Halo Wars was first introduced back at X06 with all the hype and subtlety of a flash grenade blinding your senses. Since then, the FPS turned RTS game has seen numerous delays and revisions before finally hitting store shelves in March 2009. So, was it worth the wait? Did the game live up to the Halo brand? How well does this console RTS play? Let’s talk about that.
Continue reading Review: Halo Wars
Category: RTS
GamerSushi Asks: Lost Data?
Last night, I turned on Civilization: Revolution to kick back and beat the game on a new difficulty level with a civilization I had never played before. I was shocked to learn that the game apparently thinks that I’ve only beaten the game once with the Germans, which happened to be my last play through. Basically, it’s deleted all records of the first 5 or 6 games I’ve played.
While not a big deal, it’s certainly a tad annoying. But it got me thinking of some other saved data that I’ve lost in the past in video games. I’ve had a KOTOR file lock up on me after about 10 hours or so of play, along with a few other games. The worst I’ve had though is a 30+ hour game of Final Fantasy VII where I lost the whole file.
What about you guys? What’s the worst data loss you’ve experienced in a video game? Go!
R.U.S.E. Trailer: The Sneaky RTS
Ubisoft debuted a new RTS today called R.U.S.E., coming to the PS3, PC and XBox 360. The idea behind the game is certainly an interesting one. Basically, it’s a typical war-based RTS, but with a twist. At the beginning of each round, each player is dealt a hand of cards, which give special abilities.
These cards do a range of things, such as allowing your units to be invisible until they get behind enemy lines, or revealing what the other player is doing, or disguising your heavy tanks as light infantry. It’s a unique tweak to the genre, and I’m curious to see how it plays out. Here’s the R.U.S.E. trailer– thoughts?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohNzHWL7FI[/youtube]
Source- GameSpot
The Eight Hour Halo Wars Duel
Yeesh. Talk about an online multiplayer slugfest. While browsing through the Halo Wars forums today, I caught this thread about a particularly epic battle that a poster’s roommate was involved in.
You see, it started out as a 2v2 match, in which the poster was defeated early on. His roommate (scruffalupogus) held his ground however, and proceeded to battle the two opponents to a standstill. This continued for a while. And by “a while”, I mean all night and into the next morning. And the afternoon. Eventually, one of the teammates quit, leaving just two combatants, scruffalupogus and GL0RYSEEKER to duel it out, RTS style, for a grand total of an 8 hour Halo Wars match.
Yes. 8 hours. You can check the match out here. Hit the jump for a few noteworthy statistics…
Continue reading The Eight Hour Halo Wars Duel
Left Bumper, Attack: Halo Wars Impressions
Let it be known that I am a Halo fanboy. I know that may draw ire from some of you hardcore PC gamers, and even I am ashamed of it on some level, being also a Counter-Strike fanboy as well. Something about the atmosphere of Halo has always grabbed me, and its rich mythology did the job of sucking me in. You’re reading the words of a guy who has read the graphic novel, assorted comics, and several of the novels, here.
As many of you know, a demo for the game hit XBox Live just last week. So, how did this console RTS that has spent way too long in development hold up as of right now?
Continue reading Left Bumper, Attack: Halo Wars Impressions
Halo Wars Demo is Live!
Well, the long-awaited Halo Wars has now produced a demo on XBox Live for you fanatics to get your grubby hands on. The game doesn’t come out until March 3rd, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go ahead and kill your fair share of Covenant vehicles and ground troops, RTS style.
I’m really interested to see how the game holds up on several levels. One, as a Halo game, does it do the franchise justice, and is it enough to tide the fans over until Halo ODST? Also, as an RTS on a console, is there enough depth there for long time RTS fans, but enough accessibility so that new players and Halo fanboys can dive right in and use it intuitively.
So, who else is going to download this demo? Anybody pumped about Halo Wars?
Source- Major Nelson
RTS Goodness: Dawn of War II Trailer
I haven’t played an RTS in a while, but Dawn of War always tempted me. Dawn of War II looks to be just as epic, just as space-ish, and just as awesome, if not more so. The new trailer shows off tons of cool units and lots of gameplay. Did any of you guys play the first one?
