19 replies to this topic

[Saracen]

Remember those classic articles last year from C&C King that had a good attack at the RTS Genre? Well now it's my turn. As the new RTS game from Petroglyph starts gathering some serious marketing pace, I thought I'd give the community my views on the Genre as a whole once more, and shed some light on the new Game Universe at War, Which is promising to be perhaps the only RTS game this year that is any good. Want a snippet?

But if you take a look at every RTS that's shelved in these past 15 years, you’ll see innovation has somewhat dried up. The games themselves are restricted to different user interfaces, different types of units with amazing powers, and structures with similar properties. What remains mostly though are many games with a heavy amount of dead end units, meaning the higher, more powerful takes priority. This means endless tank rushes, massing and hell knows what else. This without a doubt outright kills the game play for many.

So have a read of this article before EA e-mails me to complain, because they know when the competition is really on. This whole article I wrote may be a bias towards Universe at War, but it was cut short, because I ran out of time writing about so many kick-ass features! And after all EA don't like a bit of harsh criticism, do they?

[TheBlackOut]

Innovation is a funny thing. You pull it off and do it good, you have great success. If you use it unwisely, it'll back fire. People will always complain, yes, but less will if you do it well.

What is it we want? For some long I've wondered that and I've came up with my decision. I want what can be pulled off good. It's up to developer to me now, as I don't know what I want, but I want something different, new, and fresh. Something UaW seems that it will give.

Innovation with great success will be like the Wii.... Very few complain, many embrace.

[F15pilotX]

I'm thinking Spore will be one of those great successes, but we'll see....I've never been more exited about a game than Spore, not C&C 3, not anything 8)

[TheBlackOut]

I'm thinking Spore will be one of those great successes, but we'll see....I've never been more exited about a game than Spore, not C&C 3, not anything 8)

Spore will be great, yes. But sadly I doubt it will pull many casual users. Only people who like Roger's games will probably buy or like the idea of an evolving game. The average kid and gamer will be look at it as a slow-moving non-action game I think and it won't appeal to them.

It will probably be one of the greatest games in a long time, yes, but sadly I don't see it pulling "omg wtf" sales records. I could be wrong though.

[F15pilotX]

it does have fighting in it, and tbh, i only have one sim game, sim city 4000 or something like that, but that game looks brilliant

[TheBlackOut]

You can't just fight to complete the game, some of it requires thinking, which will drive a pretty good amount of people away from this game.

[F15pilotX]

which means more intelligent people will be playing, which = more fun :wink:

[TheBlackOut]

Yea... Even intelligent people can be dumb online... As in common sense. You can text-book smart and not have a clue in your head what is really going on.

[gben]

This whole article I wrote may be a bias towards Universe at War, but it was cut short, because I ran out of time writing about so many kick-ass features! And afterall EA don't like a bit of harsh criticism, do they?

Well despite a reoccurence of the IE formatting problems with previous articles, I would say this is more of a UAW plug than a balanced article... and more rant than something that would spark a debate.

My personal bias is to the SP side of games rather than MP. So I'm not necessarily looking for innovation - I'm looking for satisifaction. eg. RA2 was not innovative - but it was a great package.

A pencil and a white piece of paper has surely a limited scope for innovation - but there's no reason to say that new works of art cannot be produced with these old tools. COH seems to fall into this category - although I have not played it.

Personally... innovation is usually a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Something that everyone aspires too but rarely achieves. It too often makes something innaccissible for the general public, until people become familiar with it.

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IMHO, being the *most* critical is not something worth bragging about either. I plan to buy UAW, and to enjoy it, and I'm happy for you to plug it. But why trash C&C & EA over here? Can't you just do a great big plug for UAW here - or keep the flames over there?

I mean c'mon, it's hardly polite.

-gben

[Publix666]

Well in all reality i agree with pretty much everything the article said..the RTS genre is dead, and well C&C in my mind, died back at maybe RA or TS, Renegade was a great C&C but that was FPS, and its a game i still enjoy even to this day. To be honest i dont even look at RTS games anymore? Why because theyve gotten boreing, all clones of previous games just with "new" features,units,buildings, ect. There isnt truely anything NEW about any of them. I havent had the chance to look at any of Petro's games, mainly because my old computer couldnt run them, but Westwood, was a great company...and i know we will see some totally great games come from them. As far as EA goes, they are nothing more then a money hungry game company that puts games out purely for the cash flow. Example of this is the Xbox 360 version of C&C 3. The game comes with alot of critical flaws, mostly online and EA refuses to look at them, we ( though i should say "we" since i sold the game back to the store after 3 weeks of owning it) keep being told there is a patch on the way, or they are "thinking" about it, but nothing concrete. Second are the new maps they released..and made the 360 community pay for...now i know most of you will go thats Microsoft and not EA, i say bulls*...I belive its GTA 4 has content on the Marketplace for free, themes,picture packs ect that are totally free. Ive never seen that content free with any 360 game. Now to say thats a Mircosoft thing and not EA is garbage, because Rockstar released their usually paid for content for free, so why couldnt EA? Im not going to sit here and right up a huge article on my views, but theres people that support EA and embrace them, and theres old die-hard Westwood fans like me that absolutely despise the franshise being under their money hungry wing. Everyone has their opinions and you cant say their wrong for their point of view, sure it may be fkd in your mind, but not in theirs.

