Anyone tried these RTS games yet?
Recently I had my hand at both these newly released RTS Games. One was Empire Earth III and the Second was Universe at War : Earth Assault
Empire Earth III - Overview
Empire Earth III was one complete disaster. The Empire Earth Series are usually famous for the complexity in game play, the multitude of resources, huge number of Epochs (15) starting with 4 ages before the dark and ending 4 ages into the future, the vast number of units, upgrades and what not. EE II was a a good enough upgrade with may more options to auto manage some of the tasks if you do not want to micro manage every thing. In short there was something for everyone.
The new Empire Earth III is a complete disaster in this regard. In an effort to simplify the game, they overly simplified it. The Epochs have been reduced to 5 in number and there is only two resources to manage. Raw materials and Tech points. The civilizations have also been reduced drastically. Game play wise there was nothing worth special. The graphics looked same as EE II, but this game is still resource hog even with so little to offer in terms of new stuff. This game has got very low ratings from most of the review sites and I would myself give it a 4/10.
IGN: Empire Earth III
Universe at War - Overview
Next I played Universe at War. Now this what I call a well made RTS. This may sound very similar to Rise of Legends, C&C 3 and Supreme Commander with all of them having three factions to control. Universe at War has too has three different factions to controls. The new thing in this game is none of these factions are Humans. The story goes something like 3 alien factions bring their war to earth and battle it out. The Humans involvement is pushed to the side line making it refreshingly different.
Both C&C 3 and Supreme Commander had three factions, but the variety between the game play of the three factions was not that drastically different. Rise of Legends offered a more in that aspect with factions that played out a bit different, but in the end the experience is not that diverse.
Now what Universe At War offers is 3 completely different types of game play with its 3 factions. Every faction is an unique experience in terms of game play. The units, the buildings, special powers are handled in different ways across these factions making the experience refreshingly new. Accordingly your strategies also differ with the factions.
As for the graphics, I had stared the game half expecting that it would be resource hog like the new generation of RTS games like World In conflict, Supreme Commander and Call of heroes, So I had set the resolution to a modest 1440 x 900 fist, But after checking that my 1900XT can handle this game well, I switched to 1680 x 1050 with AA and most of the graphics setting near max. The game still never dipped below 50 FPS and most of the time, it was around 75 FPS most of the time. The graphics were not the best I had seen, but were decent for the kind of FPS I was getting. The game was developed by Sega and released as a Games for Windows title with Microsoft Live Online support. Looking at the graphics, I am inclined to believe that this is the same engine as Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends.
This game has got an avg rating of 8 on most of the review sites, I would myself give this one a 9/10.
Guy's I do recommend every RTS Fan to give this game a try.
IGN: Universe at War: Earth Assault Review
Recently I had my hand at both these newly released RTS Games. One was Empire Earth III and the Second was Universe at War : Earth Assault
Empire Earth III - Overview
Empire Earth III was one complete disaster. The Empire Earth Series are usually famous for the complexity in game play, the multitude of resources, huge number of Epochs (15) starting with 4 ages before the dark and ending 4 ages into the future, the vast number of units, upgrades and what not. EE II was a a good enough upgrade with may more options to auto manage some of the tasks if you do not want to micro manage every thing. In short there was something for everyone.
The new Empire Earth III is a complete disaster in this regard. In an effort to simplify the game, they overly simplified it. The Epochs have been reduced to 5 in number and there is only two resources to manage. Raw materials and Tech points. The civilizations have also been reduced drastically. Game play wise there was nothing worth special. The graphics looked same as EE II, but this game is still resource hog even with so little to offer in terms of new stuff. This game has got very low ratings from most of the review sites and I would myself give it a 4/10.
IGN: Empire Earth III
Universe at War - Overview
Next I played Universe at War. Now this what I call a well made RTS. This may sound very similar to Rise of Legends, C&C 3 and Supreme Commander with all of them having three factions to control. Universe at War has too has three different factions to controls. The new thing in this game is none of these factions are Humans. The story goes something like 3 alien factions bring their war to earth and battle it out. The Humans involvement is pushed to the side line making it refreshingly different.
Both C&C 3 and Supreme Commander had three factions, but the variety between the game play of the three factions was not that drastically different. Rise of Legends offered a more in that aspect with factions that played out a bit different, but in the end the experience is not that diverse.
Now what Universe At War offers is 3 completely different types of game play with its 3 factions. Every faction is an unique experience in terms of game play. The units, the buildings, special powers are handled in different ways across these factions making the experience refreshingly new. Accordingly your strategies also differ with the factions.
As for the graphics, I had stared the game half expecting that it would be resource hog like the new generation of RTS games like World In conflict, Supreme Commander and Call of heroes, So I had set the resolution to a modest 1440 x 900 fist, But after checking that my 1900XT can handle this game well, I switched to 1680 x 1050 with AA and most of the graphics setting near max. The game still never dipped below 50 FPS and most of the time, it was around 75 FPS most of the time. The graphics were not the best I had seen, but were decent for the kind of FPS I was getting. The game was developed by Sega and released as a Games for Windows title with Microsoft Live Online support. Looking at the graphics, I am inclined to believe that this is the same engine as Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends.
This game has got an avg rating of 8 on most of the review sites, I would myself give this one a 9/10.
Guy's I do recommend every RTS Fan to give this game a try.
IGN: Universe at War: Earth Assault Review