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Discussion Favorite RTS games?
Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Sabrina Stoakes, Jan 23, 2019.
Sabrina Stoakes Member
Hello everybody <3 I hope you're all feeling happy today!
Recently I been real into playing the old Red Alert and got to thinking about how great these old RTS games were. There's just so much soul in them! It got me to thinking about all the other RTS games I've played and how much I loved them growing up. Lemme know below what some of your favorites are.
Here are some of the ones I love:
C&C Red Alert.
*Hell March intensifies* Honestly this is such a classic that it really goes without saying how fantastic it was. I have so many inside jokes about this game with my brother (who was the one who introduced it to me!)
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaign.
Played this one soooo much with my brother while he was at college. Literally Star Wars AoE, so if you loved that game then you'll love this one for sure, it really helps that it is dirt cheap on Steam.
Army Men: RTS.
Not sure if this is underrated or not, but it was such a great game despite being really simplistic. Basically if you ever wanted a massive toy soldier army, but are too worried about what people will think of you, then this is the game for you.
Star Wars Empire At War: FoC.
This would honestly be my favorite of all of them if it wasn't for the fact that I don't like ground battles much on it. Having the mod that removes unit cap to where you can have as many Star Destroyers on screen as you can handle is so absurdly satisfying. I remember one time I played against my brother and we had this massive space battle that ended up lasting for almost an hour straight (He beat me and my corruption tho )
Sabrina Stoakes, Jan 23, 2019
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Jabbers Member
My brother and I used to hookup our laptops by cable and play The Settlers IV together. I liked the building elements and he would usually storm through my base and destroy my work lol. I was inspired to try and make my own RTS in GameMaker because of this product, although I never had any success (I was rubbish back then).
Jabbers, Jan 23, 2019
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Jabbers said: ↑
I feel this so much haha. My play style in most RTS games makes me extremely vulnerable at the beginning, but if people don't take me out right at the start, I end up becoming this like unstoppable force of evil. I think it's mostly because I like to set up things that are self sustaining hahaha like in Galactic Battlegrounds I always set up a space port and have tons of farms that way I can always sell my copious amounts of food and buy any materials I need.
That is why I really enjoy the Civ franchise. It's nice to have an RTS where you don't have to rush to fight. I've played on large multiplayer games in Civ where I've been left alone in the corner of the map to run a little country while everyone else fights... that game has something for everyone lol.
Usually when I play with somebody who knows me, but hasn't played an RTS with me, they make the mistake of letting me become too strong because they think I'll be bad at the game haha but usually when I play online I get destroyeddddd.
Walky Member
For me it's Red Alert and Dune 2. In fact I still have my original RA discs from my childhood.
Sadly, I never got to beat the last Dune 2 mission on my grandfather's 486.
I must confess I've never played Starcraft, I guess that's a punishable crime in most countries?.
Walky, Jan 24, 2019
Gamebot Member
War Craft 2, AOE 2 and Star Craft is what I grew up on. Though, AOE is the only one I played other online players with.
Gamebot, Jan 24, 2019
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Lonewolff Member
Gamebot said: ↑
Coincidentally Warcraft 2 and Starcraft are at the top of my list also.
Walky said: ↑
Damn, making me feel old. My first x86 based machine was a 486. Not a Grandfather yet though.
Lonewolff, Jan 24, 2019
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RollyBug Member
Another vote for AOE2, and one for Warcraft 3. Played a ton of both back in the day, online and off.
RollyBug, Jan 24, 2019
One interesting game I didn't mention above is Armor Command.
I have never seen anyone else talk about it before, but it is worth mentioning just for the simple fact that the game was extremely massive and unique. It has been about 15 years since I last played it, so it might suck pretty bad now LOL
RichHopefulComposer Member
Command and Conquer, Warcraft(2?), StarCraft, Age of Empires. Pretty typical 90s taste, but they're all so good. Classic games!
I think I played Civ and liked it when I was a kid too, but I'm not 100% sure. I want to play it again, but it seems so boring and slow. But it's probably awesome if you get into it. I think I'd love it if I gave it a chance, hahah.
RichHopefulComposer, Jan 24, 2019
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Don't feel bad! I've actually never played Starcraft either, and I'm a massive RTS fan haha Always meant to do it though hmmmm
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woodsmoke Member
My favorite RTS games:
Settlers 2 (pixel perfection!)
AoE2 (best one)
Anno1602 (sequels got too complex for me)
Last weekend I played a 11h non-stop session of Settlers 2.
Played a lot of Mech Commander, Sim City 2000 and Company of Heros too but they don't quite make it into the list. Somehow I feel I'm forgetting a game.
