems like my kind of thing, i look at the metacritic user reviews... terrible, buggy and shallow apparently... Okay then moving on.

Sword of the stars II lords of winter
Meh its turn based which isnt really what im looking for but i know better than to turn down a game because its turn based! *remembers alpha centauri fondly* so i look at the metacritic user reviews... awful.. even wikipedia says the launch was terrible. Righto scratch that then.

Supreme commander
Its £7.49 for the gold pack and it dosent use lousy GPG.net, i own this game already in retail form. Its got its own problems i moaned about in another thread still fun though. Funnily enough it dosent show up when searched for, i have to use this link to see the game http://store.steampowered.com/sub/11732/
So supcom can go on the maybe pile.

Tropico 4
Rehash of tropico 3 which i have already, tiny population limit of 1200, not for builders like me its more geared towards campaign people.

Cities XL
Yeah don't even need to go there really, if you're into city builders you've already heard about this.

So rebuying a game i already own and have played tons to get around GPG.net is the best option i have found. I do not like where strategy games are right now, it sucks. Simulation games are even worse off because they just arent there unless you love trains or farming (seriously check the steam sale there is tons of stuff for train and faming simulators) Strategy needs a battlefield 3 equivalent, something with these features:

- New DX10/11 engine, no DX9 trash

- Good multithreading for tons of units!

- Good online platform, if its gonna be home baked by the devs make it easy to use, relic online is a good example, so is battle.net 1.0, if not then use anything except GFWL.

- Good graphics, not too important but must look acceptable, sins of a solar empire is a good example here, graphics are very suitable for that game.

- Good gameplay, the most important thing, it must be fun! Company of heros was fun, so was supcom.

- A short campaign, just something to please the single player crowd its not important though.

- No games for windows live!

- No garbage DRM, use steamworks

So in conclusion strategy is bollocks right now, sucks to be an RTS fan, i think the game i want dosent exist and may never exist. Hurry up and get heart of the swarm out blizzard and get sins: rebellion out so you can start work on sins 2 stardock! Alleviate my need to build and destroy!

 

[Ancalagon44]

I remember reading a quote on either the new XCom or new Syndicate game on why they werent strategy titles - they said something like strategy games arent contemporary.

So yeah, its all about how much money they will make. The best years of strategy games are in the past sadly - unless indie devs take up the challenge.

 

[marino.DV]

"Stronghold 3
So i come across stronghold 3, seems like my kind of thing, i look at the metacritic user reviews... terrible, buggy and shallow apparently... Okay then moving on. "
Couldn't agree more. remember the 2nd mission where one wolf could like eat 4 people before being killed and much much more. the unit's response....OMG what a terrible game for what it is a great legacy

 

[Lumathix]

Yeh Stronghold 3 for me is a real bummer. I was so looking forward to this one. Not even thinking of buying it now.

 

[Genx87]

I bought Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity last night off Steam for 14.99. And it may have some potential. But I agree with you. Last night GFs son and I were playing AOE online but craving something better. I went searching and it is bleak out there. I came across Sins and hope it delivers.

 

[shortylickens]

I came in specifically to say theres a buttload of good stuff on Steam, RIGHT NOW!

But obviously you are on top of it. Actually your strategy picks seem to be of the simple variety. Have you tried the Hearts of Iron stuff or Victoria 1 & 2? Europa Univeralis?

http://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Paradox%20Interactive

 

[RebelCapitalist]

Depends how you look at it. For hardcore strategy guys (like myself), there are many games to play. See Paradox titles and the Total War series from Sega. And of course Civilization.

For the lighter strategy guys (titles you mentioned), there probably isn't too much.

Not sure how Anno 2070 is, but that might be something simpler to look into.

 

[wanderer27]

Of the ones you listed, Supreme Commander is probably the best, but I'd probably toss Tropico 4 on there as well - the Tropico games can be fairly challenging.

Outside that there are other options if you're willing to go outside Steam.

Here's a good RTS 4x Space game if you're into that:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2187179


Positives (by your list):

Multicore support
Literally thousands upon thousands of units (Private & State) if your System can support it
Decent graphics
Good/Fun game play
Serial Number is only DRM

Negatives (by your list):

DX9
Single Player
No Campaign per se, and games can be immense and long


They're primarily a War game site, but you can also look on their site (http://www.matrixgames.com) for other Strategy games, they have a fairly large catalog.



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