Pricewatch!

was for me. uninteresting graphic design. focus on massive amount of units versus smaller squads that gain veterancy or even stats. made by gas powered games. non intuitive map system. (never a fan of tactical maps in any strategy game unless its a complete seperate element) zoom levels horrid for up close which showed lack of detail to environments to basically just terrain. maybe all those are enjoyable to some rts fans but not to me. its one of the 5 worst rts i've played, though i did only play the demo. and i have played dozens of straight rts games not including all of the hybrids. it may be a good game, but it brought nothing remotely interesting to the table besides it being sci-fi for me and based on gas powered games story telling abilities...well you can see why $7 for a decent lunch is still a better choice;)

some other reference stinkers for me were the 'battle for middle earth' games. again a focus on huge disposable squads--massive scale. being that i'm a base builder type and defensive style player who strives for a zero causality rate these games just have no interest to me. empire earth 2 also was horrible compared to the near perfect original. the expansion was a bit better but still non-noteworthy. didn't even bother with EE3. age of empires 3, another game i'm sure that got great reviews but while it had some interesting elements which lured me into buying it, i've never played past the first campaign level and i bought the original and the first expansion.

there's a number of 10 year old rts games i'd rather play any day than these but i guess we have different rts types. from what i've gathered, neither of you are the city builder type either. correct?
 
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I'm not much of a RTS person in general ... but ended up reviewing a whole string. I feel fairly confident that while it will always fall behind Company of Heroes, no reasonable person who has played the breadth of RTS releases over the last few years would put supreme commander anywhere but in the upper 25%. There has been some real dreck in the genre as well as the solid stuff.
 
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was for me. uninteresting graphic design. focus on massive amount of units versus smaller squads that gain veterancy or even stats. made by gas powered games. non intuitive map system. (never a fan of tactical maps in any strategy game unless its a complete seperate element) zoom levels horrid for up close which showed lack of detail to environments to basically just terrain. maybe all those are enjoyable to some rts fans but not to me. its one of the 5 worst rts i've played, though i did only play the demo. and i have played dozens of straight rts games not including all of the hybrids. it may be a good game, but it brought nothing remotely interesting to the table besides it being sci-fi for me and based on gas powered games story telling abilities...well you can see why $7 for a decent lunch is still a better choice;)

Well I'm sorry you feel that way. The fact that you mention "massive amount of units versus smaller squads" , shows that you're biased towards smaller scale battles, and is certainly not a negative aspect of SC. There are plenty of RTS games out there that offer those type of scenarios. That was not the goal of Gas Powered Games' devs when they made Supreme Commander, and most fans of the genre are grateful for that. SC is unique in offering the largest maps and battles in an RTS game to date.

The story was also interesting for an RTS game. You should try playing more than just the demo.

no reasonable person who has played the breadth of RTS releases over the last few years would put supreme commander anywhere but in the upper 25%.

Absolutely no doubt about it.
 
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i am biased as i said to squad and base building not just rush, and unleash massive hordes. an rts that has buildings in it with that has really missed the boat in my view since games like the total war series make the large scale battles in games like supreme commander look like micro machines. a different type of strategy game but it at least ofters both: massive GOOD looking battles and empire building. might be a turn off for some as its easy to eclispe a 100 hours playing just one faction in those games depending on your goals.

well you guys have your opinions but being as strategy in the form of real time, turn based, and city builders are the genre i've played the most probably topping 80games most likely i'll go ahead and stick with my solitary view:) as i said many people fine those aspects welcome i do not. should we digress into what most people like about rpgs as support...

i promise not to say what makes a good shooter since i know you both are well more versed in that than I.

company of heroes IS the best full rts strategy game of the last five years in my view. can't wait 'til march or april when its released. all of the command and conquer 3's were great fun as well though hardly masterpieces. dawn of war was alright and i didn't quite finish the first one, stopped at the last level. good game but the lack of interest in the warhammer universe made it less intisive to keep at it despite also owning 2 of the expansions as well.
 
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i am biased as i said to squad and base building not just rush, and unleash massive hordes. an rts that has buildings in it with that has really missed the boat in my view since games like the total war series make the large scale battles in games like supreme commander look like micro machines. a different type of strategy game but it at least ofters both: massive GOOD looking battles and empire building. might be a turn off for some as its easy to eclispe a 100 hours playing just one faction in those games depending on your goals.

I've never heard anyone else imply that the battles in SC weren't "good looking". To the contrary, the battles in SC are quite impressive by RTS standards. As far as the Total War series making the battles in SC look like "micro machines", it's an interesting view coming from someone who has only played the demo. As you said though, it's a different type of strategy game, and not likely to appeal to the same people anyways.


should we digress into what most people like about rpgs as support...

Hopefully not, since the mainstream vs hardcore argument (If that's what you're getting at) doesn't really apply to RTS games the same way imo.
 
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oh so mainstream is different from one genre to the next. is that valid since they are all video games and rare is that a person plays only one.

wanted to add more i why i disliked supreme commander and games of its ilk.

the human element. many may debate why blizzard has been so succesful with their rts games but i wholeheartedly believe that had they not had 'heroes' and or human interaction between units in the gameplay itself it would have been another command and conquer which never interested me. gameplay is one thing, but unless there is something else that makes the gameplay seem 'human' rather than just a battle simulator which has its merits-just not what i'm interested in at all in any genre. partially why i don't like most shooters as very few focus on the ecology of the gameworld and the players relationship to it in more than an exercise in targeting.

i've only played the demo true, but which total war games have you played. there's been quite an evolution of them during the 9 of them over the same amount of years.

supreme commander to the best of my memory had no human units. no hero units. maybe i'm wrong. that said although gas powered games latest rts nearing completion has me somewhat interested- demigod. might have the same gameplay but the art direction is much more inticing and its being published by stardock so its at least worth some attention. we'll see how that demo goes though i guess...

as to the graphics in supreme commander, i compared it to what was also released at the same time, cc3, and why sc may have had better techinical graphics of the units, the world itself was bland. cc3 had uniquely designed cities, garrisonable and destructable buildings--so much more than transformers total war to me.
 