Anyway, again i totally agree with the article and great job on it.

[Koen]

I think it's a bit too melodramatic. Before C&C3's release, you were very positive about it... but as soon as you got the real version it did not live up to its legacy. And now you're hyping UAW... but I don't think UAW needs hyping.

[Saracen]

It's a bit of cross promotion in an attempt to bring some people over to Petro-Gamers. And I enjoy having a go at how poor C&C 3 is, it winds Kaufman up so much that he ends up having a hissy fit!

[Sonic]

You can guys bitch and complain about C&C 3 all you want for all I care. APOC doesn't doesn't bother posting here despite him saying how he likes and repects CNCNZ.com and that.....come on APOC I challenge you to reply :roll:

But we both know you won't because we (the original CNCNZ.com staffers) are now putting a bad spin on C&C 3.

Don't get me wrong though, there parts of the game I like but the novelty has worn off and I've moved on. C&C 3 kept me interested longer than Generals ever did so I guess that's a positive right there.

All will say is this. EALA had better pull off a bloody miracle with the expansion pack because it might be the first C&C game I consider not bothering with.

Well despite a reoccurence of the IE formatting problems.....

Fixed the IE formatting problem. Displays fine now.

Oh yeah, my only problem with the article was the use of the "F" word. I will not allow it on the main site.... CNCNZ.com is not Planet C&C where they blatantly use it all over their main page.

[Koen]

And I enjoy having a go at how poor C&C 3 is, it winds Kaufman up so much that he ends up having a hissy fit!

You are being a bit cruel. Then again, Apoc has used character assassination on me after my Mod SDK article (through a very low comment on CNCDen). I guess I really should stay out of this discussion, before it heats up further.

[TheBlackOut]

Ye but Saracen part of C&C 3 being not so good was because we were all hyped for it, don't get too hyped and excited about UaW or it might not fully satisfy your lust. It's going to be great, but the reason I'm sort of dodging a lotta activity over at Petro-Gamers is because I want UaW to be something new and innovative, but through the previews and crap, I already know what I'm going to see. So I've tried to steer clear of big discussions of that. The thing that interest me a lot is the story, and the second an article mentions any hint of it I just clicking the pictures and not pay attention.

[Saracen]

I'll hype it up for the community, but deep down, my expectations are below what I and the existing previews say, and to be honest. I'm expecting the worst to happen should it come along.

In reality my approached to UaW is a rather hopeful but mellow one. I'm not going all UaW fanboy on this game until I've played it solidly for quite some time. I will be giving an honest preview/review of this game, and even if it is bad, it can't be any worse than C&C 3

[TheBlackOut]

Ye if you view it as it's going to be okay and it in fact rocks it feels so much better.

[Doctor Destiny]

Oh bloody hell. Just go blow the freakin' Petroglyph staff, why don't you? As much as I like the staff, EAW jaded me to the point that one, playing that trite excuse of a game gave me cancer and two, I'll not play anything else they make. That's how badly they disappointed me with that game.

And I love that oh so wonderful throw-away comment about Starcraft 2. You're just pissy about it because it's a bigger announcement than your precious UAW. It'll knock your ****in' socks off... and you just can't handle it.

[Banshee]

Honestly, I think this article is quite disrespectful with CNCNZ and all efforts placed on it over these years. If you want to advertise a game that you have high expectations in a site that covers a competitor game, do not scare the fans of this site. Instead, show the game that you want to advertise as an interesting option. A lot of people visit CNCNZ because they love some (or all) Command & Conquer games, and of course, they are totally able of visiting both CNCNZ and Petro Gamers, which would be the ideal thing for you guys.

Also, I'm not much fan of blindly biased articles. There isn't much info on UAW leaked so far, and as far as we can read about it, it's too early to take any conclusions about the game, even if the game is looking interesting, except for the population cap they'll place on it.

[Sonic]

I was interested to see the reaction when this article went up. And every time we have a controversial article I remind you all of the little disclaimer we have tagged at the bottom.....

Disclaimer: The views expressed in any of the articles published on CNCNZ.com are that of the author, and do not reflect the official view of CNCNZ.com, unless otherwise stated.