Much of the hype surrounding video games focuses on the FPS genre but there is a highly dedicated gaming community supporting real time strategy games. Of this genre, Blizzard’s StarCraft franchise is one of the most popular but EA’s Command & Conquer also has seen its fair share of popularity in its day.
While Command & Conquer 4 will be ending the tiberium-focused storyline, the franchise will not die along with the precious mineral. Instead, EA is shifting work for the franchise to a brand new studio dubbed Victory Games.
Unfortunately there are no announcements to go along with this but the studio has said they will be making a rather large announcement later this year. Be sure to stay tuned.
Just about every game that comes out of Blizzard has been a critical acclaim. World of Warcraft topped the charts of the MMO world, Diablo I and II have caused strides in their respective genres and StarCraft has spawned nation celebrities in South Korea.
StarCraft 2 looks to be no different with high ratings across the board. However, seeing how the game is currently still $60 perhaps you’re a bit skeptical over whether or not you actually want to buy it.
Luckily, it was announced today that Blizzard has finally released a demo for the game giving players a look at the first 3 campaign levels completely free of charge. Unfortunately, there is no online play so if you want to try that out you’re going to have to buy the actual game.
It seems that EndWar won’t be seeing a sequel anytime soon, as previously thought. VG247 recently inquired Ubisoft’s own Michael de Plater regarding the development of said sequel to which he responded that the game has been put “on the back burner”.
If you aren’t familiar with EndWar, it is a RTS title developed by Ubisoft Shangai which made its debut in late 2008. The game was intuitive because it featured the ability to be controlled entirely by voice.
There’s been no word on why the game has been put on hold or for how long but we’ll keep you updated.
It seems that the guy who founded DICE, Fredrik Liljengren has moved onto bigger and better things with his latest game studio, Antic Entertainment. You may be familiar with DICE as the studio behind Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: 1943.
Anyways, Antic Entertainment is to be a studio that specializes in free-to-play games with their first title being Junk: Battles. This browser based RTS will let players create their own ship and then duke it out against other players as they collect parts to upgrade said ship.
If you want to read more about Junk: Battles and Antic Entertainment, head over to the game’s official website here.
Square Enix has set a North American release date for their first World War II game Order of War, which will be September 22nd. The game is being developed exclusively for the PC. Two campaign modes, multiplayer, Deathmatch and Skirmish are included in Wargaming.net’s upcoming RTS.
A single-player demo for the game has been released recently, titled “Road to Paris”. It’s available on the official website.
I’m looking forward to Order of War; it will be interesting to see how the Japanese RPG giant will handle a World War II game.
I told myself I wouldn’t play this game because I would get addicted, but it looks too good to pass up. Anyways, it’s Defense of the Ancients except a whole lot better from what I’ve heard. Right now, the game is in a beta phase, but a few lucky people have been able to get their hands on a key through a Facebook promotion.
The game is currently being developed by S2 Games, the people behind Savage. No word on a release date, but pre-sale for the game has already started for beta members.
The North American retail release for the real-time-strategy East India Company was today, but Europe will have to wait until the 14th. If you can’t wait for that long, you can grab a demo recently released by the game’s publisher, Paradox Interactive.
The demo weighs in at ~790MB, which isn’t bad considering the game has some pretty intense graphics. You can download it over at FileFront.
A nice little video launch trailer was also released yesterday, so be sure to check that out to decide if the demo’s worth your time.
Demigod has been out for months now and yet we still haven’t seen a demo version of the game. Luckily, Stardock has today announced just that, a demo version of Demigod.
Players will reportedly be able to play through all 4 of the game’s multiplayer modes using four demigods; Regulus, Rook, Sedna and Lord Erebus. However, the only map made available for play in the demo is Cataract.
If you’re a fan of the RTS genre, Demigod is definitely a game you should check out. Head here to snag the demo.
It seems that Nolan Bushnell, the mastermind behind Pong and Atari, is returning to the game scene with his latest title, Battleswarm: Field of Honor.
Bushnell describes this game as a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers in which players will choose between playing the game as an RTS or an FPS.
Below are his comments on the game attributing its creation to wanting to game with his 5 sons:
They’re all avid gamers and like first-person shooters. The problem is, as you get older, you lose some reaction time, and as a result, I’m getting slaughtered by them. A real-time strategy [RTS] game, however, is more my [preference], a good resource game is what I love. Battleswarm is both an RTS and a shooter, a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers, if you will. You can switch sides, too, if you feel like an RTS instead of a shooter, or vice-versa.
East India Company is an upcoming real-time-strategy game brought to you by Paradox Interactive, the same folks who made King’s Bounty: The Legend and Mount & Blade. The game takes you through a history lesson, as you conquer the East Indies as the role of Governor Director.
The game is developed by Nitro Games and will be hitting North American stores tomorrow, followed by an August 14th release in Europe for the PC.
It seems that Nolan Bushnell, the mastermind behind Pong and Atari, is returning to the game scene with his latest title, Battleswarm: Field of Honor.