Rush, Boom, Turtle: I Like to Watch, Eve

Dos and don'ts for the makers of fine RTS eye candy
4/14/2009 10:05 PM | 1 Comments | Page 3 of 4

Don't: Make a game with cool Space Orks and only put them in two tilesets, especially if one of the tilesets is Tatooine and the other is Dagobah. Because do you know how many times I've seen Star Wars? Do you? Lots. Which is another reason I find myself preferring Company of Heroes. It's a pretty boring place that makes Normandy look exciting in comparison.

Do: Give me an option to turn on-screen information on and off, as well as the option to turn off every bit of the interface to take awesome screenshots. Sins of a Solar Empire gets a huge win here. I've never taken a screenshot from a game and used it as my Windows wallpaper -- except for two times, and one of those times was from Sins of a Solar Empire. Don't ask about the other time, please.

Do: Make a game using the World in Conflict engine. It's one of the best-looking real-time strategy games out there, and it doesn't cheat when it comes to amazing visuals. It doesn't hold your view in close. It doesn't neglect stuff like the sky or airplanes. It doesn't fall apart when you get too close. It doesn't skimp on pyrotechnic effects or destructible environments. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, the Swedes at Massive who made World in Conflict make their engine out of 100-percent pure magic. Unfortunately, they used all the magic on the engine and didn't have much left over for the game, which is an exercise on online multiplayer codependency. I get my fix of that with shooters.

Don't: Expect me to say things like "It's really gameplay that matters." Because while I believe that, I actually tried to go back to StarCraft about a year ago. It didn't take. I had to come to terms with the fact that you people making real-time strategy games have spoiled me. So Do: Let me be spoiled, keep making great-looking games, and help me enjoy how great they look.

Unit of the Week

As I said, I've been playing a fair bit of Company of Heroes, mainly to try out the Tales of Valor expansion. I'm not terribly impressed with having to pay for what is essentially a bundle of mods. You're supposed to better disguise that stuff as DLC anyway. But among the mods in Tales of Valor are a couple of alternate units for each of the four factions. Thanks to the Tales of Valor manual (there isn't one), I didn't realize these new units were in the game. So imagine my surprise upon booting up a skirmish as the Panzer Elite and finding this little guy instead of my usual treaded motorcycle.

What a charming little car. As it sat there, bobbing ever so slightly on its suspension while the engine idled, I had a closer look. Like the scouting motorcycle it replaces, it gets a special power based on which Company Commander you choose. For Scorched Earth, it can disable strategic points so they can't be captured until they're repaired. For Luftwaffe, you can mark a target so it's visible within the fog of war. And for Tank Destroyer, you can pay munitions to plant mines. What a wonderfully useful little fellow as well. In fact, I don't think I'll miss my scout motorcycles one little bit. The vanilla Germans get a less interesting version that comes with a hood-mounted machine gun but no special powers.