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oh so mainstream is different from one genre to the next. is that valid since they are all video games and rare is that a person plays only one.

Why wouldn't it be? Not all genres are geared towards mainstream the same way. FPS vs RTS for example, how many RTS games have ever really been considered mainstream?


the human element. many may debate why blizzard has been so succesful with their rts games but i wholeheartedly believe that had they not had 'heroes' and or human interaction between units in the gameplay itself it would have been another command and conquer which never interested me. gameplay is one thing, but unless there is something else that makes the gameplay seem 'human' rather than just a battle simulator which has its merits-just not what i'm interested in at all in any genre. partially why i don't like most shooters as very few focus on the ecology of the gameworld and the players relationship to it in more than an exercise in targeting.


That's odd, 2 posts ago you said the C&C3 games were "great fun". Now suddenly the series has "never interested" you? Anyways, I'm not trying to start a debate here. If you want more 'human' element, then so be it, but SC if far from being just a battle simulator. It actually has a far deeper background story than most RTS games, as well as a decent plot during the storyline. I wouldn't expect someone who hasn't played the full game to understand that.


as to the graphics in supreme commander, i compared it to what was also released at the same time, cc3, and why sc may have had better techinical graphics of the units, the world itself was bland. cc3 had uniquely designed cities, garrisonable and destructable buildings--so much more than transformers total war to me.

Of course it does, CC3 could afford to do that because it's maps and battles are TINY compared to Supreme Commander's. If you tried to make a game with the graphics\detail of CC3 and the size of Supreme Commander, you would need a super-computer just to to run it.

I would love to continue a discussion about RTS games, but not by hijacking this thread any longer. Perhaps a seperate thread is in order?
 
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Astonishinghly, I saw King's Bounty for 30 Euros in a Saturn store in Berlin last week, but everywhere else it's still around 40 Euros.
 
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Guys, can we move the RTS debate to a different thread?

Unless of course, there are cheap prices involved.
 
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Went back to Circuit City today ... 'slashing prices' ... barely a paper cup!
 
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Even with most stuff (games, etc) at 30% off here it is pretty cleared out. As I told my son it is hard to get excited when things were cheaper before Christmas and the 30% off price on $50 computer accessories are $1 less than regular price at Staples ...
 
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Yeah it was a real joke at the store I went to. The PC software was 40% off, but most of the titles marked for $49.99 were commonly selling for $19.99 - $29.99 elsewhere. Wow what a great deal!
 
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I'm trying to scout them for stuff they don't understand like computer accessories. The good hard drives have went fast but not much else - though I don't see an nVidia 9800 anywhere. That stuff is 20% and is almost never on sale anywhere.

I'd like another 1gb for my laptop but they show at least $69 for the compatible one. Also can't find 2gb DDR2 for less than $55 after the 20% off, and that's not even 800mhz.

I went there last week with the "40% off on car audio" but CD Players they are still showing at 20% as if to dare us to sue them for lack of a key word "all".

They seem to advertise price slashes on Wednesday and start the sale on thursday which is consistent with their build up to weekends.
 
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Amazon.de

5 PC games 10 EUR.
All Frogster games and re-releases. A couple of Fallouts, a couple of Space Rangers, a couple of other RPGs. Definitely worth a look.
 
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While waiting on the the GOG release of Spellforce Platinum I remembered Gamersgate having had it once upon a time, and I thought it would be worth checking again.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that nearly every version of Spellforce 1 & 2 is now available there, and that several sport near GOG-level pricing.

The Platinum version would be cool, but I don't really see myself playing through the expansions. $4.99 for just the first game- plus a somewhat smaller download- is pretty dang appealing, assuming that a) I won't miss the GOG compatibility magic and b) the expansions don't also add new features to the original. Does anyone here have experience running the original Spellforce on Vista, laptops, dual-cores, the whole modern gauntlet?

Edit: also just noticed that X³: Reunion is their weekend deal at $4.99 (I've never played the X series, but I know some here are fans)
 
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... Just noticed that the German Computer Bild Spiele has all Icewing Dale games in the DVD - für 5 Euros. But I can't say which version of the magazine it is, because I just glanced over it, I suspect it's the "Gold" version.
 
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... Read about a forthcoming lowering of the price of Drakensang ...

By the way, Drakensang got a new logo for the international market ... Imho most problably to set it apart from the Dragon Age logo ...

Me, personally, I don't like the new logo.
 
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Drakensang's price was lowered to 30 EUR a few weeks ago. Now dtp is about to release a new edition for the same price. New SKU = formally a new retail product.
 
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The new edition is called "Gold Edition", as far as I know.

I wonder whether it might contain something new ... Or just the patches (which I hope, because I wouldn't want to pay again for new content - which leaves me asking whether there was a boxed version of the EE of The Witcher anyway ? Because this was just cost-intensive ... A downloadable version was all everyone needed ...)
 
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