I need to check out Ostriv.
Are city-builders RTS?
woodsmoke, Jan 24, 2019
Simon Gust Member
and a newer game called Forts. Though I spend more time creating maps than anything else.
Simon Gust, Jan 24, 2019
Misty Member
My favorite RTS is this one made by Wild Tangent games. It was some kind of military simulator. Can't remember the games name and the game was deleted from existence by Wild Tangent. I gave up looking on youtube.
Wild Tangent are a bunch of trolls who deleted all of their best and most entertaining games and erased them from the internet. And now only display games mostly made by third-parties.
Why they did this is unknown. But it is rumored that Wild Tangent is affiliated with ID and John Carmack. And maybe Bethesda studios is to blame.
Now imagine if Nintendo deleted all their old mario games. And metroid and fzero and zelda games. Giving no reason why. Including all the roms and the only way to play was from the Nintendo webplayer itself. But the Nintendo webplayer only runs on older versions of Windows. And probably even that doesn't work anymore. So even if you bought the games you can't play. That is Wild Tangent in a nutshell.
Misty, Jan 24, 2019
Bingdom Googledom
Not much of an RTS player, but I used to play some old games back a long time ago.
Real War: Rogue States
The Dark Legions (not the 2D one, this one)
AOE 1
Majesty: The fantasy kingdom sim
I did play a bit of WC3:TFT, but not much more than LAN parties at high school.
MOW:AS2 is a bit of a more recent one.
Bingdom, Jan 24, 2019
Bingdom said: ↑
...AOE 1...
I never could get in to AOE 1. I had a collectors bundle with that and AOE 2+expansions but hardly ever touched the one. Have you played the sequel?
I was going to include Rise of Nations on this list, but then I remembered how the computer will literally bomb you night and day. Did anyone else have that issue, or was it just me? Regardless, it was fun online!
Sabrina Stoakes said: ↑
Never heard of it. Back in my day, this is what we played for RTS
RollyBug said: ↑
No, I haven't. I haven't really gotten into RTS games that much. I'll sometimes play these games from time to time, but I find adventure and FPS games a little more interesting.
Taddio Member
Misty said: ↑
That makes me feel old...back in my day, this was it (see picture, it's Command HQ)
(then Dune 2 came along, and then Warcraft and Starcraft, and it hasn't really changed since)
Taddio, Jan 25, 2019
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Back in the day I drew on a piece of paper. That was my RTS.
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Siolfor the Jackal Member
I used to enjoy the Army Men series. Mostly played the classics like C&C, Settlers, and Warcraft 2(eventually 3 as well). Played them a bunch at LAN parties. Eventually I realised I was never really into rts games. A bunch of my friends got into Civ but I found it so boring.
Found that I much prefer my strategy games turn-based. Stuff like Advance Wars and Gladius.
Siolfor the Jackal, Jan 25, 2019
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BattleRifle BR55 Member
Granted, it's the only RTS I've actually played for more than 5 minutes, and it's only because I'm a huge Halo fan.
BattleRifle BR55, Jan 25, 2019
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BattleRifle BR55 said: ↑
That's a good one. Pretty casual, nice to relax to.
How could I forget!!: FTL (Faster Than Light)
Siolfor the Jackal said: ↑
Found that I much prefer my strategy games turn-based. Stuff like Advance Wars
and Gladius.
Have you played Into the Breach?
melerski said: ↑
Not quite yet, but it's on my list when I have time.
Smiechu Member
Dune2 - fundament of my love to RTS genre! I launch this game every 3 years and relive my childhood over and over... though it's simplicity it's never boring.
C&C - the absolute best of the best... there is no other RTS game like this one: the atmosphere, the story, THE MUSIC!, the graphic, the cutscenes... after almost 25 years I still get shivers on my back, when I think about this game. I wanted to run the gold version yesterday on win10 but it crashes, I'll try with original version on dosbox tomorrow. RA was fun too, but didn't have the "atmosphere" of the first C&C...
Below my cover of one of the best songs of the game's soundtrack:
Settlers 2 - a completely other view on the RTS genre, I spend tons of hours with that one...
Starcraft - this is the first one from the Blizzard series which "got me"... Warcraft 1 and 2 ware somehow "without a soul" for me... but Starcraft has the soul and it boomed with superb multiplayer experiance, which in regards to C&C series was way more satisfying. I even used to win some of the local competitions.
There is a lot of other great RTS games, bot for me these are the diamonds. I think the C&C ist on the top...
But the very best "song" in RTS history is the Hell March from the RA series! Here is my little medley of this one... there is no other like Frank Klepacki!