Warcraft Retrospective Part II
The second Warcraft Retrospective, titled “Call to Arms” is now up on GameTrailers. This one chronicles Warcraft III and how Blizzard made a gigantic splash with the lore of its universe in Warcraft. Warcraft III is one of my favorite RTS games, so it was cool going back and watching all of this stuff.
I remember me and my friends used to get together to have big LAN parties, organizing raids and doing all kinds of nerdy things. Such great times from a great PC game. Does anyone else have any fond Warcraft or other similarly related LAN memories?
End War: Parrot Vs Parrot
I know, it’s pretty silly, but it made me laugh to watch this video of two parrots showing down against each other in Tom Clancy’s End War, the voice-activated RTS. When you think about it, it’s pretty remarkable that the game can recognize the commands coming out of the mouths of the parrots.
I haven’t played an RTS in a while, but the more I see, the more I’m interested in End War. Who’s grabbing it when it comes out on November 4th?
Warcraft Retrospective, Part 1
I’m a huge (if I could write that word really big and spray fireworks off it I would) fan of the Retrospective series of videos from GameTrailers. They’ve tackled Star Wars, Final Fantasy, Zelda, and so much more. Each one bringing its own sense of nostalgia, along with some great nerdy info you couldn’t get without reading loads of wikipedia pages, no doubt.
The newest entry into the Retrospective series is titled “WarCraft: The Drums of War”, and is the first in a several part series which will chronicle the many iterations of the universe of WarCraft, as well as its evolution. Definitely informative and pretty interesting, even if like me, you’re not into WoW.
Demo: End War
Has anyone had their eyes on Tom Clancy’s End War? Basically, it’s an RTS with a voice-command system, and it actually looks pretty cool. For those of you who’ve always wanted to pretend to be Patton, screaming orders at NPC vehicles and soldiers during a mock WWIII, this is your game.
I’m not sure how the voice command thing works as a whole, but hey, maybe I can try it out now that there’s a demo for download on XBox Live. Be sure to grab it and weigh in with your thoughts!
Source- Major Nelson
Today’s WTF: Pay for Starcraft II Three Times!
In an earth-shatteringly epic WTF that’s sure to have gamers everywhere in an upheaval, Blizzard just announced that Starcraft II’s campaign is so huge, it’s got to be split into three games!
Three games that you get to pay for! So if you want to see the full story, get ready to spend $180 instead of just the original $60.
Thanks, Blizzard!
Continue reading Today’s WTF: Pay for Starcraft II Three Times!
Halo Wars Gameplay Footage
Well, it’s a rather slow weekend in terms of video game news, so at the risk of turning into Halo-sushi, I thought I’d post some Halo Wars actual gameplay footage, rather than just the trailer from the other night. It seems to be standard RTS fare, with that Halo-rific twist on the gameplay.
It actually seems to work pretty well from the screen, and is probably simple to control to boot, given that it’s designed for the 360. I do worry about how fun the game will be though, considering that there seems to only be 2 races, Covenant and Human. I doubt we’ll see the Flood making any appearances. Thoughts?
Halo Wars: Field Trip to Harvest Trailer
A new trailer has surfaced for Halo Wars, finally giving us a glimpse into what specifically the story is going to be about, besides Halos and/or Wars. For those of you who don’t know, Harvest was the point where the Covenant first attacked humanity, and it seems that they must return their for some mysterious purpose before the events of Halo proper.
So, is anyone else but me excited about this game? I mean, I’m not jumping out of my chair for it, but I’m still keen to see more about the mythology of the franchise.
EA Cancels Tiberium, Comment Fight Ensues
Nothing like a good old fashioned blog war. In case you hadn’t heard, EA has canceled Tiberium, the sci-fi RTS/FPS that had you playing as generic space marines fighting some generic bad guys. Wait, why was this canceled again? I think there’s a market for that.
Anywho, what’s even crazier than this game getting canceled is the comment fight that erupted at Gamasutra, where several disgruntled developers have weighed in on what the real development problems were with the game, naming names and crucifying producers and execs.