Genres come in waves. We just went through a FPS phase: Battlefield 2 Special Ops, Quake IV, and FEAR were all neighbors on the fall release timeline, and now we’re entering a concentrated release schedule of RTS goodness.

These titles are on my personal ‘must play’ list for next year. Truth be told, I have some reservations about most of the titles based on some demo movies that I’ve seen (more later), but still - each has a shiny hypnotic lure hanging above a gaping maw, and I swimming forward full speed ahead.

Company of Heroes
Preview and movie on Gamespot

This little WWII explosion-fest comes from developer Relic Entertainment (Homeworld, Warhammer), and is the winner of the Gamespot ‘Best Strategy Game Best of E3 2005′. Everything on the map is destruct able.. everything. That includes buildings, and degrading cover from ubran rubble like: rock walls, old cars, and various pianos (what’s with Pianos in WWII? Does everyone in Normandy tickle the ivories?)

Both the graphic and animation engines seem phenomenal. There’s also a behind-the-scenes AI engine that provides units with enough intelligence to grab cover when under fire.

Well.. sorta. Everything isn’t peaches and cream. Sometimes guys linger out in the open for no apparent reason, or stick behind degrading cover far too long. Also the game seems to relish a bit too much of the John Woo. Causality rates seem way too over the top, and last I checked WWII battles didn’t have this many explosions. Most conflicts were fought with guns, not Bazookas, and the WWII purist inside is disheartened that they strayed so far from the path of realism. If mankind had this much firepower back in ‘44 then I don’t see how the heck the martians could have beat-on the good old US-of-A so successfully in their War of the Worlds ‘53.

Still this game looks hot. Let’s face it, Relic has only created one truly disappointing game - Impossible Creatures - which was a bit too ‘out there’ for even me, and I like David Lynch movies. This title, however, is A WWII RTS with big explosions riding hot on the heals of Warhammer - another fun RTS game with big explosions. And with “E3″ awards under its belt, I’m pretty certain Company of Heroes is going to be top notch when it ships in February.

Rise Of Legends
Official Site
Gamespot Preview

Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations) brings you a one of kind gorgeous RTS pitting Classic Fantasy units vs Da Vincian History vs a still-unknown faction that I’d classify as Arabian Magic. Big Huge are the guys who did things right with their first title, Rise of Nations.

The winner of many ‘RTS of the Year’ awards (and game of the year awards) RoN successfully mering Civilization with the human-history / 12-epoch RTS games like Empire Earth. There were so many new RTS mechanics in that game that it still makes my head spin.

And from the preview movies of Legends (watch this NOW), I have very little doubt Big Huge Games’ production skills have fallen off. In fact, they might have even picked up. The artwork or Legends is fantastic. Take a look at some of these RTS cities (just like in Rise of Nations, bases are actually cities instead of a walled in collection of unit factories). That shot is amazing. Stepping back it’s harde to tell if that’s an adventure game or an RTS.

Don’t shoot me for saying this - but this could be the game that Total Annihilation Kingdoms should have been. After all - there were some good things about that title.

Empire at War
Gamespot Preview
Official Site
I’ve played computer games for a long, long time. Since the begining of PC Gaming time I’ve dreamt of playing this game A Galatic map of planets to conquer and manage. Get your ducks in a row, produce ships, and send those ships out discover and secure systems. Drop troops from those ships to fight over planets to add to your empire. A Master of Orion meets RTS, Empire at War does all these things, and it takes place in the beloved Star Wars Universe to boot. Oh sweet day of days, on so many nights I’ve lost sleep thinking about this game.

But I’m not anxious about the release of this title Why? Because I’ve just got that feeling that everything is going to be a-okay. It looks so good that I don’t even want to hear anything about it anymore. So long as I get to trap Russ’ fleet with an Interdictor Cruiser - just once - and then ambush it with my own fleet from “behind the moon” - then I can rest easy for the rest of my life. I’ll lay there satisfied, sigh deeply, and smoke a cigarette.

Gaming has come so far.

This preview write-up may seem a bit high-level. It might damage my credibility. That’s fine. This game is all about the high level. It allows for fantastic intangibles; it let’s you create your own stories of the warring systems in a Star Wars backdrop. OMG, unless the ships fly backwards then this game isn’t going to suck.

You might not share the same love of Star Wars as I’ve had growing up. If so, then I do offer this one criticism I have with the title: I’ve noticed that units in the land battles tend to clump up. Other than that, I haven’t seen one bad thing about this title.

I can’t wait for this game’s ‘tough’ decisions. Do I work on my Army? How should I refit my Navy… do I need to work on my large capital ships, or should I start pumping out Y-Wing bombers? Should I produce more X-Wings, or should I upgrade to A-Wings??

The mulitiplayer campaign is going to consume my soul. Maybe not for as long as Civilization IV has gripped me (and will continue to do), but the flash of brilliance of Empire at War will definitely burn brighter.

Finally…
Sorry if I kinda left for infinity there. I’m just revelling in how great PC gaming is right now.

The RTS genre is going amazing places — it’s temporally shedding the arcadey elements we’ve seen in the recent past to finally add some strategy to the gameplay (as opposed to just more complex tactics). At the same time it seems to reatin the fun n’ exciting gameplay. Remember how remarkable Homeworld was back in the late ’90s? It literally added depth to the RTS genre. Well I believe another dimension is coming - the addition of a greater ‘war simulator’ on top of the individual battles that we’re all used to. The meta-game battle map has now become part of the living battle itself.

I think we’re on the cusp of a new subgenre of RTSs.

Some of you might have noticed that I’ve left off Supreme Commander from the list. That title, more than any other, will breathe strategy back into RTS games. But will it come out in 2006? Hrmmmm.. not quite sure. We’ll have to wait until E3 to know more. Whenever that does game comes out it’s going to rock my world, and it’s going to shake the ground of the RTS genre. When the dust settles I foresee two different tastes of the RTS enthusiast - those who like macroscopic control on the epic scale, and those who like to use RTS titles as a sort of death match hour-long slugfest.

Thankfully I think there’s enough demand for both segments. RTS is the largest selling genre in PC Gaming today. 2006 is going to be a fantastic trip; one that certainly has a huge lasting impact on the genre. And guess what — A lot of these titles are slated for a Spring release! So go out and play CIV IV through the winter. When you’re burnt-out in a few months (HA) there will be plenty of titles to soak up your attention.

~DDB