Smiechu, Jan 25, 2019
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Same. I love games like Risk Factions except it has too many bugs and glitches to play. The new Risk is too masculine and serious and I don't like it as much.
I've only ever played Risk as a board game haha.
TheouAegis Member
I think technically it classifies as RTS, although it's different from the other games on here. It's still technically real-time and it's still strategy. lol
Quovadis 2 (Sega Saturn)
I have no idea what I'm doing in it, but I like all the dialogue and all the stuff popping up all over the place. lol
TheouAegis, Jan 26, 2019
Armor Command looks interesting. The art style reminds me of the RTS
Warzone 2100.
Anyone tried 0AD?
If you love Red Alert you should check out OpenRA.
Mert Member
After a break-up, it's not easy to forget your old loved one you know
That's how I feel about Lord of the Rings : The Battle for Middle Earth series.
Mert, Jan 26, 2019
Rob Member
I think Dune 2 was also my first foray into a proper RTS. I can't remember if you could only select one unit at a time or whether I just didn't know enough to group-select.
I missed the first Warcraft but I really enjoyed Warcraft 2.
Starcraft was awesome and I always looked forward to watching the video clips between missions.
I liked the original Command and Conquer and I also played Red Alert.
There was also Warlords Battlecry and several other lesser-known games that I played and every few years I go searching for a particular one... it was an RPG/RTS hybrid where
you'd be base building/fighting in one mission and the next would have you using just your hero to fight through a dungeon, gaining new loot and experience. I just can't remember what the game was called =(
As for my favourite RTS game...???? Umm Nostalgia wants me to say the original Dune game, if that counts.
I know it's not the game you are talking about... but your description has reminded me of the Dungeon Keeper! This is something! One of the few RTS where 3D graphics didn't spoil the gameplay... need to check it when I'm finished with The Wicher 3.
Retarding your description - generally Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 fit here...
C&C gold works fine on win10... it simply had to be installed on the C drive.
Smiechu said: ↑
It was way before SC2 and WC3. It was around the same time that Warlords Battlecry came out and I thought that it WAS that game but it's not.
flyingsaucerinvasion Member
Anyone here ever play Star Wars Rebellion? The PC game from the 90's. It was called Supremacy in the UK. I've never played this game with another human being, only against the AI, and the AI is not challenging.
flyingsaucerinvasion, Jan 27, 2019
HayManMarc Member
I liked C&C and WarCraft when they came out. Also played my share of AOE and a few others. My all time favorite is Stronghold, tho. I still play it from time to time.
HayManMarc, Jan 30, 2019
Rob said: ↑
Dune 2 was the precursor of all modern RTS. All the mechanics we now take for granted in the genre were there, and you could most definately do a rectangle unit selection. Even the thing where there were small patches of ore and big patches mixed up in the same ore field was pretty cool, and not many games used that afterward.
Plus, I was addicted to the book as a teenager, it was one of the first (very) "big book" I read, so that helped get me into the storyline. Arrakis, the Atreids, Leto...good memories
Taddio said: ↑
Lol I spent the whole game clicking unit by unit because I didn't know about the selection rectangle ><
I still haven't read the books but I liked the Film and the original Dune game a lot so I was pumped to play Dune 2
These would definately deserve a good remake.
The book is somewhat long to get into, but once you do, it's like eating freaking Doritos, you just can't stop.
There's a 100-pages glossary at the end of the book, it's like having the game-design document as well as the game, so it's a pretty big universe (nothing to envy to Star Wars or Lord of the Ring, imo)
Curial Lloses Member
Although I am an absolute fan of Starcraft and Warcraft series, I have a nice memory of Rise of Nations too. Great combination of tactical and strategy gameplay!
Curial Lloses, Jan 31, 2019
@Rob @Taddio
There is no rectange / multiple unit selection in original Dune 2... Only thing you could do to make things faster is to use "m" and "a" keyboard shortcuts.
Warcraft 1 had this function as first, and it was also limited to I think 4 or 6 units max...
Warcraft 2 had 9 units multiselection...
Starcraft has 12 unit multiselection...
Blizzard uses this limit in all of their RTS games, it motivates player to form squads and to use more of units unique abilities to win instead of their count...
Unlimited multiselection was first featured in Command and Conquer.
@Taddio
Regarding Dune saga... you know that the whole saga is 6 Toms written by Frank Herbert and there are 3(or 2) other Toms written by his son? The basic story of Paul Atreides known from movies is only the peak of the iceberg, the real fun starts in Children of Dune.
