Gods of RTS - Part 3

...Continued from Part 1, Part 2...

Big Huge Games - Brian Reynolds - (Rise of Nations) - In 2003, Rise of Nations took all the great elements of the previous groups, and simplified the genera. They perfected automation in resource gathering and focused more on strategy. It also finished what others couldn't. Start from sticks and stones and finish with Nukes. By the way, Brian Reynolds was the silent genius behind Civilization 2, sorry Sid. Big Huge Games downfall was in the form of the risky gamble called Rise of Legends. RoL was a mish-mash of future fantasy stuff that resulted in difficulty to associate with what could counter what. This resulted in a lot of, "That thing is attacking my other thing." The result was much like hitting a wall at high speed, then trying to determine what type of car it originally was.

Relic (Dawn of War, Company of Heroes) - Somewhat the new kid on the block (Homeworld 1999), they've showed us that they mean business. Relics biggest strength so far is support. No one is ever going to get balancing of races, right from the start. So, game greatness also needs to be in the form of support. And I'm not talking about "it will be fixed in the expansion". The idea of having to buy your balances and bug fixes is ridiculous. Relic has really set the bar for support. Relic's down fall doesn't exist yet. Mostly because their still pretty new, but also thanks to Company of Heroes. From reviews I've seen, it seems that a new bar has been set for RTS thanks to this game.