Gods of RTS - Part 1

The genera of RTS is extremely busy these days. Everyone wants a piece of it, even though they don't tend to be big record breaking sellers. Whether its inspired by a block buster movie, such as Lord of the Rings, or another game, like Halo; RTS's are here to stay. While strategy games have been around since the days of Chess, RTS got their footing in the early 90's, rising the bar on gaming and making us all sweat at the keyboard. While some were jewels, others became steeping piles of wasted code. My thought more specifically are who makes the good (people/developer's) RTS's today, and why aren't the folks that inspired the genera still making good RTS's. I'll be exploring these in the next couple blogs...

Westwood (Dune 2, Command & Conquer) - The "RT" was really added to "RTS" in 1992 with Dune 2. Okay, historians will say that's not true, but Dune 2 did set the modern day expectations for RTS. I'll admit, I couldn't get into the game, but I hadn't looked at it until 1998. But from all that I see, it was the grand daddy of modern RTS, so hats off to the Westwood team. Then in 1995, Westwood does it again, by introducing us to Command & Conquer; a near future gaming experience. C&C is best known for its zanney, if not cheesy, live actor cut scenes. C&C has release more then a dozen spin offs, sequels, and expantions. That, unfortunately may have been its down fall. Like Rocky and Star Treks, if you have too many of something, you bound to get a lemon from time to time, and in turn scare buyers away from even sampling an otherwise good game. Westwood was bought by EA in 1998, leading to a "Brain Drain" that resulted in Westwood demise in 2003. Expect EA to continue to cash in on its Lord of the Rings and Command and Conquer licenses.