Remand and ReConquer?

[Animalmother]

Does it include Red Alert by chance?

[Mantis]

It does. Red Alert has the same treatment that C&C does, you select which game to launch from a little client that pops up when you launch the game.

[Animalmother]

Ohhh, I'm interested now

[Sly Boots]

The last RTS I played was Dune 2

[Medicine Man]

Wow. Seriously?

It would seem you have some catching up to do my friend. Although I take it they're not your cup of tea if you've avoided the genre for so long?

We need to make a list for Sly pronto. Notable and worthy RTS since what? 1992?!

[Sly Boots]

Yeah, just not my cup of tea really. I did try a bit of the first C&C but didn't really gel with it.

[Alan]

Damn, missed my chance to gush about Universe At War -_-

[Maturin]

I'm sort of with Sly a little bit, the 'base-building/turtling/unit production' style top-down RTS games have never been my absolute favourite game types. I have played and enjoyed them to some extent, but I always could take them or leave them.

I was much more at home with the more tactical Total War style real time strategy, where you're pausing to sort out orders, positioning and movement. Ends up being a sort of turn-based hybrid in effect.

[Animalmother]

Not even Total Annihilation? It's old as balls but still one of the best RTS's ever made.

[Alan]

I never got on with TA. It’s too sterile and without any character. I tried for a long time to like it because I payed for it in an era when games didn’t just land on your pc for next to nothing. C&C on the other hand is just pure character.

[Raid]

TA sorta benefitted from that sterility, given as the story was of two competing armies of emotionless machines, but I know what you mean. C&C just oozes character.

Digital Foundry have done a rundown on the remake, which basically says stuff that we've been talking about here, but it's nice to see critics responding in the same way.

[Medicine Man]

RPS WiT...

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/0 ... on-review/

Is it worthwhile spinning the RTS talk off into another thread?

I think it might be, purely just to read eVoL wax lyrical about the criminally underrated Universe at War.

[Snowy]

Yeah, just not my cup of tea really. I did try a bit of the first C&C but didn't really gel with it.

I am in the same camp, RTS games have passed me by despite loving Dune 2 (although I never got over the disappointment that the Fremen could not ride sandworms...). I remember being very excited when getting my first PC to play C&C and it being a huge let-down. It felt like more of a puzzle game than a big ol' war like Dune used to. Warcraft too I didn't like at all, and from there I just bailed on RTS games. I have played some - played TA but found it very bland and lost interest within an hour or so, tried some of the other Red Alert style games and again lost interest almost instantly.

I liked the 40k ones (Dawn of war?), but in true Snowy style never finished any of them.

[Mantis]

It used to be one of my top genres, one of the few I actually played competitively on ladder modes too. But MOBAs killed it off really, no big developers have wanted to touch it for years. I'm a bit too old and impatient to spend valuable time practicing them now too. StarCraft 2 was pretty good but I cannot be bothered with something so twitchy and focused on clicks per minute.

I think the last truly great RTS that came out was the first Company of Heroes and that was over fifteen years ago!

[Mantis]

I forgot how hard as nails the campaign on this game is. I'm sure a lot of it is down to the janky controls and unit responsiveness, but I was playing on hard difficulty and legitimately could not beat half the missions at all. Even medium has been a struggle on certain ones.