I recomend to read them all! And yes the size of the universe, it's details, depth, maturity is far more overwhelming as i.e. LoR. LoR in compare to Dune saga is like childish fairytale.
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@Smiechu Ha, I ddidnt remember how the multiselect mechanic worked, thanks. It's been a long time, lol.
And yeah, of course I read them all (the Frank Herbert books), but didn't know his children kept on for him!!
Makes me want to read it, now...there goes my weekend
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(franchise)
Brian wrote a lot of Dune books based on the notes and skatches left by his father. But the Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune continue and finish the main storyline of Frank Herbert's saga.
As a little spoiler, almost all characters from the begging of the saga come back to life (as clones)
Bro, you're my new best e-friend!
No one I know in real life know Dune universe, aside from my mom (she gave me the books a good 20 years ago, now...).
I never saw the movie, tho, I always feared I would find it "meh", and didn't want this fabulous universe spoiled. A modern game based on it would be awesome, the possibilities are endless because as you said so well, the depth of it all is INSANE
Hehe... thanks... to be honest I also don't know anyone who knows the whole saga so good as me.
Simply the Dune universe didn't hit the "POP-CULTURE" the same way as LotR - "The Dungeaons and Dragons" universe or mentioned here "Star Wars" universe.
But if not for the extremely successful LotR / Hobbit movie series, the DnD universe would be still "underground" the same way as Dune.
The Dune universe has no "wow factor" - the deep space future without robots, supercomputers, space fights, alien nations, lasers etc... where people fight other people mostly with white weapons... where most of the "juice" is placed in inner monologues, subtle plots and complex independancies... where the story is spanned over thousends of years. There is not much "food" for a movie here, from a movie perspective it's simply boring, but the book is on the other hand extremely interesting.
If you look at LotR - now here is something that you can make a movie from - fairytale medieval world with orks, goblins, elves, kings, dragons, ghosts, wizzards, undead etc... Where a small hobbit faces the greatest evil of the world. Now here is something you can "feed" a real fantasy action movie with. But in my opinion the LoR saga as a book is extremely boring and flat. I've managed to get through the Hobbit, but I'm forcing myself over and over to finish the LotR trilogy, but I"m just not able...
Really, no wonder that the story in the movie was changed so extremely, other way the movie would be a total catastrophy.
But if it goes for the Dune:
- movie from 1984 - it's "OK", nothing special but it won't break apart your imagination about the dune world... it simply tells the story of Paul Atradies till his defeat the Emperor. But that's all, there is very little about his future telling abilities. The subtle plots, and the inner experiences are not there... The Dune and Dune 2 games are adapting the stylistic of this movie.
- TV miniseries "Dune" by Hallmark - I recommend this one, it's not a multi-million super production, but it follows the book very nice and it tells the story till end of "children of dune". It ends where Leto started his transformation into "the sand worm". It tries to get the feel of the plots and inner experiences of the characters. The screenplay is very good, unfortunately the VideoFX side is a little bit "cheese" if you compare it i.e. to LotR, but if you consider the budget, it's still way, way better than the movie from '84.
The mentioned Dune (1) game from 1992 is also very good, it's not strictly RTS - it's a combination of an adventure game with some strategy and economy elements. It's more focused on the original story. I've spend many hours with that one.
...and yeah the Dune universe is perfect for whole variety of games. I.e. the events directly after the fall of the emperor from the first chapter - the great jihad of the fremen over the known universe - this would be an excellent topic for an RTS game with intergalactic tactical planning etc...
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- movie from 1984 - it's "OK", nothing special but it won't break apart your imagination about the dune world... it simply tells the story of Paul Atradies till his defeat the Emperor. But that's all, there is very little about his future telling abilities. The subtle plots, and the inner experiences are not there... The Dune and Dune 2 games from are adapting the stylistic of this movie.
- TV miniseries "Dune" by Hallmark - I recommend this one, it's not a multi-million super production, but it follows the book very nice and it tells the story till end of "children of dune". It ends where Leto started his transformation into "the sand worm". It tries to get the feel of the plots and inner experiences of the characters. The screenplay is very good, unfortunately the VideoFX side is a little bit "cheese" if you compare it i.e. to LotR, but if you consider the budget, it's still way, way better as the movie from '84.
You said it all.
Total Annihilation was another awesome one. This was probably the first RTS I played come to think of it.
Lonewolff, Feb 1, 2019
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The Sorcerer said: ↑
The game required >64MB of RAM to launch the largest map
At the time of release 64MB was equivalent of today's 16GB
I was waiting almost a year for the RAM upgrade from 32MB to 64MB
Smiechu, Feb 1, 2019
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